Plain facts on sex hygiene / by William Lee Howard.

  • Howard, William Lee, 1860-1918.
Date:
[1927]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Plain facts on sex hygiene / by William Lee Howard. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    directly inherited. If the syphilitic poison merely went in alongside the germ cell, coming from an actively diseased parent, while of course the embryo becomes infected, it is not inherited syphilis, but acquired syphilis. But what is the difference ? you ask. Biologically there is a great difference, but this does not concern us. What concerns us is the practical side of the matter. There is a very practical side ; one all should under¬ stand. If the embryo becomes attacked by syphilis by the germs going in alongside one of the parents’ repro¬ ductive cells, it cannot as a rule live out its allotted time in the womb. Then comes abortion, one of those millions of abortions that are taking place every year in our land. Sometimes it will grow to a viable age and then miscarriage follows, leaving the unfortunate mother one of those many invalids seen throughout the land—the land of assumed civilisation and Christianity. The cause is purely mechanical, or chemical. The fetus becomes so diseased that it dies, or else the womb and its appendages are so diseased that they cannot nourish the foetus. The result is the same in either case : early abortion or a still-born child, show¬ ing all the signs of syphilis directly contracted. A shrivelled-up, distorted thing, fortunate in finding death before its period of worldly suffering. The case is different, however, where the syphilitic poison has so saturated one of the parents that the germ plasm—the life-giving force—contains this virus. Then the embryo goes on to full term, not always, however, until it is born. It may not at first show any signs of syphilis. Under the best of care, food and environment it may possibly go through life as an apparently well person. But don’t forget that every cell in its body carries some remnant of syphilitic poison, only waiting for favourable opportunities to demonstrate its virulency. This child of syphilitic parents married. The result