Medicine: Recalcitrant Syphilitic

A jaded young woman, recalcitrant as a donkey, was taken in custody by a policeman of Hackensack. N. J. last week in the first known arrest of its kind in the U. S. The woman's offenses were: having syphilis when she married, knowing it, transmitting it to her husband and child, refusing to take treatment. Hackensack's health officer, Lester Van Deventer Chandler, had her sentenced to prison and a course of treatment under a practically unknown old New Jersey law which makes it a misdemeanor for a syphilitic to marry or otherwise endanger the health of another person.

States which make it an offense to infect another person knowingly are: Arkansas, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin. Yet the American Social Hygiene Association last week could find no record of an offense being punished by arrest.

Twenty-three States have some kind of provision concerning venereal diseases in case of marriage. Seven (Alabama, Connecticut, Louisiana. North Dakota, Oregon, Wisconsin, Wyoming) require a health certificate from the would-be husband. Connecticut requires, the New Jersey and New York legislatures are now studying resolutions to require, medical certificates from both bride & groom.