32 
SAFEGUARDING THE SEX LIFE 
ways— by public towels and drinking cups, by a kiss, by 
public closets — they are commonly conveyed from one per¬ 
son to another through sex relations. Comparatively few 
people outside the medical profession know how widespread 
these diseases are, what terrible suffering they produce, and 
what ravages they make in the vigor of the human race. 
1. How are venereal diseases most often communicated? 
2. How else may they be spread ? 
Gonorrhea. — One of the venereal diseases, gonorrhea , was 
once thought to be comparatively harmless. It is now 
known to be one of the worst scourges of mankind, producing 
in Europe and America more sickness than almost any other 
disease. In the male organs the germs of gonorrhea get into 
the urinary and seminal passages, producing pus, whose dis¬ 
charge spreads the contagion. They sometimes cause very 
painful inflammations and not infrequently deformities that 
last through life and seriously interfere with urination. 
In the female organs gonorrhea does much more damage. 
The germs find easy passage through the uterus and tubes 
to the deeper parts of the body. In the tubes and uterus 
they flourish, producing painful inflammations and generat¬ 
ing quantities of poisonous pus. Many severe surgical oper¬ 
ations on women are made necessary by gonorrhea germs. 
They, more than any other cause, render women incapable of 
bearing children. In many cases, also, they render men in¬ 
capable of becoming fathers. 
A very large per cent of blindness is caused by gonorrheal 
sore eyes in new-born babes. The germs from the infected 
mother get into the infant’s eyes at birth, and unless the in¬ 
flammation resulting is promptly and efficiently treated, it is 
likely to produce blindness. A single treatment of silver 
nitrate, given promptly, usually cures the trouble. The at¬ 
tending physician or midwife is held responsible by law if 
through her negligence a baby goes blind. 
