Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
generously made available by The Internet Archive.)
THE HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION:
ITS EXTENT, CAUSES, AND EFFECTS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD.
[BEING AN OFFICIAL REPORT TO THE BOARD OF ALMS-HOUSE
GOVERNORS OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.]
BY WILLIAM W. SANGER, M.D.,
RESIDENT PHYSICIAN, BLACKWELL'S ISLAND, NEW YORK CITY;
MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT
OF SCIENCE; LATE ONE OF THE PHYSICIANS TO THE MARINE
HOSPITAL, QUARANTINE, NEW YORK, ETC., ETC., ETC.
"To such grievances as society can not readily cure, it
usually forbids utterance on pain of its scorn; this scorn
being only a sort of tinseled cloak to its deformed
weakness."--CURRER BELL, _Shirley_.
NEW YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
PEARL STREET, FRANKLIN SQUARE.
1858.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight
hundred and fifty-eight, by HARPER & BROTHERS, in the Clerk's Office of
the District Court of the Southern District of New York.
DEDICATION.
TO THE GOVERNORS OF THE ALMS-HOUSE OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF NEW YORK.
SIRS,--To your honorable Board I dedicate the following pages, the result
of an investigation into the causes and extent of Prostitution.
Yours was the conception, mine has been the execution of the work; to you
am I indebted for many valuable suggestions; to your kindness for much
encouraging approbation; and now to your hands I confide my labors, in the
conviction that they will not be futile; that your patriotism, your
philanthropy, and your humanity will be at once enlisted in the cause.
In so noble an endeavor it will be a source of satisfaction to remember
that I assisted you in those generous exertions which will add fresh
laurels to your names; that I had some share in the effort which will
induce future generations to remember with pride that the first blow
struck in the Western World at the gigantic vice Prostitution was aimed by
the GOVERNORS OF THE ALMS-HOUSE OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF NEW YORK.
I am your obliged fellow-citizen,
WILLIAM W. SANGER, M.D.
Resident Physician's Office, Blackwell's Island,
New York City, August 10th, 1858.
ADVERTISEMENT.
The reader will perceive from the body of this work that the "History of
Prostitution" was commenced in the year 1856. It was completed and ready
for the press at the close of 1857. On the morning of February 13th, 1858,
the Island Hospital on Blackwell's Island was entirely consumed by fire,
which spread so rapidly as to render it impossible to save any thing from
the flames. Among the property destroyed, my library and manuscripts were
included. Fortunately, the first draught of this work had been previously
removed from my office, and was preserved, and from that the present
volume has been prepared.
Advantage has been taken of the opportunity thus afforded carefully to
revise the work and introduce some additional facts, bringing the history,
of New York especially, to the present time.
The chapters describing foreign prostitution are not claimed to be
entirely original. They are compilations and condensations from every
available source. It is believed that the authorities have been named in
most cases where the ideas of others have been used; but, owing to the
loss of all the original works, it is highly probable that in some
instances this has been overlooked. Should the reader discover any
omissions of this nature, he will be kind enough to understand that
accident alone prevents the usual acknowledgements.
W. W. S.
Resident Physician's Office, Blackwell's Island,
New York City, August 10th, 1858.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I. THE JEWS.
Prostitution coeval with Society.--Prostitutes in the
Eighteenth Century B.C.--Tamar and Judah.--Legislation of
Moses.--Syrian Women.--Rites of Moloch.--Groves.--Social
Condition of Jewish Harlots.--Description by Solomon.--The
Jews of Babylon. Page 35