Study on Prostitution in England and France. BY Thomas C. Minor, M.D., Cincinnati. STUDY ON PROSTITUTION IN ENGLAND AND FRANCE. [Translated by Thomas C. Minor, M.D., from Journal de Medecine de Paris.] We have already given our readers a re- view of the reports published in the Pall Mall Gazette relative to the traffic in virgins and young children. The com- ments we have made upon these important documents evidence the existence in Great Britain as in France of horrible social wounds; and also demonstrate the more hideous aspect of prostitution among our English neighbors who have heretofore monopolized all European pretense to modesty and virtue. We believe that it will interest our sub- scribers when we present a more serious study, not of the traffic in English virgins, which constitutes, viewed from a numeri- cal standpoint but a small branch without importance, but of prostitution in general and the measures enforced in England for the purpose of attenuating and preventing the extension of syphilis in its army. Our work will be divided into two parts : The first, a report on the English method; the second, On the French law. that which surmounts the highest degree of the social scale are not included in this census. It is necessary to double these figures in order to obtain merely approxi- mative evidence. In making the same reservation for other cities as for London we should allow 40,000 prostitutes for England, Ireland and Scotland not being included. There are in London more than 13,000 women who exercise this calling without any sanitary control. Among these women the greater number live in houses of ill-fame usually designated as brothels. These houses are scattered all over the city but particularly in the eastern quarter; other women lodge in more elegant quar- ters, and may be compared to the clandes- tine Parisian prostitute. It is unnecessary to confound the English brothel with the tolerated houses found in the principal towns of continental Europe. This last establish- ment is almost unknown in England; there are only two in London, and these have been established by French and Belgian landladies. That which is called a brothel is nothing but a poorly furnished house in which a few women ply their shameful avocation; but these women are not placed under the interested and tyran- nical surveillance of a matron. This hor- rible working of prostitutes by mistresses has almost no existence in England, and there is nothing to foreshadow the exist- ence of any such system. Aside from general measures concern- ing decency, peace, and public quietude, there are no restrictions placed on public women in London. There is no inscrip- tion at the Bureau of Morals, no visits by sanitary officers. Nothing, in a word, like the system pursued for so long a time at Pans. Syphilis, meeting no opposition, is much more prevalent than in France. We possess, however, as regards this matter too few statistics for arriving at ab- solute and definite conclusions. Accord- PROSTITUTION IN ENGLAND. I. General Aspect of the Social Evil in England-Number of Prostitutes-Method of Treatment-Special Hospitals.-As London and the vast majority of English cities are not subjected to any sanitary regulation, the number of women following prostitu- tion for a living is very difficult to appre- ciate. It is this that explains the variable statistics given up to the present day. Thus, for example, the number of women of the town in London has been estimated by Colquhoum at 50,000, while the Bishop of Exeter counts 80,000. But more recent statistics have singularly diminished this number. The last official census made by the government in 1868 places the number of prostitutes known to the police at 6,515. This estimate is evidently far below the truth ; indeed, it only includes women who have fallen to the lowest degree of public prostitution. Clandestine prostitution and 2 Study on Prostitution in England and France.-Minor. ing to a calculation made by Vintras 150,000 men are diseased every year. The following figures will, nevertheless, permit the establishment of comparisons be- tween London and Paris. It is calculated that of 500,000 patients treated last year in Parisian hospitals only 14,000 were attacked by venereal maladies, which gives an average of 33 per 100. During the same time 10,229 patients were observed haphazard in the different hospi- tals of London, 212 of whom had venereal diseases, which gives an average of 8.8 per 100. In both instances patients cared for in special hospitals are omitted. But we re- peat there is so much difference between hospital statistics of Paris and London, that in the latter instance there is so much negli- gence or partiality that it is impossible to draw any positively accurate conclusions. If we examine the methods of treat- ment we see that they are far from being in accord with the ravages made by syphilis among the population of London. For a population of over four millions of people in the English metropolis, there is, we find, but one special establishment, i. e.: the Lock Hospital. This hospital has but 105 beds, but it gives free treatment to large numbers of outside patients, and renders a great public service. In the majority of other public medical institu- tions the rules are absolutely opposed to the admission of venereal subjects. Phy- sicians, however, admit a few such cases when the disease is so advanced as to de- mand immediate charitable assistance, as a limited number of these cases are neces- sary for clinical teaching the students of medical schools attached to hospitals. Guy's Hospital and 67. Bartholomew's Hos- pital afford two instances of this kind, as, together, they possess 133 beds especially devoted to those desiring treatment for venereal diseases. In collecting the beds devoted to venereal maladies in all the hospitals of London we find they do not exceed 500, which is about one-quarter the number used for the same purpose in Paris, including special and general hospi- tals. The enormous number of such cases treated in the public institutions of Paris, as compared to London, might lead one to suppose there was more syphilis in the French capital. One is not astonished to see the trus- tees of certain English hospitals (who are not physicians) opposing the admission of venereal cases to their hospitals, when such men as Sully, member of the College of Surgeons, declares " Far from consider- ing syphilis a disease, I regard it as a blessing sent from the most high in order to curb the vile passions of mankind and check the constantly increasing progress of prostitution." (See London Lancet.') Let us say, however, that doctors who agree with Sully are few in England; but it is no less true that such words uttered by a well known authority are well adapted to sustain the prejudice that venereal affec- tions are shameless impositions on public charity. What becomes of the thousands of individuals slightly affected ? It is very difficult to keep a record of such cases. Meantime Vintras gives the following in- formation regarding this matter : Of 100 cases attacked by venereal disease 70 re- ceive the care of private physicians and thus escape all statistical investigation ; 20 are treated in hospitals, and 10 treat them- selves with proprietary remedies. II. Application of Repressive Measures against Prostitution- The Contagious Dis- ease Acts- Their Effects Limited to the Army and Garrisoned Towns.-In 1864 the Eng- lish government, for the purpose of reme- ding the ravages produced by syphilis in the army and navy, obtained a first decree from Parliament applicable to certain mili- tary and naval stations. This decree was modified in 1866 and 1869 and especially used in the following towns occupied by garrisons: Aidershot, Chatham, Canter- bury, Colchester, Cork, Curragh, Dover, Maidstone, Plymouth and Devonport, Portsmouth, Sheerness, Shorncloffe, Wind sor, Winchester and Woolwich. We find in the tenor of this decree nothing in par- ticular. Each prostitute living in the above named towns must submit to a periodical medical examination under pen- alty of imprisonment. If she be found in- fected with gonorrhoea or syphilis she is committed to an especial hospital for treat- ment, and she is only set at liberty after a perfect recovery. The application of the contagious disease act was vigorously opposed, and even met with opposition from the prostitutes them- selves. People of influence and power believed they saw in the enactment of this law an attack on religion, public morals and liberty. Its enforcement awakened Study on Prostitution in England and France.-Minor. opposition from all quarters of the country. The clergy heaped their bitterest impreca- tions against the decree, proclaiming that "it encouraged sin and legalized the crime of prostitution." "This new legislation," says the Vicar of Windsor, "claims fornication as a human necessity and tends to make its practice less dangerous. Thus men are enabled to sin with the utmost physical security and their passions given unbridled liberty." There is nothing extraordinary in this explosion of wrath on the part of the clergy, whose knowledge in regard to such matters is, or, at least should be. very limited. Their opposition is not, there- fore, surprising. The most astonishing fact, however, was that physicians of rep- utation, whose medical wisdom was proba- bly overrated, should be found ranged on the side of the enemies of the contagious disease act. Dr. Taylor, writer of a work on the subject, says: "On the simple denuncia- tion of a policeman a woman may be ar- rested and condemned to three months im- prisonment if she refuses to submit to the indignity of a medical violation of her per- son with surgical instruments." 