September 3, 2025 • 38 mins
This investigation delves into the complex and often overlooked issues surrounding prostitution. While many individuals instinctively seek the causes behind societal vices, a significant portion of the intelligent population in New York has suffered the consequences of this persistent issue without exploring its root causes. Each year, countless lives are impacted, as broken health and tarnished reputations emerge from this vice. Is it too late to awaken your curiosity and compassion for this critical matter? We argue that it is high time to conduct an inquiry that addresses these pressing concerns‚one that is essential for public safety, personal well-being, and the greater good.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Section sixty two of the History of Prostitution. This is
a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
Recording by Ramon es Camilla. The History of Prostitution by
(00:21):
William Sanger, Section sixty two, Chapter thirty seven, New York
Remedial Measures, Part four. As an indication that the sentiments
advanced in this chapter are entertained by others of the
medical profession, and as endorsing our views to a considerable extent,
(00:42):
the reader's attention is requested to the annexed report adopted
at a special meeting of the Medical Board of Bellevue Hospital,
New York, in reply to interrogatories addressed to them by
Isaac Townsend Esquire, President of the Board of Governors of
the Almshouse, by whose direction they are embodied in this work,
and also to a report from H. N. Whittlesey, m d.
(01:03):
Resident Physician of the Nursery Hospital, Randall's Island, on the
same subject. Copy Report of the Medical Board of Bellevue Hospital,
in reply to interrogatories of Isaac Townsend Esquire, President of
the Board of Governors of the Almshouse upon Constitutional Syphilis.
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Office of the Governors of the Almshouse, Rotunda Park, New York,
August twenty fourth, eighteen fifty five, to the Medical Board
Bellevue Hospital. Gentlemen, I am led to believe that a
large number of the inmates of Bellevue Hospital are affected
with syphilis in some of its many forms, And believing
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that the governors of the Almshouse are called upon to
take measures to remove, as far as possible, the cause
of this great malady, to dry up the sources of
an evil which prevails so extensively SAPs the health and
taxes the wealth of the city, et cetera largely, And
believing farther that if the vice cannot be stayed, humanity
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as well as policy, would suggest that the dangers which
surround it can be lessened. I propose a few interrogatories
tending toward the accomplishment of this great object, desiring your
views upon them in reply as early as first of
October one. What percentage of the total number of patients
admitted to Bellevue Hospitals suffer directly or indirectly from syphilis? Two?
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Are there not patients admitted to Belleview Hospital, whose diseases
are attributable to the taint of syphilis, and have not
many of the inmates been forced to place themselves under
treatment therein and thus become dependent on the city from
being unfitted in body and mind for the ordinary duties
of life in consequence of syphilitic diseases. Three are not
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the children of parents thus affected unhealthy? Four What means,
in your opinion, could be adopted to eradicate or lessen
the disease in the city By giving the above queries
your earliest attention, you will greatly oblige your very obedient servant,
Isaac Townsend, President. At a special meeting of the Medical
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Board of Bellevue Hospital, held December eighteenth, eighteen fifty five,
the following report, in answer to a letter from Isaac Townsend, Esquire,
President of the Board of Governors of the Almshouse, dated
August twenty fourth, eighteen fifty five, touching the subjects of
syphilis and prostitution, was read by doctor Alonso Clark, chairman
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of the committee appointed by the Medical Board to consider
and reply to said letter. On motion, the report was
accepted and ordered for transmission to the President of the
Board of Governors, after having received the signatures of the
President and Secretary John T. Metcalfe, m d. Secretary pro
Tem to the Medical Board of Bellevue Hospital, New York,
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December eighteen fifty five, Report on prostitution in Syphilis to
Isaac Townsend, Esquire, President of the Board of Governors of
the Almshouse. In answer to your inquiries, the Medical Board
of Bellevue Hospital respectfully reply that they caused a census
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of the hospital to be taken on the twenty fourth
October last, for the purpose of ascertaining what proportion of
the patients had suffered from venereal diseases. From that enumeration,
they learned that out of four hundred seventy seven persons
then under medical and surgical treatment, one hundred forty two,
or about one third, had been so affected. In the
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several divisions of the House, the numbers are as follows.
