What shall we do in such cases and what particularly shall we do if, from a general examination of the patient, we carry away the impression that, while free from the danger of infection, the man is not a good risk? Under these circumstances, we must refuse all personal responsibility, leaving the assumption of the responsibility to the prospective wife. Here is a case in point. About five years ago a man came to me for examination; he came with his fiancee. He had contracted syphilis ten years previously, received irregular treatment by mouth, off and on. For five years, he had had no symptoms of any kind. He _considered_ himself cured, but wanted to know, and his fiancee wanted to know, whether he really was cured. There were no symptoms of any kind and the Wassermann test was negative. Nevertheless, I could not give him a clean bill of health. I noticed what seemed to me a slowness in thinking and just the least bit of hesitation in his speech. I told the girl (the man was thirty-five, she was thirty-two) that I could not render a definite decision in the matter, that everything might be all right, and then again it might not; but, that the question about children she would have to decide definitely, once for all, namely, that she was not to have any children. She was fully satisfied so far as that part was concerned; she said she herself objected to children and did not intend to have any and knew how to take care of herself. All she wanted to know was, whether she was in danger of being infected. I told her no, but that in my opinion there was some danger of her husband developing general paresis or locomotor ataxia. The girl had been a teacher for about twelve years, and she was so sick at heart of the work, was so anxious for a home of her own, that she decided to take the risk. And they got married. The marriage remained childless. The man developed general paresis (softening of the brain) three years later and died about a year afterward. The woman, now a widow, I understand, is not sorry for the step she had taken. This shows what things our social-economic conditions and our moral code are responsible for. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE WHO MAY AND WHO MAY NOT MARRY