All My Children

There are a number of venereal diseases in America and Western Europe. Those which most people know about are called syphilis and gonorrhoea. Another of these diseases which has become increasingly common in Britain is known by the rather long name of non-specific urethritis. There are a few other rare venereal diseases and other minor conditions which can be caught by contact between the sexual organs, but which do not have effects on health nearly as serious as those resulting from syphilis and gonorrhoea.

In the old days a lot of people used to think that you caught V.D. just by having sexual intercourse with somebody to whom you were not married. Some people had superstitious ideas that marriage conferred immunity from venereal disease. Until the last few years it was in fact the case that venereal disease was unusual and caught mainly from prostitutes. But now, owing to the changes in sexual practices which have taken place recently, gonorrhoea at least is the second most common infectious disease in Britain, and a person is unlikely in fact to catch it from a prostitute, prostitutes being particularly well aware of how to avoid gonorrhoea. Continue Reading »

In adolescence in both sexes the skin texture coarsens and the pores (hair follicles) enlarge, more so in boys. Adolescent skin becomes susceptible to acne—more in one individual, less in another. In acne the wax from the sebaceous (wax) glands, which are connected to the hair follicles (to keep the skin and hair oiled), collects in the follicles and hardens there. The top of each plug of wax, mixed with dirt, becomes a ‘blackhead’, which can be squeezed out with the fingernails, with some difficulty and pain. When the pores become plugged, it is easy for ordinary pus germs, which are usually on the skin anyway, to work down and cause infections under the plugs. These first show as red pimples, which later get white tops on them (`whiteheads’) as the white blood cells collect to try to destroy the germs. Continue Reading »