Letters

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES DO THE EDITORS FORWARD LETTERS FROM READERS TO OTHER PERSONS NOR DO THEY ANSWER CORRESPONDENCE MAKING SUCH REQUESTS.

THE PLAGUE OF LUST

Dear Mr. Slater:

Dr. Julius Rosenbaum's compendious German work on the history of venereal diseases, "The Plague of Lust', available in a rather clumsy English translation to the general reader, makes clear that VD was a problem to the ancient and mediaeval as it has been to the modern worlds.

Given its supposed epidemic and infectious characteristics as reported both by classic writers and the Public Health officials you quote in your Editorial (October, 1962) how do medical men explain the rather immoderate proliferation of human beings which is so vulgarly apparent these days, whether in Communist China, phallic-worshipping India or the sanitary West?

One would imagine, from all these "scientific caterwaulings, that the human race should long ere this have quite disappeared from the face of the earth, victim of its own suicidal sex behavior if our MDs are to be believed. Or am I missing something in all this discussion?

To the Editors:

Mr. G.

Tulsa, Oklahoma

I have read with great interest the articles and letters in your recent issues re VD. I ask: is the rate growing, or is the knowledge and the rate of treatment growing? VD is nothing new. It is as old as sex. The English used to call all forms of VD the Pox. Syphilis was known as "the French disease."

Daily the prisons and reform schools in this country are releasing men and boys into society whose only sexual recourse was with fellow prisoners while incarcerated. These men and boys are not averse to turning a quick dollar, even though their tastes may be heterosexual; per anus, per manus, per give or take.

ora

But the most prone to infection and the spreading thereof is sodomy. Public parks, squares, movies, urinals are swarming with recent graduates from incarceration. They, for the most part, will do anything to make a fast buck: violence, blackmail, even murder. If they spread VD, what the hell? They consider themselves victims of society.

I have no advice to give, nor moral to expound, except to keep clean and be careful. Mr. R.

Dear One:

St. Petersburg, Florida

Secrecy and shame are the roots of this problem and its dread consequences. It is not a shame to be infected; it is a misfortune. Health Education should be a subject in high schools. The best way to wipe out VD is to bring the subject out into the open air, as you have successfuly been doing with homosexuality.

Every young man should be taught how to take care of himself "before" and "after." A few hygienic habits and prophylactic measures are enough in most instances.

At community Health Centers an infected man should be properly treated, no matter how he got infected. Nature of the contact should not make a difference.

The difficult and hard task of educating the public on homosexual matters is enough for ONE. Increase of VD and its connection with homosexuality is, I think, beyond the scope of your organization.

Dear sir:

Mr. I.

New York, N. Y.

I believe that Dr. K. of Wisconsin (Letters, October, 1962) would make the Friends. of ONE ever grateful if he would volunteer to write a series of medical articles on homosexual VD. We hear so much about this. subject today yet specific details are missing.

Some of the very pressing points he could discuss in detail are: symptoms of VD of the mouth; of the penis; of the anus; types of VD; causes, prevention, cure, etc. Education of this type should be made known to all. As a result, we would all be living in a better and cleaner world.

Mr. G.

Eau Gallie, Florida MORALITY AND THE PUBLIC OFFICIAL Dear ONE:

I urge the organization of a League of Lawful Men. I have outlined the steps that a League can take by which it can advance the interests of those of its members who are in the public service. A circular letter to a few policemen would bring gratifying results. Something like this might be the substance of the letter:

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