Fideli said, of seventy two females on the surgical side,
seventeen or one in four point two four, of one
hundred and thirty females on the medical side seventeen or
one in eight Nearly of one hundred and eighteen males
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on the medical side, forty five or one in two
point six, of one hundred twenty seven males on the
surgical side sixty three or one in two, so that
out of two hundred and forty five males then under treatment,
one hundred and eight or one in two point two
seven had had some form of venereal disease, and among
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two hundred and two females, thirty four or one in six,
had been similarly affected. Of the whole number who confessed
that they had had afflictions of this class, one hundred
and six had had syphilis, and thirty six had had gonorrhea.
Of the one hundred and six who had had syphilis,
fifty three, or just one half, were still laboring under
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the influence of the poison with which they had been
inoculated in many instances years before. As almost all these
patients were admitted for other diseases or with affections which
the physician alone would recognize as the remote effects of syphilis,
it is perhaps fair to assume that they represent, with
some exaggeration, the class of society from which they come.
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The board has been favored with the census of the
New York Hospital Broadway taken for the purpose of ascertaining
the proportion of syphilitic cases among the patients of that institution,
from which it appears that the whole number of patients
on the eighth of December was two hundred thirty three,
and that ninety nine of that number had had venereal disease,
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and thirty seven were then under treatment for the same
affections recently contracted. Counting the old cases alone, most of
which were admitted, probably for other diseases, this proportion considerably
exceeds that above recorded for Bellevue Hospital, it being as
high as one in two point three five. It is proper, however,
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in this connection, to state that the reis turns for
Bellevue Hospital are believed to be incomplete. They are based
in a considerable degree on the confessions of the patients,
and it is known that many, especially among the women,
have denied any contamination, when facts subsequently developed have shown
that their statements were not true. Is it to be believed, then,
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that one in three or even one in four of
that large class of our population whose circumstances compel them
to seek the occasional aid of medical charities, are tainted
with venereal poison. This the Medical Board do not think
they are authorized to state, but the facts here cited
and others within their reach, justify them in saying that
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venereal diseases prevail to an alarming extent among the poor
of the city. The large number of women sent by
the police courts to be treated for these diseases at
the penitentiary hospital would alone be sufficient evidence of this.
Yet such persons constitute but a small proportion of those who,
even among the poor, suffer from these disorders. Dispensary physicians
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and those in private practice can show a much longer
list of victims of impure intercourse, but the disease is
not confined to this class. The advertisements which crowd the newspapers,
introduced by men who confine their practice to one class
of disease in which they have treated twenty thousand cases
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more or less, demonstrate how large is the company of
irregulars who live and grow rich on the harvest of
these grapes of sodom. And yet their long list of
unfortunates would disclose but a fraction of the evil. Among
those who are able to pay for medical services, the
Medical Board are unable to state what proportion of the
income of regular and qualified physicians in this city is
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derived from the treatment of venereal diseases. But they know
it is large, and that many who never advertise their
skill receive more from this source than from all other
sources together. They believe that there is no one among
the avoidable diseases, however, prevalent, for the treatment of which
the well to do citizens of New York pay one
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half so much as they pay to be relieved from
the consequences of their illicit pleasures. The city bills of
Mortality give little information regarding the frequency of venereal affections.
Luis venaria keeps its place in the tables and counts
its score or two of deaths annually. Although this class
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of disorders is not frequently fatal, except among children, it
is credited with only a fraction of the work it
actually performs. The physician does not feel called upon in
his return of the causes of death to brand his
patient's memory with disgrace or to record an accusation against
near relatives. During infancy, the real disease is buried under
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such terms as marasmus a trophia, infantile debility, or inflammation
while in adults inflammation of the throat, fagetina, ulceration, scrocula,
and the like take responsibility of the death. These affections
are strictly what the advertised denominate them private diseases a leprosy,
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which the unfortunate always strives to conceal, and so long
as it spares his speech and countenance, usually succeeds in concealing.
