The Contagious Diseases Act of 1866, and its extension to the civil population of the United Kingdom / by J. Brendon Curgenven.

  • Curgenven, J. Brendon (John Brendon), 1831-1903.
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Contagious Diseases Act of 1866, and its extension to the civil population of the United Kingdom / by J. Brendon Curgenven. 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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    to 22, while the arrival of a depot in July, and other companies in August brought the number of diseased men to the high point, in September, of 35 per 1,000. The authorities have since ordered that all new arrivals shall be examined before they are allowed to leave barracks. The marine division at Plymouth being a stationary corps, the beneficial operation of the Act in their case is very evident; the number of men diseased having fallen, with but slight fluctuations, from 24 per 1,000 in April, 1865, to 12 per 1,000, in October, 1867. In the navy, also, the numbers have dimini- shed from 21 per 1,000 in April, lb65, to 4 in October, 1867. While the amount of disease among the naval and military population has diminished, a marked decrease has also taken place amongst the inhabitants of these towns. There is an absence of the severer forms of the disease, that formerly entailed acute suffering and death, and the constitutional form, which conveys the disease to the innocent Avives and children, has greatly diminished, as seen by comparing the entries into Melville Hospital, Chatham, for the third quarter of 1864 with those of the corresponding quarter of 1867. ' 1864 Syphilis 95 1867 Syphilis 45 cases. ,, Gonorrhoea 21 ,, Gonorrhoea 33 Total 116 Total 78 The medical and police surveillance of the women has operated beneficially in several ways. They are less depraved, they behave better, and are more cleanly, and it is stated that in Plymouth they no longer solicit in the streets. The visits of the police to their haunts give them opportunities of appealing for aid and protection from their oppressors, and the means of escape from their wretched mode of life. By their admission and long residence in hospital, Avhere they are brought under moral influences, many for the first time in their lives, the opportunity occurs of rescuing them from their evil ways. And there are many of these poor creatures, Avhose hearts melt at a kind Avord, that are only too glad to escape from their wretched mode of living. I have witnessed the Avhole of the inmates of a ward, nearly tAventy in number, sobbing in tears at the unconscious appeal of a poor orphan, while under chloroform, to her mother to forgive her. At the Poyal Albert Hospital, Devonport, about one- third of those admitted are sent home to their friends or into refuges. The Kev. Mr. Webster, rector of Chatham, in a letter says:— “ The obvious moral objection to the Act, that it removes one chief deterrent from the sin of fornication, viz., the fear of contagion,