THE GREAT PROCREATION FETISH 183 



happens that the name of Englishman is sometimes 

 mentioned on the Continent with the same kind 

 of shuddering disgust that we accord to a leper. 



We are proud of our sanitation, thinking 

 that therein we are the foremost of all races, 

 but, for " moral " reasons, we let loose the venereal 

 diseases till the community reeks of them. We 

 precipitated the great Indian Mutiny by forbidding 

 infanticide in Oude ; but of how much vaster pro- 

 portion is the infanticide in our midst caused by 

 syphilis, a particularly preventable disease. We 

 bear with a heavy hand on poisoners who work 

 by means of drugs. If a man poisons with arsenic 

 and death results, we hang him by the neck ; if 

 death does not result, he suffers a long term of 

 penal servitude. But for him who poisons wilfully 

 with venereal disease we have no punishment. We 

 insist merely that he shall do his poisoning in a 

 particularly cruel and treacherous way. It is open 

 to any diseased drab to tempt and poison as many 

 inexperienced boys as she is able. Any scoundrel, 

 knowingly and wilfully, may infect his innocent 

 bride, causing her untold agony or death, and 

 there is no legal remedy. One after another her 

 babies may perish, but, forbidden by our moral 

 code, the law will not stretch that arm which is 

 so powerful against the childish robbers of an 

 orchard. Yet who is there who would not die of 



