uous
exposure. In addition we should create as rapidly as possible a
mechanism for keeping inactive cases under surveillance after discharge
until there can no longer be the slightest doubt as to their fitness to
reenter civil life. Observers of European conditions in the population
at large are emphatic in saying that home conditions must have as much
attention as the army, and that suppression of open prostitution, a
watchful eye on the conditions under which women are employed or left
unemployed, and the control of contributory factors, such as the liquor
traffic, must be rigorously carried out. Nation-wide prohibition will do
much to control venereal disease.[18] It is interesting and significant
that little reliance is being placed on the obsolete idea that
prostitution can be made a legitimate and safe part of army life solely
by personal prophylactic methods, or by any system of inspection of the
women concerned. It is a hopeful sign that this conception is at last
meeting with the discredit which has long been due it.

[18] Through the effect on prostitution. A well-known and very
intelligent prostitute, with whom this question was recently
discussed, rated the liquor traffic first among the influences
tending to promote prostitution.

The question has occurred to those interested in compulsory military
service as a measure of national defense as to whether the mobilization
of troops for training will favor the spread of sexual disease.
Unfortunately, there are no satisfactory figures for the civil
population showing how many persons per thousand per year acquire
syphilis or gonorrhea, to be compared with the known figures for the
onset of such infections in the army. Arguing from general
considerations, however, there seems to be no reason to suppose that the
army will show a higher proportion of infections than civilians. In
fact, there is every ground for believing that the percentage will be
lower, since the army is protected by a fairly efficient and enforceable
system of prophylaxis which is taught to the men, and they live,
moreover, under a general medical discipline which reduces the risk of
infection from other than genital sources to the lowest possible terms.
In opposition to the conception that the sexual ideals of the army are
low, it may be urged that they are no lower than those of corresponding
grades in civil life, and that hard work and rigid discipline have a
much better eff