And here a few words relative to the licensing system may not be

inappropriate. The propriety of granting licenses, and thus making vice a

sort of revenue, is open to grave objections, but on the other hand

acknowledged social evils have, ere this, been made to contribute to the

public funds. Witness the dealing in ardent spirits. The city does now,

and has for years derived a considerable income from licenses to sell

liquors. A great number of wise and good men contend that the sale or use

of intoxicating beverages is not only an unmitigated evil, but even

criminal; they have entertained and publicly declared these sentiments for

years, but still the license system is continued. It may be a question for

decision whether prostitution is not as liable for taxation as

drunkenness, and if both were equally taxed whether, as a body, we should

be more responsible for the results of one or the other. _En passant_, it

may be noticed that an annual tax of one per cent. upon the property

engaged in the business of prostitution, and a similar assessment upon the

revenue of houses of ill fame, would amount to over one hundred thousand

dollars.

The plan here shadowed forth would not be likely to extend prostitution,

but on the contrary there is very little doubt but it would check it. Even

if it did not, the community would reap an advantage in the sanitary

reform it would enforce. In low neighborhoods many of the brothels are as

dangerous to public health on account of their crowded and excessively

filthy state, as are the syphilized inmates themselves. Such places would

legitimately come within the province of the medical inspectors, and their

reports thereon to the police executive would insure immediate attention.

Public morals would be advanced by such visitations. These houses, or a

great number of them, are the resort of all species of dishonest

characters who would unquestionably abandon them, at least as places of

residence, if they knew they were at any moment liable to a domiciliary

visit. Again, almost every person has in his remembrance some female who

left home and could not be found, because securely secreted in some one of

these houses of prostitution; at least it is not uncommon to read of such

cases in the daily papers, accompanied with an account of the unsuccessful

search of her friends and the police. Occurrences like this could not take

place if all known houses of bad repute were under the _surveillance_ of

the Medical Police Department.

Nor is it unreasonable to hope that prostitution would be diminished. It

has flourished of late years in seclusion, but our plan would render

privacy impossible. Seclusion has attracted many unfortunate women, whom

shame, or a dread of exposure, would have deterred, had they known that

houses of ill fame were always open to the visits of the police, or that

every few days a physician would make a tour of inspection, and a personal

examination, to which they must submit. Generally speaking, these women

have a dread of falling into the hands of a doctor, and in present

circumstances they know that a medical examination is optional with

themselves, until they become so sick as to render it unavoidable. But if

their miserable life were burdened with the additional annoyance of a

compulsory medical treatment it is probable that a considerable check

might be imposed thereon.

Public decency would be advanced by such visitations. To effectually

perform their duties the Medical Bureau and the General Police Department

would find it necessary to make themselves personally acquainted with

these women, and to keep a register of all houses where prostitution was

carried on. Now, the prohibition which has driven it into secrecy has also

rendered it difficult to determine who are frail. Prostitutes are found in

hotels, fashionable restaurants, steam-boat excursions, watering-places,

and suburban retreats. They visit balls and other public entertainments;

sometimes by sufferance, but more frequently because they are not known.

It is needless to say how virtuous women can be annoyed and insulted by

such companionship, or to what extent prostitutes can use their influence

in miscellaneous society. If the police were personally acquainted with

these women, they could act in the same manner as on the Continent of

Europe, namely, touch them upon the shoulder and quietly give them a hint

to leave. Or another reform could easily be introduced--the confinement of

all prostitutes to particular localities in the city, so as to limit

their influence. This would be tantamount to the ancient regulations

prescribing their dress or some distinctive mark; and to the present

arrangements in Europe, where the houses are distinguished by some

specified peculiarity. It would also prevent the depreciation of property

which takes place in any neighborhood where a brothel is established.

Public decency would be served in another manner. It is a most humiliating

admission, that New York is fast approaching to the condition of certain

foreign cities, where unnatural practices first led to the contemplation

and adoption of these or similar remedial measures. In our case, _they are

known to the authorities_, but are so revolting that they never have been,

and never can be, made public. Of course, such an organization would take

special cognizance of these detestable abominations.

Objections to the expense of the plan may be raised, and it can not be

denied that it will be large, yet it will be a matter of economy to incur

it, even at the risk of increasing taxation, which _it will not do_.

Recollect that every year, as the virulence of syphilis was abated, the

cause of the expense would diminish, and that in a direct ratio to the

energy displayed in the examination would be the progressive reduction of

expenditure. It has already been indicated how some of the inmates of a

syphilitic hospital, from whom hitherto nothing has been received, could

be made to contribute their quota of the cost. Now, the public bear all

the expenses, either as assessments or as private payments in individual

attacks. The magnitude of the latter item has been already estimated, and

were it possible to calculate in addition the value of lost time, the

injury to business, and the deterioration of the constitution, the total

in one year would be far more than sufficient to carry out the whole of

this plan for double the time.

It would also be economy to incur the outlay on account of the benefits to

succeeding generations. Syphilis is not confined in its effects to the

life-time of the men or women who contract it, but is entailed on their

descendants. These, provided they survive its baneful effects during

infancy, are mentally and physically unfitted for business or the active

pursuits of life, and, consequently, are frequently indebted for the means

of sustenance to their friends or to public institutions. If the liability

to that disease among parents can be removed, no fears need be entertained

about their children.

We are not so sanguine as to imagine that all the good effects above

enumerated could be accomplished _instanter_. It would be a work of time,

but the sooner it is commenced the better for all the interests involved.

Many persons will say, "Oh! these evils do not concern us; these diseases

will never injure us or ours; why should we trouble ourselves, and give

our money, time, and attention to such matters?" Stop, reader! _While

human passion exists, and while the means of gratifying it can be

obtained, you and yours can and will, nay, do now suffer from it, directly

or indirectly._ The first question for any citizen to ask himself is, Can

prostitution be abolished; can it be crushed out? If this be answered in

the negative, as it must be, then the next question brings him to the

point sought to be attained in these pages, namely, the means that shall

be taken to circumscribe and diminish its consequent diseases and evils.

This question has latterly been attracting some attention in England, and

plans to mitigate the evil have been publicly discussed. The chief grounds

of complaint, or at least those brought most prominently forward, were the

assembling of prostitutes in the streets, the annoyance they caused to

passengers, and the disorderly character of "night-houses." This term is

applied in London to those public houses, supper-rooms, wine and cigar

saloons, etc., which are situated near the theatres and places of public

entertainment, and, being permitted to remain open all night, become

resorts for prostitutes. A public meeting for consultation upon these

evils was held in London in January last (1858), and the remarks made by

some of the speakers are so much in accordance with the general tenor of

this work as to be worth extracting. In justice to the writer it must be

premised that the preceding part of this chapter was penned twelve months

before the report of this meeting was made public.

The chairman observed "that he was glad to see so general an interest

elicited on this subject, and that he hoped it would lead to some

practical result. It would, in fact, be impossible to aggravate the

evil, for neither in Paris, Berlin, New York, nor even in the cities

of Asia, was there such a public exhibition of profligacy."

The following resolutions were submitted and adopted:

"_Resolved_, That a deputation do wait as early as possible upon Sir

George Grey, for the purpose of most respectfully but earnestly

representing to her majesty's government the necessity of effectual

measures being taken to put down the open exhibition of street

prostitution, which in various parts of the metropolis, particularly

in the important thoroughfares of the Haymarket, Coventry Street,

Regent Street, Portland Place, and other adjacent localities, is

carried on with a disregard of public decency and to an extent

tolerated in no other capital or city of the civilized world.

"That such deputation be instructed to urge upon her majesty's

government the following measures, whereby it is believed that the

evil complained of may be effectually controlled:

"Firstly, the enforcement, upon a systematic plan and by means of a

department of the police specially appointed and instructed for that

purpose, of the provisions of the 2d and 3d of Victoria, cap. 47, in

reference to street prostitution, which provisions have in certain

localities been heretofore carried out with the best effect, and in

others have been ineffectual only because acted upon partially, and

not upon any uniform system.

"And, secondly, the passing an act for licensing and placing under

proper regulations, as to supervision and hours of closing, all houses

of entertainment, or for the supply of refreshments, intended to be

opened to the public after a certain fixed hour, it being matter of

public notoriety that the houses of this description popularly known

as night-houses have, by becoming the places of resort of crowds of

prostitutes and other idle and disorderly persons at all hours of the

night, greatly contributed to the present disgraceful exhibition of

street prostitution.

"That the attention of the government be also directed to the number

of foreign prostitutes systematically imported into this country, and

to the means of controlling this evil."

The substance of one of the addresses made on the subject was as follows:

The speaker "begged to remind the meeting that a change had already

been effected through the action of the police in the aspect of the

Haymarket and Regent Street, heretofore so much complained of. The

sense that the public eye was upon their class had caused a

corresponding amendment in the dress and demeanor of the females

frequenting those streets; and the objects of this association were,

so far, in good train. Strongly oppressive, or, as some delicately

said, repressive measures could only be carried out by an extent of

police interference inconsistent with the prejudices of English

people, who were indisposed to deny a large extent of personal freedom

to persons of even the most disorderly classes who had not absolutely

forfeited their civil rights. If the association went the length of

advocating that the act of prostitution should involve such

forfeiture, and the entire riddance of London streets from the

presence of prostitutes, they would soon find their hands over full.

