50 SPIROCHETES 



of the killing diseases. The use of the Wassermann reaction for 

 the detection of syphilis has greatly extended the possibility of 

 arriving at an estimate of the prevalence of the disease, and has 

 shown that it is far more common than was formerly believed. 

 Yet even the Wassermann test fails in about 10 per cent of cases. 

 It is now known that the disease may be present in latent but 

 nevertheless infective form for many years after all active symp- 

 toms have disappeared. The recently published report of the 

 British Royal Commission on Venereal Diseases concluded that 

 the number of people infected with syphilis cannot fall below 

 ten per cent in large cities, and that at least one-half the regis- 

 tered still-births are due to this disease. They found that in 

 Britain this as well as other venereal diseases is most prevalent 

 in the unskilled labor class, and least among miners and agri- 

 cultural laborers. Fournier estimated that in Paris 15 per cent 

 were infected. In China syphilis is, next to tuberculosis, the 

 most common disease. In the United States conditions are 

 no better than elsewhere; some cities, notably San Francisco, 

 are much more heavily infected than others. Of 111 cases ad- 

 mitted to the Children's Hospital in Boston 31 per cent were 

 infected with syphilis. Of 102 children admitted to a Chicago 

 hospital, none of them for syphilis, 30 were syphiUtic. In the 

 " red light " districts of cities, which undoubtedly serve as the 

 centers of distribution for the disease, the per cent of syphilitic 

 prostitutes is very high. Dr. Browning found every one of 

 104 prostitutes in Glasgow infected, and a like condition among 

 109 men, women and children classed as " vagrants". 



According to Capt. E. B. Vedder of the U. S. Army, the sta- 

 tistics compiled from over 1000 new recruits in two widely sepa- 

 rated camps (in New York and Ohio respectively) showed that 

 over 19 per cent of all applicants for enlistment, approximately 

 one in five, are probably syphilitic, although only a trifle over 2 

 per cent showed any symptoms of the disease which would ex- 

 clude them from the army as the resxilt of a rigid physical exam- 

 ination. From this Vedder concludes that there is a good reason 

 for believing the percentage of syphilis among the young men in 

 civil life, between the ages of 20 and 30, to be fully 20 per cent. 

 " It means that when a man's daughter marries, the chances are 

 just one to five that she will become the victim of ' damaged 

 goods'." Vedder shows further that in the relatively select class 



