Syphilitic foetus after prenatal penicillin therapy.

A 32-year-old woman, married for 14 years, attended an ante-natal clinic in her second pregnancy. Repeated serological tests for syphilis were positive and she was referred to a special treatment centre for examination and treatment. She gave a history of vaginal discharge and enlarged glands in the neck 9 years previously, but she had obtained no medical advice at that time and the condition had cleared up without treatment. Her first pregnancy occurred 2 years after her marriage and ended in the birth of a full-term healthy infant. The sequence of events in her second pregnancy were as follows: