led with them. In spite of this it may
for a time seem well. The typical syphilitic child, however, is thin,
weak, and wasted. Syphilis hastens old age even in the strong. It turns
the young child into an old man or woman at birth. The skin is
wrinkled, the flesh flabby. The face is that of an old man--weazened,
pinched, pathetic, with watery, bleary eyes, and snuffling nose. The
mother often says that all the baby's trouble started with a bad cold.
The disease attacks the throat, and turns the normal robust cry of a
healthy infant into a feeble squawk. The belly may become enormously
distended from enlargement of the internal organs, and the rest of the
child dwindle to a skeleton. The eruptions are only a part of the
picture and may be absent, but when they occur, are quite
characteristic, as a rule, especially about the mouth and buttocks, and
do not usually resemble the commoner skin complaints of infants. It is
important to remember here that a badly nourished, sickly child with a
distressing eczema is not necessarily syphilitic, and that only a
physician is competent to pass an opinion on the matter. Syphilitic
children in a contagious state are usually too sick to be around much,
so that the risk to the general public is small. On the other hand, the
risk to some woman who tries to mother or care for some one else's
syphilitic child, if the disease is active, should be thoroughly
appreciated. Women who are not specially trained or under the direction
of a physician should not attempt the personal care of other people's
sick children.

+The Wet Nurse.+--This is also the proper place to introduce a warning
about the wet nurse. Women who must have the assistance of a wet nurse
to feed their babies should, under no circumstances, make such
arrangements without the full supervision of their physicians. There is
no better method for transmitting syphilis to a healthy woman than for
her to nurse a syphilitic child. Conversely, the healthy child who is
nursed by a syphilitic woman stands an excellent chance of contracting
the disease, since the woman may have sores about the nipples and since
the germs of syphilis have been found in the milk of syphilitic women.
The only person who should nurse a syphilitic child is its own mother,
who has syphilis and, therefore, cannot be infected. A Wassermann blood
test with a thorough examination is the least that should be expected
where any exchanges are to take place. Nothing wha