cci are
concealed in all the corners and folds of the internal genital organs
of woman, where they set up inflammation of the womb, the Fallopian
tubes and even the ovaries, which may lead to adhesions between the
abdominal organs. Women affected with chronic gonorrhea generally
become sterile. When the womb and the ovaries are affected there is
much suffering and the woman may be confined to bed for some years.
Stricture of the urethra and inflammation of the bladder are more rare
in women than in men, as the result of gonorrhea.

But gonorrhea is not confined to the adults of both sexes. The
innocent child, who at birth has to pass through its mother's vulva,
when this is affected with gonorrhea, undergoes a baptism of gonococci
which attack the conjunctiva of the eyes and set up a severe purulent
inflammation, called ophthalmia of the newly born (_ophthalmia
neonatorum_). This is one of the chief causes of total blindness, and
if the child is not entirely blind, there are often large white
patches left on the cornea which considerably interfere with sight.
Gonorrheal ophthalmia may also occur in adults by conveying pus from
the urethra to the eyes by the fingers.

=Syphilis.=--This disease is still more formidable than gonorrhea. It
is caused by a microbe which has been recently discovered (_Spirochaeta
pallida_). Syphilis is much more chronic than gonorrhea and commences
with a small sore indurated at its base and called the hard chancre.
This is situated on the genital organs or elsewhere; in the mouth, for
instance, when this has been in contact with the buccal or genital
organs of a person infected with syphilis. The syphilitic poison
spreads through the body by means of the blood and lymph. At the end
of a few weeks eruptions appear on the body and face, and then
commences a series of disasters the cause of which may be suspended
over the victim for his whole life, like the sword of Damocles, even
when he believes himself cured; for the cure of syphilis is often
uncertain. This disease may remain latent for months and years, to
reappear later on in different organs and cause fresh lesions.

Syphilis causes ulcers of the skin and mucous membranes; it sometimes
causes decay of the bones; it may cause disease of the internal
organs, such as the liver and lungs; it affects the walls of the blood
vessels, causing them to become hard and brittle (atheroma); it causes
disease of the eyes, especially of the iris and