Venereal disease : its present and future a paper read at the Annual Congress of the Royal Institute of Public Health, held in Dublin, August, 1911 / by Douglas White and C.H. Melville.

  • White, Douglas.
Date:
1911?]
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Venereal disease : its present and future a paper read at the Annual Congress of the Royal Institute of Public Health, held in Dublin, August, 1911 / by Douglas White and C.H. Melville. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    VENEREAL DISEASE: ITS PRESENT AND EUTURE. A paper read at the Annual Congress of the Royal Institute of Public Health, held in Dublin, August, 1911, By Douglas White, M.D. Cantab. ; AND C. H. Melville, M.B., C.M. Edin., D.P.H., Lieutenant-Colonel, Royal Army Medical Corps. The problem of venereal disease, and that of feeble-mindedness, are the two most important medico-social problems of our time, and inasmuch as venereal disease augments the ranks of the feeble-minded, the two questions are closely allied. Of the ravages of venereal disease the public know nothing and consequently care nothing, while those who do know seldom care to break the professional silence, which accords with popular prejudice and apathy. In attempting to deal with this subject, while each of us is, strictly speaking, responsible for his own section, we are, nevertheless, at entire unity as regards the principles and methods by which this problem has to be grappled. What is venereal disease ? What is the present state of affairs ? How are we to deal with it ? These are the questions to which we in¬ vite your attention. Soft chancre, syphilis, and gonorrhoea—these are the chief forms of disease. The chief importance of soft chancre is its possible confusion with syphilis. Though soft chancre is not a slight or negligible malady, yet both in respect of the gravity of their effects and of the numbers of persons affected, gonorrhoea and syphilis are by far the most im¬ portant. Their importance is not only individual, but national, since the former affects the procreative powers of both women and men, whilst the latter may and, if neglected, always does result in the intro¬ duction into the world of children who are diseased from the very start. Gonorrhoea is popularly regarded as a mild and not very shameful disease. Medical opinion, however, is doubtful whether, to the in¬ dividual affected, it is not worse than syphilis. It may be fatal to the vjctim_more frequently to women than men ; its complications and consequences are serious and very common , having no specific remedy of approved efficiency, it is apt, unless treated very early and very thoroughly to become a chronic disease of indeterminate duration and perpetual inconvenience. Its infectiveness is equally indeterminate.