It is highly improbable, and there is no certain evidence for it, that the extremely small amount of material contributed by the male can become infected and bring infection to the new organism.

In the cases in which disease of the male parent is transferred to the offspring, it is either by an infection of the female by the male, with transference of the infection from her to the developing organism, or with the male sexual cells there may be a transference to the female of the infectious material and the new organism may be directly infected.

No other disease in man is so easily and directly transferred from either parent to offspring as is syphilis, and the disease is extremely malignant for the foetus, usually causing death before the normal period of intra-uterine development is reached.
[Illustration: FIG.

21 .-- DIAGRAM SHOWING THE RELATION OF THE SEXUAL CELLS TO THE SOMATIC CELLS OR THOSE OF THE GENERAL BODY.

The sexual cells are represented to the left of the line at the bottom of diagram and are black.