'Phen, drawing a shocking picture of Parisian prostitution and its regulation, he adds: " In Paris it is very dangerous for a young woman to walk out in the evening; for, if she be alone in the streets, she is liable to be arrested and accused of prostitution." It is useless to notice the exaggeration of such a false statement and the abuse of po lice power upon which it appears founded The English policemen only act in such cases with the utmost circumspection and in such a manner as to avoid the most in significant attempts at cross questioning. The English girl of the town knows that the least error will serve as an argument for her official enemies. A fact, meantime, which renders her liable to serious criti cism is the facility with which police agents accept information or rather the de- nunciation of soldiers who have been in- We believe this procedure to be detestable, and we think, in any case, such information should not be accepted. Partisans for the repeal of this law soon commenced a struggle against its enforce- ment, and a vast number of influential and respectable persons combined in an asso- ciation to this end. (National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Disease Act.) Three-fourths of the members were women who were none the less zealous on account of their sex. This association had powerful weapons at hand. It published a journal, and sent its agents into the various towns especially subject to the enactment; it inundated the country with popular pamphlets destined to produce an agitation of the subject. These maneuvers did not appear to hamper the efforts of the police authorities; they had even a good effect, inasmuch as the officers of the law, finding themselves closely watched, operated with the more prudence and circumspection. Numerous petitions were addressed to Parliament urging the abrogation of the de- cree and a proposition prepared through the House of Commons in 1873 was only defeated by a small majority. No matter what reproaches may be heaped on these English ladies and their clerical aiders and abettors we must, never- theless, recognize the fact that they ren- dered sanitation several good services. The persons directing the movements of the National Association were animated by what they considered the best of motives and a real desire to accomplish good ; they spared neither time nor money for induc- ing the misled and unfortunate girls to live better lives, and contributed largely to ameliorating the condition of prostitutes by diseminating among them moral and religious ideas. Other benevolent institu- tions were also employed in aiding these unfortunates. For instance : " The Society for the Suppression of Vice" and "Society for the Protection of Young Females and Preven tion of Juvenile Prostitution." These two charitable associations conceived the Utopian idea of crushing out the vice by means of moral persuasion. "If perfec- tion is not of this world," says the proverb, " man must always tend towards it." Taking into consideration the petitions and demands received from all sections (900,000 signatures having been collected in 1873) Parliament named a commission charged to examine into the facts and pre- sent to the government a report on the 3 1 We know that these denunciations addressed to the Police Department of Paris by persons be- lieving themselves to be infected are always list- ened to and serve as a basis for numerous arrests. We wish to say that all such procedures are open to criticism whether they be practiced in France or in England. 4 Study on Prostitution in England and France.-Minor. manner in which the law had been en- forced and the results produced. From its investigations the commission deter- mined that from 1864, date of passage of the act of applying repressive measures, up to 1874, the number of cases of venereal disease in the English army had been re- duced. The following statistics furnished the proof. Before 1864, the number of soldiers affected by syphilis every year av- eraged 108 to 1,000 troops; in 1874, there were only 54 diseased soldiers to every 1,000. In stations not then subjected to the rules, the number had increased in place of diminishing or, for instance, to 123 for 1,000 troops. {War Office Reports for 1872.) There had then been a reduc- tion of 50 per 100 syphilitics, and this re- sult could only be attributed to the sani- tary inspection required by law, or, to gonorrhoea, it was diminished in the same ratio as syphilis and with similar success. We find in that portion of the army subject to medical examination a diminution of 8 to 100. The official reports likewise demon- strated that the application of the act had simply reduced the number of prostitutes at the maritinno and naval stations of Plymouth and Devonport. There were in 1865 a total of 1,770 prostitutes, an enor- mous number compared to population; while in June, 1868, only 800 could be found; while again in 1870, these figures were reduced to 579. The number of houses of ill-fam£ (brothels) had been like- wise largely decreased in both towns or, according to official reports, there were 366 brothels in 1864 against 124 in 1870. These results, which, at the first glance, appear to be grand, nevertheless demand some inquiry. The number of prostitutes decreased in those towns subject to " the Contagious Disease Actbut there is noth- ing to prove that the social evil did not prevail to a greater extent at points not subject to the requirements of the law. It is also undeniable that many women left the towns where periodical medical exam- inations were required and exercised their calling in cities where prostitution was not controlled. Mr. Williams, Inspector of Police, did not believe that this diminution of prostitutes at military stations could be attributed to greater continence and more morality, for, he remarks, " The vice is always the same, but it is confined to a smaller number of women. " As to the reduction of the brothel- this was due to the increase of clandestine prostitution and to the amelioration drawn on people of this class. Hospitals in which such women were treated may be divided as follows : The certified hospitals and the voluntary hospitals. The first are wholly under control of the government, and prostitutes therein con- fined only recover their liberty after a per- fect recovery. The voluntary hospitals are those sustained by special funds. Women presenting themselves for admis- sion voluntarily were retained by means of kind treatment and persuasion, or, through a written contract signed to remain until after recovery from the malady. The vol- untary hospital was only used by those fav- oring the repeal of the law, and, accord- ing to their ideas, this kind of an establish- ment gave all the necessary medical guar- antees. It is, however, difficult to admit that without coercive means any prostitute would present herself at a hospital when first suffering from the effects of her sexual indiscretion. Daily experience evidences that infected women continue to daily spread the disease and neglect to submit themselves to a medical treatment that may be obtained without the least diffi- culty. The association that obtained ab- rogation of the Contagious Disease Act made great efforts to establish voluntary hospitals, and, obtained results which, although re latively satisfactory, were not in the mean- time sufficient to give an absolute security against syphilis. III. Desuits Obtained from the Applica- tion of Repressive Measures in the Army and on Prostitution in General.-It is not with- out interest, before discussing the causes that led to the repeal of the Contagious Dis- ease Act, to show the good results it accom- plished for the army. The following re- marks of Sir John Packington, relative to metropolitan police statistics from the date the act was enforced up to December 31, 1872, merit reproduction : " I must say that public women, subject to the law in various towns, presented themselves for medical examination with the greatest regularity, and that legal means to secure this end were rarely need ed." "In 6,356 cases these girls voluntarily signed an agreement, while only in twenty cases was an order for a sanitary visit issued by a magistrate." Study on Prostitution in England and France.-Minor. 5 "The number of instances in which re- course to a magistrate was required dimin- ished two thirds the following year, and the number of disappearances after the signing of the agreement of voluntary agreement was reduced to almost noth- ing." "Notwithstanding the continual intro- duction of girls from non-protected districts, the total number of girls in the protected districts was reduced from 2,411 to 2,290." " The reduction of the total number of prostitutes, however, is only imperfect tes- timony in favor of the law, the betterment is best demonstrated by the diminished number of very young girls. The number of prostitutes under 17 years of age in the different districts in December last was only two, while in 1866 when the law was vigorously enforced in one district, there were 377 girls under that age; but last De- cember the girls under eighteen years of age numbered 671 against 594 in 1866." " Eighty-six brothels were closed during the year, the majority being low dives of the basest sort. Nevertheless there still exist 61 bawdy houses and 61 drinking places run with prostitutes, although the laws on liquor license render the proprie- tors of the last named resorts liable to a heavy penalty for allowing such establish- ments to degenerate into houses of ill- fame." "Two thousand and fifty-four girls were registered for the first time during the year, including those already regis- tered in other non-protected districts. Of this number 742, or 36.71 per 100 of those examined were found diseased on the first inspection, while only 201, or 9.19 per 100 of that already registered up to December 31, 1871, were found unhealthy." " The great number of prostitutes ar- riving from non-protected districts is the cause of this augmentation in the number and proportion of the diseased; their habits were low, their clothing scanty and filthy, and their brazen conduct in public abso- lutely revolting; but the good effects of the law soon cure this category of evils, under the enactment the girls soon take up more decent habits." "Seventy-one young girls from 12 to 17 years of age, and 135 women from 17 to 31 engaged in vicious habits, changed the character of their lives and avocation, thanks to police management, and conse- quently were dropped from the register of prostitutes " "Four young married women, found with men in brothels at night by special police, were privately brought before the magistrate next day, and, promising in de- spair and amid many tears that they would never sin again if not placed on the regis- tration rolls, were released. They faith- fully kept their promise." " A number of young girls, noticed by the police to be visiting loose places in bad company, were rescued by the simple in- junction that they were under official sur- veillance : the fear of the law of registra- tion has deterred many from falling and corrected the moral habits of many more." " No case of venereal disease