Observations on the Contagious Diseases Act (women, not animals) : showing how the new law debases women, debauches men, destroys the liberty of the subject, and tends to increase disease, being a reply to Mr. W. Paul Swain's paper on the working of the Act at Devonport / by Charles Bell Taylor.

  • Taylor, Charles Bell, 1829-1909.
Date:
[1869]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the Contagious Diseases Act (women, not animals) : showing how the new law debases women, debauches men, destroys the liberty of the subject, and tends to increase disease, being a reply to Mr. W. Paul Swain's paper on the working of the Act at Devonport / by Charles 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.

    6/20 (page 4)
    4i and condemned to three months' imprisonment with hard labour, which may be repeated indefinitely, that is, for life, if she decline to submit (for at least a year, in company with the vilest prostitutes) to a frequently repeated violation of her person with a surgical instrument. The policeman is disguised in plain clothes, and his functions are those of a spy. When he has spied out a woman, he informs her, in the language of the force, that he shall run her in, that is, take her before a magistrate, unless she consents to the operation I have described. In the middle ages, when our forefathers employed the rack, thumb screw, fire, and other forms of torture, such exposure and violation was one of the ^'pehies fortes et dares occasionally ofifered, with others, for selection to female criminals—but it was always the last chosen. It is now offered with the alternative of imprisonment for life to those who at the very worst are not criminals, and who may be entirely innocent. The sworn evidence which some pretend is a protection to the libert}' of the subject is worse than useless, at beat it amounts to this : —a woman protests her innocence, and declines to go with or accept the disguised policeman's invitation to register herself as a comnnon prosti- tute. He therefor3, doubtless with considerable chagrin, informs his superintendent that he thinks a certain woman is no better than she should be ; and the superintendent goes before a magistrate, and swears That he has good cause to believe such a person is a prostitute, where- upon the magistrate issues a warrant for her apprehension. To English- men, with the old fashioned, notions of freedom, this seems bad enough, but unfortunately wor?e lurks behind. Under the 17th section of the Act, called the voluntary submission, the police spies are enabled to cajole and terrify comparatively innocent, or entirely innocent, women into permitting themselves to be registered as common prostitutes ; that is, innocent women, falsely accused, are so hopeless of justice that they submit to be herded with prostitutes and periodically outraged. Why ? For fear their husbands and friends should hear that they had been accused of prostitution ! ! ! This seems incredible, and I will therefore, in proof of my assertion, quote from the minutes of Parlia- mentary evidence:—Dr. Brewer, Q336, asks Mr. Parsons, the examining surgeon, whether any woman has been brought to him by false accusa- tions, and his answer is Yes I In Query .HS, How do you know that women brought before you as common prostitutes are not prostitutes ? He says, 1 knew one instance of my own knowledge, by my happening to know the woman luas a respectable married tvoman. Further, in 351, he observes that the surgeon has no power to relieve women falsely accused, and suggests that he should have the power of saying to the police, I believe this woman is a modest woman, and that you have made some little mistake. Further on he says some have willingly offered to take their oaths that they were modest women, and yet they were obliged to keep coming up week after week, with common prosti- tutes, to be examines!, because nobody had power to relieve them except the magistrates. 31 ark ! question 353. He says <Ae.ii/ loere brought tip by the police, and he lias said to them, You should go before a magis- trate to prove your innocence. They say, Oh, dear no ! I would rather submit for 20 years, because if they go to the magistrates' court it is known all over the town, and the husbands and friends become acquainted with it. In another place he remarks, If the police see a woman out at night, they are very apt to jump to the conclusion that she is a prostitute. Now, I should like to know what right the police had to say a w.r-i to these women, much more bring them up for exami- nation ! It was a monstrous outrage for these odious officials to speak a word to them. It is useless to mince matters, this Act is not intended for harlots ; it is distinctly stated in the Parliamentary reports that niillinfcrs, dressmakers, and others at work all day, are classed as prosti- tutes for tne purposes of this Act. They say that abandoned women are dangerous to society. If that danger was multiplied a thousand times,