A scientist once remarked that after five years' work in a certain field he had "allowed himself to speculate on the subject"; after twenty-two years of painstaking research, he writes that it will take him many more years to complete it but that he will now consent to publish a brief abstract (one volume) of his researches. What Darwin wrote concerning the genesis of his "Origin of Species" might well apply to any man who would undertake a comprehensive study of latent syphilis. Like Darwin, I have "allowed myself to speculate on the subject." Unlike Darwin, I am still far from the point where I might presume to publish a 450 page "abstract" of any research I may have made. If one speaks of clinical latency in syphilis, as is customary, there are many angles from which the subject may be studied. From the vantage point of the group with