“We find that when either the father or the mother suffers from paresis that many other members of the family may be infected with syphilis, and furthermore, we find that a large number of children in these families are feeble-minded, nervous, or in other ways abnormal. Doctor Plant examined a group of 100 children, the offspring of cases of paresis, and found that 45 per cent. were plainly damaged mentally or physically, or in both fields; the blood test showed that one-third of these 100 children had the syphilitic poison in their systems.
“Another investigator found in a group of 139 children, the descendants of parents who had syphilitic nervous disease, that over 25 per cent. were definitely feeble-minded or affected with some serious nervous disorders.
“Other studies indicate that there exists a close relation between syphilis and many of the hitherto unexplained cases of feeble-mindedness, including idiocy, imbecility, infantile paralysis, and some forms of epilepsy. While the question is not yet settled, it appears that syphilis is the real cause of many of these cases of mental defect in children.”
Still other investigators give details of physical afflictions and distortions, of suppressed development, of inordinate percentages of stillbirths—perhaps the most merciful lot for the little victims—but sufficient has been said to indicate the full horror of the situation.
Goddard,[7] although not minimizing the terrible nature of the disease, finds little evidence in his studies that syphilis in parents is a specific cause of feeble-mindedness.
A Blood Test.—Fortunately a delicate blood test known as the Wasserman test has been discovered by means of which, through an examination of a few drops of blood, any trace of syphilitic poison which exists in the body may usually be detected. This is true even though the individual may at the time show no visible symptoms of syphilis. The test is therefore of great value in detecting the latent germs of syphilis in individuals who have apparently been cured, and also often in making an early diagnosis of paresis. The Wasserman test, however, is reliable only in the hands of a skilled operator. It may occasionally give a positive reaction when syphilis does not exist and on the contrary a negative when it is present. The luetin test is also now applied by some specialists, but is too new a test to have come into general use. It works on the same principle as the tuberculin test for tuberculosis. Some army physicians now also give what is termed a provocative Wasserman. That is, in a suspicious case which gives only negative results by an ordinary Wasserman, they can get, if syphilis really exists, a positive reaction after giving small doses of potassium iodide or salvarsan.
It should be well understood by every one that syphilis is usually curable provided the patient is given modern scientific treatment by a competent physician. I emphasize competent because there are so many quacks in this field that one undergoing treatment can not be too careful in assuring himself of the competency of the physician. In even a case of long standing, where the symptoms have been in abeyance for a number of years, the disease can be cured provided it has not developed into an active cerebro-spinal type, and even the latter can be much benefited by proper treatment. The great danger of the cerebro-spinal type is that it will result in paresis or locomotor ataxia.
As long as the blood of a patient shows a positive Wasserman reaction, marriage should certainly not be consummated. If after a proper course of treatment by a well-informed physician, the patient shows a negative Wasserman when tested by a competent examiner, he probably would not infect his wife or offspring, although prudence would require that he wait at least six months or a year before marriage, and marrying then only if later tests remain negative.
The only way for a patient to be sure that he is not harboring the cerebro-spinal form would be to have a spinal puncture made and the cerebro-spinal fluid examined. While the cerebro-spinal phase often does not occur until long after the primary infection, cases are known in which it has appeared within a few weeks. Evidence that the central nervous system is frequently invaded early in the course of the disease is increasing. Marriage of an individual suffering from the cerebro-spinal form should not take place, since such a one is almost sure to become a burden on the family or the state.
Many Syphilitics Are Married.—It may seem to some that in a treatise on being well-born the subject of syphilis might be ignored as not being especially pertinent, but the supposition that no considerable percentage of syphilitics marry is not borne out by the facts. Seventy-five per cent. of men with insanity due to syphilis who are admitted to hospitals are married. The insanity in such cases is mainly the result of infections in earlier years, often long before marriage. While syphilis, strictly speaking, is not inherited, that is, does not become part and parcel of the germ-plasm, still the frequency of its direct transmission to offspring is so appalling that the outcome, as far as the immediate child is concerned, is quite as disastrous as the most thoroughgoing real inheritance could be.