Gonorrhea.
Gonorrhea, commonly termed a clap, is unquestionably the most widespread of venereal diseases. So common it is, so insidious and deceiving in its appearance, that most men fail to realize its serious and often dangerous nature and regard it as a trifling affection. How often one hears boys repeat this hackneyed and silly expression, “I would rather have a clap than a bad cold.” What childish recklessness, what arrogant ignorance, and how terribly it is punished and regretted later on!
The more medical and social workers study the clinical and social ravages produced by gonorrhea and its complications, the more they are impressed by its enormous and far-reaching destructive power on human health and happiness. It is a wellestablished opinion among the medical scientists at the present time that the total amount of damage and suffering to individuals and to society at large produced by gonorrhea falls not far below that produced by Syphilis, which is justly known as a black scourge of humanity. Gonorrhea is considered now a very serious disease, requiring, for a complete and permanent recovery, long and painstaking treatment. The complications of gonorrhea are numerous and far-reaching. Ninety per cent of inborn blindness in children in institutions for the blind are due to Gonorrhea, and tens of thousands of little sightless victims are a pitiful evidence of the disastrous consequences following the neglect or indifferent handling of Gonorrhea cases. It is also known that possibly half of all operations performed on women are due to neglected or unrecognized cases of Gonorrhea, and thousands and thousands of young women become permanent invalids thru the ignorance or indifference of their husbands. Only a Genito-Urinary specialist, who sees how many of these cases are mistreated or untreated because they are regarded by the patients as trifling and not worthy of any particular attention, who sees how these cases, once the sickness takes deep roots in the body, drag on for months and months in spite of the best treatment; only a physician can realize to the full extent how seriously and carefully each case of Gonorrheal infection must be handled. The respect and fear of Gonorrhea comes to young men only after a sad and distressing experience as an afterthought. How much better it would be as a forethought. It is the writer’s hope that the following lines will serve as a torch of knowledge, shedding light and guiding to safety the traveler through the darkness and dangers of sex ignorance.