was met among the soldiers of the royal marine ser- vice, stationed at Dartmouth, and only one woman was sent to the hospital for special treatment; while on March 12, 1870, when the first medical examina- tions were made in this town, six women were found diseased out of every eight examined." " But, this slight advantage gained by the army, cannot be claimed for the navy, for the decrease on one side is more than compensated for by the rapid and surpris- ing augmentation on the other side." " The example of Glasgow gives us reasons for believing that the social evil may be confined within reasonable bounds without having recourse to an arbitrary and censurable code of police morals." " No person would hesitate voting annual funds for the support and mainte- nance of new free hospitals destined for the exclusive reception and reform of fallen women ; but, we can already comprehend at the same time that the continuation of the actual system will provoke an opposi tion which, after a long and bitter struggle, is certain of final success." "That which is the most energetic and ardent, all that is ideal, all that to which the working classes are most deeply at- tached ; finally, that to which the better population, the truly moral people hold, will be found ranged in battle array against the licensing of prostitution; then, everything considered we have the right to hope, that the ministers of state will ac- cept the proposition of Mr. Stansfield without further discussion and thus disem- barrass the public of a question that is at 6 Study on Prostitution in England and France.-Minor. once repugnant to our sense of decency and morality." In April, 1883, the famous Contagious Disease Act was abrogated by the House of Commons, and, it is not uninteresting to reproduce an epitome of what occurred on this occasion. 'Hie following is the opin- ion of Lord Hartington, who at this time, 1883, occupied the position of Minister of War: "In 1872," says this orator, " the Lib- eral cabinet proposed a measure repealing the greater portion of the Contagious Dis- ease Act and the substitution of a weaker law than that in force. At the general election the greatest number of representa- tives were absolutely opposed to the act. A commission, named shortly afterwards, presented a report in favor of the law with- out proposing to weaken or change the same. 'The minority of this commission, however, insisted on its complete repeal." It was clearly seen from this that those who headed the agitation could only be satisfied by an absolute revocation of the act. The report of the majority of the com mission furnished the government no argument upon which to base hopes of success. It then became the duty of Parliament to decide whether it would maintain the law in its existing form, or abandon its most essential features entirely. Lord Hartington's personal opinions as Secretary of War, Lord High Admiral, and Secretary of the Interior, favored the act. Other members of the cabinet could see no good way for accepting the respon- sibility of maintaining laws that they had opposed as non-official individuals. Con- sequently, as far as the ministry was con- cerned, it was disposed to treat the matter as a still open question-that is to say with- out interest. Sir S. Northcote, astonished at such a declaration coming from the ministry, charged the government's officers with evasion and weakness, claiming that as they had a strong majority they were guilty of cowardice. He recalled the fact that the ministers of state for some time back had been overfond of leaving important issues stand as open questions, and hoped that the chamber would demand a reason for such puerile action. The Chancellor of the Exchequer said that having in 1875 declared this might re- vive the law without completely repealing its sections, and that his opinion had been but slightly modified since then ; he had always thought that if the law had pro- duced advantageous results, such advan- tages were not due to obligatory medical inspections. He was not disposed to abro- gate the act, but would willingly accept the motion of Mr. Stansfield, i. e.; that the chamber disapproved the manner in which the law was enforced. It is easy to see that simple blame would not give satisfaction to the popular mind-the majority-whose views were directly opposite to those of their electoral body. Accordingly on the motion of Mr. Stansfield the Contagious Disease Act was repealed by a vote of 182 for to no against. Since that period the garrisoned towns, previously regulated, ceased to be the ob ject of any repressive measures. What has been the influence of this repeal ? Too little time has elapsed to give us any pre- cise information on this point. One thing is certain; the repeal of the law has given satisfaction to every one, and no reaction has occurred in favor of the renewal of the acts. We can then affirm that the govern- ment is unwilling to propose similar meas- ures to England's Parliament, and that this nation, which has heretofore kept pace with the sanitary progress of other coun- tries, deems it improper to apply repres- sive laws of a nature to compromise indi- vidual liberty without presenting sufficient compensation in favor of the public health. The following document given to the Eng- lish government in 1872, at the time the law was enforced most vigorously, is inter- esting, although written in a biassed fashion by parties who had a personal interest in the non-repeal of the act. It is entitled : IV. Moral and Religious Instruction Imposed by the Decree of 1866-Repentance and Conversion of Prostitutes.-" Although prostitution and the conversion of prosti- tutes holds but a slight position in the de- crees, practice has fully demonstrated that it is of the greatest importance to pay all due attention to this matter. A chaplain is now attached to each venereal hospital. The directresses of these special asylums for fallen women are ladies of the upper class, chaste and virtuous, animated by a Study on Prostitution in England and France -Minor. 7 benevolent zeal to make a success of the task assumed." " The favorable influences exerted by this means of action on prostitutes con- fined in these special institutions is mani- fested in the most striking manner.". " In reality, the Contagious Disease Act or decree, turns prostitutes from evil ways. Having required, directly and in- directly, the creation of a municipal and sanitary police, they have freed the garri- sons of a crowd of miserable creatures, who were a perpetual source of moral and physical corruption. When these unfor- tunates have been collected in hospitals where their wants are provided, even after the cure of their diseases, human sym- pathy and tenderness penetrate their ach- ing hearts and serve to awaken long hidden moral sentiments." " We may consider the decree- " 1 st, As preserving young persons of both sexes that contact with vice has not perverted. " 2d, As saving young women and even mere children from lives of prostitu- tion and restoring them to virtue from a fallen condition. "3d, We diminish the number of pros- titutes and ameliorate their unhappy con- dition. "4th, We restore order to public streets; diminish the number of street walkers who solicit the business of de- bauchery, and thus keep away from men immoral temptations to which they so fre- quently fall victims." Seventy-one young girls, from 12 to 17 years of age, and 135 women, from 17 to 31, known as abandoned prostitutes, give up their sinful lives on the persuasion of the police, and needed no registration. In the single district of Plymouth and Devonport, during the four first months of the year 1873, 56 young women who had commenced to lead dissolute lives, and who, from all appearances, made their liv- ing by prostitution, concluded to live vir- tuously owing to the prayers and entreaties of persons charged with the duty of en- forcing law. I could cite a number of instances of babies who were taken out of houses of ill- fame. At Plymouth the Inspector of Po- lice discovered that a child of 13 years had been taken into a brothel by a procuress, and the latter was sent to jail for one year. On March nth of last year, two young girls, one 14, the other 15, were found in a bawdy house by special police agents and returned to their parents, who were overjoyed at discovering their lost babies. The moral influences of the law are not confined to individuals of one sex. In the maritime towns and garrisons, the Inspec- tor of Police, who is soon known to the principal inhabitants, can often persuade young men from frequenting houses of debauchery by simple advice and warn- ing. At Devonport and at Plymouth, before the promulgation of the decree, there were certain brothels where young boys from 13 to 18 years collected to the number of 20 or 30 at a time in a large hall filled with beds and expended the earnings of a week in order to be debauched by girls who gave themselves up to prostitution. These odious scenes can no longer be re-enacted, thanks to the surveillance of the metropolitan police organized accord- ing to the new law. The diminution of the number of pros- titutes in the villages subjected to the law is much larger than one would imagine if we are to believe in the reports made to Parliament by Captain Harris. The 31st of December, 1865, there were 3,418 prostitutes known to the police in the four garrison ports of England, in a total population of about 322,000 souls. On December 31, 1872, seventeen large ports or garrison towns subject to the act, with a population of about 750,000 inhab- tants, contained only 2,290 prostitutes. This reduction in the number of pros- titutes only imperfectly represents the pro- gress of public morality. On December 31, 1865, there were upon the streets 2,613 fallen women, among whom were 377 aged less than 17 years; on December 31, 1872, there were only nine of that age remaining. A sensible betterment was manifest in the conduct of these women after the en- forcement of law. Soldiers and sailors could drink with- out having to undergo their obscene solici- tation. At Southampton the number of prosti- tutes sentenced for disorder and creating public scandals has been reduced to the minimum. The tumultous scenes of drunk- enness and bawdy revelry at night, caused by the prostitutes, ceased, and degraded 8 Study on Prostitution in England and France.