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102
1913
According to Dr. Hutchinson, the whole arterial and capilliary system is
affected in the secondary stage of syphilis, and in many instances receives
some permanent damage, and hence the suspicion that 20-80 per cent, of
aneurysms have been considered to be due to syphilis is correct, and also that
arterio-sclerosis, aortic insufficiency, endarteritis and many affections of
the heart and large blood vessels owe their origin to these diseases.
Then there is the effect of the disease on procreation, for it is well
known that sterility, marasmus, abortion, still-births, deaths of infants from
convulsions, marasmus, meningitis, hydrocephalus, are not infrequently the
outcome of conception by syphilitic parents. But there is also the fact that
children who, though they may appear to be healthy at birth, yet in later life
develop hereditary syphilis, which does not manifest itself until some years
after birth.
A disease of the eyes, known as interstitial keratitis, characterized with
deep deposits in the substance of the cornea, which assumes a hazy and a
ground glass appearance, deafness, and lesions of bone, skin and viscera are
also some of the evils which follow in the wake of syphilis.
The main source of the spread of the disease need not be discussed,
because that source is well known. There is, however, a more numerous and
a more dangerous class than the acknowledged prostitutes—the class generally
referred to as clandestine prostitutes. Of this class Sir Alfred Keogh, in
speaking on the Police Regulation of Vice, said, " She will always avoid
their mesh, and it is to her that the greatest amount of the disease is due."
That the clandestine prostitute flourishes may be inferred from the figures
referring to Bremen submitted by Weidanz at the Berlin Congress of 1912,
which showed that from 1901 to 1909 they varied annually, and that the
numbers ranged from one prostitute to every 37 clandestine prostitutes, to
one to every 155 clandestine prostitutes.
The disease is also spread by males, who, either through ignorance, or
recklessness, or deliberation, infect women. The latter class of men are,
fortunately, very few in number, and only commit such a crime in a spirit of
revenge and at rare intervals. There is no doubt that the concealment of the
disease is mainly due to shame, which prevents the sufferers from resorting to
their medical advisers until the disease has taken a strong hold of them, preferring
to rush to some herbalist or quack for advice. Indeed, the Medical
Officer of Health has in his mind the case of a man, at one time a medical