Report of the Committee for the Prevention of Venereal Diseases : read before, and adopted by, the Society, July 1st, 1867 / edited by Charles R. Drysdale and J. Brendon Curgenven.
- Harveian Society of London. Committee for the Prevention of Venereal Diseases.
- Date:
- 1867
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Report of the Committee for the Prevention of Venereal Diseases : read before, and adopted by, the Society, July 1st, 1867 / edited by Charles R. Drysdale and J. Brendon Curgenven. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![The importance of the late Government examinations in re- ducing the amount of venereal disease in the localities which are placed under the operation of the Act is shown by the fact vouched for by Dr. Stuart, of Woolwich, Grovemment Inspecting Officer under the Act, that, although the Act came into opera- tion only in October, 1866, the amount of disease in April, 1867, was only one half of what it had been in Woolwich, and consisted, in a lai'ge proportion of cases, entirely of gonorrhoea. The examinations, too, at Woolwich had as yet been confined entirely to women suspected of being diseased. In October, 1866, too, the proportion of cases of venereal dis- ease found among the troops quartered at Woolwich was ] '75 per cent., and by April, 1867, the proportion of cases belong- ing to the troops in the garrison was not much over a half per cent, of their number, or less than a third of what it was. It appears, also, according to Dr. Stuart, that the amount of dis- ease among the civil population of Woolwich is much dimin- ished since the examination of the prostitutes has been enforced. Again, it appears that at Sheerness there have only been 36 admissions for venereal disease into the Garrison Hospital from January 1st to April 22nd, 1867, whilst Aldershot, which in April, 1867, had not yet been put under the operation of the Act, was reported by Mr. Powell in Api41, 1867, as being in a deplorable condition with respect to venereal disease. There were two venereal female wards in the workhouse with 18 beds adjoining the camp (which contains 10,000 men), and a fever ward had also to be used for the poor diseased women, with an average of only 200 cubic feet for each patient. The consequence of this was the excessive severity of the cases, and an extensive infection of the troops. By this time it is believed that sufficient accommodation has been obtained for the poor diseased women; and that this terrible state of things is much mitigated. In the Herbert Military Hospital, Wool- wich, there is a daily average of 84 venereal cases. All venereal cases in the army are treated as in-patients ; and, according to Mr. Teevan, this regulation is a bad one, often causing soldiers to have recourse to chemists and other surgeons, instead of going to their own army medical man, because they object to low](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22279581_0013.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