The physician is his only confidant, and the physician refers
all to the class of innocent secrets which are not
to be revealed. The public therefore know little of the
prevalence of such diseases, and still less of the fearful
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ravages they are capable of making. Still, as has been
just said, syphilis is not often the immediate cause of
death and adults, after its first local effects are over,
and these, though generally mild, are sometimes frightful. The poison
lingers in the system, ready to break out on any
provocation in some one of its many disgusting manifestations, often
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deforming and branding its victim, threatening life and making it
a burden, and yet refusing the poor consolation of a
grave like the vulture which fed on the entrails of
the too amorous titious. It tortures and consumes, but is
slow to destroy, and often its visible brand, like the
scarlet badge once worn by the adulteress, proclaims a lasting disgrace.
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The protracted suffering of mind and body produced by this
class of distempers, the ever changing and often loathsome form
of their secondary accidents, and the almost irradicable character of
the poison seem almost to justify an old opinion sanctioned
by a papal bull as late as eighteen twenty six,
that these diseases are an avenging plague appointed by Heaven
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as a special punishment for a special sin. The relentless
character of syphilitic diseases stands out in painful relief in
its trans mission from parent to offspring. Here it is
indeed that the children's teeth are set on edge because
the fathers have eaten sour grapes. The contaminated husband or
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wife is left, through years of childlessness or of successive bereavements,
to mourn over early follies and to repent. When repentance
is fruitless, the syphilitic man or woman can hardly become
the parent of a healthy child. A young man has
imbibed the contagion. It has become constitutional. After a few
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weeks or months perhaps of treatment, the visible signs of
the disease no longer torment him. He has contracted a
matrimonial alliance and soon marries a healthy and virtuous woman.
He flatters himself that he is cured. A few months
suffice to give him painful proof of his error, for
then his growing hopes of paternity are suddenly blasted. Instead
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of the child of his hopes, a shriveled and leprous corpse.
This is but the first in a series of similar misfortunes.
He has poisoned the fruit of his loins, and again,
and again, and still again it falls withered and dead.
At length, Nature seems to have triumphed over this foe
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to domestic happiness, and the parent's hearts are gladdened by
the sight of a living child. Their joy is short lived.
The child is feeble and sickly, and in a few
days or weeks another death is added to the penance
list of the humbled and grieving father. This mournful story
will need no essential changes in the narration. Should the
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poison of impure intercourse, legitimate or illicit linger in the
veins of the mother. A child of such a connection
may be borne in apparent health, but before six months
have passed, some one of the numerous forms of infantile
syphilis will be likely to appear and threaten its life.
In the contest which follows between diseases treatment, the physician
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is commonly victorious, but the contest is in many cases protracted,
and often it is to be renewed again and again.
And after all, it is not believed that children thus
tainted at their birth often grow up and acquire that
degree of health and vigor which is properly ascribed to
a good constitution. These are facts familiar to physicians practicing
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in large towns. But the history of inherited syphilis is
not complete. If, in the case just recited, the wife
escaped contamination from her husband and her unborn child, yet
the sad consequences of that husband's folly are not yet exhausted.
That tainted child, now as sickly nursling at her breast,
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has a venom in its ulcerated lips, which can inoculate
the mother with its own loathsome poison. While it draws
its sustenance from the sacred fountain of infantile life. But
this is not all. These little innocence sometimes spread their
disease through the whole circle of those who bestow on
them their care and kindness. The contagion spreads through the
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use of the same spoon, the same linen, and even
by that highest token of affection, a kiss. It has
been known that a single diseased child has contaminated its mother,
a hired nurse, and through that nurse, the nurse's child,
and in addition to these, the husband's mother and the
mother's sister. Such are sometimes the weighty consequences of a
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single error. Prevention that the great source of the venereal
poisonous prostitution requires no argument. The first question, then to
be answered, is can prostitution be prevented? In answering this question,
it is necessary to remember that the history of the
world demonstrates the existence of this vice in all ages
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and among all nations. Since the day its first pages
were written. The appetite which incites it has always been
stronger than moral restraints, stronger than the law. No rigor
of punishment, no violence of public denunciation, neither exile, nor
the dungeon, nor yet the disgusting malady with which nature
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punishes the practice, has ever affected its extermination even for
a single year. Great as this evil has always been,
it cannot be denied that in our own time some
of the accidents of what is called the progress of
society tend, at least in large towns, greatly to increase it.
