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
Catalogue details

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.

    31/36 (page 31)
    of syphilis—the worst and most frightful of all plagues—which for nearly BOO years has been raging among us. u Such neglect could hardly be believed, and will, I am sure, astonish future generations. If legislation cannot render men virtuous, if it cannot correct their judgment, and repress the impetuosity of passions which appeal to their senses too loudly to leave them the consciousness of duty ; at least, it may meet the danger to which the imprudent expose themselves, and for the sake of these men's wives and children look after the health of the guilty in order to preserve the innocent. I will go further, for I maintain that it ought to do so, and that those who have neglected this important duty have been unfaithful to their trust, and can only be excused by their ignor • ance of the benefits of the sanitary surveillance of prostitution. It is to do something to diminish this scourge that the Contagious Diseases Acts were passed, and, as I have shown, they have not failed in their object. I trust, gentlemen, that I have shown good reason why, on medical grounds, you should support these measures as a defence for the young and helpless and the pure and innocent. Voluntary effort is useless to cope with such a gigantic evil. Voluntary hospitals are still more useless, they only patch up the diseased women and make them last a longer time, and so propagate disease, and they do harm. Compulsion, and compulsion alone can be of any service. At the same time, any measure must be popular with the women, or else they will try and evade it. This is the fault of the Parisian system, but the English Acts have attained the happy Golden Mean. In conclusion, I trust then before many years have passed away, England too will have a Bureau des Mceurs, with a Minister of Health At its head, a large and efficient staff of medical officers of health in every town and throughout the length and breadth of the land, as well as a sanitary police, entrusted with the working of the Contagious Diseases Acts, the Vaccina- tion Acta, the Factory Act, and the suppression of public nuisances, obscene literature (notably that emanating from a certain quarter), and demoralising exhibitions of every kind—for gentlemen, The End of Government is the Good of Mankind.