-Minor. women no longer solicited custom at the public corners. The condition of the prostitutes at Dover was no less remarkable. The prostitutes themselves noted the favorable change in their own conduct. Before the promulgation of the law they felt themselves to be outcasts in society; since then they have acquired a sentiment of social individuality; always before treated harshly and brutally for the most part, they became more moderate and humanized; they were affected by the kind treatment of the police authorities and by the gentle restraint imposed in hospitals built for their seclusion and comfort. Article 12 of the act of 1866, which prescribed moral and religious instruction in the special institutions where sick prostitutes were confined, was strictly en- forced. At Aidershot, Colchester and Shorn- cliffe the clerical functions were confided to the chaplains attached to camp; at other points to the chaplains of prisons. At all the hospitals pastors and priests of every sect were authorized to visit the sick and offer them every possible spiritual and temporal assistance. In the special hospitals of Cork and Kildare, where Catholic prostitutes were confined, the priests attached to the chapels belonging to the department of war, regularly celebrated mass each Sun- day. The Protestant service was also al- lowed in these same hospitals, the parish pastor officiating. At Devonport and Chatham the Prot- estant chapels to special hospitals were lo- cated within the prison. The entire Cath- olic and Protestant clergy united in bear- ing witness to the general good conduct of fallen women while attending divine ser- vice. In the special hospitals of London and Devonport, of Portsmouth and Chatham, prostitutes who entered for the first time and evinced a desire to repent their sins were placed in separate wards from the more depraved of their class. They were thus protected from the moral contamina- caused by constant contact with incorrigi- ble women. At Aidershot, the physician in charge, separated the more modest from the moral class of women. In hospitals of the least importance where the material means of reparation were wanting, the personal influence of a matron's presence was invoked. Incessant encouragement led many a prostitute to mend her manner of living. Article 104 of the printed rules affixed to the wall of the ward is thus conceived: " All patients animated by a sincere desire for reform, on making this intention of their good resolution known, will re- ceive aid and assistance to enter a house of refuge before returning to their family, or will be provided with employment on leav- ing this hospital." In case of a failure to carry out this rule, the woman's expenses were paid by the State. This was not all, for, besides moral and religious instruction, the prostitutes were taught various avocations which might be useful in making an honest living on retiring from the hospital. At Chatham the lady directress of the hospital had a special school over which she herself presided twice each week. This school was free; and the number of its pupils ranged from 10 to 20. Sev- eral very aristocratic ladies of the city and the suburbs assisted the directress in her most excellent work. Sewing machines were bought with funds from the War De- partment, which the prostitutes learned to work, thus acquiring a new means of gain- ing bread after their exit from the institu- tion. At the Royal Albert Hospital of De- vonport, each week, during an afternoon these unfortunates were taught to make children's clothing. At Cork the registered prostitutes were usually of the most ignorant class of the population. Many of these had main- tained social relations with thieves and other malefactors of the dangerous kind. Yet, even here, the law produced great moral results. In three years 130 of those entering the hospital, returned repentant to their own families, or entered houses of refuge, when they soon abandoned all vicious ideas. Only six of these women fell from grace. Before I made exact inquiry as regard- ed the conduct of each of these women, it was difficult to believe that those who re- turned to neighborhoods where they were formerly debauched would resist the temp- tation of vice; but facts proved the incon- testible solidity of the conversion of the greatest number of these women. Study on •Prostitution in England and France.-Minor. 9 Abolition of Act by Parliament.-We have before mentioned the agitation raised against the Contagious Disease Act by the National Association of English Women. Commencing in 1869 this movement be- came so powerful that the government did not dare to extend these special laws, and in 1870, after a motion for their abrogation by M. W. Forster, it was forced to appoint a royal commission for studying the regu- lation of the social evil from a hygienic standpoint. Seven physicians out of twenty -three composing this commission de- clared in favor of maintaining the act; the remainder that " there is nothing to prove but a diminution in the number of dis- eased patients in the army and navy, which may be attributed to a correspond- ing diminution of cases of disease resulting from the periodical inspection of women with whom the troops have connection." The scientific conclusions of the royal commission redoubled the agitation of the question. In 1872 the Liberal cabinet itself pro- posed a measure attenuating the legislative rigor of the law, but allowing the essential portions of the enactment to stand. The bills of abrogation presented in 1875 and 1876 by Sir Johnston Harcourt could not control a majority of the House of Commons. At the general elections that followed the attitude of the electors was such that all candidates before the people were obliged to pledge themselves, so that when the majority of Liberals and Radicals ap- peared in the House of Commons they favored the repeal of the act on the first opportunity and cast their votes accord- ingly. The Pall Mall Gazette, which is so of- ten mentioned, had agitated this question for a long period of time and treated the subject from a Liberal standpoint. The following, written in i883(1) by its eminent editor, Mr. Morley, to-day a member of the English Parliament, and the instigator of the scandalous revelations regarding vice in London, appeared in that journal: "Lord Hartington may well ask him- self ' If the play is worth the candle ?' To be more explicit, if the army has gained any considerable advantage or even an ap- preciable benefit, and the argument loses its weight; but, when the most determined advocates of a police system of morals are only supported by the argument of post hoc propter hoc, and are reduced to the ex- tremity of claiming that such a system preserves from the hospital 258 men out of a total military force of 50,000 soldiers, and this at a cost of $150,000 per annum, it is evident that the advantages presented as the results of the act are insignificant, if we compare them with the inconveniences and the enormous recognized abuses which it costs to maintain such a law. If public opinion has truly the strength which it is supposed to exert on all such questions, there can be no doubt that the law will be completely abrogated before the end of the present session. We affirm that there are no less than twenty mem- bers of the cabinet opposed to the act, and, it is certain that under any electoral cir- cumscription where the vote of the work- ingman is united, that a candidate would not have a shadow or a chance if he de- fended the social evil law. The working- man, right or wrong, is imbued with the idea that the act is unjust, inasmuch as it brands a woman who, in the majority of cases, belongs to his own class, and that to the contrary, this same law is of advan- tage if the man who causes the injury who is, justly or unjustly, supposed to be in the majority of instances, a member of the higher walks of life, one of the superior class. If any person doubts the force of this antipathy against the law, let him ask some minister or member of Parliament to pro- pose the extension of the act to Manches- ter, Birmingham or London, the same as for the garrison towns. The only reason that this repulsion does not assume the form of tumultuous agitation, is, that the very nature of the subject prevents its dis- cussion by modest and delicate minded people. Whatever we may think of the results of the law or of the possibility of defend- ing its principles, we shall observe, beyond every other argument, that its only advan- tage that is pretended to have been gained by this regulation, is a slight betterment in the health of the army, which does not furnish a sufficient compensation for the scandal created by the agitation of the lewd subject. For thirteen years past an energetic propaganda has been sustained 1 No of 13th of April, 1883, reproduced from the Report of Ficaix to the Municipal Council of Paris. 10 Study on Prostitution in England and France.-Minor. in all the counties of England, and the ef- forts of the propagandists have been es- pecially directed to provoking an interest on the part of honorable women, thus di- recting their attention towards a question which no pure minded and honest woman should hear discussed. Since 1870 more than two million two hundred and fifty thousand signatures have been affixed to petitions demanding the abrogation of the law by Parliament, and a single one of these petitions was signed by over two hundred and fifty thousand ladies. It is in vain that the press has con- spired to silence and that the better class of society has, on its part, endeavored to deter a public discussion of the subject and thus prevent English womankind from be- coming familiarized with one of the most painful and repugnant questions of modern times. The agitation has increased from year to year until committees organized for the repeal of the act extended their ramifications throughout all parts of Eng- land. At the present moment, it is true, their activity seems checked; they only await the movement of Mr. Stansfield. If his motion fails, the agitation will break out anew with such an increased energy that it will be kept up until the general elections permit the agitators to appeal from the decision of Parliament to the ver- dict of the country. The agitators take a very serious inter- est in their work. They have the appro- bation of all the non-conformists and also that of the most active ministers of the es- tablished church. Their oppositions to the law is the natural and logical consequence of social and religious belief among Eng- lish peoples. To renounce this agitation would be to acquiesce in practice to the negation of all the principles on which they essay to make the rule of their life, and upon which they depend to direct the world. This being the state of affairs, the gov- ernment must face a very serious question: Will it encourage the grave responsibility that already weighs heavily on it by re- newing an agitation in order to gain the almost imperceptible benefits resulting from the application of the acts 1 V. Non-Application of the Acts Upon the Civil Population.