e, the
discharge from the urethra being thick, creamy and of a greenish
yellow color.

In the majority of carefully treated cases, the discharge ceases in
from three to six weeks with apparent recovery. Unfortunately,
however, there is frequently a tendency for the disease to become
chronic. The discharge becomes thin and more watery and persists for
an indefinite period. This condition--chronic gonorrhea--is commonly
known as "gleet."

c. =Syphilis=, popularly termed the "pox," is a constitutional
affection of the type known as "blood diseases."

It is by far the most important and most greatly to be feared of the
venereal diseases. No disease has been so wide-spread in its
dissemination or more potent in its influence upon humanity.

It has been known for centuries, having been mentioned by Japanese
historians and in Chinese writings two thousand years ago.

Syphilis is contagious and is transmitted by inoculation. The
infectious material enters the broken surface of either the skin or
mucous membrane, called "contact" or "acquired" syphilis. When it is
transmitted by the mother to the embryo, it is called "hereditary" or
"inherited" syphilis.

The disease manifests itself first in a "_primary lesion_" which is a
local ulcer (hard chancre) at the point or points of inoculation at a
period ranging from ten to thirty days after exposure. It may appear
as an erosion or as a dry scaling and indurated papule, varying in
size from a pin-head to a silver dollar. The base of the ulcer is
indurated. It is oval in shape, perhaps somewhat irregular, with a raw
surface and red colored base devoid of pus.

Immediately following the appearance of the chancre, the glands in
direct connection with it become enlarged, hard and rarely painful,
but they have no tendency to suppurate like the enlarged glands of
chancroid.

The chancre disappears in a few weeks and then there is a period when
the individual has no outward manifestations of the disease. In about
six weeks after the chancre the so-called _secondary symptoms_ make
their appearance. They are heralded by headache, pains in the limbs
and back, nausea, sleeplessness and nervous irritability and fever,
followed by the appearance of a rash upon the face and body, falling
out of the hair, sore throat and mouth. These symptoms disappear to be
again followed by a period free from symptoms. After a longer or
shorter time the so-called _tertiary symptoms_ make their appearan