Unless they thought it possible to exterminate the vice altogether,

they would find that its wholesale clearance from the streets would

necessitate registration, licensing, and confinement in certain

authorized quarters or streets, as prevailed abroad; but such

restrictions would entail a more ample recognition and legalization

than had hitherto obtained, and so ample, indeed, as to be very

distasteful to what was called the religious public. It would be

obviously unjust to exempt from pressure the lady-like prosperous

harlot, while a miserable, vulgar, painted outcast was consignable,

because she stood out from the picture somewhat broadly, to the police

cell and the bridewell. The meeting must be aware that there was

already abroad among the lower half million of Londoners an impression

that the police was already strict enough--and that this opinion was

shared by numbers of intelligent men, neither paupers nor criminals.

They must remember that many a gentleman of character had passed a

night in a police cell for interfering in the defense of prostitutes

against the police. And this sentiment would deepen very dangerously

if the police pressure were put on double, or, as some would have it,

tenfold. The very policemen, too--men sprung from the same class of

society as those female offenders--were as likely as any one else to

be fainthearted in the work of relieving the eyes and ears of

gentility from the presence of those whose situation they were not

slow to trace to the schemes and desires of the genteel class. He did

not think that the power of discrimination could be safely intrusted

to the ill-paid constables of the Metropolitan Police, and the

association of certain rate-payers with the police as witnesses, as

hinted at by one of the delegates, would soon, if established, fall

into desuetude. With the view of checking the evil in a satisfactory

manner, he would recommend the institution of a special service of

street orderlies or regulators in uniform, a well-paid, superior,

temperate, and discreet class of men, if possible, whose functions

should be to observe, not to spy upon all prostitutes, especially

those of the street-walking order, and whose circulation, as opposed

to loitering and haunting particular spots, they should insist upon.

They should work, not by threats, but by entreaty, advice, suggestion;

but in case of contumacy, should have the right to call in the regular

force. He believed that the right of entry and inspection of all

places of ill fame should be vested in the Home Secretary and his

delegates, and this would be attained least oppressively by a proper

system of licensing. Forced concentration would not be tolerated here;

but concentration was valuable, as bringing immorality more under

control. Parochial crusades, though _prima facie_ a public blessing,

had often the effect of spreading corruption. It was recollected at

Cambridge that when a certain proctor made very frequent descents upon

the hamlet of Barnwall, where much of the parasitical vices of that

University had taken root, the people in question, far from cure or

conversion, merely extended their radius into more rural villages.

These were so soon corrupted that representations were addressed to

the University by the parochial clergy, praying that the plague of

Barnwall should be confined to its old bounds, and not let loose upon

their simpler parishes. It was notorious that the same kind of thing

followed on a very large scale the expulsion of prostitutes from

Brussels, and it could not be supposed that the attempt to strangle

the growth of immorality by broadcasting its seeds, which was found

impracticable under the powerful discipline of the English University

and the Belgian capital, could answer among this enormous, and when

roused, unmanageable population. The evicted of Norton Street, in the

parish of All Souls, had settled quietly down in the next parish.

Incompressible as water, the vice had but shifted its ground, and from

a really moral point of view, more harm than good had accrued from the

change."

These remarks do not call for any amplification. A few days after the

meeting a leading article appeared in the London _Times_. It must be

remembered that for many years the settled policy of the conductors of

that journal has been to make it rather the exponent than the leader of

public opinion, and the importance generally attached to it arises from a

knowledge of this fact. We give the article almost entire.

"There is a very disagreeable subject which we are compelled to bring,

although most reluctantly, before the notice of the public, because it

has become necessary to bring public opinion to bear upon it. Many

clergymen and gentlemen are now associating themselves together for

the purpose of dealing in some degree with the notorious evil of

street prostitution. It is our earnest desire to give them all the

support in our power, so long as they confine themselves to reasonable

measures of discouragement and repression. Let us not nourish any

visionary expectations; it would be simply idle to suppose that the

evil against which we are now directing our efforts, can be put down

by the strong hand of power. It is with moral as with physical

disease--there is no use in looking for an entirely satisfactory

result from the treatment of symptoms; there may be alleviation, there

may be diminution of the disorder, but there will be no perfect cure.

_Whatever tends to raise the standard of public morality will also

tend to diminish prostitution._ In such a case we are dealing with two

parties: the tempter, let us say, and the tempted; with the man and

with the woman. It is probably with the first of the two that we

should principally concern ourselves if we would bring about any

serious result. It is on the sacred action of family life, with the

thousand influences it brings to bear upon the minds and conduct of

men, that we must chiefly depend if we would see any notable

diminution in the numbers of those unfortunate creatures who now

parade our streets. Let it be once understood that even among a man's

fellows and associates immorality is a thing to be ashamed of, and at

least we should get rid of the contagion of vice. Time was, and the

time is not a very remote one, when a British gentleman--we speak of

all three home divisions of the empire--would nightly stagger or be

carried up to his bed fuddled, if not absolutely drunk. A man who

should thus expose himself in our own days would be set down as a

beast, and his society would be avoided by all who set store on their

own good name. In this respect there has been a palpable improvement

in the manners of the age. Surely public opinion can be brought to

bear against one vice as well as another. The time may come when a man

may shrink from presenting himself in the sacred circle of his mother,

his sisters, and his other female relatives, reeking from secret

immorality. Conscience can turn on a bull's eye as well as a

policeman, and the culprit may stand self-convicted, although no one

has been there to convict him save himself.

"The influences, however, of which we speak are of slow growth, and

can not be much quickened by the hand of power. It has become

necessary to deal at once with certain results. Now we say it with

much shame, that in no capital city of Europe is there daily and

nightly such a shameless display of prostitution as in London. At

Paris, at Vienna, at Berlin, as every one knows, there is plenty of

vice; but, at least, it is not allowed to parade the streets, to tempt

the weak, to offend and disgust all rightly-thinking persons. If any

one would see the evil of which we speak in its full development, let

him pass along the Haymarket and its neighborhood at night, when the

night-houses and the oyster-shops are open. It is not an easy matter

to make your way along without molestation. In Regent Street, in the

Strand, in Fleet Street, the same nuisance, but in a less degree,

prevails. Now we are well aware that, if all the unfortunate creatures

who parade these localities were swept away to-morrow, if the

night-houses and oyster-shops were closed by the police, we should not

have really suppressed immorality. We should, however, have removed

the evil from the sight of those who are disgusted and annoyed by its

display; and, still more, we should have removed it from the sight of

those who, probably, had they not been tempted by the sight of these

opportunities, would not have fallen.

"Now, as one practical measure for the discouragement of prostitution,

all these night-houses and others might be placed under the

surveillance of the police. Licenses for opening them and keeping them

open might be given only in the cases of persons who offered some

guarantees of their respectability. They might be compelled to close

at certain hours; in point of fact, the community could tolerate

well-nigh any degree of inconvenience inflicted upon their

frequenters. In two other analogous cases similar evils have been

dealt with in this way, and with the happiest results: we speak of

gaming-houses and betting-offices. It is quite certain that persons

who are firmly resolved to play and to bet will effect their purpose

even now, but at least the sum of the evils resulting from these two

vices has been greatly diminished since the community has resolved to

withdraw from them its recognition. England should not grant her

_exequatur_ to prostitution. This is one thing which might be tried;

another would be to give increased force to clauses which, as we

believe, already exist in police acts, by which the police are

empowered to stop the solicitation and gathering together of

prostitutes in the public streets. In such a case we must trample down

definitions and exceptional cases with an elephant's foot, and go

straight for results. The rule in all such cases is to give the power,

and to leave it in the discretion of the authorities only to employ it

on proper occasions. We have ample guarantees nowadays that such

discretion can not be abused.

"Here, then, are two things which may be done without opening any

visionary trenches. The police may be directed to deal with

prostitutes as they do with mendicants, and the centres of pollution

may be brought under proper regulation.

"We know well enough that in such a capital as London it is hopeless

to expect that vice of this description can be expunged altogether

from the catalogue of our national sins, but at least let as many

difficulties as possible be thrown in its way. Again: the benevolent

persons who have taken it in hand to deal with this monstrous evil

assert that the introduction of foreign prostitutes, or, what is still

worse, of girls yet uncontaminated, for the purposes of prostitution,

might be discouraged much more than it is, perhaps well-nigh totally

prevented. Undoubtedly England does not desire free trade in

prostitution. Preventive measures upon this subject are surrounded

with difficulties; but that is no reason for despair, but one for

additional exertion. Very numerous and influential meetings have been

held upon this subject, and we augur well of their success. There was

no display of ultra-Puritanic rigor, no attempt to deal with

impossibilities. The speakers in the main contended that the public

exhibition of prostitution might be successfully dealt with, even if

the vice were beyond their reach. Our streets, at least, can be purged

of the public scandal, the disgraceful night-houses may be deprived of

their powers of corruption, the keepers of brothels may be brought

under the lash of the law, and the importation of foreign prostitutes

may be diminished, if not put down altogether, if the public will take

the subject up in earnest. Such were the principal points on which the

speakers insisted; at least their views deserve a trial."