-Let us now examine reasons that have prevented the English Parliament from extending the Contagious Disease Acts over the civil population; that is to say, among the other large cities of Great Britain, such as London, Edinburg, Dublin, where the syphilis must necessarily exercise its ravages. The government re- coiled before the immense difficulties which would be met in applying repressive measures in a great city like London. It had appeared necessary to lessen a disease that each year caused the English army a loss of seven days service, and the navy a loss of enough men to man a war vessel of the first class; but did such a necessity ex- ist in regard to the civil population ? Ad- mitting that measures might be necessary, should they have priority of other sanitary method, likewise needed for a long time? Such are the reflections which have caused English legislators to pause and which will check their movements for a long time to come. On the other hand they are alarmed, with good reason too, at the enormous expense entailed by the enforce- ment of a system of repression extended over all Great Britain. For London only, taking the latest statistics, we must admit that one-fourth of the total of all prostitutes are infected by venereal diseases. It would then be necessary to provide special hospitals for 3,000 sick women. (This is but a small estimate when we consider that London has four millions of popula- tion). Placing the cost of maintaining each patient at two hundred dollars, and adding the large additional expense neces- sitated by the organization of such a sys- tem of sanitary police, it is estimated that the regular application of the Contagious Disease Act to London alone would cost the government six hundred thousand dollars per annum. To this sum we must add the enormous amounts of money re- quired in the construction of special hos- pitals, for we know the state possesses al- most no such hospital establishments. If we reflect, it is necessary to admit that, if these remarks are just as regards England, they should be the same for France. Are coercive measures applied in France as efficaceous ? Do they afford sufficient security? In a word, do the in- conveniences they present compensate for any advantages gained ? This is a ques- tion we shall hastily examine in the second part of this study where we shall look, from a social standpoint, at French prosti- tution. Study on Prostitution in England and France.-Minor. 11 PROSTITUTION IN FRANCE. male sex for the purpose of encouraging fornication. Yet, it is true that this prop- osition is supported, so to speak, and upon scientific principles, by public hygiene, and sustains the doctrine that all is well that is done for the security of the public health. We shall see further along to what ex- tent the public health is protected. ■ But we can affirm now that the security thus offered is deceitful, and that the surveil lance of the police authorities, which is only exercised in reality on open houses of ill-fame, does not affect clandestine prosti- tutes whose number increases each day, women whom no law and no repressive measures can subject to control. We have mentioned before the English brothel, which many persons consider the same as houses of tolerance established by the French police system. The English brothel, be it known, is only a boarding house giving a transitory refuge to women of the town, and we must make a few statements regarding French houses of ill- fame in order to establish the difference, which is far from being in favor of a moral municipal administration. The French House of Tolerance.-In an excellent report presented to the municipal council of Paris in 1882 by Dr. Louis Fiaux, a work but little read, unfortu- nately, and judged with disdainful par- tiality by the government, we find many interesting authentic documents on which we shall draw largely for useful informa- tion. It is under the protection of the admin- istration that legally recognized houses of prostitution are established. We know that there are privileges extended to those holding these houses, privileges which are susceptible of paying large benefits to worthy political pupils, subordinate only to the will and good pleasure of the chief of police. We readily understand how a favor which gives fifty or a hundred thou- sand pounds of annual tax is readily sought after, and that the functionary who dispenses such privileges is the object of countless solicitations and subject to temp- tations of all sorts. We should love to be- lieve that he, like St. Anthony, is always able to vanquish the weakness of the flesh. Yet, he is in our eyes merely a policeman, who has made himself celebrated by cer- tain scandalous revelations, and who fre- quents a certain establishmer ' " the Rue VI. Some Remarks Upon the French Method of Regulation -It is not uninterest- ing,. after our general remarks on prostitu- tion in England, to note the condition of social evil regulations in France. It would be unjust to do otherwise since France is subject to the same vices. In order to be impartial, it is necessary to scan the Parisian system, which has for a long time served as a model for numerous European countries, and is yet far from being perfect and justly subject to criticism not only from the physician and sanitarian but also from all true moralists. English legislation abandons prostitu- tion to itself as a vice which it cannot stop and which it is disgusting to control. French law, to the contrary, accords it high protection and accords favors to those who, assuming the shame of the occupa- tion, accept the profession of prostitute. Recognized as immoral in itself, it be- comes monstrous when it is considered that its partisans have for an avowed pur- pose the centralization of the commerce of prostitution for the profit of a certain number of individuals. I mean by this that the government watches over, regulates and encourages prostitution for the purpose of preventing persons given over to this vice from con- tracting venereal maladies. (') It thus trans- forms the earth into a sort of kingdom of venereal pleasures, comparable only to those old time administrations which watched over and sustained the Parc au cerf for the sexual delights of profligate kings of France. " Go and prostitute yourself," says the law; "you have nothing to fear. Such dissipation when protected by medical in- spection is not dangerous, and I wish you happiness and guarantee you security." Such is the language used by the government to all individuals of the iWide differences of opinion exist in regard to the real motives actuating the regulation of prostitution and in common with the editors of the '■'■Journal de Medecine de Paris'''' the translator believes that where evils exist that cannot be controlled otherwise than by a system of police regulation, the community at large should have the benefit accruing from a lessening of these vices, notwithstanding the protests of re- ligious fanatics who oppose ail legal recognition to the existence of a vice the regulation of which is beyond their moral control. 12 Study on Prostitution in England and France.-r-Minor. Dauphot, where his numerous visits do not depend on his administrative attributes. Still, we reserve the right to believe that this aggressive officer, long held up as a model, acts in the interest of law and order. We say, then, that the privilege of running a house of prostitution is a great favor in Paris. As Mr. Fiaux remarks: "It is almost the only recompense for leading a life of shame." It is true that the police authorities are chary of giving such privileges. In fact they never give these save to women who have always been prostitutes and have had the experi- ences of girls of that class. These women having exhausted commerce with their own bodies are deemed the best agents to traffic in the bodies of others. It is a kind of white slavery. Yet tolerance is not only conferred upon matrons, girls and widows, but upon married women, providing the latter prove the legal written assent of their husbands, which will at once disclose the high honor attributed by police agents to the dignity of marriage. Interior View of French Houses of Pros- titution.-The inhabitants are worthy of the house. The landlady permits her girls to carry out the most licentious ideas-the very worst forms of debauchery-every vice possible-that can gratify the sexual passions of her customers. Inhuman, filled with hard cupidity, her only desire is to reap from the labor of her white slaves, every possible cent of money. She has no regard for their repose. All considerations relating to sleep and health fall before her pecuniary estimation of the business. That which makes these landladies still more influential with their subordinates is that the latter regard the most elevated po sition among the demi monde to be the mis tress of a house of venereal pleasures; a thing unreasonable, but nevertheless true, they require all the external manifestations of deference and respect. The agents of police themselves are obliged to doff their hats in the presence of the landlady. To their own minds their part is the mere official examination of a social duty. The moral picture is still more gloomy when we view the situation of the unfortu- nate slaves who dwell in these gorgeously equipped establishments. The majority of girls who fail in their medical examinations are those who are broken down in the struggle for life. It is the police who recruit this corps. It is the police who are the agents to give an ex- hausted prostitute an isolating method of rest. It is Mr. Lecour who makes this confession with the most surprising degree of nonchalence. "In a multitude of cases," says he, " when it becomes necessary, for instance, to impose inscrip- tion and sanitary obligation on prostitutes without homes, these measures are illusory, if they do not live in houses