In those cases in which the wife of a syphilitic husband
gives birth to diseased children or repeatedly miscarries,
it has been often observed that the woman's health
suffers in a marked though indefinite manner; bat that
for some time she presents no decided maoifeslations of



26-1 SYPHILIS AND PBErDO-STPHILIS

syphilis. These, however, mako their appearaoce at ftl
later stage, and are to he attributed to the repeated!
reception o£ the syphilitic virus through the fcetoa daring
the BUfcesBive pregnancies. In another class of cases
the symptoms appear in the woman during her first preg-
nancy. The general rule therefore is that the ovum,
rendered syphilitic by the semen of the father, transmits
the disease to the mother; that is to say, the father's
disease is communicated not only to the ovum but to the
mother as well, and this without any primary lesion neces-
sarily manifesting itself on the person of the latter. Tha
constitutional symptoms are those which first make their
appearance.
A French pbstetrician, Gardien, in 1824, was the first
to Call attention to the above circumstances. His state-
ments were afterwards confirmed by Ricord, who asserted
that when a man, the subject of secondary syphilis, infects
his wife, he does so by causing her to become pregnant.
