Observations on the majority report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the Contagious Diseases Acts, 1882.

Date:
[1882]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the majority report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the Contagious Diseases Acts, 1882. 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.

    5/12 (page 3)
    saving to be so attributable, it follows that, as the total annual'expense of the administration of the Acts is about ^30,000, the actual annual cost of such saving averages about /no per man. It was moved by Dr. Cameron that a paragraph to this effect should be inserted in the Report. On a division being taken it was rejected by a majority of nine to six, the objectors being the same members mentioned above. A striking comment is furnished by the Army Medical Report [1880], presented to Parliament before the Com- mittee reported, which reveals the fact that in that year the numbers of men admitted to hospital with a certain class of disease increased in the districts subjected to the Acts collectively by the enormous pro- portion of 57 per cent, on the previous year's admissions, against 45 per cent, in all the districts where the Acts are not in operation. There was likewise a continued increase in the most dangerous class of disease; while in a third class the respective increases were 45 per cent, in the districts under the Acts, and 34 per cent, in the towns not under the Acts. The Report does not refer at all by name to the official statistics on the subject of disease among the women subjected to the Acts, contained in the Annual Police Reports of Captain Harris, though these were repeatedly brought to the notice of the Committee in the examination of numerous witnesses. Those statistic^ disclose the important fact that there has been a regular and continuous increase in the ratios of disease among registered and inspected women during several years past. This may account for the exclusion of that evidence, notwithstanding its official character. The only allusion to the subject is the vague statement, “ It is alleged that disease has shown a tendency to increase among registered women,”—suppressing the fact that the ‘ alle- gation’ in this case consists of official evidence of an actual increase, tabulated in the Annual Returns of the Chief of the Contagious Diseases Acts’ Police on the “ Operation of the Acts,” and suggesting the contrary. 2. In dealing with the second branch of the enquiry, viz., the operation of the Acts as regards their constitutional, moral, and social aspects, the Report again discloses the strongest indications of prejudice. So far as matters of fact are concerned, the testi- mony given by independent witnesses in support of the objections raised against the Acts is for the most part ignored, and, for the rest, slightingly alluded to as allegations,” “ assertions,” and “ arguments,” which are said to be “ disproved ” or “ overborne ” by the “evidence” of “ trustworthy officials” and “respectable officials connected with the administration of the Acts,” and also of “ clergymen and other benevolent persons who have watched the system.” No mention is made of the testimony borne to the reality of those objections by a large number of other clergy, and other benevolent persons who also have “ watched the sj^stem ; ” and the public is thus led to infer that all respectable and