tongue. The hair falls out in patches or, less
often, is all lost. Inflammation of the eye is sometimes a symptom.
These symptoms do not always occur at the same time, and some may be
absent or less noticeable than others.
The third stage comes on after months or years, or in those subjected
to treatment may not occur at all. This stage is characterized by
sores and ulcerations on the skin and deeper tissues, and the
occurrence of disease of different organs of the body, including the
muscles, bones, nervous system, and blood vessels; every internal
organ is susceptible to syphilitic change.
A great many affections of the internal organs--the heart, lungs,
liver, kidneys, brain, and cord--which were formerly attributed to
other causes, are now recognized as the product of syphilis. The
central nervous system is peculiarly susceptible to the action of the
syphilitic poison, and when affected may show the fact through
paralysis, crippling, disabling, and disfiguring disorders.
Years after cure has apparently resulted, patients are more liable to
certain nervous disorders, as locomotor ataxia, which attacks
practically only syphilitics; and general paresis, of which
seventy-five per cent of the cases occur in those who have had
syphilis.
=Inherited Syphilis.=--Children born with syphilis of syphilitic
parents show the disease at birth or usually within one or two months.
They present a gaunt, wasted appearance, suffer continually from
snuffles or nasal catarrh, have sores and cracks about the lips, loss
of hair, and troublesome skin eruptions. The syphilitic child has been
described as a "little old man with a cold in his head." The internal
organs are almost invariably diseased, and sixty to eighty per cent of
the cases fortunately die. Those who live to grow up are puny and
poorly developed, so that at twenty they look not older than twelve,
and are always delicate.
It is to be noted that syphilis is not necessarily a venereal disease,
that is, acquired through sexual relations. It may be communicated by
kissing, by accidental contact with a sore on a patient's body, by the
use of pipes, cups, spoons, or other eating or drinking utensils, or
contact with any object upon which the virus of the disease has been
deposited.
Any part of the surface of the body or mucous membrane is susceptible
of being inoculated with the virus of syphilis, followed by a sore
similar to what has been described as occurring upon
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