This plan is calculated to restrict prostitution by placing it under

_surveillance_. It requires no additional licensing system, as every

public house, wine-shop, or cigar-shop in London, whether kept open at day

or night, whether of a respectable or immoral class, requires a license

under the excise laws. The proposals just quoted urge that the permission

to keep these places of entertainment should be limited, and "given only

in the cases of persons who offered some guarantees of their

respectability." It will be necessary for the reader to bear in mind that

"night-houses" are not houses of prostitution, but merely resorts for

prostitutes, as already mentioned, as, in default of this, a natural

construction would be that the _Times_ proposed to license brothels. The

two are as distinct as possible, and it would be as consistent to style

some of the fashionable oyster-saloons and restaurants of New York houses

of ill fame because abandoned women resort to them, as to class the

"night-houses" of London in that catalogue. They are simply places for

public refreshment in the neighborhoods of theatres, markets, etc., which

are permitted to continue open all night in deference to a supposed public

requirement, and though, from the character of their visitants, they can

not be considered schools of morality or decency, yet no prostitution

takes place in them. The interests of the proprietors guard against this,

as it would immediately cause the licenses to be revoked, and consequently

close the place entirely.

By placing the resorts of London prostitutes under this restriction much

would be gained, so far as the public decency of the streets and the

transit of passengers are concerned, but no possible check would be

imposed on the ravages of disease. The proposition at the meeting to

license the brothels would do this, but, as was anticipated by the

speaker, "it would be very distasteful to the religious public," and the

act of recognition would be immediately construed as an act of approval,

or at least of sanction. That it would not merit this censure must be

evident. The only approval or sanction given to the vice would, in fact,

consist in saying to the keepers of houses of ill fame: We shall not

attempt to close your doors, for we know that would be impossible, but we

shall claim the right of entry at any moment to watch your proceedings.

It has ever been an unquestioned policy to choose the least of two evils

when you must take one, and if the British government should ever license

brothels, they will certainly adopt the theory. To the population of

London less danger would inure from this toleration than from the unknown,

unwatched courtesans who haunt their streets. Many an apparently

respectable man will follow a woman into a house of prostitution when it

is conducted quietly and furtively, who would hesitate before he

accompanied her into a known and licensed brothel, while many a stranger

who may date his physical ruin, and possibly the loss of character and

honor, from the hour when he entered a private house of prostitution,

would be saved many a bitter memory had an official recognition of its

true character met him on its threshold, and intimated that it was the

resort of the abandoned and vicious. In London, as in New York, we do not

believe that illicit sexual intercourse can be carried to any greater

extent than it is now; so no danger of an increase of vice need be

apprehended there from any measures calculated to remove some of the

ulterior and fatal effects of dissipation.

In contrast to the public display of immorality in the streets of London,

is the following description of prostitution in Paris. It is extracted

from the foreign correspondence of a New York journal:

"Paris, Thursday, May 27, 1858.

"In a late letter on the subject of the 'turning-boxes' of the

Foundling Hospitals I spoke of the repugnance of Protestant

communities to any official compromise with one sin in order even to

destroy a greater; for, that the secret reception of illegitimate

children by the state does contribute enormously to the extinction of

the crime of infanticide, while it does not generally increase the

number of these unfortunate children, is too well shown by statistics

to remain longer a question for discussion. But we have another and a

more striking example of this repugnance to a collusion with one evil

in order to smother out another and a greater in the want of

legislation in Protestant countries on the subject of prostitution.

"For many months, as you know, the municipality officers, the

church-wardens, and the journals of London have been excited over this

very question of prostitution; and no wonder. One need but to leave

Paris and fall suddenly in the streets of London at an advanced hour

of the evening to comprehend the excitement of its citizens on this

subject. To the Frenchman, crossing the Channel is like crossing the

River Styx; he falls suddenly into a pandemonium of street disorder

and drunken licentiousness for which he is not prepared. He recalls

Mery's terrible picture in 'Nezim,' and does not find it overdrawn. He

sees nothing like this in his own city, and he is surprised beyond

measure, for he has been taught to believe in the Puritanism of

Protestant countries.

"When an American or an Englishman, habituated to the revolting

night-scenes of New York or London, first arrives in Paris, he is

astonished at the absolute absence of similar scenes in our streets.

He has, perhaps, arrived here with the impression--most foreigners

do--that prostitution, and revelry, and drunken debauchery stalk forth

in the day and render hideous the night. But he forgets that he has

arrived in a city where there are laws and a police to execute

them--in a city where refinement and the proprieties of life are

carried to their extreme perfection, and where such license and

debauchery as prevails in English and American cities would be an

absolute contradiction to the spirit and habits of the people. The

reader will please observe that I do not speak of the morals of the

people, but of their ideas of decorum and of the proprieties of life;

of what is due to decency and an ordinary respect for appearances.

"This extreme attention to appearances is, in fact, one of the

principal attractions of a residence in Paris. The city is not only

maintained free of inanimate filth, but of animate filth as well; at

least, you are not forced to see it if you do not wish to. In London

no lady dare walk out unattended after 8 o'clock in the evening, and

after 11 o'clock she will have her eyes and ears insulted, no matter

how well attended, while in Paris she may remain in the streets to any

hour of the night, and neither have her eyes offended nor her ears

insulted.

"How is this happy result accomplished? In 1851 the official register

of the police of Paris showed 4300 public girls on its books; the

number now may be stated at 5000. These girls and the houses in which

they live are subjected to a series of stringent laws which renders

them innoxious and inoffensive to the community, the police adopting

the principle that since it is impossible to suppress the evil, it

should be rendered as inoffensive to the public eye and to the public

salubrity as possible. All these houses are obliged to be closed at 11

o'clock precisely. The girls are obliged to remain in the house, and

the windows are always covered with blinds, night and day. A few girls

are permitted, here and there, to walk up and down, in front of their

door, from 7 to 11 o'clock precisely, but it is against the law to

accost the passers-by. The houses are visited once a week by a medical

and an ordinary inspector--real inspectors, appointed by government,

and not humbugging ward politicians.

"Another class of girls, and much the larger class, are those who

frequent the public balls, concerts, and theatres--girls who live

alone in public lodging-houses, and who, for the most part, are not

enrolled on the police-books nor submitted to the ordinary sanitary

regulations. But this class are no more permitted than the rest,

either in the street or at their favorite evening resorts, to accost

people for purposes of commerce. The streets and the public balls are

full of policemen in citizen's dress, whose business it is to detect

such girls as violate the law in regard to addressing people, and to

put their names on the police-books, thus requiring them to take out a

license, and to submit to all the police regulations on the new class

to which they have entered. As a girl regards herself as forever lost

when her name is once placed on the police-book, and as she never

knows when an officer's eye may be upon her, she takes good care to

violate as rarely as possible this law prohibiting solicitations in

public. This class are always elegantly dressed; it is notorious even

that they are the first to initiate and to propagate those very

fashions which make the tour of the world as the latest Paris modes.

Many of them are reserved and elegant in their manners, and require a

punctiliousness of etiquette which would not be out of place in the

most aristocratic saloon. But one of the great aids to the Paris

police in the maintenance of public decency in this class, is the fact

that they do not use strong drinks; a drunken public woman is never

seen. As liquor is the greatest debaser of mankind, this one fact

strikes out a marked line of distinction between this class here and

in England and the United States. The great majority do not lose their

self-respect, and they take good care of their health, hoping later on

to reform and get married. This is here the rule, whereas in England

and the United States they throw themselves away as rapidly as

possible.

"It is thus that the fashionable promenades of Paris, the public

balls, and the gardens even, may be frequented by ladies and children

at all hours of the evening and night without once seeing any of those

offensive movements of public women so common in the streets of

English and American cities. Contrast this state of things with that

of London. Let the reader, if he has ever lived there, recall to mind

the Strand, the Haymarket, Piccadilly, Leicester Square, and Regent

Street--the fashionable business quarters of the city. One hesitates

to enter upon a description of such a scene. It refreshes his

historical recollections of the decadence of Rome; his name should be

Plato to look upon such sights. The streets swarm with drunken and

foul-spoken young girls--often mere children; and when I say swarm, I

mean that you have to push your way to get through them. Is it then

strange that the citizens of London should feel scandalized at this

state of things, or that its journals or its church-wardens should

seek to find a remedy for the nuisance? They will think of every thing

else before they arrive at the simple, _effective_, and beautifully

working Paris system, because they are a Protestant people and must

not compromise with a sin. It must be left to find its own level.

