[18] Through the effect on prostitution. A well-known and very intelligent prostitute, with whom this question was recently discussed, rated the liquor traffic first among the influences tending to promote prostitution.

The question has occurred to those interested in compulsory military service as a measure of national defense as to whether the mobilization of troops for training will favor the spread of sexual disease. Unfortunately, there are no satisfactory figures for the civil population showing how many persons per thousand per year acquire syphilis or gonorrhea, to be compared with the known figures for the onset of such infections in the army. Arguing from general considerations, however, there seems to be no reason to suppose that the army will show a higher proportion of infections than civilians. In fact, there is every ground for believing that the percentage will be lower, since the army is protected by a fairly efficient and enforceable system of prophylaxis which is taught to the men, and they live, moreover, under a general medical discipline which reduces the risk of infection from other than genital sources to the lowest possible terms. In opposition to the conception that the sexual ideals of the army are low, it may be urged that they are no lower than those of corresponding grades in civil life, and that hard work and rigid discipline have a much better effect in stiffening moral backbone than the laxities of present-day social life. In the last analysis, the making of the moral tone of the army is in our own hands, and by putting into it good blood and high ideals, we can do as much to raise from it a clean manhood as by submitting that same manhood to the temptations and inducements to sexual laxity that it meets on every street corner.

This chapter closes the discussion of syphilis as a problem for the every-day man and woman. It represents essentially the cross-section of a moving stream. Today's truth may be tomorrow's error in any field of human activity, and medicine is no exception to this law of change. It is impossible to speak gospel about many things connected with syphilis, or to offer more than current opinion, based on the keenest investigation of the facts which modern methods make possible. None the less, the great landmarks in our progress stand out with fair prospect of permanent place. The germ, the recognition of the disease by blood test and dark field microscope, the treatment and prevention seem built on a firm foundation. As they stand, without regard to further advances, they offer a brilliant future to a campaign for control To that campaign, each and every one of us can address himself with the prospect of adding his mite of energy to a tremendous movement for human betterment. For every man or woman to whom the word syphilis can be made to mean, not a secret, private, shameful disease, but a great open problem in public health, a recruit has been called to the colors. There are no signs more hopeful of the highest destiny for humanity than those of today which mark the transition of disease from a personal to a social problem. Such a transition foreshadows the passing of syphilis. In that transition, each one of us has his part. Toward that consummation, a goal only to be won by united and stubborn assault, each one of us can contribute the comprehension, the sympathetic support, the indomitable determination, which make victory.

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