31 MARCH 1917, Page 12

VENEREAL DISEASES.

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."'

SIR,—In your editorial comment on the letter of " M. D. C.," are you not flogging a dead horse ? You may be right in believing there are still some fanatics who oppose, on so-called religious grounds, the treatment of these diseases. But in so far as the matter is being critically examined into, the best medical opinion, and also the strongest moralists, are now practically unanimous with regard to (1) the duty of giving every facility to skilled medical treatment; (2) the need of securing that recourse to such treatment should be voluntary and secret. The objection to "notification " is that experience has proved it to be a failure in bringing sufferers under medical treatment. As a matter of fact, by leading to concealment and quackery, it defeats its own object.