English and French medical opinion on the immoral, despotic, and useless laws for the sanitary regulation of vice, known as the Contagious Diseases Acts, 1866-69.

Date:
[between 1880 and 1889?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: English and French medical opinion on the immoral, despotic, and useless laws for the sanitary regulation of vice, known as the Contagious Diseases Acts, 1866-69. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    ijeanex ivi.—iNew eeries.j ENGLISH AND FRENCH MEDICAL OPINION ON THE IMMORAL, DESPOTIC, AND USELESS LAWS FOE THE SANITARY REQULATION OF VICE, KNOWN AS THE CONTAGIOUS DISEASES ACTS, 1866-69^ THE MEDICAL TIMES AND GAZETTE, Sept. 22, 1869 There ia nothing which would tend more to deprive medicine of the rank of a respectable calling, than the fact that practitioners should be found willing to lend themselves to the dirty work of examining prosti- tutes in order to enable them to carry on their trade. If the heads of the^ profession or the colleges ever desire an opportunity of protecting their members from degradation, here is one. THE EDINBURGH MEDICAL JOURNAL, Nov., 1877:—In no country in modern times has prostitution been so much inspected and controlled as m France ; and yet in no other country has there been such a steady diminution in the number of the people and a progressive defe- neration of race. ° THE MEDICAL ENQUIRER, 1878 :- The outrage upon the woman (sanctioned by these Acts) is nothing less than diabolical. . . . Nothing so intrinsically wicked, nothing so outrageously indecent, nothing so dangerous has ever been sanctioned by a British Parliament before^ and it IS simply impossible to understand how any decent race of men can consent to endure it for a day. PROTEST OF EIGHT HUNDRED MEDICAL MEN :—In 1871, 800 physicians and surgeons signed the following protest: We, the under- J^Sned physicians, surgeons, and general practitioners of medicine in the United Kingdom, after due consideration, hereby record our solemn protest on religious, moral, social, and sanitary grounds, against the application ot the Contagious Diseases Acts to the women of this country We consider the measure fraught with a large amount of mischief, and calculated to do no good. TWO HUNDRED MEDICAL MEN in Birmingham, Nottingham, Dudley and Scarborough have testified as follows :— We consider that such a harsh, unconstitutional, un-English, and unjust measure is less 0 be defended on the ground of expediency and necessity at the present time, than during any former period of our history. REV. SAMUEL HAUGHTON, M.D., D.C.L., School of Physio, fhrwr.l^ri^f 'i Dublin :- It has been-coolly taken for granted that ;he whole medical profession ig on the side of these Acts. Speaking Jl ght to regard the silence of medical men as implying consent ; f nub'in ° ^^i°\the Acts are based is, a recognition of the'tr;de )f pub ic women as a legitimate calling, provided that it be exercised oZnT° r^^'' This principle is contrary not on y 0 the Christian rehgion, but to public policy. It goes to the very ^morality in his mind, would ever have admitted that principle openlvT