HEREDITARY DISASTROUSNESS OF SYPHILIS 299 



inheritance is paternal or maternal ; statistics show that 28 per 

 cent, of the total number of cases of infantile death considered 

 by Professor Fournier are due to the paternal heredity, and no 

 fewer than 60 per cent, to the syphilitic taint of the mother. 

 So that the maternal heredity would appear to be more than 

 twice as dangerous, as far as regards the mortality of the off- 

 spring. It may also be remarked that the hereditary harmful- 

 ness of syphilis varies according to the age of the disease ; especially 

 virulent during the first three years of the malady, it diminishes 

 subsequently.! 



But the hereditary disastrousness of the disease is indeed great 

 during its early stages. Professor Fournier has observed the 

 case of ninety women infected by their husbands during their 

 married Ufe, and who became pregnant during the first year of 

 their syphilis. The result of these ninety cases is as follows : 

 Fifty abortions or stillborn infants ; thirty-eight infants who sur- 

 vived only a short time ; two infants who survived normally. 

 Thus, two survivals out of ninety cases. 



Not the least, assuredly, of the dangers of syphilis considered 

 as a social factor are the abnormahties frequently attendant 

 on its hereditary transmission ; and also the degeneracy of which 

 it is an active agent. These abnormalities consist nearly always 

 in a regressive deviation from normal growth, in malformations, 

 which may occasionally develop into veritable monstrosities. 

 These regressive deviations from normal growth, like all regres- 

 sive deviations from the normal type, constitute a symptom of 

 degeneracy, and are a hindrance to the individual in the struggle 

 for life. Professor Fournier has divided these abnormalities into 

 three categories : (1) Those which aftect the individual only 

 partially, by affecting only a single organ or a single system of 

 organs ; (2) those which affect the entire constitution of the 

 individual ; (3) those which, by the very excess of their abnor- 

 mality, develop into veritable monstrosities. 



' A. Fournier, L'Heredite sypMlitique, pp. 97 ff. Paris, 1891. 



