The whole of Prussia, 0·28 %.
Berlin, 1·42 %.
Towns over 100,000 inhabitants, 1 %.
Towns over 30,000 inhabitants, 0·58 %.
Towns below 30,000 inhabitants, 0·45 %.
The Army, 0·15 %.
Venereal Diseases Affecting the Male Population of Prussia, April 30, 1900 (after Blaschko).
Thus, for every 10,000 adult men there were on this day persons suffering from venereal diseases to the following numbers: in Berlin, 142; in the remaining large towns, 100; in the smaller towns, 50; and in the whole of Prussia, on the average, 28. Naturally the figures should in reality be larger, for of the physicians to whom inquiries were sent, only 63 % returned an answer. Moreover, the annual figure of cases is a very much larger one. Kirchner[362] assumes that every day in Prussia more than 100,000 individuals—that is to say, about 3 per mille—are suffering from a transmissible venereal disease, and he estimates the damage to the national property by typhoid fever as about 8 million marks annually, but that from venereal diseases as not less than ninety million marks annually. In these reports of April 30, 1900, the ratio of men to women suffering from recent syphilis was as 3 : 1.
In order to obtain more exact information regarding the diffusion of venereal diseases, and the actual number of those affected by them, it is of very great importance that there should be a revision of the duty of medical men in respect of the notification of diseases, and also in respect of the duty of professional secrecy.[363]
This latter question is also of importance in respect of the prevention of venereal infection in married life. (The question of syphilitic infection of married women by their husbands has recently been considered by Alfred Fournier: “Syphilis in Honourable Women.”)
In addition to the question of the diffusion and frequency of venereal diseases, the greatest interest attaches to the sources of dangerous infections—that is to say, the question where men and women most frequently contract venereal disease.
Here also Blaschko has obtained interesting information; he states:
Of 487 syphilitic men, the disease was acquired by 395 (81·1 %) from professional prostitutes (officially inscribed or secret); 23 (4·7 %) from waitresses and barmaids; 23 (4·9 %) from their “intimate”; 45 (9·2 %) from casual acquaintances, shop-girls, or workwomen.
According to this report, it appears that prostitution, public and secret (under which heading the waitresses and “casual acquaintances” must be numbered), forms the principal focus of venereal infection.