of ill fame." These unfortunate girls are followed to the very doors of the hospital*, notably those of Lourcine and Vesinet, by the procurers and procuresses of houses desiring recruits. These same harpies of vice make their sexual engagements as quickly as possible at th-, very threshhold of the dispensaries. These intermediaries between the working girl and the capitabst teach th. purse strings of the latter only when the prey is procured. Landladies of Lrge Parisian bawdy houses have correspondents in al! the large cities of France and foreign countries. The public barems of Paris, when well managed, offer an attractive assortment of women from the Indies, Ho'land, England, with creoles from Louisiana and negroes from Africa. These poor human beings are forwarded to the Frew h capital from Bologn -, Marseilles, Lyons and Bordeaux, with letters of re<- ommendation, details regarding their health and sexual activity, and other quali- ties too disgusting for mention in print. This female merchandise has always a mention in the last sentence of the letter, i. e.: the price of the worn n-500, 200 or 800 francs. Although the French law prohibits the debauchery of minors it is not unusual to meet exceedingly young girls in houses of tolerance. Late articles in the Pall Mall Gazette have thrown : ew light on the hor- rible subject. The recent scandalous trials at Anvers and Brussels have already demonstrated the sexual commerce between England and Belgium to the profit of the latter, in- asmuch as it has been proven that Belgium receives numbers of English girls aged less than fifteen years. It is not necessary o create d sgust in the minds of our readers by recalling the fact that all girls, no matter how youthful, must submit their bodies to the most terri- ble indignities when they become inmates Study on Prostitution in England and France.-Minor. 13 of houses of tolerance placed under police inspection, for how can one help being filled with disgust wnen the law of a natio 1 protects and covers up the infamy of such horrors. "It is in these houses," says Fiaux, "that the most abominable and bestial habits are gratified." Not only the early passions of youth, which may be natural, but sodomy and other sexual degradations and brutalities unfit to be mentioned. The chief c f po- lice, who freque is a bawdy house on the Rue Duphot, should learn to know that his work should be not only in the interest of hygiene but of public morals. The inscription of girls.-That which we have said applies to >he large number of women confined to an indoor life in houses of ill- ame-women who never go outside the door except on rare occasions or when sent to the hospital for treatment. We will discuss this class again further along. The following regarding the situation of registered or 1. scribed girls is from the official reports : "Inscription imposes on these girls such minute and se-ere obligations, that liberty, which in appearance they enjoy to a greater extent than girls in ouses of tol- erance, is, in reality, only fictitious. Her card of permit enumerates her many obli- gations. She is to submit to a medical ex- amination every two weeks; she is pro- hibited from soliciting custom from her windows or on the street during the. day ; she is allowed to solicit patrons from sun- set in summer time, and from seven o'clock in the evening in winter time up to thfc hour of 11 o'clock at night. She is for- bidden to solicit men accompanied by women or children; she is forbidden to walk with other girls while seeking cus- tomers; she is forbidden to dress her hair in certain fashions. 'The appellation, sub- missive girl, is truly well chosen. But this is not all. The isolated girl must live in permitted rooms. She thus falls into the hands of all kinds of money sharks; the proprietor of the room she rents, the furniture man, the carpet man, the wine merchant, etc., all of whom charge her exhorbitant prices. Thus, for instance, her landlord will charge 6, 8 and 12 francs a day for apartments which rent to the ordinary tenant for two-thirds less money. Numerous other curious regulations apply to submissive girls, which are ordi- narily so ridiculous that they are not often used. Thus, one rule reads: "That not more than one inscribed prostitute of the isolated kind shall live in the same house, and that two such women must not room together," etc. We see that the government which ex- tends its favors to those girls who accept the white slave life of houses of tolerance, indulges in severe measures with isolated or clandestine women of the town. This is done for the purpose of forcing all women of the town into the clutches of in- human landladies, and the authorities be- come more desperate each day at their lack of success in driving these unfortu- nate women. To prove this it is only necessary to glance at the following table in order to see that houses of tolerance di- minish in numbers from year to year, while clandestine prostitution makes an ever unceasing and increasing progress. r73 O on 01 00 00 04 Os co r Os OsOO CM M SO so so CO Os Os tn oo CO 00 ,x m 1 r~ O HI CM CM C st CO h st H St O SO CM sf O sf ■st so 'T ? <2 00 Os o Os OsOO oc I- so m st st CO CM O w HI IH H< H hH 04 Hl c ex ex ex ex ex ex ex ex ex ex ex ex ex ex ex ex ex ex ex ex ex ex ex rx R Hi HI HI 01 HI M h> Hi H >H H hH H H H HI HI HI r™l M ►8 K *>0 .« 8 2* r*4 ,8 ■£ s 3 K m ds CM Os 04 st-sd - o ds CM CM 04 CM CM 00 SO -t COSO od co o O Os Os Os Os Os OsOO i>* i>* \O m m i_n -ri- on m co co co co cO cO 04 01 04 04 Hl H M HI H HI h-I H >-1 IH IH hH IH t-I 1-4 >-< hH M H-< 1-< lH b p 8 • : • • • • • ; • • I • . • . * .8 -8 • • z I * . ' ; I co 01 • • . coo i- a OS Owe CO st IO so I-CO Os O 04 co Tf- m so t" 00 Os c 1 f~) i n ir) to SO so sc so so SO SO SO SO SO i r^- c* I'S* I''*' oc 00 00 co 00 00 C£ 00 co co <X 00 oo oo oo oo oo oo 00 00 00 00 00 oo oo CO co oc -*N HI IH H HI 1-1 »-I - •H HI HI HI H H H < HI HI Hi HI HI HI Thus the number of enumerated houses of ill-fame in Paris has been reduced more than one hundred since the year 1843, and the number of boarders, which was more than 2,000 in 1857, fell to 1.041 in 1880. It was only the years of Universal Exposi- 14 Study on Prostitution in England and France.-Minor. tions that increased these numbers for a short time and gave a seeming vitality to this highly honorable industry. Particular information, which we have received regarding some of these places, permits us to say, however, that while the number of houses has diminished, the pecuniary benefits of a certain number are considerable. One single establishment purchased by a young landlady, without fortune, but with rare business intelligence, for the sum of $80,000, was paid for out of the savings of four years. This house now pays its fair but frail owner over $20,000 net per annum. The Officers of Public Morals at Paris. -Counting the number and location of agents charged with the police manage ment of prostitutes at Paris we see at once that regulations are only to be enforced on a limited number of the many regiments of fast women with which the French capital abounds. We know that the police officers attached to this special service, known as secret agents, are clad in citizens clothing. They pretend, in order to better catch their game, that they often assume to be male procurers. In 1880 the police department had 80 special agents engaged in this spy work. These figures evidence the best proof that such inspection is insufficient, and that no real protection is afforded by the system. I consider, in fact, that this surveillance is exercised on less than one-tenth of the women of the town notoriously given to prostitution. The registered girls who are sent to Saint Lazare Hospital are but a small proportion of the whole. If the same rules were enforced for all Parisian women who prostitute themselves we should need a hospital with ten thousand beds, a hile St. Lazare only contains a few hundred. The following, according to municipal reports, is the organization of the Bureau, of Public Morals. The service is divided into three sec- tions. The first watches over Clichy, the Grand Boulevards and Champs Elysees, and is the most important of the three. The second operates in the Faubourg, Saint Martin, the place of the throne. The third on the left side of the River Seine, Grenelle, Boulevard Saint Michel, etc. A division by lots has also been insti- J tuted. Paris is divided into ten sub-dis- tricts, and the suburbs constitute one only. How are these agents recruited ? Who are these men selected for their skill and love of the service, for their presumed in- telligence and the supposed possession of those high moral attributes that lead to a knowledge of what constitutes a prostitute of superior qualities ? Where do these secret agents come from, these paragons of virtue on whom devolves so much power with so little responsibility ? We repeat, what is the personal of this police adminis- tration ? Mostly old soldiers to whom work is repugnant, men of irregular habits tempted by the adventures as well as the small salary attached to the business, seduced by profit as well as the gratification of animal tastes and desires, men who for the greater part are devoid (there may be a few hon- orable exceptions) of both intelligence and morality. These agents are poorly paid- only $25 a month, and an old soldier can- not live on that sum and his pension. He may be a married man too. Let that be as it may, he must be hale, hearty and vigorous, always a high liver and good drinker, as he is thrown among a thousand temptations and pleasures. He spends his days and nights with fast women in houses of ill-fame, or in the furnished apartments of isolated girls. He is petted and cajoled, humored and bribed by landladies and submissive girls, who make him the object of their solicitations and numerous presents in order to lessen the severity of his police judgment. Who can judge of the influence of this autocrat who is irresponsible yet all powerful ? The following fact, reported by Mr. Fiaux in his remarkable work, shows that these agents of public morals often invade the circles of private life, and that respec- table people are often subjected to strange usages. "Some years since Officer Landouze and inspectors Kroger and Loisee and special sodomist detective Ralcarre com- menced an investigation regarding the an- tecedants of Parisian actresses, collecting an album of these beauties in gallant but compromising attitudes, together with their secret biographies and intimate per- sonal relations. This wonderful book, en- titled ' Me moires Secret,' was then present- ed to the Chief of Police, Mr. Ansart, who, touched by this tribute of police af- fection, graciously thanked these secret agents for their rare Parisian testimonial." Study on Prostitution in England and France.