296 HEREDITY AND SELECTION IN SOCIOLOGY 



the conclusions reached by him as the result of his observations 

 on twenty-five syphilitic families, each of whom the author has 

 followed from a clinical point of view through three successive 

 generations.^ The following conclusions, in view of the authority 

 and competence of Professor Tarnowsky on this question, may 

 be reproduced : 



"1. It is in the second generation of the syphilitic family that 

 the hereditary influence of acquired syphilis manifests itself with 

 the greatest intensity, in producing a considerable number of 

 abortions, of stillborn infants, of infants which succumb at the 

 end of a few months of existence, of infants afflicted with symp- 

 toms of hereditary syphilis, or with various anatomical and 

 functional abnormalities. 



" 2. The immunity of the second syphilitic generation is 

 generally only temporary, except in extremely rare cases. 



" 3. The influence of hereditary syphilis diminishes sensibly 

 in the third generation ; this attenuation is manifest in the 

 diminution of the number of abortions, etc., as also by the reduc- 

 tion of the number of abnormalities of a hereditary syphiHtic 

 nature. 



" 4. The hereditary transmission of syphilis from the grand- 

 parents to the grandchildren, without any infection of the inter- 

 mediary generation, has not been observed, and is very doubtful. 



" 5. When the second syphiHtic generation is not marked by 

 any symptoms of a hereditary syphiUtic nature, and if it is not 

 tainted by any other unfavourable hereditary variation, apart 

 from syphiUs, it generally produces healthy descendants. 



" 6. To sum up, the hereditary influence of the syphilis con- 

 tracted by the first generation manifests itself by abortions, by 

 the procreation of stillborn children, of children who succumb at 

 an early stage of life, of children tainted by hereditary syphilitic 



1 B. Tarnowsky, La FamUle syphilitique et sa Descendance (Clermont, 

 1904) ; see also Archives d' Anthropdogie crimindle, tome xx., p. 849. 

 Lyons, 1905. 



