166 THE TREND OF THE RACE 
That syphilis is another potent factor in reducing the birth rate 
has long been recognized. Syphilis is a common cause of abortion 
and of still births, but the percentage due to this disease appears 
not to be accurately ascertained. Dr. Willey thinks that about 
32.8 per cent of total still births are due to syphilis. Dr. Thos. 
Barlow thinks that the majority are the result of this cause. 
According to Dr. Prince Morrow (Social Diseases and Marriage) 
““60 per cent of children born of syphilitic mothers die im utero 
or soon after birth. Records of the Leurrenne Hospital which 
refer almost exclusively to syphilis in prostitutes show that of 
165 pregnancies with maternal syphilis, 145 which terminated 
fatally, while in only 22 did the infants survive, that is, only 
1 child in 7 pregnancies.” Syphilitic mothers often produce 
several abortions, after which they may bear living offspring, 
who, however, being affected with hereditary syphilis are apt to 
die young. The attempt of the National Birth Rate Commission 
to elicit some information from various experts who were ex- 
amined as to the prevalence of abortion due to syphilis, yielded 
little but guarded expressions of opinion. Reliable data on 
abortions are practically impossible to procure. While abortion 
has become more frequent in recent years, the increase is doubt- 
less to be attributed largely to the employment of artificial means. 
Venereal diseases are, as a rule, notoriously more prevalent 
in cities than in rural districts,! and hence may constitute an 
important factor in the greater relative reduction of the urban 
birth rate. One of the most thorough studies on this subject 
was made by Guttstadt who sent a questionnaire to the physi- 
cians in Prussia, concerning the number of venereal cases treated 
in April, 1900. Of every 10,000 adult inhabitants of Prussia there 
were treated: 
1 The relatively high rural rate for gonorrhoeashown by American recruits for 
the recent war is largely due to the great prevalence of this disease in the negro 
population which is still mainly rural. 
