This paper is based on a review of hospital records, mostly from the outpatient department of the Massachusetts General Hospital, since 1914. The histories of 1,600 cases were looked up, 600 of which could not be included here on account of insufficient data. Retrospectively, records fail to answer certain questions easily determined in an anticipated study. No cases from private practice, but a few from the hospital ward, are included.
A majority of the patients were admitted because of some prominent acute manifestation of congenital syphilis, such as an interstitial keratitis. The group also contains other children in the families of the patients, who came at my request for examination, and treatment if necessary; it is my custom to examine as many members of a syphilitic family as possible.
For many years, I have been deeply interested in congenital syphilis and the problems it presents medically and socially, especially the