120 THE RIGHT TO BE WELL BORN 



euse that she could not go before her Maker 

 with the crime on her head of bringing into 

 the world an ill-bred child, with low tend- 

 encies. And who could blame her, under 

 the circumstances ? 



E\^LS OF SOCIAL DISEASES. 



It is well-known that workers in lead fac- 

 tories, where the protection from the pois- 

 onous gases is not complete, may be injured. 

 The very strange thing about the poisonous 

 condition is that a man so afflicted is liable 

 to beget children who will not be normal. 

 The poisons penetrate the reproductive 

 glands, and the effect of it on the growing 

 embryo is to arrest normal development. 

 The workers in lead factories are so few 

 and the safeguards are improving so rap- 

 idly that there is little significance attached 

 to it, except to show that a poison can 

 reach the glands and be carried over in the 

 germ cells. 



In somewhat the same way, the social dis- 

 ease acts as a cacogenic agency in race 

 poisons. The presence of the disease ren- 

 ders reproduction difficult and, in most 



