LA LUTTE CONTRE LA SYPHILIS EN BELGIQUE : SON ORGANIZATION - SES RÉSULTATS

[Brussels]: Ligue nationale belge contre le péril vénérien, 1929. Large octavo. 44 pp., containing eight in-text graphs, plus one double-page map. In French. Contemporary blue half morocco and marbled boards, stamped, ruled, and lettered in gilt, original stiff printed wrappers bound in. Spine lightly worn and sunned, light stain in upper margin of p. 23 (touching some text), else fine.

An account of the progress of the Belgian National League Against the Veneral Perils fight against syphilis, by its president, Professor Adrien Bayet (1863-1935), delivered on December 8, 1928, and published in 1929. The League had held its first conference in the great hall of Brusellss Palais des Académies on October 8, 1922, with its founding patron, Elisabeth, Queen of Belgium, and various other dignitaries in attendance, to address the spread of syphilis in Belgium in the aftermath of the First World War. Six years later, Bayet delivered the speech printed here to report on the League's overwhelming success.

Largely through a massive national campaign of educational programs (including films and plays) and literature in several languages (French, Flemish, English, Spanish, Scandinavian languages, Italian, Polish, and Yiddish), Belgium was close to eradicating the disease within its own borders. Reflecting on four centuries of the disease in Europe and its disastrous effects, Bayet concludes his address with optimism and pride: Today, for the first time, and this after a short struggle of eight years, [syphilis] has retreated almost vanquished, already struck from the list of the great social scourges. This is the measure of the work accomplished. And it will be the imperishable honor of Belgium to have been at the forefront of those who have fought the hard battle.

The contemporary binding is stamped in gilt with the emblem of the League, a snake, with its tail wrapped around an anchor, striking, above the motto, Hominis et Patriae Salus, which is also stamped, in red, on the rear wrapper of the address. The stamp and quality of the binding suggests that this was an official copy issued to a principal participant or honoree of the conference. OCLC records two copies, at the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Bibliothèque de Genève. Rare.