The expenses of living are everywhere the great obstacle to
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early marriages, whether such expenses be positively necessary or be
demanded by the social position of the individual the fashion
of his class, and therefore become relatively necessary. Wherever these
expenses increase more rapidly than the rewards of labor, marriage
becomes impossible for a constantly increasing number, or can only
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be purchased at the price of social position. But abstinence
from marriage does not abolish or moderate the natural appetites.
The great law of nature on which the existence of
the race depends is not abrogated by any artificial state
of society. Moral or religious principles will restrain its operation
in some human laws, in some the fear of consequences
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in some. Yet there always have been, and probably always
will be, many of both sexes who are not restrained
by any of these considerations. These have sustained, and probably
will continue to sustain, not only prostitution, but houses of prostitution.
In the face of every human law, suppressed in one form,
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it immediately assumes another. Again pursued, it retreats to hiding
places where darkness and secrecy protect it from the pursuer.
Severe penalties have heretofore, only increased the evils of prostitution.
If a hundred women are consigned to prison for this
vice to day, before a month has elapsed, a hundred
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more have taken their places, and the hundred, though punished,
are not reformed. Impelled by a love of their profession,
or some by the passion to emulate the more fortunate
of their sex and the finery of dress, a passion
which first occasion their fall, many by want, and all
by a sense that they are outcasts. They are no
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sooner liberated than they return with new zeal to the
life from which they have been detained. Only by force.
Severe laws compel secrecy. They can do no more. When
prostitution is criminal. Disease, if known to others, is a
practical conviction. Under such circumstances, the contaminated will be slow
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to confess disease and so subject themselves to punishment. Yet
their passions and their necessities alike forbid even temporary abstinence.
They spread disease without limit. Under this fact lies an
important thought. Were it no more disgraceful to contract syphilis
than it is to have fever and ague, the diseased
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would seek early relief, which is nearly equivalent to certain relief,
and the disorder would soon be confined to the pitiable
few who have lost in drunkenness and misery. The instinctive
dread of all that is foul and disgusting in personal
disease prostitution, it is true, would then be restored to
its old Roman dignity. Yet venereal disease could then be
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reached and all but eradicated. But a respectable syphilis does
not belong to our age and nation. It lost cast
in the beginning, and its exploits in modern times have
not been of a character to win it friends. The
supposition aims only to show, by contrast, the evils of
well intended but probably injudicious legislation regarding pains and penalties.
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If the whip, confiscation and banishment in the hands of
Charlemagne and Saint Louis a did by a right good will,
and all the powers of a military despotism could not
suppress prostitution or even prevent the opening of houses of prostitution.
If penal laws in Europe from the days of these
earnest princes until now have utterly failed of their object,
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as they notoriously have, it is fair to ask how
much more can prohibitory laws accomplish in a country where
the right of private judgment and personal liberty in speech
and action are the very foundation of the body politic.
They have hitherto been ineffectual in spite of such laws.
The vice is increasing. In consequence of such laws, Its
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most enormous physical evil is extending its baleful influence through
every rank and circle of society. It is still emphatically
the plague of the poor. It still brings sorrow and
misery to the firesides of the affluent of the title.
A utopian view of the perfectibility of man might look
for the remedy to this evil in sad universal early marriages,
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in domestic happiness, and in a universal moral sense, which
will compel men and women to keep their marriage vows.
But taking man as he is, we find the tides
of society set with constantly increasing strength against early marriages.
That domestic happiness is not synonymous with marriage, whether early
or late, And that the moral sense which should teach
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all men to observe even their solemn promises, would be miraculous.
