And, last but not least, do not indulge in promiscuous kissing. This is a particularly important injunction for young girls. This is a real peril and there are thousands of cases of syphilis that are known to have been contracted directly from kissing. People suffering with syphilis often have little white sores (mucous patches) on their lips, tongue and inside of cheeks. These sores are very infectious, and by kissing the disease is readily transmitted. Kissing games have been responsible in more than one case for the spread of syphilis to many persons. I have now under treatment a girl of nineteen who contracted syphilis on her summer vacation from having kissed a man once. Avoid promiscuous kissing! It is a bad practice for more than one reason. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT ALCOHOL, SEX AND VENEREAL DISEASE Alcoholic Indulgence and Venereal Disease--A Champagne Dinner and Syphilis--Percentage of Cases of Venereal Infection Due to Alcohol--Artificial Stimulation of Sex Instinct in Man and in Woman--Reckless Sexual Indulgence Due to Alcohol--Alcohol as an Aid to Seduction. That Bacchus, the god of wine, is the strongest ally of Venus, the goddess of love, using love in its physical sense, as the French use the word _amour_, has been well known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, as it is well known to-day to every saloon-keeper and every keeper of a disreputable house. And all measures to combat venereal disease and to prevent girls from making a false step will be only partially successful if we do not at the same time carry on a strong educational campaign against alcoholic indulgence. Of what use to young men is the knowledge of the venereal peril and familiarity with the use of venereal prophylactics, when under the influence of alcohol the mind is befuddled, they forget everything and do things that they never would do in the sober state? Of what use are warnings to a girl, when under the influence of a heavy dinner and a bottle of champagne, to which she is unaccustomed, her passion is aroused to a degree she has never experienced before, her will is paralyzed and she yields, though deep down in her consciousness something tells her she shouldn't? Yields, becomes pregnant, and is in the deepest agony for several months, and has a wound which will probably never heal for the rest of her life? Of what use have all the lectures, books and maternal injunctions been to her?