Life — December 15, 1927 — page 6: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

) IDING behind a mask, man’s most danger- ous enemy strikes in the dark and adds two out of every thirteen deaths to his score. Just so long as men and women, and boys and girls approaching maturity, are not taught to recog- nize the cruelest of all foes to health and happiness—just so long will many lives be utterly wrecked, lives which could have been saved or made decently livable. Strange as it may seem, tens of thousands of victims of this insidi- ous disease (syphilis) are utterly unaware of the Eat that they have it and that its malignant poison is steadily and surely robbing them of health and strength. No other disease takes so many forms. As it progresses, it may mask as rheumatism, arthritis, physical exhaustion and nervous breakdown. It may appear to be a form of eye, heart, lung, throat or kidney trouble. There is prac- tically no organic disease the symptoms of which it does not The Great Imitator simulate. No wonder it is called “The Great Imitator™. It is the imperative duty of each man desirous of protecting hisown health—and more especially the duty of every parent anxious to safeguard children—to know its direct and indirect results. Syphilis is responsible for more misery of body and mind than any other disease. It destroys flesh and bone. Its ulcers leave terrible scars. It attacks heart, blood ves- sels, abdominal organs—and most tragic of all are its attacks upon brain and spinal cord, the great nerve centers, resulting commonly in blindness, deafness, locomotor ataxia, paralysis, paresis and in- sanity —a life-long tragedy. Because of fear and ignorance, countless millions of victims have been wickedly imposed uponand hoodwinked by quacks, charlatans and worse—insidious blackmailers pretending to practice medicine. The United States Government took a brave step forward during the Great War and told our soldiers and sailors the truth about this dread disease and what it would do ifunchecked or improperly treated. It can be cured by competent phy sicians if detected in time and 1! the patient faithfully follows the scientific treatment prescribed by his doctor. After the disease has been allowed to progress beyond the first stages, cures are less cer tain, but a great deal can often be done to help chronic sufferers. Men and women should learn the truth and tell it in plain language to those dependent upon them for educa- tion and guidance. It is a helpful sign that the best educa- tors deplore the old habit of secrecy and urge wide-spread knowledge and frank instruction. It is estimated that more than 12,000,000 persons in the United States have or at some time have had syphilis, From 5% to 40% of all the cases in the general hospitals of this country are found to be suffering—directly or indirectly—from The variance in the figures depends upon the this disease. character and location of the hospital. According to Government statisti . the deaths of 200,000 OR can infection. ‘The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company will gladly mail, free of charge, its booklet, “The Great Imitator”. urged to send for it. Americans, each year, are directly caused by syphilis and asso METROPOLITAN LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY~NEW YORK Biggest in the World, More Assets, More Policyholders, More Insurance in force, More new Insurance each year Published by ciated diseases. But thousands of deaths charged to other causes are actually due to this disease. Hospital and clinic records show that early infant mortality Bevreduced one-half by pre-natal treatment of syphilitic You are HALEY FISKE, President. comicbooks.com