Honorable citizens must consent to allow their sons, often their

families, to come in contact with these demoralizing, stony-hearted

horrors of the streets; they must suffer individually and as a

community from the vile tendencies of street prostitution, because

they hesitate to legalize it and to give it over to the care of the

police. To see the finest evening promenades of a Protestant and

Christian city given up exclusively to the unutterable shames and

horrors of street-prostitution is a problem in the catalogue of

inconsistencies which Catholic and infidel France can not fathom. In

France the law acts on the principle that for a public woman to be

seen in the street is an insult to public taste, and hence, when it is

necessary for these girls to be conveyed to prison, to the Hospital,

or to the dispensary of the Prefecture of Police, they are mounted in

close carriages constructed for the purpose; or when by hazard they

are obliged to take a public _fiacre_ they are required to keep the

blinds down. You may say what you please about the surface-morality of

the French, but their respect for the public eye does honor to their

civilization, and their law on this evil would be well adopted

elsewhere. There is no truer principle in civil government than that

the moral sores of society should be hidden as much as possible from

the public view, for it is now too late in the day to combat the maxim

long ago put in print by Pope, that vice is propagated by a

familiarity with it. The French law may be culpable in permitting

masked balls and the keeping of concubines, but these are affairs that

belong to the interior, which the public need not see if they do not

wish to; the important distinction is, that the French law does not

compel an honest father of a family, in returning from church or

theatre, to push his way through mobs of drunken lewd women, who

salute his children's ears with language they ought never to hear.

"In one of its last articles on the general subject of prostitution,

the London _Times_ makes some judicious remarks which are completely

verified in the same class in Paris. Thus the _Times_ declares that

the proper method of diminishing the number of these unfortunates (for

to think of eradicating the evil is an illusion) is not by missionary

efforts directed to them, but rather to their poor parents; for these

poor girls were raised in sin, and _never made a fall_. The same thing

holds good here. Ninety-five hundredths of all the public women of

Paris are born and raised in filthiness of mind and body; at the age

of ten, twelve, and fourteen years they are already prostitutes and

thieves, and when they get their first silk dress, their first fine

toilet, earned in their shameful profession, they take a step higher

in the scale of morality; for then they cease to steal, they acquire a

certain degree of pride in their conduct, they are more respectful and

decently behaved. So that, paradoxical as it may seem, the immense

majority of the public women of Paris, instead of making a fall, have

actually been promoted in the scale of morality. But all these women

know nothing else than the life in which they have been raised; they

are fit for nothing else, they are incorrigibly averse to all the

moral suasion that can be addressed to them, and the real remedy is an

enlightenment of the parents of such children, a general improvement

in the moral tone of the lowest classes. In fine, if it is an evil

which can not be eradicated, if the children of beggars, and

rag-pickers, and _concièrges_ will fall into evil-doing, it is right

to protect society at least from the public demonstration of their

vile occupation by the passage of effective police laws."

As an indication that the sentiments advanced in this chapter are

entertained by others of the medical profession, and as endorsing our

views to a considerable extent, the reader's attention is requested to the

annexed report adopted at a special meeting of the Medical Board of

Bellevue Hospital, New York, in reply to interrogatories addressed to them

by Isaac Townsend, Esq., President of the Board of Governors of the

Alms-house (by whose direction they are embodied in this work); and also

to a report from H. N. Whittelsey, M.D., Resident Physician of the Nursery

Hospital, Randall's Island, on the same subject.

(Copy.)

"_Report of the Medical Board of Bellevue Hospital in reply to

Interrogatories of_ ISAAC TOWNSEND, _Esq., President of the Board of

Governors of the Alms-house, upon Constitutional Syphilis._

"Office of the Governors of the Alms-house, Rotunda, Park,

"New York, August 24, 1855.

"TO THE MEDICAL BOARD, BELLEVUE HOSPITAL:

"GENTLEMEN,--I am led to believe that a large number of the inmates of

Bellevue Hospital are affected with syphilis in some of its many

forms, and believing that the Governors of the Alms-house are called

upon to take measures to remove, as far as possible, the cause of this

great malady, to dry up the sources of an evil which prevails so

extensively, saps the health and taxes the wealth of the city, etc.,

largely; and believing farther that, if the vice can not be stayed,

humanity as well as policy would suggest that the dangers which

surround it can be lessened, I propose a few interrogatories tending

toward the accomplishment of this great object, desiring your views

upon them in reply as early as 1st of October.

"1. What percentage of the total number of patients admitted to

Bellevue Hospital suffer directly or indirectly from syphilis?

"2. Are there not patients admitted to Bellevue Hospital whose

diseases are attributable to the taint of syphilis; and have not many

of the inmates been forced to place themselves under treatment

therein, and thus become dependent on the city, from being unfitted in

body and mind for the ordinary duties of life in consequence of

syphilitic diseases?

"3. Are not the children of parents thus affected unhealthy?

"4. What means, in your opinion, could be adopted to eradicate or

lessen the disease in the city?

"By giving the above queries your earliest attention, you will greatly

oblige your very obedient servant,

"ISAAC TOWNSEND, President."

"At a special meeting of the Medical Board of Bellevue Hospital, held

December 18, 1855, the following report, in answer to a letter from

Isaac Townsend, Esq., President of the Board of Governors of the

Alms-house, dated August 24, 1855, touching the subjects of syphilis

and prostitution, was read by Doctor Alonzo Clark, Chairman of the

Committee appointed by the Medical Board to consider and reply to said

letter.

"On motion, the report was accepted, and ordered for transmission to

the President of the Board of Governors, after having received the

signatures of the President and Secretary.

"JOHN T. METCALFE, M.D.,

"Secretary _pro tem._ to the Medical Board of Bellevue Hospital.

"New York, December, 1855."

"REPORT ON PROSTITUTION AND SYPHILIS.

"To ISAAC TOWNSEND, Esq.,

"President of the Board of Governors of the Alms-house.

"In answer to your inquiries, the Medical Board of Bellevue Hospital

respectfully reply,

"That they caused a census of the Hospital to be taken on the 24th

October last, for the purpose of ascertaining what proportion of the

patients had suffered from venereal diseases. From that enumeration

they learn that out of 477 persons then under medical and surgical

treatment, 142, or about one third, had been so affected. In the

several divisions of the house the numbers are as follows, viz.:

"Of 72 females on the surgical side, 17, or 1 in 4·24.

"Of 130 females on the medical side, 17, or 1 in 8 nearly.

"Of 118 males on the medical side, 45, or 1 in 2·6.

"Of 127 males on the surgical side, 63, or 1 in 2.

So that out of 245 males then under treatment, 108, or 1 in 2·27, had

had some form of venereal disease; and among 202 females, 34, or 1 in

6, had been similarly affected.

"Of the whole number who confessed that they had had affections of

this class, 106 had had syphilis, and 36 had had gonorrhoea.

"Of the 106 who had had syphilis, 53, or just one half, were still

laboring under the influence of the poison with which they had been

inoculated, in many instances, years before.

"As almost all these patients were admitted for other diseases, or

with affections which the physician alone would recognize as the

remote effects of syphilis, it is perhaps fair to assume that they

represent, with some exaggeration, the class of society from which

they come.

"The Board has been favored with the census of the New York Hospital

(Broadway), taken for the purpose of ascertaining the proportion of

syphilitic cases among the patients of that institution; from which it

appears that the whole number of patients on the 8th of December was

233, and that 99 of that number had had venereal disease, and 37 were

then under treatment for the same affections recently contracted.

Counting the old cases alone, most of which were admitted, probably,

for other diseases, this proportion considerably exceeds that above

recorded for Bellevue Hospital, it being as high as 1 in 2·35. It is

proper, however, in this connection to state that the returns for

Bellevue Hospital are believed to be incomplete. They are based in a

considerable degree on the confessions of the patients; and it is

known that many, especially among the women, have denied any

contamination, when facts, subsequently developed, have shown that

their statements were not true.

"Is it to be believed, then, that one in three, or even one in four,

of that large class of our population whose circumstances compel them

to seek the occasional aid of medical charities, are tainted with

venereal poison? This the Medical Board do not think they are

authorized to state. But the facts here cited, and others within their

reach, justify them in saying that venereal diseases prevail to an

alarming extent among the poor of the city. The large number of women

sent by the police courts to be treated for these diseases at the

Penitentiary Hospital would alone be sufficient evidence of this. Yet

such persons constitute but a small proportion of those who, even

among the poor, suffer from these disorders. Dispensary physicians,

and those in private practice, can show a much longer list of the

victims of impure intercourse.

"But the disease is not confined to this class. The advertisements

which crowd the newspapers, introduced by men who 'confine their

practice to one class of disease, in which' they 'have treated twenty

thousand cases,' more or less, demonstrate how large is the company of

irregulars who live and grow rich on the harvest of these grapes of

Sodom. And yet their long list of 'unfortunates' would disclose but a

fraction of the evil among those who are able to pay for medical

services. The Medical Board are unable to state what proportion of the

income of regular and qualified physicians in this city is derived

from the treatment of venereal diseases, but they know it is large,

and that many who never advertise their skill receive more from this

source than from all other sources together. They believe that there

is no one among the unavoidable diseases, however prevalent, for the

treatment of which the well-to-do citizens of New York pay one half so

much as they pay to be relieved from the consequences of their illicit

pleasures.