For these things, the law has done all that has
been thought wise to attempt, probably all that it can do.
But it may be asked, if government has the power
to relieve society of the vice of drunkenness, why despair
of its power regarding prostitution? In reply, it may be asked,
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if the drunkard himself is ever cured of his vicious
appetite by penalties? The statute despairs of this. It even
recognizes its inability to prevent the sale of entock cicating
drinks while they exist. It therefore claims the right to
seize and destroy them. Can it seize on and destroy
the inborn passion which fills and supports houses of prostitution?
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Then it cannot do for the one what it hopes
to do for the other. Again, the suppression of slavery
and the slave trade have been cited in this connection
as illustrating the power of law in trespass, theft, violence,
or fraud. Someone is wronged, and those who have been
injured seek to bring the offender to justice. Here there
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is no aggrieved person. All who are in interest are
so in interest that they deprecate the interference of all law,
except what they claim to believe is the law of nature.
But is there no hope in the societies of moral
reform for the suppression or even checking of the general vice? None? Whatever,
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The Association in New York deserves much praise for its
zealous benevolence. They have brought back some of these erring
women to the paths of virtue. But they have done
no more to stop the current of prostitution than he
could do to dry up the current of the Hudson
who dips water with a bucket. In truth, it may
be said that the paths of virtue have been found
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to be slippery places for some that would be thought converts.
Wisdom's ways have been found too peaceful for these daughters
of excitement. This is said in no spirit of disparagement
to the efforts of the society. They may well be
proud of what they have done. But it is said
to show how little the kindest and the best can
do to reclaim those who have once fallen from virtue
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and honor. Let the great fact then be well understood
that prohibitory measures have always failed, and from the nature
of the case, must forever fail to suppress prostitution. Let
this additional fact, illustrated in the foregoing remark be well
considered that penalties do not reform the offender, but that
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they enforce secrecy in the offense and silence regarding its consequences,
which is a chief cause of the present wide diffusion
of the venereal poison. What then, is the proper province
of legislation in this important matter? The wise lawgiver does
not attempt impossibilities. He knows that laws which experience has
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demonstrated cannot be enforced teach disrespect and disobedience to all law.
He knows that human passions cannot be changed by human legislation.
He knows that if he attempt the impossible greater in
the control of vice, he is certain to neglect the
possible and important. Less. He knows that the river will
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not cease to flow at his command if it overflows
and desolates, He raises its banks and dikes in the
flood to prevent a general inundation. For hundreds of years,
the governments of Europe have tried right in vain to
dry up the sources of prostitution. With the opening of
the present century, they began to dike in the river
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and prevent avoidable mischief. For a long time, we too
have had laws against prostitution, which, with every proper effort
on the part of those in authority, have proved as
useless as those who live by the solicit traffic could desire,
as mischievous and spreading disease as the quack advertiser could wish.
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Is it not time then to inquire whether we have
not attempted too much, whether if we attempt less we
shall not accomplish more. May we not be able to
limit and control what we have not the power to prevent?
If we cannot do all that a large benevolence might
wish to accomplish in the name of humanity, is it
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not our duty to do what is useful and practicable,
all that is possible. While the medical Board are persuaded
that by a changed policy such as is suggestion jested
by the facts and reasons herewith submitted, much can be
done to limit in control prostitution, and much more toward
the eradication of venereal diseases. They are not yet prepared
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to offer the details of a plan by which they
hope these important ends can be attained. With the assistance
of the Board of Governors, they are now in correspondence
with the medical officers of many of the larger cities
of Europe where restrictive measures have replaced prohibitory. When they
have obtained the information which they hope this correspondence will furnish,
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they will ask leave to submit a supplementary report. John W. Francis,
m D. President, John T. Metcalfe, m D. Secretary pro tem.
