A complete handbook of treatment : arranged as an alphabetical index of diseases to facilitate reference, and containing nearly one thousand formulae / by William Aitken.

  • William Aitken
Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A complete handbook of treatment : arranged as an alphabetical index of diseases to facilitate reference, and containing nearly one thousand formulae / by William Aitken. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    tute. The British Legislature has determined that in cer- tain garrison towns such a woman, after being repeatedly- warned, and still persisting in a life of prostitution, shall submit to a medical examination, on the ground that, should she be diseased, she would communicate a contagious com- plaint to those having relation with her. It is further enact- ed that if the woman be found diseased, she shall be at once sent to hospital, and not allowed to leave till she is, in the opinion of the surgeon, perfectly cured. If then desirous of abandoning her evil courses, the girl is relieved from further surveillance, and will be sent to her friends at the Govern- ment's expense. If, on the other hand, a common woman, on being discharged from hospital, and released altogether from the operation of the Acts, returns to a protected dis- trict, and is again found by the police acting as a public prostitute, she must again be registered. In every case the authorities wish it to be clearly understood that they do not sanction or authorize prostitution ; they only watch over it from their anxiety to prevent its worst evils, and to ameliorate the condition of the women, and check disease (Acton).] places, where the great majority (after the Acts have been in operation for a year or two) suffer from very mild forms of the disease. In 1870 a Royal Commission was appointed to consider the questions raised in the House of Commons on a motion for a repeal of the Act. The report of this Royal Commission speaks most decidedly upon the effects of the Acts in the reduction of the worst forms of disease among the lower classes of prostitutes, and acknowledges that they have both directly and indirectly promoted the ob- jects sought to be attained by those Acts. They have purged the towns and encampments to which they have been applied of miserable creatures, who were masses of rottenness and vehicles of disease ; and it was agreed that, for the pub- lic good, particular districts which are from any cause pecu- liarly liable to contagious disease should be subjected to special sanitary legislation, (e) In passing these Acts .also. Parliament pronounced the strongest protest against the right of an individual suffering from a 'loathsome disease knowingly to communicate it to another ; hence, in the in- terest of all, the State has the right to limit the personal lib- erty of such persons as may be considered dangerous to the common welfare, and to use force, if necessary, to obtain an examination as to the condition of their health. Regular, frequent, and thorough examinations are absolutely neces-
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