Sexually transmitted infection

“ In addition, we have to reckon with dangers to physical health; among these we have the direct consequences of premature misuse of the genital organs, and, above all, the danger of venereal infection. In a great many cases, sexual offences against children are brought to light only when, on examining the child, gonorrhoeal or syphilitic infection is disclosed. Many authorities hold that the superstitious hope of curing venereal disease by sexual intercourse with an innocent child, is a comparatively frequent source of such infection in children. ”

“ There is another factor to be added—that of venereal disease. The infectious germs of syphilis and gonorrhea are usually met with in the genital organs of man and woman; so that every coitus between a healthy and an infected individual may infect the former. Hence the danger of the spread of infection increases with the number of mutations in sexual intercourse. If a woman offers herself systematically to all the men who wish for her, the probability that she will be infected by one of them increases in proportion to the number of clients. ”

“ It is well established that every prostitute is infected with gonorrhea or syphilis, and mostly with both, and that they practically at all times carry this disease in active or latent form. The degree to which they can transmit a venereal infection to a man depends mostly on the stage of the disease in the prostitute at the time of her visit by a man; that is, one time danger is greater than at another, but at no time the perfunctory medical examination given to prostitutes as it is conducted under police regulations can give the slightest guarantee of safety from venereal infection. ”

“ The dangers which sexual intercourse may entail upon women—over and above the irritable conditions and inflammatory disorders of the female reproductive organs, dependent upon impetuous or unduly frequent coitus, or upon coitus practised during menstruation—are principally due to gonorrhœal and syphilitic infection transmitted by the cohabitating male. ”

“ Although infection in children occurs comparatively seldom in consequence of spontaneously practised sexual intercourse, and more frequently as the result of the mishandling of children by perverted or criminal adults, still cases are from time to time observed in which infection with venereal disease arises in children from spontaneously sought sexual intercourse. ”

“ Necessity for Douching Before and After Suspicious Intercourse—Formulæ for Douches—Precautions Against Non-venereal Sources of Infection—Syphilis Transmitted by Dentist's Instruments—Manicurists and Syphilis—Promiscuous Kissing a Source of Syphilitic Infection.
In his book, Sex Knowledge for Men, the author treated the subject of prevention of venereal disease very thoroughly. Men need this knowledge. As men will indulge in illicit relations, we must teach them to guard themselves against venereal infection. ”

“ In the male the possibility of infection taking place is increased if the virus is retained under cover of a long and tight prepuce, and if there are abrasions on the surface with which it comes in contact. The frequency with which infection takes place on the genitals during sexual intercourse warrants syphilis being considered a venereal disease, although there are other ways in which it may be contracted. ”

“ One may appear on the genitals one day and a few days later be gone, without the patient's ever realizing that it was there—yet in this interval a married man might infect his wife by sexual contact. The patient with a concealed syphilis often lacks even the incentive to seek examination by a doctor. It is important also to realize that when mercury has to be the only reliance, the risk of infection cannot be entirely controlled by treatment. ”

“ The conjunction of this state of affairs in the bride with the frequent partial impotence of the bridegroom, who has already dissipated the greater part of his virile power before entering upon marriage, leads often to the appearance of vaginismus and other sexual neuroses in young married women. Even more disastrous in its consequences as regards the future sexual life of the wife is the ever-increasing frequency of gonorrhœal infection in the first days of marital intercourse, with all the evil results of that infection. ”

“ The dangerous roller towel and the no less dangerous common drinking cup are being gradually eliminated as factors of non-venereal infection; and we may confidently expect that in a decade or two the amount of venereal disease from venereal infection will be greatly lessened in all civilized countries. The general increase in cleanliness in all strata of society and the universal use of antiseptics after suspicious sexual relations will constitute the chief factors in this diminution of venereal disease. ”

“ Acute vaginitis, if neglected, may pass into the chronic form. It usually lingers in the upper part of the vagina, in the fornices, especially in vaginitis of gonorrheal origin. By careful inspection we find here one or more granular patches of inflammation, which cause a vaginal discharge from which man may be infected, and from which infection of the upper portion of the genital tract, the uterus, and the Fallopian tubes may be derived. ”

“ The limitation which pregnancy may put on sexual indulgence [Pg 95] leads some men to seek sexual gratification elsewhere than with their wives. The husband becoming infected, then infects his pregnant wife. There are no absolute rules about the matter, but if the mother is not infected until the seventh month of her pregnancy, the child is likely to escape the hereditary form of the disease. On the other hand, imagine the prospects for infection when the child is born through a birth-canal filled with mucous patches or with a chancre on the neck of the womb. ”

“ On the other hand, chancres on parts other than the genitals may be acquired in any but innocent ways. It is impossible to be fair or to think clearly so long as we allow the question of innocence or guilt to color our thought about the genital transmission of syphilis. That syphilis is so largely a sexually transmitted disease is an incidental rather than the essential fact from the broadly social point of view. ”

“ A curious point to know is that a man may have a hidden or latent gonorrhoea, of which he is not aware, for it gives him no trouble, and may infect a clean, healthy woman during sexual relations, and she in turn, can infect him with the same disease, acting like a fresh infection, giving rise to pain and discomfort. The great majority of infections in women are contracted from men who believe themselves cured, being under the false impression that they are cured because the discharge has ceased. ”