Note it is believed that not far from ten percent
of the inmates of Bellevue Hospital are admitted for affections
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which have their origin remotely in venereal disease. A certain
form of rheumatism, certain inflammations of the throat, eyes, bones,
and joints, stricture and cutaneous eruptions are the most common
diseases of this class. What proportion, if any of those
who suffer from scrofula and scropulous inflammations from consumption and
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other chronic diseases owe their present illness to a constitutional
syphilitic vice inherited or acquired. There are no means of
determining satisfactorily. Medical Board, Bellevue Hospital, New York. John W.
Francis m D. President, Isaac Wood m D. John T.
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Metcalfe m D, Alonzo Clark m D, Benjamin W. Mc
cready m D, Isaac B. Taylor m D. George T.
Eliot m D. B. Four Parker m D, Valentine Mott
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m D, Alexander H. Stephens m D, James R. Wood
m D. Willard Parker m D, Charles D. Smith m D.
Lewis A. Sayer m D. John J. Crane m D.
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John A. Liddell m D. Stephen Smith m D. Copy
report of Doctor H. N. Whittlesey, Resident Physician of Randall's Island,
in answer to certain queries of Isaac Townsend, Esquire, Governor
of the Almshouse, upon constitutional syphilis, New York, November twenty eighth,
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eighteen fifty five. Dear Sir, from repeated conversations with you,
I am led to believe that many diseases incidental to
the children on Randall's Island may properly be traced to
parents who are affected with constitutional syphilis. Please give me
your views as to the following questions as early as
tenth December. One among the children under your care, to
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what extent does inherited syphilis exist? Two? Under what form
does constitutional syphilis present itself? And what diseases are attributable
to its taint? Three? Are not the children of parents
thus affected, unhealthy, scrupulous, subject to diseases of the eye, joints,
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et cetera, Very respectfully, Isaac Townsend, Governor A. H. Doctor H. N. Whittlesey,
Resident Physician, are I Randall's Island, December twenty fourth, eighteen
fifty five, Isaac Townsend, Esquire, President of the Board of
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Governors of the Almshouse. Dear Sir, in regard to the
interrogatories contained in your note of a recent date on
the subject of hereditary syphilis, I have the honour to
reply regarding its prevalence. It is a matter of record
that nine tenths of all diseases treated in this hospital
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during the past five years have been of constitutional origin,
and for the most part hereditary. These diseases assume a
variety of forms and involve nearly every structure of the body,
terminating in cachexia, morasmus, fagdina, etc. Etc. The exact proportion
which hereditary syphilis bears to this sum of constitutional depravity
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cannot be stated with accuracy for the following reasons. Children
are admitted to this institution between two and fifteen years
of age, thus throwing out of the category infantile syphilis
in all its forms, and except in few cases, showing
none of its specific characteristics having been modified by appropriate treatment,
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but manifests itself by general constitutional depravity, and determines a
great variety of diseases, embracing nearly every form of skin disease,
affection of the mucous membranes in their dependencies, diseases of
the eye and ear, of the bones, especially of joints,
et cetera, proving the prolific and lamentable source of many
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of the diseases incident to children of the class presented
in this institution, making then due allowance for its masked
form in which the consequences of inherited syphilis appear in
this institution, together with the absence of the previous history,
both of patience and parents. It is believed in approximate
estimate may be made of the part which this malady
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bears to the sum of constitutional disease. From the foregoing
facts and from careful observation during the past few years
in this branch of the Almshouse department, it appears that
human degradation is the source of the stream of pollution
supplying this hospital with disease, and farther that of all
of the vices which make up the sum total of depravity,
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both moral and physical prostitution and its consequences furnish the
larger proportion. Here we have the sad picture presented of
a large number of children doomed to an early grave
or to breathe out their miserable existence, bearing a loathsome disease,
carrying the penalties of vice of which they themselves are innocent,
being a generation contaminated and capable only of contaminating. In turn,
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in the above sketch, I have confined my statement to
syphilis as manifested in the nursery hospital, where the average
number of cases of disease treated is about two thousand.
From this field is excluded every variety of the disease
except the one viz. Constitutional syphilis affecting children after having
been modified by treatment in the infant H. N. Whittlesey, m. D.