-Minor. 15 Visits to Tolerated Houses by Inspectors. - "The surveillance of a house of toler- ance," says Mr. Fiaux, " is relatively easy. The inmates, naturally, submit to police regulation in houses of the lower class. The visits of the inspector to the houses of rich landladies is a simple formality; she has merely to sign the register of the police department, and the declaration of the landlady stands unquestioned. She is truly mistress of her own house, who, dealing with prominent and wealthy citizens, for- bids the authorities to penetrate too deeply into her business. The formal orders of the law are never given to landladies of fashionable first-class houses. On times of of great public fetes, with expositions, when the capital is crowded with strangers from the provinces and foreign countries, first- class establishments like those on the Rue Chatanais, contains a third more girls than is allowed by the regulations. One large house on this street contains twenty-two bedrooms; but, during festival occasions, has thirty-three young women. That is to say that the women at such times sleep to- gether, notwithstanding the law on this point. Dr. Paul Dubois, who knows this to be a fact, also asserts that the same state of affairs exists in many other houses when the city is crowded with strangers." There is connivance between the pros- titutes and the police agents;, in other words, violation of the regulations is winked at on certain occasions. The same state of affairs is noticeable in Eng- land, where the policeman who seems so cold and stiff, has often uncommonly close relations with the mistresses of the brothels. The reports of the Pall Mall Gazette abso- lutely prove this fact, for Mr. Stead, the editor of this journal, having demanded of Sir William Harcourt the assistance of the police department in his inquiry on the traffic in virgins at London, was incensed by a refusal on the part of the authorities. " It was a good thing," adds Mr. Stead, " for we had made a false step at the start, for if the police, had known the reasons for our inquiries, the proprietor of every brothel in London would have been fully informed. They would have been on their guard, and we should have learned nothing regarding their vile trade. Of this refusal to assist is the only service ren- dered us by Sir William Harcourt. We desire to thank him." Drunkenness and Prostitution.-This is not precisely the place to dwell on the in- timate relations existing between these two social evils. We know that the largest profits derived from houses of ill-fame accrue from the sale of alcoholic drinks, which are sold at an exhoritant price. Girls who cannot drink or excite the house's male patrons to drink are regarded as bad boarders. Girls to be favorites with landladies must keep half intoxicated at all times. What becomes of the law regard- ing drunkenness in houses of ill-fame at such times ? Paul Dubois and Sigismond Lecroix have both called the attention of the police authorities to the continued non- enforcement of this law in the public houses of Paris. "Meantime the unfor- tunate girls who live in these vile places are forced to drink adulterated liquors which contain in many instances real aphrodisiac poisons. The police close their eyes to these evils." It is only when he is drunk that man enters on a real erotic delirium, and wallows in sensuality like a beast. When he is drunk he pays enormous prices for imitation champagne and lavishes his money on the sensual courtesans. The police know this, yet they tolerate and even encourage the dirty business. Unsubmissive Girls; their Approximate Number Compared to Submissive or Inscribed Girls.-We designate by the name zinsub- missive girls, those who openly practice prostitution, without being inscribed upon the official register. They bear this name up to the moment they are detected in the act, when they are arrested and inscribed at the police office. It is absolutely impossible to give any idea as to the exact number of women who ply their sexual avocation in Paris. Ac- cording to the estimates of dispensary phy- sicians and Mr. Lecour, their total num- ber is in the neighborhood of 40,000, but this estimate made by the police authori- ties falls far below the truth. The figures 100,000 fixed by Maxime Ducamp in his book on Paris comes nearer to reality. Whatever may be the number of real clandestine or unsubmissive girls, it is enor- mous when compared to the number of honestly inscribed women. We judge of this by the official estimates running from 1830 to 1850: 16 Study on Prostitution in England and France.-Minor. 1 £ 8 8 £ co" O CO CM CM o co - co 4- o co CO CO CO o 00 CO C\ co o CM 00 co CM Ox CO CM Ox co CM CM CO 00 o o co 00 CO CO O 00 CO CO 00 co 01 00 CO o o C\ 00 co i-> CM 00 CM c r r 0 < oc c r\ c C\ c< 0 c OC c c K ro ro co co CO co co co co co ks OC OC oc oc oc OC OC OC cc oc cc oc CC oc CC oc OC cc CC CC oc. H 00 00 00 1_O VO CM co - o H- COO X>W vo co CM SO VO o »-i CM d CM CM CM Ox d ..a:~ f-i )-> M M h-< i-i Ox 0x00 CM 00 Ox vo so CO vo Trj" Ox o o S to CO w co vo r-i vo a .k 5 s'O K co CO co co CM co CM CO tj •S-K . Ox 6x 6 COCO VO 6 00 SO Ox SO o Ox (s. LQ 00 CM CO Tf" 'st' o 4.h 5" o t~>» Os o 00 !>. X© 1-( •~ ? VO o 00 so 00 Ox Ox co _*O **>1 SO 1_O Ox Js. Ox l-t Tj" COCO vo co co CO to co co CM CM CM Cm <N co VO 00 Ox o 00 A» hS 00 r-t 00 1-( 00 H4 00 >- 00 00 *- 9Q M CO 1-4 And also by the additional table : Year. Inscribed Detained at Uninscribed Uninscribed Girls Pun- Infirmary. Girls at St. Girls at In- atished St. Lazare. Lazare. firtnary. 1875 •••7,065. .. 1,000.. ....I29 916 1876 •••6,765. ....1,306.. ....IO4.... 640 1877 ...7,095 ....1,167.. ....173 ... 742 1878 ...8,495 .... 1,124.. ....163.... 820 The following table up to 1880 indi- cates the number of unsubmissive girls who were arrested and afterwards inscribed at the police department to be registered as submissive girls and inscribed girls of houses of tolerance. In the following table we can compare the number of girls in houses with the number inscribed at the Police Depart- ment. The officials will not communicate the statistics of late years. 00 00 o OO O 00 00 00 00 00 00 Go 00 to 00* J "o • - • k $ 04 to O to C>0 04 04 04 X x X x ~x ** X f n H-1 (j~i n Go i-i C>o o vo Z-4 00 M Cv VO v) VO to 00 vo VO s *2 Q* HU 1-' s> X *S4 04 to OC. n O vo o VO o ( n to C UH VO to 04 04 04 VO Years. Inscribed but Isolated Girls. Girls Inscribed in Houses. 1852 2,469 1,762 1855 2,047 1,852 i860 2,270 1,929 1865 2,706 1,519 1869 2,526 1,206 1870 2,590 1,066 1872 3,116 1,126 1873 3>46o 1,143 1874 3,438 I, I°9 1875 3,496 1,149 1876 .... 3,I29 I, l68 1877 2,879 1,278 1878 2,313 1,041 l88o .... We find the number of arrests in- creased in 1880, considering that only 80 special agents were employed. But we desire to remark that sudden raids were common, and one hotel was even invaded in the middle of the night, and as the house had a doubtful reputation all the women in it were arrested. '1'hey submit- ted without resistance, and all underwent a medical examination the next day. One can readily understand that with such a system errors are frequent, and it is not rare to see married women arrested, and likewise female servants out of place -per- sons who are really not prostitutes but have fallen through accident. Errors of this kind have often given rise to deplorable consequences, and re- cent instances of this kind are too numer- ous to mention. For instance, in 1876, the wife of an honorable banker, who waited for her husband on the street, was We see that the number of girls in- scribed is absolutely insignificant compared to the total number of women who openly live by prostitution. The sanitary action of the police department is only brought to bear then upon a limited number, and is not as truly efficacious in protecting the public from venereal maladies as might be claimed at the first glance. The following table shows the number of arrests made for cause during nine years of the later period: Study on Prostitution in England and France.-Minor. 17 arrested. In 1877 Miss Ligeron was ar- rested at the moment she parted from her betrothed, and died a few days after from nervous prostration following this outrage. The medical examination proved the lady to be a perfect virgin. It is only lately that the dastardly arrests of Miss Russell and Miss Bernage have been sharply com- mented on by the public press. Measures of Coercion-Saint Lazare.- Let us now say a few w'ords as to coercive measures applied to girls of the town who may be arrested as unsubmissive, or be condemned to coercive penalties for of- fences against the police of public morals. Every girl arrested is sent to a dispen- sary, there examined by the physicians. If she is diseased or suspected of being in- fected she is sent to the Hospital Saint La- zare for treatment. There she remains until her malady is pronounced cured. At the Hospital Saint Lazare the in- mates are divided into three sections. The first consists of women caught in crimes or public offences. The condemned undergo punishment for not less than a year ; women under detention and waiting judgment of court. This includes those who may be released by the minister of justice. The second section includes submissive and sick girls and unsubmissive girls de- tained in hospital by reason of crime aside from any sickness. Finally, a third section for young maids and children; girls aged less than sixteen years of age detained by way of pa- ternal correction; young girls less than sixteen years of age, who have acted with- out discernment, are kept imprisoned up to their twentieth year; girls less than six- teen years of age, who have committed crimes with a full knowledge of the conse- quences, are kept confined until trans- ferred to houses of correction. We need not give a longer description of Saint Lazare. A single visit to this place will reveal the fact that it is in the poorest possible sanitary condition. We do not blame the managers for this deplor- able condition of affairs, nor the disting uished physicians who devote so much gratuitous services to medical