=Treatment.=--With the earliest possible recognition of a syphilitic chancre or sore there is need for active and prolonged constitutional treatment, in addition to whatever may be required locally. If the diagnosis can be made, _constitutional treatment should commence at once_; only in cases of doubt is it advisable to wait. The local treatment is a matter of ordinarily small importance; the sores tend to heal spontaneously and quickly when the system is brought under the influence of mercurials. There are few authorities who recommend excision of the primary lesion or believe it is possible to abort syphilis by anything that can be done to the chancre. It is advisable to make mild antiseptic applications only. A chancre, however, in a location which makes it difficult to keep the parts clean, should be exposed to treatment by a minor operation, as an incision of the prepuce, circumcision, or a dilatation or incision of the hymen. Aside from such operation the indication is for surgical cleanliness; soap and water followed by hydrogen peroxide, which may be continued as an application, or dusting with calomel, will usually prove sufficient. Various antiseptic solutions may be used. Dry applications, however, are the most convenient and usually the most serviceable; iodoform should be avoided on account of its penetrating odor; and pure, dry calomel will sometimes prove a mild caustic, and is best reduced with one to three parts by weight of bismuth subnitrate. The stronger applications, especially caustic, are only employed when there is unhealthy ulceration. If the sore is gangrenous it should be cocainized, then the surface thoroughly treated with some powerful caustic like nitric acid, and thereafter kept moist with aqueous antiseptic solutions. When the surface is practically healthy, dry preparations or unguents may be employed, preferably the mercurial ointments. There is greater difficulty in preserving cleanliness about the female genitalia, and here the use of antiseptic cotton or gauze will probably be necessary in addition to the other precautions. Surfaces should be kept apart by their aid, and it is well to use frequent antiseptic douches or occasionally to insert a suppository containing an antiseptic drug. Of the various preparations used those containing mercury in some form are doubly serviceable. The inguinal lymphatics should be kept anointed with a mercurial ointment, which should be thoroughly rubbed in, and the parts afterward protected with oiled silk. While these local measures are being employed vigorous general treatment should be promptly instituted. This will be discussed when dealing with treatment of the constitutional features of the disease. There are locations in which chancre gives rise to considerable distress, as, for instance, upon the lip and tonsils. Great improvement and relief of pain in these lesions is afforded by proper use of auxiliary drugs.