A series of cases is presented here to show the percentage of moist lesions of the female genitalia that may be due to syphilis. Moreover, it is here demonstrated that the cervix uteri is a common site for the primary and early secondary lesions of syphilis.
The incidence of syphilis in the female is believed generally to be less than the incidence in the male, but Warthin1 has recently directed attention to the fact that many women are syphilitic though not giving clinical manifestation of the fact, especially during the child-bearing period, and that, therefore, a great number of female spirochete carriers are undetected.
There are specific difficulties encountered in making an early diagnosis of syphilis in the female. The conformation of the female genitalia is such that the initial lesion is very easily obscured in the folds of the labia or in the creases made by the carunculae