the Wassermann test was negative. Nevertheless, I could not give him a 

clean bill of health. I noticed what seemed to me a slowness in 

thinking and just the least bit of hesitation in his speech. 

I told the girl (the man was thirty-five, she was thirty-two) that I 

could not render a definite decision in the matter, that everything 

might be all right, and then again it might not; but, that the 

question about children she would have to decide definitely, once for 

all, namely, that she was not to have any children. She was fully 

satisfied so far as that part was concerned; she said she herself 

objected to children and did not intend to have any and knew how to 

take care of herself. All she wanted to know was, whether she was in 

danger of being infected. I told her no, but that in my opinion there 

was some danger of her husband developing general paresis or locomotor 

ataxia. 

The girl had been a teacher for about twelve years, and she was so 

sick at heart of the work, was so anxious for a home of her own, that 

she decided to take the risk. And they got married. The marriage 

remained childless. The man developed general paresis (softening of 

the brain) three years later and died about a year afterward. The 

woman, now a widow, I understand, is not sorry for the step she had 

taken. This shows what things our social-economic conditions and our 

moral code are responsible for.