Facts respecting the Contagious Diseases Acts : answer to a speech by Duncan McLaren, Esq., M.P., published under the above title / by James R. Lane.

  • Lane, James R. (James Robert), 1825-1891.
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Facts respecting the Contagious Diseases Acts : answer to a speech by Duncan McLaren, Esq., M.P., published under the above title / by James R. Lane. 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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    lb “ society, but that there are people who still take an interest “ in then- moral ancl physical welfare.” p. 2. The alternative proposed by many of those who object to the Contagious Diseases Acts is an increased number of Lock Hospitals to which patients should be admitted on the voluntary system. I have myself assisted in carrying’ out the voluntary system at the London Lock Hospital for more than twenty years, and for the last six years I have seen the voluntary and comprdsory systems at work side by side in the same institution. From the exceptional opportunity which I have thus had of witnessing them both, I am daily more and more convinced that nothing’ but the comprdsory periodica] examination of prostitutes, and their compulsory detention in hospital till cured, will have any material in- fluence in diminishing the lamentable prevalence of venereal disease amongst the population. Voluntary Lock Hospitals may afford charitable relief to the individual sufferers, but from a sanitary point of view, I believe them to be absolutely useless. From long experience of these women I know them to be, with rare exceptions, far too reckless of conse- quences to apply for admission, and to seclude themselves for treatment, until their disease has reached a stage which renders it impossible for them to pursue their calling any longer, and until they have done all the mischief of which they are capable. To treat them as out-patients, which is now done on so large a scale at the various hospitals and dispensaries, is a positive injury to the public health, by enabling them to practise prostitution with less pain to themselves, and for a longer period, than they woidd other- wise be enabled to do. HARRISON ANE SONS, HUNTERS IN ORDINARY TO HER MAJESTY, ST. MARTIN’S-LANF.