The Marietta journal. (Marietta, Ga.) 1918-1944, 1919-04-04
Danger Every Day
Knowing the Truth, Will You
Heed 1t?

If 10000 men out of the first million
examined under the draft act in Geor-
gla had venereal disease, it is time
Tor every woman and child in the state
10 know what syphilis and gonorrhoea
Is. IL the above proposition holds good
as to the entire population there are
zO5'0O0 cases of syphilis and gon-
orrhoea distributed among the people.
lney meet you on the street, they
slt beside you in the theater; they
eat from the same dishes and drink
from the same glasses at the cafes and
restaurants that you do eat and drink
from. They turn the same door knob.
they Try On the same gloves that you
40. They handle the fruit and vege-
tables that you place on your dining
table for your family to eat.
Inc time has come for your family
doctor to get down off of his roost of
false modesty and foolishness and tell
you mat the matter or pus from a
sypnllItic or gonOrrhoeal sore carries
the poison and that when it is placed
on a cracked lip or scratched hand you
are very liable to contract the disease.
Your family physician ought to go far
ther and tell you that in spite of treat
ment the poison of syphilis and gonor-
rhoea may be retained in the human
body and produce paralysis or insanity
in old age and that a child born to a
mother or father who is infected with
a venereal disease if born alive will in
more than so per cent of the cases be
blind, deformed or mentally deficient.
These are the diseases of the father
that are bequeathed to the third and
fourth generations They are the can
GERS that are eating into the physical,
mental and moral life of our nation
They are the skeletons that hang in
the closets of our most palatial homes
as well as the shanties and novels of
our poor.
When you ask him: If your family
physician does not tell you how to pro-
tect your wife and your children from
such disease, he has neglected to per
form the highest and most noble duty
Of his profession. If your family ply
stefan does not file complete and &C
curate birth certificate for every child
within 10 days after it is born, if he
does not report every communicable
disease, if he does not carefully and
completely fill out each death certif-
iCate. he has failed to furnish the local
necessary data upon which is based the
prevention of all diseases. 1t is said
that 80 per cent of all blindness is due
TO e0nC rhoea, but without complete
birth segistration no one can tell; for
1t is into the eyes of the infant that
the COMO! JhCcal matter is placed and
carelessly preventive measures are
neglected that produce this blindness.
If the death certificates are examined,
few certificates show syphilis as the
cause OF death, due to the fact that the
physician tried to hide the real cause
or was grossly ignorant of the real
cause Of death. Many certificates show
eenile demential, locomotor ataxia, pa
resis and blood poisoning when such
deaths are in truth due to syphilis.
The time has come in Georgia when
the people must demand of the health
officers protection against communica-
Bile diseases and of the physicians COM
plete and accurate birth and death
registration and the public notification
of all preventable disease.