As with young men, so with young girls: a few glasses of wine taken at a supper or a dance--and the first downward step is taken, not because any wrong was intended, but the simple actualities of sex were unknown, and the stimulant took advantage of the ignorance that is miscalled innocence. This kind of thing will continue till the older generation realise that morality depends--not on the maintenance of ignorance and the fear of disease, but on the spread of knowledge and the promotion of virtue. It is not morality, but caution, that is developed by fear, and in this case caution is counteracted by the practical experience that many men are immoral without becoming diseased. One man commits many immoral acts and suffers not at all; another man becomes syphilitic by yielding for the very first time; the penalty is purely fortuitous. There is no necessary connection at all between immorality and disease. The dangers of sexual intercourse are due to dirt and promiscuity rather than to immorality, and in part to the physical conformation of the individual. Virtue has far deeper and more substantial foundations than the mere gusts of fear. It is founded on necessary and responsible guardianship of the very gates of life. III.--MEDICAL FORMULAE. The medical formulae for venereal disease preventive ointments for men, and venereal disease preventive suppositories and ointments for women, should be decided upon, after thorough investigation and test, by the Departments of Public Health, and none other should be permitted to be sold. Printed directions should be issued, duly authorised by the Departments of Public Health, and no other directions should be supplied to the public with the venereal disease preventives. In these respects, to the best of my belief, the Division of Venereal Diseases of the Pennsylvania Department of Health, co-operating with the United States Public Health Service, will play the leading part; is, indeed, already doing so. Under the direction of Dr. Edward Martin, Commissioner of Health, and Dr. S. Leon Gans, Director, Division of Venereal Diseases, specimen tubes are tested and approved (with directions and other printed matter)[O] by the Health Laboratories of the Department; and certificates are issued to manufacturing chemists authorising the manufacture of ointments made in accordance with approved formulae. Requests are made officially by the Department to retail chemists and druggists to sell, and to medical practitioners to recommend, suitable venereal disease preventives to the general public in a proper manner. In time it will probably be found advisable to authorise only a standard type of tube--preferably the metal tube with elongated nozzle and expanded metal cap--filled with one simple self-disinfecting ointment.