"The city bills of mortality give little information regarding the

frequency of venereal affections. _Lues Venerea_ keeps its place in

the tables, and counts its score or two of deaths annually. Although

this class of disorders is not frequently fatal, except among

children, it is credited with only a fraction of the work it actually

performs. The physician does not feel called upon, in his return of

the causes of death, to brand his patient's memory with disgrace, or

to record an accusation against near relatives. During infancy the

real disease is buried under such terms as Marasmus, Atrophia,

Infantile Debility, or Inflammation, while in adults, Inflammation of

the Throat, Phagedæna, Ulceration, Scrofula, and the like, take the

responsibility of the death.

"These affections are strictly what the advertisers denominate them,

'private diseases'--a leprosy which the 'unfortunate' always strives

to conceal, and, so long as it spares his speech and countenance,

usually succeeds in concealing. The physician is his only confidant,

and the physician refers all to the class of 'innocent secrets,' which

are not to be revealed. The public, therefore, know little of the

prevalence of such diseases, and still less of the fearful ravages

they are capable of making.

"Still, as has been just said, syphilis is not often the immediate

cause of death in adults. After its first local effects are over--and

these, though generally mild, are sometimes frightful--the poison

lingers in the system ready to break out on any provocation in some

one of its many disgusting manifestations, often deforming and

branding its victim, threatening life and making it a burden, and yet

refusing the poor consolation of a grave. Like the vulture which fed

on the entrails of the too amorous Tityus, it tortures and consumes,

but is slow to destroy, and often its visible brand, like the scarlet

badge once worn by the adulteress, proclaims a lasting disgrace. The

protracted suffering of mind and body produced by this class of

distempers, the ever-changing and often loathsome form of their

secondary accidents, and the almost irradicable character of the

poison, seem almost to justify an old opinion, sanctioned by a papal

bull as late as 1826, that these diseases are an avenging plague,

appointed by Heaven as a special punishment for a special sin.

"The relentless character of syphilitic diseases stands out in painful

relief in its transmission from parent to offspring. Here it is,

indeed, that the children's teeth are set on edge, because the fathers

have eaten sour grapes. The contaminated husband or wife is left

through years of childlessness or of successive bereavements to mourn

over early follies, and to repent when repentance is fruitless. The

syphilitic man or woman can hardly become the parent of a healthy

child.

"A young man has imbibed the contagion; it has become constitutional.

After a few weeks, or months perhaps, of treatment, the visible signs

of the disease no longer torment him. He has contracted a matrimonial

alliance, and soon marries a healthy and virtuous woman. He flatters

himself that he is cured. A few months suffice to give him painful

proof of his error, for then his growing hopes of paternity are

suddenly blasted. Instead of the child of his hopes he sees a

shriveled and leprous corpse. This is but the first in a series of

similar misfortunes. He has poisoned the fruit of his loins, and again

and again, and still again, it falls withered and dead. At length

nature seems to have triumphed over this foe to domestic happiness,

and the parents' hearts are gladdened by the sight of a living child.

Their joy is short-lived. The child is feeble and sickly, and in a few

days or weeks another death is added to the penance list of the

humbled and grieving father.

"This mournful story will need no essential changes in the narration,

should the poison of impure intercourse, legitimate or illicit, linger

in the veins of the mother.

"A child of such a connection may be born in apparent health, but

before six months have passed, some one of the numerous forms of

infantile syphilis will be likely to appear and threaten its life. In

the contest which follows between disease and the treatment, the

physician is commonly victorious, but the contest is in many cases

protracted, and often it is to be renewed again and again. And after

all, it is not believed that children thus tainted at their birth

often grow up and acquire that degree of health and vigor which is

popularly ascribed to a _good constitution_.

"These are facts familiar to physicians practicing in large towns. But

the history of inherited syphilis is not complete. If, in the case

just recited, the wife escape contamination from her husband and her

unborn child, yet the sad consequences of that husband's folly are not

yet exhausted. That tainted child, now a sickly nursling at her

breast, has a venom in its ulcerated lips which can inoculate the

mother with its own loathsome poison, while it draws its sustenance

from the sacred fountain of infantile life. But this is not all. These

little innocents sometimes spread their disease through the whole

circle of those who bestow on them their care and kindness. The

contagion spreads through the use of the same spoon, the same linen,

and even by that highest token of affection, a kiss. It has been known

that a single diseased child has contaminated its mother, a hired

nurse, and, through that nurse, the nurse's child, and, in addition to

these, the husband's mother and the mother's sister. Such are

sometimes the weighty consequences of a single error.

"PREVENTION.

"That the great source of the venereal poison is prostitution,

requires no argument. The first question, then, to be answered, is,

Can prostitution be prevented? In answering this question, it is

necessary to remember that the history of the world demonstrates the

existence of this vice in all ages, and among all nations, since the

day its first pages were written. The appetite which incites it has

always been stronger than moral restraints--stronger than the law. No

rigor of punishment, no violence of public denunciation; neither

exile, nor the dungeon, nor yet the disgusting malady with which

nature punishes the practice has ever effected its extermination, even

for a single year. Great as this evil has always been, it can not be

denied that in our own time some of the accidents of what is called

_the progress of society_ tend, at least in large towns, greatly to

increase it. The expenses of living are every where the great obstacle

to early marriages, whether such expenses be positively necessary or

be demanded by the social position of the individual, the fashion of

his class, and therefore become relatively necessary. Wherever these

expenses increase more rapidly than the rewards of labor, marriage

becomes impossible for a constantly increasing number, or can only be

purchased at the price of social position. But abstinence from

marriage does not abolish or moderate the natural appetites. The great

law of nature on which the existence of the race depends is not

abrogated by any artificial state of society. Moral or religious

principles will restrain its operations in some; human laws in some;

the fear of consequences in some; yet there always have been, and

probably always will be, many of both sexes who are not restrained by

any of these considerations. These have sustained, and probably will

continue to sustain, not only prostitution but houses of prostitution,

in the face of every human law. Suppressed in one form, it immediately

assumes another. Again pursued, it retreats to hiding-places where

darkness and secrecy protect it from the pursuer.

"Severe penalties have heretofore only increased the evils of

prostitution. If a hundred women are consigned to prison for this vice

to-day, before a month has elapsed a hundred more have taken their

places, and the hundred, though punished, are not reformed. Impelled

by a love of their profession, or some by the passion to emulate the

more fortunate of their sex in the finery of dress (a passion which

first occasioned their fall), many by want, and all by a sense that

they are outcasts, they are no sooner liberated than they return with

new zeal to the life from which they have been detained only by force.

Severe laws compel secrecy; they can do no more. When prostitution is

criminal, disease, if known to others, is a practical conviction.

Under such circumstances the contaminated will be slow to confess

disease, and so subject themselves to punishment. Yet their passions

and their necessities alike forbid even temporary abstinence. They

spread disease without limit.

"Under this fact lies an important thought. Were it no more

disgraceful to contract syphilis than it is to have fever and ague,

the diseased would seek early relief, which is nearly equivalent to

certain relief, and the disorder would soon be confined to the

pitiable few who have lost in drunkenness and misery the instinctive

dread of all that is foul and disgusting in personal disease.

Prostitution, it is true, would then be restored to its old Roman

dignity, yet _venereal disease could then be reached, and all but

eradicated_. But a respectable syphilis does not belong to our age and

nation. It lost caste in the beginning, and its exploits in modern

times have not been of a character to win it friends. The supposition

aims only to show, by contrast, the evils of well-intended, but

probably injudicious legislation. Regarding pains and penalties: if

the whip, confiscation, and banishment, in the hands of Charlemagne

and St. Louis, aided by a right good will and all the powers of a

military despotism, could not suppress prostitution, or even prevent

the opening of houses of prostitution; if penal laws in Europe, from

the days of these earnest princes until now, have utterly failed of

their object, as they notoriously have, it is fair to ask how much

more can prohibitory laws accomplish in a country where the right of

private judgment and personal liberty in speech and action are the

very foundation of the body politic? They have hitherto been

ineffectual. In spite of such laws, the vice is increasing. _In

consequence of such laws, its most enormous physical evil is extending

its baleful influence through every rank and circle of society._ It

is still emphatically the plague of the poor; it still brings sorrow

and misery to the firesides of the affluent and titled.

"A utopian view of the perfectibility of man might look for the remedy

to this evil in universal early marriages, in domestic happiness, and

in a universal moral sense which will compel men and women to keep

their marriage vows. But, taking man as he is, we find the tides of

society set with constantly increasing strength against early

marriages; that domestic happiness is not synonymous with marriage,

whether early or late; and that the moral sense which should teach all

men to observe even their solemn promises would be miraculous. For

these things the law has done all that has been thought wise to

attempt, probably all that it can do.

