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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    ages of the world’s history clown to the present time, and differs but little, and in minor particulars, in this the nineteenth century, from what it was in the earliest times. The records of the human race, from the Book of Genesis downwards, through the whole range of ancient and mediaeval literature to the writings of our own day, bear witness to the perpetual presence among men of the daughters of shame. Kings, philosophers, and priests, the learned and the noble, no less than the ignorant and simple, have drunk without stint in every age and every clime of Circe’s cup; nor is it reasonable to suppose that in the years to come the world will prove more virtuous than it has shown itself in ages past. From time to time men’s purer instincts, revolting from the sin, have striven to repress it; but such efforts have too often ended in failure, and entailed disasters more terrible than those from which relief was sought. As one among many other instances of the futility of repressive measures, I may cite the example of the city of Berlin. This capital has on three separate occasions, since the Reformation, been purged of prostitutes, but has as often immediately fallen a prey to desertion of infants, adultery, abortions, and clandestine prostitution. Hence the iiresent public recognition of that which the Govern- ment could neither suppress nor ignore with public advan- tage, has been forced upon the authorities. It is evident that it would be unreasonable to expect any other result. Equally irrational is it to imagine that this irrepressible evil can exist without entailing upon society serious mis- chief, which, though incapable of extinction, yet admits of mitigation. To ignore an ever-present evil appears a mistake as fatal as the attempt to repress it. WERE PROSTITUTION UNATTENDED DY CONTAGIOUS DISEASES V E SHOULD NOT ADVOCATE GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE. I must here admit that if prostitution carried moral mischiefs only in its train, it would be to a great extent, 1 entirely, outside the proper sphere of legislation. ai uie must always be the fate of any attempt to make people virtuous by Act of Parliament. The evils pro- c need by prostitution are two-fold, moral and physical.