“ Infection by the genito-urinary surface is comparatively rare. The surface openings are usually closed, and the discharge of urine has a mechanical cleansing effect. The wide tube of the vagina is further protected by a normal bacterial flora which produces conditions hostile to other and pathogenic bacteria. The most common infections are the sexual diseases, which are due to organisms which find favorable conditions for growth in and on the surface and which are conveyed from a similar surface by sexual contact. ”

“ Women thus attacked usually are apt to be sterile; they suffer agonies, and often become chronic invalids. The child born of a gonorrheal mother, while passing through the infected genital organs, comes to life with infected eyelids. This is Blennorrhea, which may result in total blindness. Gonorrhea also causes inflammation of the joints, gonorrheal rheumatism, testicular inflammations which may lead to sterility. Some authorities claim that fully half the sterility in women is caused by gonorrheal infection of the Fallopian tubes. ”

“ The influence of infected low-class midwives is notably dangerous, for they may inflict widespread injury in ignorance; thus the case has been recorded of a midwife, whose finger became infected in the course of her duties, and directly or indirectly contaminated one hundred persons. Kissing is an extremely common source of syphilitic infection, and of all extragenital regions the mouth is by far the most frequent seat of primary syphilitic sores. In some cases, it is true, especially in prostitutes, this is the result of abnormal sexual contacts. ”

“ The patient should be told that if she feels uncomfortable, or thinks she is bleeding, she must lie quietly and summon a nurse, but on no account to try to find out for herself what is wrong. There is little doubt that cases of severe infection have been caused by the introduction of organisms into the vagina by means of the patient’s own fingers, after the most scrupulous precautions had been taken by doctors and nurses to avoid that very disaster. ”

“ It follows that at least every other person in the Kingdom has suffered from venereal disease. Probably not a family has escaped infection. In proportion to its prevalence syphilis is not very deadly, yet it has been reckoned as the fourth killing disease. The victims of gonorrhœa are incalculable. Venereal diseases fill our hospitals, asylums, and workhouses. They are the principal causes of heart disease, apoplexy, paralysis, insanity, blindness in children, and of that life of sterility and pain to which so many women are condemned. ”

“ Although young men hear the mischievous lie that "gonorrhea is no worse than a bad cold," thousands of them are punished with sterility as a result of the disease. Nearly all the neglected cases result in so-called ascending infections, reaching the bladder and kidneys and causing many deaths, and many men carry the infection in dormant form, to infect innocent wives in later years. ”

“ If infection with a venereal disease meant simply the death of the infected individual, it would really be very much less deleterious to society than is the present condition. When the young man "sows wild oats" and catches incidently gonorrhea, that twenty years ago was considered a sort of a "good joke," he will, in a large proportion of cases, lay the foundation for broken health and will run a serious risk of transmitting the disease to an innocent, pure wife. ”

“ The misery and ill-health which they cause are incalculable, and the pity of it is that the cross is not always borne by the offender, but innocent women and205 children share the penalties. The gonorrhœal infection, so common, and often so little heeded, is a cause of much disease in parts other than those first affected. Syphilis claims its victims in every rank of life, at every age, and in all countries. ”

“ Before Birth.—It is a matter of great importance that pregnant women should regulate their lives in accordance with certain elementary rules of hygiene, and for this reason it is urgently necessary that women should be properly instructed in this respect. Syphilis is one of the most potent causes of intra-uterine death and of abortion and premature labour. Everything possible should be done to prevent persons suffering from syphilis practising sexual intercourse, and to protect the fruit of conception from subsequent syphilitic infection. ”

“ The medical phase of the present situation is not often ignored, except by those who hold that there is no such thing as disease. All countries are alarmed over the prevalence of venereal infection. Definite information, however, concerning the extent of these diseases, the sources and conditions of contagion, and the complications and results, is not to be had; because society still persists in treating venereal diseases as not subject to public registration and control, in spite of their terrible attacks on tens of thousands of innocent victims. ”

“ Nature has devised a retribution for illicit intercourse in the form of venereal disease. If the parties observe fidelity to the marriage vows venereal disease is experienced in wedlock only on very rare occasions, and then through some accidental infection, as from contact with some public utensils, as a public water closet, a public towel or drinking cup. ”

“ It was supposed, in former ages, that syphilis was transmissible by personal communication, touching the clothes, drinking out of the same vessels, or even breathing the same air with infected persons, and accordingly we find the lower orders of people driven out into the fields to die, and physicians refusing to attend the sick for fear of infection. ”

“ Still, we have to remember how extraordinarily common, more especially in the so-called upper classes of society, is gonorrhoeal infection, and what an enormous percentage of men entering upon married life have previously experienced one or more attacks of the disease—so that were sterility a frequent sequel of such infection, fertility would be the exception rather than the rule. ”

“ Kissing, caresses, and sexual relations make up the origin of an overwhelming proportion of syphilitic infection. Infections are, of course, traceable to the nursing of syphilitic infants. It is through these sources of contact that syphilis invades the family especially. Many a [Pg 117] syphilitic who realizes that he should not have sexual relations with his wife while he has the disease in active form will thoughtlessly infect her or his children by kissing. ”

“ That is, of any hundred men at least eighteen were ill from sexual infection. The New York County Hospital Society reports two hundred and forty-three thousand cases of venereal disease treated in one year, as compared with forty-one thousand five hundred and eighty-five cases of all other communicable diseases. This horrible sapping of the physical energies of the nation, with the devastating results in the family, with the poisoning of the germs for the next generation, and with the disastrous diseases of brain and spinal cord, is surely the gravest material danger which exists. ”