"But it may be asked, If government has the power to relieve society

of the vice of drunkenness, why despair of its power regarding

prostitution? In reply it may be asked if the drunkard himself is ever

cured of his vicious appetite by penalties? The statute despairs of

this. It even recognizes its inability to prevent the sale of

intoxicating drinks while they exist; it therefore claims the right to

seize and destroy them. Can it seize on and destroy the inborn passion

which fills and supports houses of prostitution? Then it can not do

for the one what it hopes to do for the other.

"Again: the suppression of slavery and the slave-trade have been cited

in this connection as illustrating the power of law. In trespass,

theft, violence, or fraud, some one is wronged; and those who have

been injured seek to bring the offender to justice. Here there is no

aggrieved person. All who are in interest are so in interest that they

deprecate the interference of all law, except what they claim to

believe is the law of Nature.

"But is there no hope in the societies of moral reform? For the

suppression, or even checking of the general vice, none whatever. The

association in New York deserves much praise for its zealous

benevolence. They have brought back some of these erring women to the

paths of virtue, but they have done no more to stop the current of

prostitution than he could do to dry up the current of the Hudson who

dips water with a bucket. In truth it may be said that the paths of

virtue have been found to be slippery places for some that would be

thought converts. Wisdom's ways have been found too peaceful for these

daughters of excitement. This is said in no spirit of disparagement to

the efforts of the society. They may well be proud of what they have

done. But it is said to show how little the kindest and the best can

do to reclaim those who have once fallen from virtue and honor.

"Let the great fact, then, be well understood, that prohibitory

measures have always failed, and, from the nature of the case, must

forever fail to suppress prostitution.

"Let this additional fact, illustrated in the foregoing remark, be

well considered, that penalties do not reform the offender, but that

they enforce secrecy in the offense, and silence regarding its

consequences, which is a chief cause of the present wide diffusion of

the venereal poison.

"What, then, is the proper province of legislation in this important

matter?

"The wise lawgiver does not attempt impossibilities. He knows that

laws which experience has demonstrated can not be enforced, teach

disrespect and disobedience to all law. He knows that human passions

can not be changed by human legislation. He knows that, if he attempt

the impossible greater in the control of vice, he is certain to

neglect the possible and important less. He knows that the river will

not cease to flow at his command. If it overflows and desolates, he

raises its banks and dikes in the flood to prevent a general

inundation. For hundreds of years the governments of Europe have tried

in vain to dry up the sources of prostitution; with the opening of the

present century they began to dike in the river and prevent avoidable

mischief. For a long time we too have had laws against prostitution,

which, with every proper effort on the part of those in authority,

have proved as useless as those who live by this illicit traffic could

desire--as mischievous in spreading disease as the quack advertiser

could wish. Is it not time, then, to inquire whether we have not

attempted too much; whether, if we attempt less, we shall not

accomplish more? May we not be able to limit and control what we have

not the power to prevent? If we can not do all that a large

benevolence might wish to accomplish, in the name of humanity is it

not our duty to do what is useful and practicable--all that is

possible?

"While the Medical Board are persuaded that by a change of policy,

such as is suggested by the facts and reasons herewith submitted, much

can be done to limit and control prostitution, and much more toward

the eradication of venereal diseases, they are not yet prepared to

offer the details of a plan by which they hope these important ends

can be attained. With the assistance of the Board of Governors, they

are now in correspondence with the medical officers of many of the

larger cities of Europe, where restrictive measures have replaced

prohibitory. When they have obtained the information which they hope

this correspondence will furnish, they will ask leave to submit a

supplementary report.

"JOHN W. FRANCIS, M.D., President.

"JOHN T. METCALFE, M.D., Secretary _pro tem._

"NOTE.--It is believed that not far from ten per cent. of the inmates

of Bellevue Hospital are admitted for affections which have their

origin remotely in venereal disease. A certain form of rheumatism,

certain inflammations of the throat, eyes, bones, and joints;

stricture and cutaneous eruptions are the most common diseases of this

class. What proportion, if any, of those who suffer from scrofula and

scrofulous inflammations, from consumption and other chronic diseases,

owe their present illness to a constitutional syphilitic vice,

inherited or acquired, there are no means of determining

satisfactorily."

_Medical Board, Bellevue Hospital, New York_:

JOHN W. FRANCIS, M.D., President.

ISAAC WOOD, M.D.

JOHN T. METCALFE, M.D.

ALONZO CLARK, M.D.

BENJAMIN W. M'CREADY, M.D.

ISAAC B. TAYLOR, M.D.

GEORGE T. ELLIOTT, M.D.

B. FORDYCE BARKER, M.D.

VALENTINE MOTT, M.D.

ALEXANDER H. STEVENS, M.D.

JAMES R. WOOD, M.D.

WILLARD PARKER, M.D.

CHARLES D. SMITH, M.D.

LEWIS A. SAYRE, M.D.

JOHN J. CRANE, M.D.

JOHN A. LIDELL, M.D.

STEPHEN SMITH, M.D.

(Copy.)

"_Report of Doctor_ H. N. WHITTELSEY, _Resident Physician of Randall's

Island, in answer to certain queries of_ ISAAC TOWNSEND, _Esq.,

Governor of the Alms-house, upon Constitutional Syphilis_:

"New York, November 28, 1855.

"DEAR SIR,--From repeated conversations with you, I am led to believe

that many diseases incidental to the children on Randall's Island may

properly be traced to parents who are affected with constitutional

syphilis. Please give me your views as to the following questions as

early as 10th December.

"1. Among the children under your care, to what extent does inherited

syphilis exist?

"2. Under what form does constitutional syphilis present itself, and

what diseases are attributable to its taint?

"3. Are not the children of parents thus affected unhealthy,

scrofulous, subject to diseases of the eye, joints, etc.?

"Very respectfully,

"ISAAC TOWNSEND, Governor A. H.

"Doctor H. N. WHITTELSEY, Resident Physician, R. I."

"Randall's Island, Dec. 24, 1855.

"ISAAC TOWNSEND, Esq., President of the Board of Governors of the

Alms-house.

"DEAR SIR,--In regard to the interrogatories contained in your note of

a recent date on the subject of hereditary syphilis, I have the honor

to reply:

"1. Regarding its prevalence. It is a matter of record that nine

tenths of all diseases treated in this hospital during the past five

years have been of constitutional origin, and for the most part

hereditary. These diseases assume a variety of forms, and involve

nearly every structure of the body, terminating in cachexia, marasmus,

phagedæna, etc., etc. The exact proportion which hereditary syphilis

bears to this sum of constitutional depravity can not be stated with

accuracy for the following reasons:

"Children are admitted to this institution between two and fifteen

years of age, thus throwing out of the category infantile syphilis in

all its forms; and except in few cases, showing none of its specific

characteristics, having been modified by appropriate treatment, but

manifests itself by general constitutional depravity, and determines a

great variety of diseases, embracing nearly every form of skin

disease, affection of the mucous membranes and their dependencies,

diseases of the eye and ear, of the bones, especially of joints, etc.,

proving the prolific and lamentable source of many of the diseases

incident to children of the class presented in this institution.

Making, then, due allowance for its masked form, in which the

consequences of inherited syphilis appear in this institution,

together with the absence of the previous history both of patients and

parents, it is believed an approximate estimate may be made of the

part which this malady bears to the sum of constitutional disease.

From the foregoing facts, and from careful observation during the past

few years in this branch of the Alms-house Department, it appears that

human degradation is the source of the stream of pollution supplying

this hospital with disease; and farther, that of all the vices which

make up the sum total of depravity, both moral and physical,

prostitution and its consequences furnish the larger proportion.

"Here we have the sad picture presented of a large number of children

doomed to an early grave, or to breathe out their miserable existence

bearing a loathsome disease, carrying the penalties of vice of which

they themselves are innocent, being a generation contaminated, and

capable only of contaminating in turn.

"In the above sketch I have confined my statement to syphilis as

manifested in the Nursery Hospital, where the average number of cases

of disease treated is about two thousand. From this field is excluded

every variety of the disease except the one, viz., constitutional

syphilis affecting children after having been modified by treatment in

the infant.

"H. N. WHITTELSEY, M.D."

It has been stated already that the information obtained in the course of

this investigation is, to a very great degree, undoubtedly reliable; but a

few words more in reference to the same subject will not be out of place,

if we consider the importance such information assumes when it is made the

basis of serious deduction. These women were examined singly and alone,

and a person who has been engaged for a number of years in any particular

inquiry is able, by his experience, to judge whether his informants are

speaking the truth in their replies. For this, among other reasons, we are

satisfied that in almost every case there was no deception practiced, but

that the answers obtained were true in all essential points. Another

evidence of correctness is the degree of congruity that characterized the

greater part of the replies. Farther than this: a reference to the

questions themselves (as reprinted in chapter XXXII.) will show that they

were so arranged that falsehoods would be easily detected unless very

carefully contrived before the time of examination, of which those

examined had no notice, and consequently no opportunity for fraud or

deception could possibly exist.

