and barbarously undiscriminating, inhuman,
and unjust as a punishment, let us in all fairness lay aside the
attitude of mind which has so hindered and defeated our efforts to deal
with it as an arch enemy to human health, happiness, and effectiveness.
In the face of all our harsh traditions it takes a good deal of breadth
of view to look on the disease impersonally, rather than in the light of
one or two contemptible examples of it whom we may happen to know. But,
after all, to think in large terms and with a sympathy that can separate
the sinner from his sin and the sick man from the folly that got the
best of him, is no mean achievement, well worthy of the Samaritan in
contrast with the Levite. To the remaking of the traditional attitude of
harsh, unkindly judgment upon those unfortunate enough to have a
terrible disease, we must look for our soundest hope of progress.

+The Mental States of Syphilitics.+--The mental outlook of the person
with syphilis is in its turn as important a factor in our campaign
against the disease as is that of the person without it. In order to
give some idea of the ways in which this can influence the situation it
may be well to sketch what might be called the four types of mind with
which one has to deal--the conscientious, the average, the
irresponsible, and the morbid. Under the morbid type are included those
persons who, without having syphilis, are in morbid fear of the disease,
or have the fixed belief that they are infected with it, even when they
are not.

+The Conscientious Type.+--Conscientious patients, speaking from the
physician's standpoint, are the product of intelligence and character
combined. Though distinctly in the minority, and usually met in the
better grades of private practice, one is often surprised how many there
are, considering the treacherous and deceptive features of the disease,
which leave so much excuse for laxity and misunderstanding on the part
of the laymen. A conscientious patient is one who is not content with
any ideal short of that of radical cure. It takes unselfishness and
self-control to go without those things which make the patient in the
infectious stage dangerous to others. For a time life seems pretty well
stripped of its pleasures for the man who may not smoke, must always
think beforehand whether any contact which he makes with persons or
things about him may subject others to risk of infection, and perhaps
must meet the misunderstanding a