+Common Misconceptions Regarding Syphilitic Rashes.+—­Laymen should be warned against the temptation to call an eruption syphilitic.  The commonest error is for the ordinary person to mistake a severe case of acne, the common “pimples” of early manhood, for syphilis.  Psoriasis, another harmless, non-contagious, and very common skin disease, is often mistaken for syphilis.  Gross injustice and often much mental distress are inflicted on unfortunates who have some skin trouble by the readiness with which persons who know nothing about the matter insist on thinking that any conspicuous eruption is syphilis, and telling others about it.  Even with an eye trained to recognize such things on sight, in the crowds of a large city, one very seldom sees any skin condition which even suggests syphilis.  It usually requires more than a passing glance at the whole body to identify the disease.  If, under such circumstances, one becomes concerned for the health of a friend, he would much better frankly ask what is the matter, than make him the victim of a layman’s speculations.  It is always well to remember that profuse eruptions of a conspicuous nature, which have been present for months or years, are less likely to be syphilitic.

+The Contagious Sores in the Mouth, Throat, and Genitals.+—­Accompanying the outbreaks of syphilis on the skin, in the secondary period, a soreness may appear in the mouth and throat, and peculiar patches seen on the tongue and lips, and flat growths be noticed around the moist surfaces, such as those of the genitals.  These throat, mouth, and genital eruptions are the most dangerous signs of the disease from the standpoint of contagiousness.  Just as the chancre swarms with the germs of syphilis, so every secondary spot, pimple, and lump contains them in enormous numbers.  But so long as the skin is not broken or rubbed off over them, they are securely shut in.  There is no danger of infection from the dry, unbroken skin, even over the eruption itself.  But in the mouth and throat and about the genitals, where the surface is moist and thin, the covering quickly rubs or dissolves off, leaving the gray or pinkish patches and the flattened raised growths from which the germs escape in immense numbers and in the most active condition.  Such patches may occur under the breasts and in the armpits, as well as in the places mentioned.  The saliva of a person in this condition may be filled with the germs, and the person have only to cough in one’s face to make one a target for them.

+Distribution of the Germs in the Body.+—­The germs of syphilis have in the past few years been found in every part of the body and in every lesion of syphilis.  While the secondary stage is at its height, they are in the blood in considerable numbers, so that the blood may at these times be infectious to a slight degree.  They are present, of course, in large numbers in the secretions from open sores and under the skin in closed sores.  The nervous