the flesh flabby.  The face is that of an old man—­weazened, pinched, pathetic, with watery, bleary eyes, and snuffling nose.  The mother often says that all the baby’s trouble started with a bad cold.  The disease attacks the throat, and turns the normal robust cry of a healthy infant into a feeble squawk.  The belly may become enormously distended from enlargement of the internal organs, and the rest of the child dwindle to a skeleton.  The eruptions are only a part of the picture and may be absent, but when they occur, are quite characteristic, as a rule, especially about the mouth and buttocks, and do not usually resemble the commoner skin complaints of infants.  It is important to remember here that a badly nourished, sickly child with a distressing eczema is not necessarily syphilitic, and that only a physician is competent to pass an opinion on the matter.  Syphilitic children in a contagious state are usually too sick to be around much, so that the risk to the general public is small.  On the other hand, the risk to some woman who tries to mother or care for some one else’s syphilitic child, if the disease is active, should be thoroughly appreciated.  Women who are not specially trained or under the direction of a physician should not attempt the personal care of other people’s sick children.

+The Wet Nurse.+—­This is also the proper place to introduce a warning about the wet nurse.  Women who must have the assistance of a wet nurse to feed their babies should, under no circumstances, make such arrangements without the full supervision of their physicians.  There is no better method for transmitting syphilis to a healthy woman than for her to nurse a syphilitic child.  Conversely, the healthy child who is nursed by a syphilitic woman stands an excellent chance of contracting the disease, since the woman may have sores about the nipples and since the germs of syphilis have been found in the milk of syphilitic women.  The only person who should nurse a syphilitic child is its own mother, who has syphilis and, therefore, cannot be infected.  A Wassermann blood test with a thorough examination is the least that should be expected where any exchanges are to take place.  Nothing whatever should be taken for granted in such cases, and the necessary examinations and questions should not give offense to either party to the bargain.  Syphilis is not a respecter of persons, and exists among the rich as well as among the poor.

+Hereditary Syphilis in Older Children.+—­Hereditary syphilis may become a latent or concealed disease, just as acquired syphilis does.  None the less, it leaves certain traces of its existence which can be recognized on examination.  These are chiefly changes in the bones, which do not grow normally.  The shin bones are apt to be bowed forward, not sideways, as in rickets.  The skull sometimes develops a peculiar shape, the joints are apt to be large, and so on.  Syphilis may affect the mental development