CHAPTER XXXVIII

VENEREAL DISEASES

=The bad cold “fallacy.”=--Most boys and young men are disposed to think of venereal diseases as a joke. They often compare them with a bad cold. They are often heard to boast of having had one or more attacks from which they easily recovered. This is due to the fact that these young men have no just conception of the grave consequence of these diseases.

=Two principal diseases.=--There are two principal kinds of venereal disease: gonorrhea, in street vernacular known as clap, and syphilis, popularly called pox. These diseases are due to specific disease germs and require a specific treatment. These diseases originate as a result of illicit intercourse, never originating in the married life where husband and wife are true to each other. Sometimes a husband or wife may be infected by accidentally coming in contact with the disease germs by kissing an infected person, the use of public towels, closets, etc.

=As old as prostitution.=--Venereal diseases are as old as prostitution. These diseases evidently originated as a result of prostitution. Venereal diseases are known to have been in existence more than 2000 years B.C. All venereal diseases were thought to be one until 1838.

These diseases may be acquired by the use of a closet, towel or bath tub previously used by an infected person.

=The immoral woman dangerous.=--All immoral women, whether they live in public houses or in private homes, are diseased some of the time, and some of them are diseased all the time. No young man can know, not even a doctor, when a man may or may not be infected by having sexual relations with either class of these women.

Facts show that eighty per cent. of the young men of this country become infected with gonorrhea between the ages of eighteen and thirty. This would indicate that only a few who visit the immoral woman escape, because at least ten per cent. of our young men never visit fallen women. The ten per cent. of our young men is increasing.

=Immediate medical attention.=--Should a young man be so thoughtless and unfortunate as to visit one of these women and become infected, he should go at once to a competent physician and follow his advice and take his treatment. He should not postpone treatment one hour, send off for some remedy he sees advertised, or go and get some patent remedy to be obtained at a drug store. Money, time, health and even life itself are too valuable to be hazarded in this way. If this advice were always followed the diseases could in many cases be cured in their first stage and most of the after evil results be prevented.

=Discovery of the disease germs.=--In 1879, Dr. Neisser discovered the specific germ of gonorrhea, called the Neisser gonococcus. In 1895, two German doctors discovered the germ of syphilis, spirochetæ pallida.

=Gonorrhea.=--The disease appears from three to five days after exposure, and is heralded by the swelling of the urethra, and an itching, burning sensation during urination. These symptoms continue for a week or ten days when a thick greenish yellow discharge begins. Under careful and prompt treatment the disease may be permanently cured. Even under prompt and skillful treatment some cases have a persistent tendency to run into a chronic condition.

Complicated chronic conditions often occur from poor treatment or neglect. When the disease reaches a chronic form it is likely to continue for years. Some of the complications of this disease are: chronic inflammation of the mucous membrane of the urethra, accompanied by a constant discharge.

=Stricture.=--A tightening or narrowing of the urethra at some point. This is called stricture. Urinating becomes difficult and painful. A lengthy and difficult treatment may be required and sometimes a painful operation.

=Inflammation of the prostate.=--If the prostate gland becomes the seat of this disease, it will cause great inconvenience and may result in painful treatment, surgical operation, loss of health and mental vigor, with possible loss of the power to become a father.

=If both testes become inflamed=, the victim often becomes sterile. A dangerous and painful operation is sometimes required. He will never be what he once was, or might have been.

=Gonorrheal rheumatism.=--If the gonorrheal germs get into the blood and find their way to the joints of the bones, the result is gonorrheal rheumatism. This is one of the most painful and difficult diseases to be cured known to medical science.

=Ophthalmia.=--Should some of this poisonous pus be transferred to his eye or the eye of another, it would cause gonorrheal ophthalmia, a disease of the eye that often results in blindness in a few hours or unsightly sore eyes for life.

