The operation of the Contagious Diseases Acts among the troops in the United Kingdom, and men of the Royal Navy on the home station : from their introduction in 1864 to their ultimate repeal in 1884 / by Robert Lawson.

  • Lawson, Robert.
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The operation of the Contagious Diseases Acts among the troops in the United Kingdom, and men of the Royal Navy on the home station : from their introduction in 1864 to their ultimate repeal in 1884 / by Robert Lawson. 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.

    13/44 (page 9)
    apply to a magistrate to hear the case, and if he were satisfied she had ceased to he a common prostitute, or if, with his approval, she entered into a recognisance for her good behaviour during three months, he could order her to he released therefrom. A woman on discharge from hospital well, after any period of treat- ment, was no longer subject to the order of periodical examination, unless under a fresh decision of a magistrate. By the Act of 1869 it was provided that if the examining surgeon had reasonable grounds for believing a woman was affected with a contagious disease, but found she was not in a condition that he could examine her properly, she might be detained in a certified hospital for five days to enable this to be done. It was also enacted that, if at the expiring of six months’ treatment a female was not cured of her disease, she might be detained for another three months for this purpose. Voluntary submission by a woman, in writing, was also declared to have the same effect as a magistrate’s order subjecting her to examination. The limits of many of the “ fourteen stations which came “ under the Acts ” included, for the purposes of the Acts, localities geographically outside them. Thus, for instance, Plymouth and Devonport include, amongst other places, Dartmouth. The Acts applied not merely to common prostitutes residing within the limits of the subjected districts, but also to common prostitutes who, being resident within ten miles of such limits, or, having no settled place of abode, have, within fourteen days, been either within these limits for the purposes of prostitution, or been outside those limits for the purposes of prostitution in company of men resident within those limits. The hospital accommodation was provided gradually, and with the necessary organisation came fully into operation at all the stations in the beginning of 1870. In the end of 1873 an order was issued by Lord Cardwell, then Minister of War, stopping the pay of soldiers in hospital, labouring under primary sores or gonorrhoea, during their period of treat- ment. It was pointed out at the time by the Medical Department that this would tend to much concealment of disease, and have no effect in restraining the number affected; but, nevertheless, it continued in force until the end of 1879. The personal inspection was suspended in 1882, and in 1885 the division of military stations into those under the Acts and not under them ceased. In Table III the strength and numbers admitted for primary sores, secondary syphilis, and gonorrhoea, annually, with the ratios per i,ooo, are given for each of the three classes of stations, from 1860 to 1884, and a smaller Table, Ills, is added, giving the corresponding numbers for the whole force at home from 1885 to 1889. In Table III the years have been grouped so as to correspond with the changes introduced from time to time, and