ften much mental distress
are inflicted on unfortunates who have some skin trouble by the
readiness with which persons who know nothing about the matter insist on
thinking that any conspicuous eruption is syphilis, and telling others
about it. Even with an eye trained to recognize such things on sight, in
the crowds of a large city, one very seldom sees any skin condition
which even suggests syphilis. It usually requires more than a passing
glance at the whole body to identify the disease. If, under such
circumstances, one becomes concerned for the health of a friend, he
would much better frankly ask what is the matter, than make him the
victim of a layman's speculations. It is always well to remember that
profuse eruptions of a conspicuous nature, which have been present for
months or years, are less likely to be syphilitic.

+The Contagious Sores in the Mouth, Throat, and Genitals.+--Accompanying
the outbreaks of syphilis on the skin, in the secondary period, a
soreness may appear in the mouth and throat, and peculiar patches seen
on the tongue and lips, and flat growths be noticed around the moist
surfaces, such as those of the genitals. These throat, mouth, and
genital eruptions are the most dangerous signs of the disease from the
standpoint of contagiousness. Just as the chancre swarms with the germs
of syphilis, so every secondary spot, pimple, and lump contains them in
enormous numbers. But so long as the skin is not broken or rubbed off
over them, they are securely shut in. There is no danger of infection
from the dry, unbroken skin, even over the eruption itself. But in the
mouth and throat and about the genitals, where the surface is moist and
thin, the covering quickly rubs or dissolves off, leaving the gray or
pinkish patches and the flattened raised growths from which the germs
escape in immense numbers and in the most active condition. Such patches
may occur under the breasts and in the armpits, as well as in the places
mentioned. The saliva of a person in this condition may be filled with
the germs, and the person have only to cough in one's face to make one a
target for them.

+Distribution of the Germs in the Body.+--The germs of syphilis have in
the past few years been found in every part of the body and in every
lesion of syphilis. While the secondary stage is at its height, they
are in the blood in considerable numbers, so that the blood may at these
times be infectious to a slight degree. They are