Perhaps even more far reaching in their evil effects than intemperance are the Venereal Diseases. As you know, special efforts during and since the war have been made to limit the spread of these diseases. I do not propose to trouble you with statistics to prove the mischief caused by these diseases. Has not Osler said that the whole of clinical medicine can be taught around syphilis, and that it is the third in importance of the killing diseases? And as a further illustration, let me add that no less than one-tenth of the total accommodation in our lunatic asylums might be dispensed with if syphilis were eliminated. Among the measures being taken to combat these diseases are educational propaganda, and the provision of clinics, free for all, at which patients may be treated promptly and adequately. It is evident, however, that if the medical and educational efforts now being made are to succeed they must include recognition of all the factors causing sexual vice, and appropriate action in respect of each of these—they must indeed go further than this; for self-restraint is a wider problem than in relation to exposure to these diseases. It embraces the whole subject of formation of the habit of self-control. One of the most striking facts in the great war has been the extent to which young girls of previously decent behaviour have fallen victims to what has sometimes appeared to be passion combined with a perverted form of patriotism; and one of the measures most called for is better mothering and maternal training of both girls and boys. The problem is one of special difficulty as regards the economically independent girl; and to shield her the combined efforts of home influence, of girls’ clubs, and of various social and religious organizations are all required. Judicious and restrained teaching of the physiology and hygiene of sex would do much to counteract the evil influence of bad teaching by companions; and in emphasizing this duty on parents the physician may do untold good. So also, especially when the daughters of his patients are about to marry “men of the world,” he should urge the need for asking a satisfactory certificate from the intended bridegroom of freedom from infection. The influence of unaccustomed alcoholic indulgence in leading to the first “slip,” often with the production of life-long disease, is well known. Nor must we leave out of account the tolerance of vice in conversation between young men, as a frequent excuse of and even excitant to vice. The happiest young man is he who can go to the marriage ceremony with the same sexual purity as is even now expected from the bride. Is it too much to expect that our social conscience will grow up to this standard? I think not; and when this point has been reached, venereal diseases will have almost entirely disappeared, and the sum total of human happiness and efficiency will be enormously enhanced.