If the patient be strong, and otherwise in good health, I simply recommend a dose of purgative medicine, in anticipation of any irritation that may arise. After which, I suggest a middle diet to be adopted for the next few days. From the sedative and salutary effects of the warm bath, I recommend its employment immediately after the operation of the medicine, and its repetition at frequent intervals. Independently of its effect on the system, it is the best general cleanser that can be resorted to. The subsequent treatment is regulated by the result of the above, which can be ascertained about the third day. In numberless instances, and where the disease is thus early detected and similarly treated, the mere continuance of either the chloride lotion, or black wash, the middle diet, an occasional aperient, the bath, with as much rest as possible, are all that will be found needful to cure the disease, which generally is effected in about a week or ten days at farthest. From the universal dread that so sudden a disappearance of the sore occasions, lest it should “be driven into the system,” and from the apprehension that it is incurable without taking mercury, I verily believe that, in many cases, the practitioner, participating in the fears of his patient, and anxious to allay them, reluctantly administers that mineral; and to such weak judgment may be traced the relapses, or the occurrence of other symptoms sometimes mistaken for secondary. Even when the case terminates favorably, and within the space of time alluded to, I would not be considered as recommending a sudden return to free living; on the contrary, I would not release the patient from the restrictions imposed upon his diet, exercise, and regimen, for at least the same time as was occupied in the cure, nor would I predict that, in every instance, secondary symptoms should not ensue. Mercury was supposed to possess some antisyphilitic property, inasmuch that, when chancre healed during its exhibition, secondary symptoms were averted. Facts, however, have been wanting to corroborate that supposition; for secondary symptoms have appeared despite the external and internal employment of mercury, even to the extent of salivation. Authors there are who attach similar properties to other medicines, such as nitric acid, sarsaparilla, and such like. Now, how do these medicines act upon the system? Or what is their tendency of action? Why, by increasing some particular function, such as the secretive process of the salivary and other glands; by increasing perspiration or absorption, &c. The remedies whereby these changes are induced are termed alteratives. I am not going to deny that these, or some such changes in the system, are unessential for the eradication, particularly of morbid conditions of structure and function, dependent probably upon altered condition and diminished action in others. On the contrary, they are the only antagonists to disease which we possess.