Report from the Select Committee on the Contagious Diseases Acts : together with the proceedings of the Committee, minutes of evidence and appendix.
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on the Contagious Diseases Acts.
- Date:
- 1881
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Report from the Select Committee on the Contagious Diseases Acts : together with the proceedings of the Committee, minutes of evidence and appendix. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.
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![2 March 1881.] Dr. EouTH. [ Continued. Mr. Osborne Morgan—continued. 105. May I ask you how many cases you have met with of this kind in your own practice ?—I have met with them by hundreds, but the noint that makes it more marked in my view is, I have found it amongst those who are perfectly free from any implication on their characters. Chairman. 106. Does that lead you to the conclusion that the examination of the women by the speculum is generally delusive and useless ?—In very many cases, certainly. Mr. Osborne Morgan. 107. In what proportion of cases is it delusive ? —That is really a question f could not answer. In acute cases it would not be delusive, but in chronic cases how could I tell (as I have just read) that a woman might not communicate the disease. I have known secretions produce the disease when I could not detect a sore. Mr. Staiisfeld. 108. Have you any more authorities from which you desire to quote ?—A statement by Dr. Lancereaux in his Treatise on Syphilis is one that I should like to refer to. He is writing upon public hygiene, and is the head of the clinical department C'f the Faculty of Medicine at Paris. He says: Let us .add that as exami- nation takes place shortly after the arrival of the women at the dispensaries, they do not fail always to remove by washing and astringent injections the product of secretion indicative of the con- tagious lesion. Under these circumstances only a comparatively slight security is ever obtained. Mr. Simon says: '' In women, primary venereal ulcers and other local states capable of infecting wdth syphilis, not only very often pass unnoticed by the patient herself, but have often been over- looked in examinations made expressly for their discovery. Mr. Berkeley Hill, in speaking of measures applicable to women with reference to syphilis and local contagion, says: There is great difficulty in detecting disease if it is to the interest of the prostitute to conceal it. Then, again, as to the security which it is sometimes supposed to give, he says, at page 269 : On the other hand, special precautions aiFord a false and mischievous security by removing the dread of contagion to those yielding to their passions when considerations of a restraining character are es- pecially necessary. Chairman. 109. You are aware that Mr. Berkeley Hill is a strenuous advocate in support of the Acts ?—I am aware, but I only quote to you what he says. Professor Aitken, in his work on the Science and Practice of Medicine, says, speaking of women, A hard chancre or sore in them is exceptional, and when it does occur it remains small, is ill- developed, and is readily overlooked even when searched for with great care, aided by a vaginal examination with the speculum. Mr. Langston Parker says in his evidence before lie Venereal Commission at Question 3333: I am certain that these uterine discharges in a woman who had had secondary syphilis, but had had no sore, pro- duce frequently indurated chancres and constitu- 0.44. Chairman—continued, tional disease in a male. Mr. Holmes Coote made this remark before the same Commissionwith regard to women. He says, in answer to Question 4139, I have known that it is so difficult to examine the mucous tract in a female, the vagina or the os uteri; you cannot with certainty tell what dis- ease is going on there. Those are a few quota- tions confirmatory of what I have stated. Mr. Stansfeld. 110. You have told us to-day in your opinion the false sense of security engendered by the Acts has increased sexual indulgence ?—Yes. 111. Can you give us any evidence founded uppn your own practice and experience on that point?—Most assuredly ; with regard to certain foreign places the thing has often been told to me; they said, When you go to Paris you need not be afraid because all the women are visited ; and I have known instances from my intercourse with Paris in which (hat has occurred over and over again, in which men, relying upon the security which they supposed they had, gave way to indulgence. Sir Henry Wolff. This is again foreign evidence. I object to it? Mr. Stansfeld. 112. I am asking Dr. Routh whether, of his own experience as a medical man, he has known persons relying upon a sense of security, which he thinks a false sense,incurring disease?—I say decidedly, and I gave you my exam|)le. I cannot give you the Army, because I do not go and question the officers and soldiers; but that is the fact. Colonel Tottenham. 113. There is only one question with regard to the inspection of troops. I understood you to state that troops, on going into a subjected dis- trict, were examined, but were not so in non- subjected disti'icts ; was that what vou stated '' —Yes. 114. Are you aware that troops are medically inspected with a view of detecting venereal dis- eases on a certain day in every month, or per- haps oftener than that, in the course of the year ? —I only state what I read in the reports. 11.5. But you are not aware, of your own knowledge, that troops are subjected to those examinations on other occasions ?—No, I am not aware of that fact. I must qualify that. Many years ago I went down to Woolwich and saw Dr. M'Leod there when he was alive, and he told me that he was in the habit of doing it occa- sionally. It is the only circumstance I know of from my own personal knowledge, and that is many years ago. Colonel Pigby. 116. You mentioned the ratio of diseases xh. 1878 as higher than in 1869. I wish to know if you have taken into consideration that that may be so in consequence of the short service now in vogue in the army, and of the men being younger, and therefore more liable to disease physically ? — I cannot pretend to answer that question at all. A 4 117. Pc.haps](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21230377_0031.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