It is not denied that there were many difficulties to be encountered,

although the mode of operation was simple. It may be briefly described as

follows. The captain of each police district (and oftentimes the writer

with him) explained his object to the keeper of the house, assuring her

that there was no intention to annoy, harass, or expose her; and,

particularly, that no prosecutions should be based upon any information

thus collected. This latter promise was supported by a letter from a high

legal functionary addressed to the Mayor and Police Department, assuring

them that the particulars they collected should not be used in any manner

prejudicial to the women themselves, as it was believed that a collection

of the necessary information required by such a work as the present would

be productive of good to the city. When satisfied upon the subject of

prosecution, they were told that the real motive was to obtain correct

particulars of prostitution without exposing individual cases, so as to

enable the public to judge of its extent, and assist them in forming an

opinion as to the necessity of arrangements which would ultimately become

protective to our citizens at large, as well as to housekeepers and

courtesans, and many of the housekeepers expressed a hope that the design

might be accomplished. Their interests, therefore, led them to speak the

truth. In short, from the precautions taken, and from the result itself,

very little doubt can be entertained as to the authenticity of the

principal part of the replies on all essential points; and upon this

consideration these replies have been made the basis of the description

and remarks upon PROSTITUTION IN NEW YORK.

The task is completed, and the reader's attention may be invited to the

various facts substantiated, as embodied in the following

RECAPITULATION.

There are six thousand public prostitutes in New York.

The majority of these are from fifteen to twenty-five years old.

Three eighths of them were born in the United States.

Many of those born abroad came here poor, to improve their condition.

_Education is at a very low standard with them._

One fifth of them are married women.

One half of them have given birth to children, and more than one half of

these children are illegitimate.

The ratio of mortality among children of prostitutes is four times greater

than the ordinary ratio among children in New York.

Many of these children are living in the abodes of vice and obscenity.

The majority of these women have been prostitutes for less than four

years.

The average duration of a prostitute's life is only four years.

Nearly one half of the prostitutes in New York admit that they are or have

been sufferers from syphilis.

Seduction; destitution; ill treatment by parents, husbands, or relatives;

intemperance; and bad company, are the main causes of prostitution.

Women in this city have not sufficient means of employment.

Their employment is inadequately remunerated.

The associations of many employments are prejudicial to morality.

Six sevenths of the prostitutes drink intoxicating liquors to a greater or

less extent.

Parental influences induced habits of intoxication.

A professed respect for religion is common among them.

A capital of nearly _four millions of dollars_ is invested in the business

of prostitution.

The annual expenditure on account of prostitution is more than _seven

millions of dollars_.

Prohibitory measures have signally failed to suppress or check

prostitution.

A necessity exists for some action.

Motives of policy require a change in the mode of procedure.

INDEX.

