SYPHILIS AND PARASYPHILIS 289 



the fact that it is both infectious and hereditary, and also by 

 reason of the very grave organic injuries which it produces. 

 And especially does syphilis constitute a social danger in its 

 relation to diseases of the nervous system. Since the real nature 

 of what is now known as parasyphilis has been ascertained, the 

 danger has increased tenfold. 



In the first place, syphilis constitutes a danger for the race 



in its individual aspects. It is true that those serious results 



which were a common feature of the malady half a century ago 



are to-day rarely, if ever, observed ; and, as a general rule, it 



is undoubtedly a fact that syphilis has become more benign 



in its external aspects. But to conclude that, because the 



pathological results formerly observable are to-day rarely, if 



ever, observable, therefore syphilis is much milder than it 



formerly was, is to jgnore the fact that syphilis has undergone 



a transformation. While the treatment by mercury appears 



to have greatly reduced the danger of purely syphilitic disease, 



it is wholly inefficacious against results of a parasyphiUtic 



nature ; and it is especially in its repercussion on the nervous 



system that syphilis is dangerous. To-day we recognise as 



having a syphilitic orgin a number of serious diseases with 



which syphihs was formerly not connected, as, for instance, 



general progressive paralysis, locomotor ataxy, and cerebral 



syphilis. In itself syphilis constitutes an evil for the race ; but 



when we bear in mind that syphiUs is not limited in every case 



to its own pecuhar symptoms, but that it may cause lesions 



of almost all the organs of the body ; when we bear in mind, 



further, that syphiHs reacts with particular frequency on the 



cerebral and nervous systems ; when we keep these ultimate 



consequences of sj^hiHs in view, we cannot fail to appreciate 



the importance of this factor in the etiology of race degeneracy. 



A statistical return borrowed from Professor Alfred Foumier, 



and calculated on 4,400 cases observed by him (4,000 cases of 



men and 400 of women), gives us an idea of the heterogeneity 



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