From a doctor's diary. Can they be disfiguring, doctor?

102 From a doctor's diary This is based on a doctor's experience of cases of V.D. It has been carefully edited so that the people concerned shall not be recognised. "'...Can they be disfiguring, doctor?' She was a smart young woman who obviously valued her looks. While under the influence of drink, four weeks before, she had caught syphilis from a man she had met at a dance. I told her that if she attended conscientiously for her treatment, there was very little risk of disfigurement. But if she gave up coming, or failed to attend regularly the germ of syphilis might well get into the bones and soft tissues of her face and destroy her looks.