The advice which the average physician might give to a patient that he might marry five years after the primary infection and when no signs had been seen for over a year would be quite different from his absolute refusal when the syphilitic contemplated marriage with some member of his own family, even though the suitor had acquired the disease innocently.
From the standpoint of a wise and thoughtful justice to the interests of the race, syphilitics should never marry; for, though many undoubtedly eventually have healthy children, yet there can never be a gladsome confidence that lesions will not at some time appear in the children, and that the results will not extend to the children's children.
The Treatment of Syphilis. Of all the classes of patients which a physician sees none appear more utterly demoralized and frightened than men of intelligence who have acquired syphilis. The lack of happiness in their faces and their apparent abandonment of all hope are quite characteristic.
Yet, if the patient be not a fool, if he will forego the falsehood customary in venereal affairs, if he will submit to the trouble, expense and irksomeness of at least two year of active treatment, and remain under observation for months or years thereafter, the chances are that all the graver manifestations of the disease can be checked If syphilis be carefully and systematically treated for a sufficient period of time it is, as a rule, tractable, so that the appearance of tertiary symptoms is now usually regarded as an evidence of neglect. Yet in a certain proportion of cases the process is malignant and cannot be checked.
Syphilis is one of the very few diseases for which we have "specifics", or remedies which are peculiarly efficacious; as quinine is to malaria, so are mercury and the iodides to it. In fact the role of medicine in this affection is nothing short of brilliant. But certain factors are essential for success. The patient must select a physician of high repute, to whose requirements he must submit as absolutely as does the traveller to his guide in the dark miles of passageways and recesses in the Mammoth Cave.
The slightest deviation from the path pointed out by his medical guide, however unattractive or unreasonable that path may seem, will surely result in irreparable damage, and for the next few years every consideration of time, money, or inclination must be subserviently set aside until the patient has been extricated from the labyrinth of corruption.
However wearisome it may be, the patient must be docile and absolutely obedient for this prolonged time; otherwise this disease will produce conditions so horrible as to be quite beyond accepting, especially when by care they can be prevented. Given a wise and painstaking physician and an obedient patient, it is now generally recognized that syphilis can almost certainly be overcome in time.
In fact there is preponderating evidence that in certain instances reinfection has occurred. For more than one hundred years mercury has been known as a specific in this disease, and it remains today our most efficient drug. Equally useful in their places are the iodides of potash and of soda, the former of which is more commonly employed.
The various methods of treatment which are indicated in different cases and in the different stages of the disease are so technical and professional, and throw so little light on the peculiar characteristics of the pathology, that it would here be quite out of place to attempt their consideration. Consequently the interested reader is referred to the various excellent text books on the subject.