SYPHILIS. None of the causes supposed to be potent causes of feeble-mindedness is so difficult of investigation, so enigmatical as Syphilis. Not only in the popular mind but in the professional thought, it is given a prominent place, yet of all the causes there is perhaps none for which there is less evidence. This does not necessarily mean it is not a cause, but simply that it is not proved. The terrible nature of the disease, the serious results that it is known to produce, such as miscarriage, deaths in infancy, general paralysis of the insane, the fact that it is one of the two diseases that can be transmitted from the mother to the child because the germs can pass through the chorion cells, the fact of its close connection with sexual immorality, all tend to render it in the minds of most people a horror of which anything can be believed. It is well understood by the medical profession that a mating which shows, first a number of miscarriages followed by deaths in infancy, and finally live offspring, is a picture that means syphilis in one or both of the parents almost without question. In conclusion, there is abundant evidence that syphilis produces miscarriages and early death. It is claimed that syphilis is responsible for 42 per cent. of abortions and miscarriages, the remaining 58 per cent. embracing all cases of whatever character, artificial or otherwise. SYPHILIS IN THE OFFSPRING OF SYPHILITIC PARENTS _FAMILIAL SYPHILIS. By P. C. Jeans, M.D., “American Journal of Diseases of Children.” January, 1916. Vol. XI. pp. 11–19._ As the result of syphilis numerous families remain sterile. The figures for sterility vary from 10 per cent. to 30 per cent., depending on the material studied. When there is an embryo there is a variety of fates to which it may come. Many marriages result only in abortions (nearly 13 per cent. in Haskell’s material[53]). Since the starting point in our material was a syphilitic child, we have no data bearing on this phase. Footnote 53: Haskell: Jour. Am. Med. Assn., 1915, lxiv, 890.