SYPHILIS AND THE LAW: WITH A DISCUSSION OF THE FALSE POSITIVE BLOOD SEROLOGIC TEST

The United States, following its well known predilection, is on the edge if not actually near the crest of a wave of legislative enactment in a newly discovered though very old public health field, that of venereal disease control. It therefore behooves the physician who wishes to understand, influence and cooperate to be informed on many as yet little appreciated aspects of the problem. THE LAW IN ENACTMENT AND IMPLICATION Law on the question of the transmission of infectious disease rests fundamentally on police powers conveyed by the legal enactments establishing state boards of health and supported by favorable decisions in the courts on issues involving quarantine and the protection of the public against the dissemination of infection. On this broad legal base rests a structure of local ordinances varied occasionally by legislative supplements from higher sources, so to speak, as in more sweeping types of laws governing groups such