=Wife and children the greatest sufferers.=--If the guilty young man were the only one to suffer, it would not be so serious. His future wife and children may be the greatest sufferers. It is now known that these disease germs may remain for years in a young man’s body in an inactive and weakened state; and that too, after he thinks he is perfectly cured. In this condition he is likely to infect his wife. These weakened germs will now take on new life in her body and produce gonorrheal conditions. She will mistake the disease for leucorrhea and treat herself for a time. During this loss of time, various complications have developed. One or more of her sexual organs are now inflamed and ulcerated. One organ after another may have to be removed by a surgical operation to save her life. Tumors, nodules, and ulcers must be removed by the knife. The doctor feels that it is best to leave the husband, as well as the wife, to believe that the whole trouble is due to the weakness of woman. Perhaps the wife dies under the knife and leaves a husband and children. In preaching her funeral, the pastor tries to console the bereaved by laboring to reconcile Providence and the unfortunate death.

=Blind children.=--If she becomes a mother before these operations are made, as the child passes from her body it gets some of the gonorrheal germs in its little eyes and in a few hours or days it is totally blind from gonorrheal ophthalmia. Or, if the doctor suspects this trouble and puts a drop or two of a solution of silver nitrate in the eyes of the new-born baby, no serious trouble may come to the child because of the father’s sin. An eminent physician in Germany says that there are 30,000 blind people in Germany because of gonorrheal ophthalmia. No statistics have been kept in this country, but reliable physicians claim that there must be as many as 15,000. What right has a young man to engage in a sin that will cause his wife and child a lifetime of suffering?

=Syphilis= is by no means as common as gonorrhea, there being only eight to eighteen per cent. of the young men who contract this disease as compared with eighty per cent. who contract the other. The germs that produce gonorrhea have only to come in contact with the mucous membrane for infection to follow.

The germs of syphilis have to reach the blood by means of a sore or small crack in the skin or mucous membrane.

=Three stages of syphilis.=--Syphilis develops by three stages, known as primary, secondary and tertiary syphilis. If treated promptly and properly during the first stage, it may be cured without great injury following, or danger of return. In other stages a much longer treatment will be required, with many possible complications and dangers. Before the doctor can check the disease it may attack the bones, muscles, arteries and the internal organs. This disease causes 90 per cent. of locomotor ataxia, much of apoplexy, paralysis and sudden deaths long after the disease is supposed to be cured. It is a prolific cause of insanity. The descendants of a syphilitic father or mother are often still-born, die prematurely, or become insane later in life. Syphilis shortens the lives of its victims one-third.

=An innocent person can be infected.=--By using or handling something used by a diseased person an innocent person may be infected. A person infected with one of these diseases is absolutely unclean and dangerous. There are better reasons for putting such a man in the pesthouse than one who has smallpox.

=A certificate of good health should be required.=--It will not be long before a young man will have to present a certificate of freedom from these diseases, obtained from a reputable physician, before he is granted a license to be married.

=An example.=--The President of a college Y. M. C. A. recently said to me, “Five years ago I was in poor health due to a long and excessive practice of the secret vice. I went to a doctor for advice. He suggested that I should occasionally visit the prostitute. I made but one visit. That night I caught syphilis. For five years I have been under the treatment of doctors. I have been to Hot Springs. Doctors tell me that I cannot be cured under two more years of this treatment. Even then, the risk of its return will be so great they say, that I should never think of marrying.” Then he added, “That is what one visit has cost me. Three times in these five years I have planned to commit suicide.”

=Another example.=--Only a few days since a young man called at my office for an interview. His story was, “Three years ago I was induced by other boys to visit the ‘Red Light’ district of this city. On my second visit I was infected with gonorrhea. My income was small. The doctor’s fees were beyond my reach. I tried patent remedies sold in drug stores guaranteed to cure the worst case in three to five days. Failing to cure myself in this way I was compelled to go to doctors. At times I seem to be cured. Then I make another visit and the old trouble comes back on me. This has been repeated three times in two years. I am now in a worse shape than I have ever been.” He then asked my advice. I told him to select the most reliable doctor he could find, and regardless of price take his treatment until he was pronounced cured. Then twice a year for several years, to have a State Health Board to make a microscopic examination. If they find no gonococci for two or three years, he might consider himself well. But marriage will then be a risky proposition.

These two recent cases are selected from a thousand experiences related to me in the last five years, many of which were far worse than these. The reader can judge for himself whether or not these diseases are no worse than a “bad cold.”