Abortion, New York, 481

Abyssinia, 389

Ædiles, Powers of, 67

Afghanistan, 418

Africa, 385

" Northern, 444

Ages of Prostitutes, Great Britain, 347

" Hamburg, 200

" New York, 452

" Paris, 140

" Rome, 49

Agnes Sorel, 109

Aid to reformatory Measures, 23

Algeria, 180

Alms-house, Blackwell's Island, 587-604

American Medical Association on Infant Mortality, 482

Anglo-Saxon Rule in England, 283

Anne Boleyn, 294

Anne, Empress of Russia, 266

Arcadians and Flute Players, 50

Archiatri, 85

Architecture, obscene, 95

_Areoi_ of the South Sea Islands, 398

Areopagus, 45

Aspasia, 55

Assignation Houses, Hamburg, 211

" New York, 566

" " Origin of, 568

Asylum of _Bon Pasteur_, Paris, 152

Athens, 44

Attempts to suppress Prostitution, 19

Augustan Age, Rome, 67

Auletrides, 46, 50

Australia, 392

" Female Emigration to, 395

Avignon, 162

" public Brothel at, 100

Baal, Worship of, 37

Babylonian Banquets, 42

Bacchis, 56

Barbarous Nations, 385

Beatrice Cenci, 159

Belgium, 187

" Immorality of, 187

" Illegitimacy in, 187

Belle Ferronnière, 111

Bellevue Hospital, New York, 589, 602

" Report of Medical Board, 665

Berlin, Dancing Saloons, 246

" Effects of French Revolution, 234

" " Suppression of Prostitution, 244

" Illegitimacy, 250

" Increase of Syphilis, 248

" Number of Prostitutes, 233

" Police Regulations, 251

" Popular Feeling against licensed Brothels, 241

" Private Life, 247

" Public Life, 245

Biblical Description of Prostitution, 39

Bicetrê, Hospital of, 135

Blackwell's Island, Commitments to, 633

" Discharges from, 638

Boarding Schools, Dangers of, 519

Board of Governors, Duties of, 27

" Interrogatories by, 28

" Members of, 27

" Preliminary Report to, 29

_Bon Pasteur_ Asylum, Paris, 152

Borneo, 413

Brahmins, religious Ceremonies of, 423

Breslau, Effects of Suppression of Brothels, 237

Brides' Fair, Russia, 274

Britain, Roman Invasion of, 282

British Army, Syphilis in, 357

" Kings, Lives of the early, 285

" Merchant Service, Syphilis in, 357

" Navy, Syphilis in, 357

" North America, 460

Britons, Marriage Ceremonies of ancient, 282

Brooklyn City Hospital, Long Island, 592, 602

Brothels in Algiers, 184

" Avignon, 100

" Belgium, 188

" Berlin, abolished by Royal Order, 243

" " public Opposition to, 241

" China, 433

" Denmark, 256

" England, 316

" Hamburg, 206

" Japan, 437

" Leipzig, 253

" Mantua, 161

" New York, Capital invested in, 599

" " Management of, 554

" " Receipts of, 554

" " Value of, 553

" " German, 560

" " Sailors', 562

" Paris, 141

" Rome, 161

" Spain, 171

" Sweden, 279

" Venice, 161

Bubastis, Festival of, 40

Buffalo, N. Y., Prostitutes in, 608

Byron (Lord) on Italian Morality, 166

Callipygian Games, 52

Canute, Laws of, 284

Capital Punishment, Effects of Abolition of, 629

Career of a Prostitute, 453

Carthage, 42

Catharine I., of Russia, 263

" II., " , 267

Causes of Prostitution, Algiers, 184

" Paris, 141

" New York, 488

Cavalière Servente, 165

Celebes, 428

Celsus on secret Diseases, 84

Central and South America, 364

Ceylon, 425

Charlemagne, Legislation of, 94

Charles II., of England, 299, 304

Charles VIII, 109

Chastity enforced by the early Christians, 86

Children's Aid Society, New York, 530

Children of Prostitutes, New York, 477

Chili, 367

China, 429

Chinese Holidays, 434

Chivalry in England, Effects on Morality of, 290

Christian Doctrine, Features of, 86

" Era, 86

" Fathers on Prostitution, 91

" Virgins, Persecution of, 87

Chrysarguron, or Tax on Prostitutes, 92

Cicisbeo, 165

Circassia, 441

Civil Condition of Prostitutes, New York, 473

Classes of Prostitutes, 148

Classical Studies, Effects of, 521

Claudine du Tencin, 127

Cologne, Effects of Suppression of Brothels in, 243

Commodus, 83

Competition a Plea for insufficient Wages, 530

Connecticut, 458

Consequences of Prostitution, 19

Continuance of Prostitution, New York, 484

Conventual Life, immoral Instances in, 90

" in Portugal, 178

Copenhagen, Number of Prostitutes in, 256

" Syphilis in, 257

Corinth, 44

Corinthian Prostitutes, 58

Cork, Number of Prostitutes in, 342

Cortejos, 175

Cost of Prostitution in New York, 599

Costume of Prostitutes, Bergamo, 162

" Greece, 46

" Mantua, 62

" Milan, 162

" Parma, 162

Council of Trent, 156

Court of Prostitutes, Naples, 160

Dahomey, 387

Dancers, Rome, 69

Dancing Saloons, Berlin, 246

" Hamburg, 212

Dangers of a Prostitute's Life, 485

Danish Rule in England, 287

De la Vallière, Mademoiselle, 124

Delirium Tremens, 542, 543

De Maintenon, Madame, 124

Demilt Dispensary, New York, 591, 602

Denmark, 256

" Brothels in, 256

" Illegitimacy in, 256

Destitution a Cause of Prostitution, 489

" Instances of, in New York, 491

Diana de Poictiers, 111

Dicteria, 43

" Inviolability of, 48

Dicteriades, 46, 47

Disease in Children, 334

Dispensary, Algiers, 182, 185

" Belgium, 188

" Paris, 138

Distinguishing Costume of Prostitutes, 44

Domestic Life of Prostitutes, Hamburg, 202

" Leipzig, 255

Domestic Servants, Belgium, 187

" England, 330

" Hamburg, 199, 211

" Leipzig, 253

" New York, 526

Draconian Laws, 43

Dress, Indecency of, 117

" of French Prostitutes, 97

Dubarry, Madame, 128

Dublin, Number of Prostitutes in, 341

Duchess of Berri, 126

Duke of Orleans, 125

Duration of a Prostitute's Life, 455

Duties of Husbands, 505

" Parents, 498

" Relatives, 511

Early Christians, alleged Immorality of, 89

Eastern Dispensary, New York, 591, 602

Edinburgh, Number of Prostitutes in, 341

Education, compulsory, 471

" in Great Britain, 335

" of Prostitutes, New York, 468

" " Paris, 140

" in United States, 620

Educational Facilities in Europe, 469

" in U. States, 469

" Neglect of, 469

Effects of Indifference upon Prostitution, 25

Egypt, Syria, and Asia Minor, 40

Egyptian Courtesans, 40

Elagabalus, 83

Elizabeth, of England, 295

Elizabeth, of Russia, 266

Emigrant Boarding-house Keepers, 461

Emigrants, Influences at Port of Departure on, 461

" Influences during Voyage on, 461

" Influences on reaching New York on, 461

" Poverty of, 465

" Hospital, Ward's Island, 590, 602

Emigrate, Assistance to, 466

" Inducements to, 465

England, 460

" Brothels, 316

" Causes of Prostitution, 319

" Continental Trade in Prostitution, 315

" Court Morals, 305

" Discussion on Prostitution, 653

" Domestic Servants, 330

" Effects of Chivalry on Morality, 290

" excessive Poverty, 327

" Feudal Lords, 288

" Lodging-houses, 324

" overcrowded Dwellings, 322

" Procuresses, 308, 313

" Profligacy of Troubadours, 292

" Prostitution at the present Time, 312

" Public Amusements, 330

" Puritan Rule, 298

" Restoration of Charles II., 298

" Work-house System, 326

Erotic Literature, 77

Esquimaux, 447

Example, its Effects on Prostitution, 325

Expediency of Investigation, 22

Extent, Effects, and Cost of Prostitution, 575

Factories, Great Britain, 332

" United States, 534

Fair Rosamond, 292

Fathers of Prostitutes, Business of, 535

Female Employment, 529

Female Occupations, Effect of, 533

" Monotony of, 526

Female Penitentiary, London, 351

Feudal Lords in England, 288

Financial Panic, Effect of, 577

Floralian Games, 64

Foreign-born Prostitutes, 460

Foreign Manners, Influence of, 570

Foreign Women, Demoralization of, 461

Foundling Hospitals, Belgium, 187

" Italy, 167

" Mexico, 363

" Portugal, 180

" Rio Janeiro, 371

" Russia, 276

" Spain, 176

" Sweden, 278

Fracastor, Diagnosis of Syphilis by, 132

France, 93

" during the Middle Ages, 93

" from the Middle Ages to Louis XIII., 108

" from Louis XIII. to present Day, 120

" Female Employment, 529

" obscene Literature, 102

" present Regulations, 139

" Provincial Legislation, 98

" Syphilis, 131

Francis I., 110

Franks, Concubinage among the, 94

Free Love, 569

French Legislation, 119

" Republican, 122

French Revolution, Effects in Berlin of, 234

" Effects in Great Britain, 310

" Effects in Hamburg, 191

" Effects in Paris, 122

Gauls, Morality of the, 93

" Roman Description of the, 93

George III., 308

" IV., 309

German Ball-rooms in New York, 523, 561

" Brothels in New York, 560

Glasgow, Number of Prostitutes in, 341

Glycera, 61

Gnathena, 57

Gnathenion, 57

Governmental Duty, 629

Governors of Alms-house, 27

" Interrogatories by, 28

Gradation of Prostitution, 453

Granada, public Brothels at, 172

Great Britain, 282

" Ages of Prostitutes, 347

" Education, 335

" Factories, 332

" Illegitimacy, 337

" Juvenile Prostitution, 331

" Needle Women, 344

" Occupations of Inhabitants, 622

Great Britain, Syphilis, 354

" Work-houses, 332

Greece, 43

" erotic Literature of, 62

" Flute Players, 50

" Tax on Prostitutes, 46

Greenland, 449

Gretna Green Marriages, 311

Guardian Society, London, 351

Guatemala, 365

Gynecea, 94

Hair of Greek Courtesans, 46

Halle, Effects of Suppression of Brothels in, 243

Hamburg, 189

" Ages of Prostitutes, 200

" Assignation Houses, 211

" Brothels, 198, 206

" Classes of Prostitutes, 199

" Dancing-saloons, 212

" Illegitimacy, 199

" Kept Mistresses, 210

" Kurhaus, 216

" Laws, 191

" Magdalen Hospital, 218

" Nationality of Prostitutes, 200

" Number of Prostitutes in, 198

" Police Regulations, 193

" Prostitutes, domestic Life of, 202

" Prostitutes, Physique, 201

" private Prostitution, 210

" Recognized Procuresses, 205

" Street-walkers, 210

" Syphilis, 214

Hamburger Berg, 201

Henry II., of France, 112

" III., " , 116

" VIII., of England, 294

" of Navarre, 114

Hetairæ 46, 53

" Influence of, 62

" social Position of, 54

Hipparchia, 56

Honduras, 366

Hospital du Midi, Paris 136

" in Rome, 164

Hottentots, 385

Houses of Assignation, New York, 566

Iceland, 449

Idols retained as Christian Symbols, 90

Illegitimacy in Belgium, 187

" Berlin, 250

" Denmark, 256

" Great Britain, 337

" Lima, 368

" New York, 480

" Norway, 280

" Sweden, 278

Ill Treatment by Parents, etc., a Cause of Prostitution, 498

Immigration, its Effects on Prostitution, 459

Immorality of Belgium, 187

" Spain, 169

Inclination a Cause of Prostitution, 488

Incubes, Belief in, 103

India, 421

Infanticide in China, 432

" India, 424

" Lima, 368

Infant Mortality, New York, 481

Inscription of Prostitutes, 144

Intelligence Offices an Agency for Prostitution, 517

Intemperance of Prostitutes, 540

" Parents of Prostitutes, 544

Intoxication a Cause of Prostitution, 497

Introduction, 17

Ireland, 460

Irish Farmers, 537

Isabel of Bavaria, 108

Island Hospital, Blackwell's Island, 586, 601, 633

Italian Morality, 165

" Lord Byron on, 166

Italian Vices introduced to France, 112

Italy, 154

" Decline of public Morals, 155

" Influence of Papal Court, 155

" Syphilis, 157

" unnatural Crimes, 159

James I., of England, 296

" II., " , 304

Jane Shore, 293

Japan, 435

Java, 408

Jephthah's Daughter, 38

Jerusalem, 37

Jews, the, 35

Judah and Tamar, 36

Julian Laws, 67

Justinian, 93

Juvenal's Description of a House of Prostitution, 72

Juvenile Depravity, 32, 331, 453

Kaffirs, 386

Kashmir, 419

Kept Mistresses, 172, 210

Kings County Hospital, Long Island, 592, 602

Kordofan, 390

Kurhaus of Hamburg, 216

Lamia, 53

Lais, 58

Lateran Council, 156

Latin Authors, Pruriency of, 80

Laws on Prostitution by Moses, 36

" France, 119

" " Republican, 122

" Lycurgus, 45

" Naples, 159

" Portugal, 179

" Prussia, 219, 225

" Russia, 261

League, the Huguenot, its Influence in France, 116

Leeds, Number of Prostitutes in, 341

Leipzig, 252

" Brothels, 253

" domestic Life of Prostitutes, 254

" Nationality of Prostitutes, 254

" Syphilis, 255

Lesbian Love, 52

Licensed Prostitutes in Persia, 417

License System in New York, 651

Lima, 367

" Illegitimacy and Infanticide, 368

Literature, France, 129

" Great Britain, 299

Liverpool, Number of Prostitutes in, 341

Lock Hospital, London, 350

Lodging Houses, England, 324

London Female Penitentiary, 351

" Guardian Society, 351

" Lock Hospital, 350

" Night Houses, 653

" Number of Prostitutes in, 340

" obscene Publications, 334

" public Meeting on Prostitution, 653

" Saint Bartholomew's Hospital, 357

_London Times_, the, on Prostitution, 657

Louisville, Ky., Prostitution in, 608

Louis IX., of France, 95

" XI., " , 109

" XII., " , 110

" XIII., " , 123

" XIV., of France, 124

" XV., " , 128

Louise de Querouaille, 302

Lupanaria, 70

Lycurgus, Laws of, 45

Magdalen Asylums, 631

" Hamburg, 218

" Paris, 152

Maine, 457

Male Prostitutes, 70

Manchester, Number of Prostitutes in, 341

Mantua, Brothels in, 161

Margaret, Queen of Navarre, 114

Marriage Ceremonies of the ancient Britons, 282

Marriage Ceremonies in France, 107

Marriage, Belgium, 187

" Norway, 280

" Rome, 81

" Effects of early, 474

" ill-assorted, 331

" Violation of, 473

Martial, 78

Maryland, 457

Massachusetts, 458

Medical Bureau, proposed, New York, 649

Medical Colleges, New York, 591