Prostitution in Paris : Dr. Chapman's replies to the remarks of M. le Fort and Mr. Berkeley Hill, on certain passages in the articles on prostitution published in The Westminster Review.

  • Chapman, John, 1821-1894.
Date:
1870
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Prostitution in Paris : Dr. Chapman's replies to the remarks of M. le Fort and Mr. Berkeley Hill, on certain passages in the articles on prostitution published in The Westminster Review. 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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    tliat from the point of view of the physician alone (regardless of social and moral considerations), experience proves that they are a political mistake, and that they ought to be erased from the statute-book altogether. I freely admit that those prostitutes who are subject to, and retained under, enforced sanitary control, both on the Continent and in England, are less diseased than those who are not; hut I have proved by a copious array of evi- dence in respect to several Continental cities that measures simi- lar to the Contagious Diseases Acts, while lessening the amount of venereal diseases in the small number of prostitutes under con- trol, increase immensely the amount of those diseases in the in- comparably larger number of those who are not and who cannot be got under control—viz., the so-called clandestine prostitutes, wherever those measures have been carried out. In Paris, for ex- ample, according to the highest authority on the subject in that city, the clandestine prostitutes amount to at least 26,000 women, “ who, on account of their habitual debauchery, are a danger to the public health,” whereas the number under sanitary control in the same city on the 1st of January last was only 3,656. M. Le Fort says that “ as regards France, it is only at the cost of numerous errors that the author has been able to avail him- self of this line of argument. I shall only mention the most important.” He then proceeds : “ To show that there is more syphilis in Paris than in London, Dr. Chapman relies upon the fact that we have in special hospitals 806 beds especially appro- priated to the venereal diseases of both sexes. This proof is far from having the value that the writer attributed to it.” I must respectfully deny that there is any passage in any of my articles which can be construed into an attempt “to show that there is more syphilis in Paris than in London indeed I have instituted no comparison whatever of the two cities in respect to the amount of venereal disease prevailing in them. The signifi- cance of the fact that in special hospitals at Paris “ 806 beds are especially appropriated to the venereal diseases of both sexes ” will no doubt be estimated differently by different persons. In my article I have valued the fact of the existence of those beds as evidence that in Paris, where the system of enforced sanitary sur- veillance of prostitutes is applied as effectually as it is ever likely to be anywhere, those beds are nevertheless required for and occu- pied by venereal patients, aiid it will be difficult to show, I think, that I was not justified in using the fact for that purpose. M. Le Fort continues :—“ This is not all, for, according to Dr. Chapman, these numerous beds do not yet suffice. A great num- ber of venereal patients are taken care of in the ordinary hospitals, and that contrary to the rules.” The reader of course expects that M. Le Fort has quoted this