The Contagious Diseases Acts : the Contagious Diseases Acts, 1864, '66, '68 (Ireland), '69, from a sanitary and economic point of view : being a paper read before the Medical Society of University College, London, on Thursday, November 30th, 1871 / by C.W. Shirley Deakin.

  • Deakin, Charles Washington Shirley.
Date:
1872
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Contagious Diseases Acts : the Contagious Diseases Acts, 1864, '66, '68 (Ireland), '69, from a sanitary and economic point of view : being a paper read before the Medical Society of University College, London, on Thursday, November 30th, 1871 / by C.W. Shirley Deakin. 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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    Mr President and Gentlemen, The subject of the Contagious Diseases Acts is such a large one, and one involving, as the lawyers say, so many distinct counts, that I have thought it best to confine myself to that view of the subject which most nearly concerns us as students of the medical art, viz.: the consideration of these enactments as a means for the preservation of the Public Health, though I here express my belief that the strongest defence of these acts is that based on their moral, social, and political aspects. 1. Before proceeding to examine the acts themselves, I propose to say a few words on the subject of prostitution, an evil which it has been found impossible to suppress without the most disastrous consequences, in the form of seductions, infanticide, and worse vices. 2. To refer briefly to foreign legislative attempts to deal with this subject, more especially in France, and to note the good results obtained thereby; and then, 3. To go on to the legislation for venereal diseases in England. I. PROSTITUTION. Prostitution, gentlemen, is no passing evil; from the earliest records of our race even to the present time we find that the daughters of shame have been ever present among men; kings, philosophers, and priests, the learned and noble, the wise no less than the ignorant, have tasted freely of Circe's cup in every age and under every clime. And having thus always existed, have we not good reason to fear that the great social evil will always continue ? Some of our opponents believe that prostitution can be done away with altogether. But the day when not a single prostitute can be found in London even, will not be, I fear, in the time of any of us. Hence, when we say that prostitution is a necessary evil, wc imply ' merely that it will always exist so long as the animal part of his nature preponderates in man, and I believe that this will always be the case among a great number of men. It is a necessary evil only in the same sense that poverty and disease are necessary evils, and it is almost as im- possible to eradicate one as the others. Prostitution is a great and a permanent fact.