The consequence of such long-continued dis ease is a gradual but marked loss of general health and vigour, shown by sallowness of com plexion and increasing thinness and loss of strength, so that the result of the disease is a miserable existence and a premature end.
Inherited Syphilis.—A husband may, of course, infect his wife. Syphilis is a very com mon cause of abortion, occurring usually about the fifth or sixth month of pregnancy. One miscarriage after another may thus be occa sioned, each succeeding one may be at a later period than the one before, till after several abortions a child is born alive. A. child may be born with, already at birth, signs of the disease. It is shrivelled, puny, and unhealthy looking, and speedily dies. Commonly, how ever, at birth the child is healthy looking, and the signs of the disease do not appear till three or four weeks later. A syphilitic child has sores, chaps, and cracks at the corners of the mouth, ulcers of the mouth, and is afflicted with snuffles, owing to similar affections of the nostrils. Little soft growths are found about its anus (p. 189), and a rosy rash about the buttocks and neighbouring parts is a most common sign. It is peevish and fretful ; its skin is dry and withered-looking, its face old and weird-looking, its hair scanty, its body thin and wasted. These symptoms, if the child live, disappear about the end of the first year, but scars are left to mark the seat of the sores. In later life the bridge of the nose is sunken, the teeth have a pegged appear ance, and the clear part of the eye (cornea) is liable to suffer from an inflammation that makes it cloudy and of a ground-glass appear ance.
A child may inherit syphilis from either parent ; but a curious fact is that the child of a syphilitic father may exhibit the disease which the mother has escaped. The father may, that is to say, infect the child without, previous in fection of the mother.
Treatment.—It may be stated as a general rule that, if proper treatment be adopted early in the disease and persisted in, and if the patient be a person of temperate habits, and, above all things, if he abstain from habits of drinking, the disease may be got rid of within two years of infection. In regard to children it may also be said that, provided the disease does not appear for several.weeks after birth, and if the child be properly fed and in every way well cared for, proper treatment will effect a cure.
The general treatment consists in good nour ishing food, moderate exercise, moderation in, indeed abstinence from, all liquors, perfect cleanliness, and moderate exercise in the open air. Frequent washing'of the whole body with
soap and water, and an occasional Turkish bath are of importance. Flannel should be worn next the skin, and care to avoid chills taken. The patient should continue his work or business to give mental occupation. Smoking should be entirely given up if the mouth or throat is ulcerated, otherwise it should always be moderate.
As regards special treatment, a brief state ment may be given of the treatment of an or dinary case in its different stages; but wherever possible the patient should place himself in the hands of a qualified physician, and should scrupulously follow his every direction. As regards the chancre, it is doubtful whether any treatment by burning, &e., will destroy the risk of the constitutional disease arising. The sore readily heals if cleanliness and fre quent bathing are practised. If the patient is anxious to have it destroyed, caustic should not be used, but strong nitric acid. A brush, moistened with the acid, is lightly brushed over only the crack or ulcer, sound skin being avoided, and the sore is then bathed with cold water. A healthy sore remains, when the slough, due to the burning, separates. It soon heals if kept clean by bathing. Often the secondary symptoms appear before the patient is aware of having contracted the disease, the chancre having been unnoticed. When they appear, or to avoid them if the chancre has been observed, the drug employed is mercury. Mercury has gained a bad reputation, because in former times it was improperly used. When properly used it is perfectly safe, and it is the only drug that can satisfactorily deal with the disease. When required when the secondary symptoms are slight, or used as a precaution, it may be given in pill according to the follow ing prescriptions :— to be made into one pill. One such pill is to be taken after meals thrice daily. It is well, before taking the first pill, to clear out the bowels by a double strong seidlitz-powder. If the mouth and gums become sore the pill is to be taken less frequently—twice daily, for ex ample—or its use may be stopped for a day or two and then resumed after another purge. If treatment is not begun till the secondary symp toms have lasted for a time, such as sore throat, skin eruption, &c., the following mixture may be employed instead of the pills :— Biehloride of mercury, 2 grains.