The Contagious Disease Act at Devonport : its physical and moral results after six years working : a paper read at the Bristol Social Science Congress / by William Paul Swain.

  • Swain, William Paul, 1834-1916.
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Contagious Disease Act at Devonport : its physical and moral results after six years working : a paper read at the Bristol Social Science Congress / by William Paul Swain. 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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    Lock work on the simple ground that lie is a hard working, energetic, self-denying, holy man. All these gifts are needful, but he must have in a hlition, peculiar aptitude for the work, such as is seldom to he gained but by long familiarity with it, and an almost natural instinct as to what is the right thing to do at the right moment. However good may be the instruments which you employ, there is no more discouraging work than the reclamation of fallen women, and any attempt to claim success from a mere statistical record is in my opinion most unwise. It is better to look the evil fairly in the face and grapple with it manfully, then to gloss it over, or even allow oneself to look at it through too rosy a medium. Thus we have been lately told* that the number of prostitutes in our neighbourhood lias diminished from 2000 in 1804, to 770 at the present time. We have also been told, as a proof that vice has materially diminished that clandes- tine prostitution has much lessened. Now many people who are well able to judge assert that there never were so many as 2000+ public prostitutes in the Three Towns, and although there are-only 770 names now on the Police register, it is believed impossible that that number represents the entire body of women who prac- tice prostitution at the present time. As far as Devonport is concerned, I know on the best authority, that the number of women lias slightly increased during the last two years. It is thought that the gentleman who made this statement has been wrong at both ends —in overstating the number of prostitutes in the Towns in 1864, and in understating the numbers at present practising this vocation. But to go on to assert that with this enormous decrease in the num- ber of public prostitutes, clandestine prostitution has also diminished is really to state a fact which runs counter to the experience of every one who has studied the subject, which is that clandestine prostitution invariably increases with the decrease of the number of women who gain their livelihood as public prostitutes. What 1 believe to he really tlie case is this—that the effect of the Act upon the women generally has been to render them more orderly and cpiiet in their demeanour. I have no doubt that a visit to the Hospital has a humanizing effect upon a woman’s mind. She * Vide -Mr. W. II. Sloggeit's evidence, )>. 7. minutes of evidence before Committee of the House of Commons, June 1809. t Since writing this I have been informed that a list of 2000 prostitutes was actually prepared, but I have never seen it, nor do I know any one who lias.