the benefit of the race and of posterity if
people had to present a certificate of freedom from transmissible
venereal disease as a prerequisite to a marriage license. Custom is
often more efficient than law, and, if a premarital examination should
become a universal custom (and there are indications in this
direction), no law would be needed.

=When May a Man Who Had Gonorrhea Get Married?= For a man who once
suffered from gonorrhea to be pronounced cured and a safe candidate
for marriage, the following conditions must be present:

1. There must be no discharge.

2. The urine must be perfectly clear and free from shreds.

3. The secretion from the prostate gland, as obtained by prostatic
massage, and from the seminal vesicles, as obtained by "milking," or
"stripping," the vesicles, must be free from pus and gonococci. To
make sure, it is best to repeat such examination at three different
times.

4. There must be neither stricture nor patches in the urethra.

5. What we call the complement-fixation test, which is a blood test
for gonorrhea similar to the Wassermann blood-test for syphilis, must
be negative.

Referring to conditions 1 and 2, it sometimes happens that the patient
has a minute amount of discharge or a few shreds in the urine, and I
still permit him to marry; but this is done only after the discharge
and shreds have been repeatedly examined and have been found to be
catarrhal in character and absolutely free from any gonococci or other
germs.

It sometimes happens that a patient comes to me for an examination a
few days before the date set for the wedding. I examine him and find
that he is not in a safe condition to marry, and so advise him to
delay the wedding. Sometimes he follows the advice, but in some cases
he is unable to do so. He claims the wedding has been arranged, the
invitation-cards have been sent out, and to delay the wedding would
lead to endless trouble and perhaps scandal. In such cases I, of
course, assume no responsibility; however, I do advise the man to use
an antiseptic suppository or some other method that will protect the
bride from infection for the time being, while he, the husband, has an
opportunity to take treatment until cured. Of the many cases in which
I advised this method, I do not know of one in which infection has
taken place.

=When May a Woman Who Once Had Gonorrhea Be Permitted to Marry?= In
the case of a woman, the decision may be harder to reach than in