The Contagious Diseases Act : shall the Contagious Diseases Act be applied to the civil population? : being a paper read before the Association of the Medical Officers of Health, on Saturday, December 18th, 1869 / by William Acton.

  • Acton, William, 1813-1875.
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Contagious Diseases Act : shall the Contagious Diseases Act be applied to the civil population? : being a paper read before the Association of the Medical Officers of Health, on Saturday, December 18th, 1869 / by William Acton. 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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    THE CONTAGIOUS DISEASES ACT. PART I. PRECIS OF AUTHOR’S VIEWS. It will be in the recollection of persons interested in the subject of this paper that both branches of the Legis- lature have recently appointed Committees to investigate the results of the Contagious Diseases Act. FAVOURABLE REPORT OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. These Committees have reported favourably of the measure, especially the Committee appointed by the House of Commons, in July, 1869, which states among other things that— “ Although the Act has only been in operation two years and a half, and at some stations only seven months, strong testimony is borne to the benefits, both in a moral and sanitary point of view, which have already resulted from it. “ Prostitution appears to have diminished—its worst features to have been softened—and its physical evils abated.”—P. iii. The Committee close the report by saying— “Your Committee would remark, in conclusion, that whilst, for the reasons stated at the commencement of their Report, they have confined their investigations to the object of secur- ing greater efficiency in the treatment of these diseases at Mili- tary and Naval stations, they recommend that further inquiry, by a Committee appointed early in the next session, should be in- stituted with the view of ascertaining whether it would be prac- ticable to extend to the civil population the benefits of an Act which has already done so much to diminish prostitution, decrease disease, and reclaim the abandoned. “ Your Committee have examined Mr. Simon, the medical officer of the Privy Council, as to the nature of the evidence which should be prepared before this question is referred to a Parliamentary Committee, and they recommend that his sug- gestions on this head should be adopted by Her Maicstv’s Go- vernment.^ 1—o.