When the nature of the primary lesion is positive treatment should begin with the first visit of the patient to the surgeon. When there is uncertainty regarding the character of the venereal sore, treatment _may_ be postponed until the appearance of the first eruption. As soon as this has appeared the treatment should be hastened. It is necessary to begin with mercury. The patient’s mouth should be examined by a dentist and all tartar removed from the teeth, especially from the gingival borders, at which lines the gums are likely to become sore when mercury is too freely used. All diseased teeth should be extracted or filled, and the mouth and its contents should be put in normal condition. The dentist should be informed as to the reason for the visit. Smoking should be discontinued, especially when there are mucous patches, since it is apt to irritate and make subsequent lesions of the mucous membrane more likely to occur. The habits of the patient should be regulated as to alcohol and other indulgences, and he should be warned as to the infectious nature of the disease, _in order that others may be protected_. In many instances tonic, even roborant treatment may be advantageously combined with the antispecific. It will be found that the anemia so characteristic of well-marked secondary syphilis will improve materially under the influence of mercury alone. Should the disease occur in a married person, or develop after marriage, caution should be given as to the danger to offspring, and to the other associate in the marriage relation, which might follow the occurrence of pregnancy. Mercury may be given by the _mouth_, by _inunction_, by _hypodermic injection_, or by _fumigation_. The intent should be to get the patient under its influence as rapidly as is consistent with safety. The most effective of these methods to which patients will ordinarily submit is that by _inunction_. This consists essentially in the use of _mercurial ointment_ (blue ointment), of which 15 Gm. may be used daily or nightly, which should be thoroughly rubbed into some area of the body; the areas selected being changed at perhaps three-day intervals, in order that irritation, which its prolonged use produces, may be avoided. It takes considerable effort to so completely rub this in as to make most of it disappear, and it can be done more easily upon those parts of the body which are free from hair. It can be best done by employing someone for the purpose, but patients can be easily taught to use it themselves. There are upon the market, ointments containing mercury made with other excipients than lard, which are less uncomfortable to the skin and seem to be absorbed better; among these is a preparation made with a petroleum compound called vasogen, which may be procured in different strengths; that containing 33 per cent. or 50 per cent. is the best.