The Contagious Diseases Acts considered in their moral, social, and sanitary aspects / by Christopher Bulteel.

  • Bulteel, Christopher, 1832-1897.
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Contagious Diseases Acts considered in their moral, social, and sanitary aspects / by Christopher Bulteel. 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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    elements of a comprehensive view of the subject in hand, and it is my purpose in the following pages to examine each of these propositions in detail. 1. Is it right or desirable to treat so-called Enthetic diseases at all ? 2. Do these diseases constitute such an evil as to justify the Government in treating them at the expense of the public purse? 3. Are the Contagious Diseases Acts calculated to promote the objects for which they are intended ? What are their sanitary results ? Wliat are their social and moral effects ? Do they tend to increase clandestine prostitution ? Do they interfere unduly with the liberty of the subject? Are they a form of licensing prostitution ? Is the allegation that they apply to one sex only a valid objection ? 4. Has any feasible alternative yet been suggested which is capable of coping with the evil in question, and which, while delivering us from the disgraceful state of laissez faire which makes our great towns notorious for open and un- blushing licentiousness, is free from the objections to which the present system is supposed to be open ? 5. Until such an alternative is found, and proved sufficient, is it wise to urge the immediate repeal of the Acts ? If not, are they capable of amendment, and should their operation be confined to the present areas, or should it be extended to the civil population of our great towns ? All these points will doubtless be fully considered by the Eoyal Commission promised by the Government, and the public may rest satisfied that on this occasion the evidence taken will not be so markedly one-sided as on the occasion of the Select Committee of the House of Commons last year, but that the opponents of the Act will have every opportunity of bringing forward, and, if possible, of substantiating their objections. I for one rejoice at the prospect of this subject being