Venereal disease : its present and future a paper read at the Annual Congress of the Royal Institute of Public Health, held in Dublin, August, 1911 / by Douglas White and C.H. Melville.

  • White, Douglas.
Date:
1911?]
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Venereal disease : its present and future a paper read at the Annual Congress of the Royal Institute of Public Health, held in Dublin, August, 1911 / by Douglas White and C.H. Melville. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/18 (page 18)
    18 To this end it is suggested that there should be reform in hospital accommodation, both in- and out-patient ; that members of the special staff should have special training ; treatment should be free to all, and at convenient times, with adequate provision for up-to-date methods ; public ignorance in these matters should be remedied by all possible means ; the quack and all his works should be suppressed ; and, lastly, notification should be insisted on, without names indeed, but with a full account of age, sex, date of infection, duration of treatment, and result thereof. At first there would be an apparent increase in the number of patients, but this would soon give way to decrease, and with a decrease in disease there would be a decrease of vice. The present time is favourable for the commencement of a cam¬ paign against venereal disorders. Gonorrhoea can be cured in its early stages, and its present incidence might be enormously diminished ; against syphilis we have in our hands a specific, by means of which, rightly used, this disease might in a short time be eliminated. If full advantage were taken of these facts, the economic and, as we think, the moral gain to the community, resulting from the diminution of disease, would quickly, amply, and repeatedly repay the cost of such an effort, for which the means are at hand and the time is ripe. Reprinted from “ The Lancet,” December cfih and 16th, 1911.