charity, but Saint Lazare is located in a populous and peculiar quarter of the city; its buildings, with a single exception, that devoted to the second section, are old and damp, badly lighted and poorly arranged. The yards are too small; the workshops where the girls pass the most of their time, are moist and without sunshine; the sleeping apartments are as close and non-ventilated as can be. The only clean and cheerful place is the Catholic chapel kept by the Sisters ot Charity. But we repeat that there is no desire on our part to reproach the authorities in charge ot Saint Lazare. If the buildings are old and defective they were not intend- ed at their origin for their present purpose. Some day they must be torn down, when it is to be hoped the corporation will con- struct a building on more recent hospital plans. We shall not discourse on the first sec- tion of Saint Lazare, where women guilty of all possible criminal offenses are confin- ed. If women will be bad, so much the worse for mankind! We are not of those, meantime, who-like Mr. Herbert-desire to make prisons for females so comfortable that their most earnest desire after libera- tion is a return to criminal quarters. The physician and moralist must reserve his criticism of the second section, which is a hospital, in which are detained as prison- ers, under common law, girls , who have com- mitted no other crime than involuntarily contracting a blenorrhagia or syphilis. To these unfortunates all the cruel rigidities of prisons are applied, they are badly lodged, poorly clothed, wretchedly fed, living in a miasmatic and poisonous atmosphere, where a woman only half lost falls into the deepest depths of moral and physical ab- jection; where every mild disease degener- ates into a serious malady, where women with consumption and syphilis languish for months and even years, making the hospit- al a veritable pest house for every new- comer. Notwithstanding the science and devo- tion of the medical staff, who shorten as far as possible the stay of the inmates, in spite of the precautions of an intelligent and clear headed manager, the unfortunate wo- men rot away unjustly and ignobly in the second section of the Saint Lazare, ignobly because they are treated as criminals, un- justly because they are detained as crimin- als without having really committed a crime. From a medical standpoint the detention of women in this establishment presents serious objections. When we confine a woman attacked by syphilis and its conta- gion, we can understand the rigor of the 18 Study on Prostitution in England and France.-Minor. purpose in the interest of the public health, but to confine women who have no conta- gious symptoms is purely arbitrary, and we deem that the Dispensary physician ex- ceeds the bounds intended by the Govern- ment in sending to the Hospital girls suf- fering from slight ulceration of the neck of the uterus, as occurs frequently, and as has often been proved by the very statistics furnished by these very learned and hon- orable doctors to the Chief of Police. Yet we must remark that this affection of the neck of the womb is neither venereal nor contagious; the most ignorant doctor knows that this is not the result of impure coition or habitual depravity. Why not likewise send to prison women attacked with purely cutaneous and non contagious diseases such as eczema simplex. You might answer me by saying that a woman who has had measles has had mucous patches and may have them again. Yet on this very principle you imprison women because they may become sick. This is stretching the bounds of prudence too far, and we believe that all thinking men will agree with us, even though they approve the actual system in well defined cases. If you believe in the right to confine women attacked with contagious syphilitic acci- dents, you do so to protect the precious health of male scoundrels who continue to propagate the disease at liberty. Why not imprison the syphilitic men? Let us terminate these too lengthy re- flections in proposing a reform that may be immediately applied, and which simple hu- manity and equity should consider as urgent. When the corporation believes it a duty to imprison sick women, let this measure only be applied under the following re- strictions : 1 st. Confine every woman plainly suf- fering from syphilis, and only syphilitic sub- jects. 2d. Do not place unfortunate girls in a prison filled with women confined for rob- bery, murder and other crimes. 3d. Treat these women not as criminals, but as patients. This last reform is most urgent-it may be accomplished in twenty-four hours. It is sufficient that they be treated precisely like other patients in the public hospitals, deprive them of liberty if it be necessary, but feed them and deal with them as you would with other sick women. Why not admit the revolting injustice, by compari- son, between the treatment of the unbathed female unfortunates of Saint Lazare and the carefully nursed and well nourished male syphilitics of the general hospitals of Paris. The following tables are not without in- terest, and support our previous statement that many non-contagious and doubtful cases (metritis) are sent to Saint Lazare Hospital. These tables were arranged by Lacour for the period dating from 1850 to 1869, and the tables that follow are those furnish- ed to the Muuicipal Council of Paris by Yves Guyot for 1871-1880. 00 00 os Os 00 C\ 00 Os Os oo jo ga 00 04 00 O 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 Years. o' Ln O 'oc Ln Ln Ln SO 00 CzJ CzJ Isolated girls in- ** "os 0c o o o NJ 10 04 NJ SO KJ 04 o o KJ scribed in houses. SO •-I On so KJ 00 so SO Os o SO • Isolated girls inHos - >w 00 04 so +>• tn o KJ CzJ KJ OJ Ln KJ 00 KJ KJ KJ KJ KJ KJ KJ KJ KJ Ln KJ \o tzJ .00 to o 'O fatal with metritis, urethritis or soft • chancre. •- NJ KJ M KJ KJ KJ (0 KJ - M M SO o O so KJ SO t/J Os On Ln 04 Non-registered girls so 00 KJ NJ <J KJ Ln KJ 04 o so KJ arrested and visited SO 00 0001 04 KJ o 00 00 Os KJ 04 00 kj 00 SO KJ o KJ NJ CzJ »-* Ln KJ Ln SO Non-registered girls with metritis,ureth- Os 0 04 04 KJ 04 KJ KJ SO CS rifts or soft chancre The following are Guyot's tables, 1870 to 1880: 00 00 00 00 oc 1 OC i Oc 1 00 00 Yearr. oo •"'J o \o 00 «j Chon 4- Cm bj KJ kj to 04 04 04 CM Cm 04 04 on 00 - 04 4*. 4*. 4*. Isolated rirls ree- VO KJ 4- VO Ch ittertd ~J o vO CO ' OC 1 oc 1 o Ch o 00 Ch -J KJ o KJ KJ >-* Isolated girls dis- Ln O 4- VO Ch 04 VO KJ eastd o - KJ Girls inscribed in Ov44 4s* o 4s* KJ houses. 00 00 00 on VO VO 04 Ch kj KJ KJ C>J 04 04 KJ Diseased girls in 4* Ln Ln Os Ln Cm .Ch VO VO 4- O VO KJ SO houses. 04 to IQ KJ KJ 04 04 CzJ Cm £ O VO On vo On 04 00 44 K> VO Ln KJ 04 OO VO Ch VO Unregistered girls arrested 04 00 KJ 4- CsLn 4- KJ o Ui On Ch 00 K> (S' Unregistered girls Ln On O 0004 KJ Ch found diseased. Hospital Lourcine.-After giving an out- line sketch of Saint Lazare, it may not be Study on Prostitution in England and France.-Minor. 19 amiss to make a few short notes on the Hospital Lourcine, which is a public insti- tution not connected with the Police De- partment. The following remarks are by Dr. Martineau, one of the most distinguish- ed members of the Hospital staff. The Lourcine Hospital is not destined, as many imagine, to receive submissive girls for isolating purposes, these can only find a refuge in the special infirmary of St. Lazare. It is formally understood, on the con- trary, that all registered or inscribed wo- men under the control of the Police De- partment and all sick women coming from tolerated houses must be carefully consign ed to this latter establishment. If submis- sive girls manage to secure entrance to Lourcine it is only because they do so by trickery and false papers. When they do enter Lourcine it is for the purpose of avoiding the regular medical visits at the Infirmary and the confinement at Saint Lazare. So many women, in case they suspect themselves diseased, pretend to leave for a journey in the Provinces, but nevertheless remain in Paris. Thus they present themselves at Lourcine under an assumed name, knowing that the Police Department, ever a slave to professional secrets, will not invade the sanctity of an- other asylum than its own. So many girls enter Lourcine and remain until cured. Girls entering Lourcine are always well be- haved for fear of expulsion, or falling into the clutches of the police outside, they sub- mit patiently to all necessary medical treat- ment - in fact, this Hospital is a favorite place of seclusion for the better class of registered girls suffering from contagious diseases. Patients at Lourcine have as great lib- erty as patients in other general hospitals, may enter and go out whenever they de- sire, and are only subject to the same rules imposed on other patients. The specialty of the affection treated does not cause any undue severity in discipline. To believe that all those who enter Lourcine each year are prostitutes consti- tutes a grave error, for all women attacked with venereal or other contagious affections are admitted and treated as in any public hospital. We find there married women, victims of marital misconduct; nurses, vic- tims of syphilis derived from infants' mouths; young girls with inherited syphilis, girls who have been diseased by rape, young girls given to secret practices. Many women of fortune, but indiscreet, seek also in Lourcine an abiding place for medical treatment. In classifying the inmates of Lourcine, however, it is only fair to state that the fewest number are victims, the majority of inmates are old timers, members of the demi monde given to clandestine prostitu- tion. At this Hospital, as before stated, they may enter freely, and they have the same liberty to depart. No power can retain them in spite of themselves-the physician may declare they are not cured, the direct- or may insist it is to their interest to remain a time longer under treatment, yet they will occasionally leave on the slightest caprice. In former times the hospital had more the character of a jail, and a dungeon was used for the purpose of punishing refract- ory patients, to-day milder measures suc- ceed the former barbarities; there are modi- fied rules consisting in privations from promenading in the corridors and convers- ing with other inmates, even these slight punishments are rarely used. Fear is no longer used for correcting purposes at Lourcine. Reprint from The Cincinnati Lancet-Clinic, July 24, 31, and August 7, 14 and 21, CINCINNATI :