The statistical results of the Contagious Diseases Acts : as deduced from all the Parliamentary papers which have been issued upon the subject, from the commencement of the Acts to the present time, shewing their total failure in a sanitary point of view : being a paper read before the Medical Society of London, February 19th, 1872 / by C. Bell Taylor.

  • Taylor, Charles Bell, 1829-1909.
Date:
[1872]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The statistical results of the Contagious Diseases Acts : as deduced from all the Parliamentary papers which have been issued upon the subject, from the commencement of the Acts to the present time, shewing their total failure in a sanitary point of view : being a paper read before the Medical Society of London, February 19th, 1872 / by C. Bell Taylor. 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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    PEEFACE. It has been well said by Burke, that ‘‘The Constitution of this country has been the pattern for politicians, the theme of the eloquent, the meditation of the philo- sopher, the boast of the patriot, and the envy of the whole world.” The promoters of the Contagious Diseases Acts and all similar legislation are striving to destroy that glorious Constitution, oblivious or careless of the fact “ that in their zeal against women they are undermining their own freedom.” I have shown in a former pamphlet, by quotations from the highest authorities and by facts and statistics not to be rebutted, that as sanitary measures all such regulations have in every known clime and age not only failed signally to suppress disease, but have very generally heen attended by an aggravation of evil both physical and moral. Nevertheless, with a blindness similar, I presume, to that which induces us to consider “ all men mortal but ourselves,” the promoters of such regulations have always assumed that statutes which have failed everywhere else would succeed in England, and in answer to all argument and expostulation have triumphantly pointed to carefully prepared statistics which were supposed to show the brilliant results obtained in our garrison towns. With the aid of an able statistician. Dr. Hooppell, of South Shields, I am now enabled to show how false are the facts and how fallacious the reasoning on which such assumptions are based.f In my evidence before the Royal Commission I remarked that the periodical examination was “ an outrage that nothing human ought to submit to,” and Mr. George Thompson has well expressed the feeling of many who well know what that examination means, when he said “that these Acts sanction and legalise an atrocious invasion of the sacred and, as he believed, indefeasible rights belonging to every woman no matter how mean or outcast she might be; ” nevertheless, in spite of the recommendation of the Royal Commission “ that these examinations he discontinued,” more than 100,000 such revolting outrages were enforced up to the end of the year 1870 (86,000 of them upon perfectly healthy women, not one of whom was either a criminal or suspected of any legal oflPence whatever), ANB THEY AEE STIII, GOING ON. That freedom-loving English people should submit to such a gross violation of the fundamental laws of this country and the guaranteed rights of British subjects, would be incomprehensible were it not for the extraordinarily one-sided and utterly indefensible conduct of the Press, whose conductors, lay and medical, with one or two rare exceptions, while carefully parading the figures and arguments circulated by the Association for extending these Acts, have-'^ersistently refused to publish rebutting testimony, facts, or arguments emanating from scientific and other opponents of these measures. C. B. T. 9, Paek Row, Nottingham. + See foot note, paje 5, showing how satisfactorily disease was falling off among the troops prior to the introduction of the Acts, and the last lines of page 12 for the figures demonstrating the increase under the system from 1866 to 1869. I would also beg the reader to procure Mr. Kingsford’s Summary of the Evidence before theEoyal Commission, especially that portion which treats of the Effects of the Acts on Venereal Disease.— London: Banks, 50, Great Marlborough Street, W.