inancial structures dependent on the
integrity of their judgment. The extent of such damage to the welfare of
society by syphilis is unknown, though here and there some investigation
scratches the surface of it. It will remain for the future to show us
more clearly the cost of syphilis in this direction.

+Syphilis and Mental Disease.+--Williams,[7] before the American Public
Health Association, has recently carefully summarized the role of
syphilis in the production of insanity, and the cost of the disease to
the State from the standpoint of mental disease alone. He estimates
that 10 per cent of the patients who enter the Massachusetts State
hospitals for the insane are suffering from syphilitic insanity. Fifteen
per cent of those at the Boston Psychopathic Hospital have syphilis. In
New York State hospitals, 12.7 per cent of those admitted have
syphilitic mental diseases. In Ohio, 12 per cent were admitted to
hospitals for the same reason. An economic study undertaken by Williams
of 100 men who died at the Boston State Hospital of syphilitic mental
disease, the cases being taken at random, showed that the shortening of
life in the individual cases ranged from eight to thirty-eight years,
and the total life loss was 2259 years. Of ten of these men the earning
capacity was definitely known, and through their premature death there
was an estimated financial loss of $212,248. It cost the State of
Massachusetts $39,312 to care for the 100 men until their death.
Seventy-eight were married and left dependent wives at the time of their
commission to the hospital. In addition to the 100 men who became public
charges, 109 children were thrown upon society without the protection of
a wage-earner. Williams estimates, on the basis of published admission
figures to Massachusetts hospitals, that there are now in active life,
in that state alone, 1500 persons who will, within the next five years,
be taken to state hospitals with syphilitic insanity.

[7] Williams, F. E.: "Preaching Health," Amer. Jour. Pub. Health,
1917, vi, 1273.

+Frequency of Locomotor Ataxia and General Paralysis.+--The percentage
of all syphilitic patients who develop either locomotor ataxia or
paresis varies in different estimates from 1 to 6 per cent of the total
number who acquire syphilis. The susceptibility to any syphilitic
disease of the nervous system is hastened by the use of alcohol and by
overwork or dissipation, so that the prevalence of th