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It has been stated already that the information obtained in
the course of this investigation is to a very great
degree undoubtedly reliable. But a few words more in reference
to the same subject will not be out of place
if we consider the importance such information assumes when it
is made the basis of serious deduction. These women were
examined singly and alone, and a person who has been
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engaged for a number of years in any particular inquiry
is able by his experience to judge whether his informants
are speaking the truth in their replies. For this, among
other reasons, we are satisfied that in almost every case
there was no deception practiced, but that the answers obtained
were true in all essential points. Another evidence of correctness
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is the degree of congruity that characterized the greater part
of the replies. Farther than this, a reference to the
questions themselves, as reprinted in chapter thirty two will show
that they were so arranged that falsehoods would be easily
detected unless very carefully contrived before the time of examination,
of which those examined had no notice, and consequently no
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opportunity for fraud or deception could possibly exist. It is
not denied that there were many difficulties to be encountered,
although the mode of operation was simple. It may be
briefly described as follows. The captain of each police district,
and oftentimes the writer with him, explained his object to
the keeper of the house, assuring her that there was
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no intention to annoy, harass, or expose her, and particularly
that no prosecutions should be based upon any information thus collected.
This latter promise was supported by a letter from a
high legal functionary addressed to the Mayor and police Department,
assuring them that the particulars they collected should not be
used in any manner prejudicial to the women themselves, as
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it was believed that a collection of the necessary information
required by such a to work as the present would
be productive of good to the city. When satisfied upon
the subject of prosecution, they were told that the real
motive was to obtain correct particulars of prostitution without exposing
individual cases, so as to enable the public to judge
(35:16):
of its extent and assist them in forming an opinion
as to the necessity of arrangements which would ultimately become
protective to our citizens at large, as well as to
housekeepers and courtisans. And many of the housekeepers expressed a
hope that the design might be accomplished. Their interests therefore
led them to speak the truth. In short, from the
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precautions taken and from the result itself, very little doubt
can be entertained as to the authenticity of the principal
part of the replies on all essential points. And upon
this consideration, these replies have been made the basis of
the description and remarks upon prostitution in New York. The
task is can pleaded, and the reader's attention may be
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invited to the various facts substantiated as embodied in the
following recapitulation. There are six thousand public prostitutes in New York.
The majority of these are from fifteen to twenty five
years old. Three eighths of them were born in the
United States. Many of those born abroad came here poor
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to improve their condition. Education is at a very low
standard with them. One fifth of them are married women.
One half of them have given birth to children, and
more than one half of these children are illegitimate. The
ratio of mortality among children of prostitutes is four times
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greater than the ordinary ratio among children in New York.
Many of these children are living in the abodes of
vice and obscenity. The majority of these women have been
prostitutes for less than four years. The average duration of
a prostitute's life is only four years. Nearly one half
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of the prostitutes in New York admit that they are
or have been sufferers from syphilis. Seduction, destitution, ill treatment
by parents, husbands, or relatives. Intemperance, and bad company are
the main causes of prostitution. Women in this city have
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not sufficient means of employment. Their employment is inadequately remunerated.
The associations of many employments are prejudicial to morality. Six
sevenths of the prostitutes drink intoxicating liquors. To a greater
or less extent, parental influences induced habits of intoxication. A
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professed respect for religion is common among them. A capital
of nearly four millions of dollars is invested in the
business of prostitution. The annual expenditure on account of prostitution
is more than seven millions of dollars. Prohibitory measures have
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signally failed to suppress or check prostitution. A necessity exists
for some action. Motives of policy require a change in
the mode of procedure. End of Section sixty two. End
of the History of Prostitution by William Sanger
Section sixty two of the History of Prostitution. This is
a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
Recording by Ramon es Camilla. The History of Prostitution by
(00:21):
William Sanger, Section sixty two, Chapter thirty seven, New York
Remedial Measures, Part four. As an indication that the sentiments
advanced in this chapter are entertained by others of the
medical profession, and as endorsing our views to a considerable extent,
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the reader's attention is requested to the annexed report adopted
at a special meeting of the Medical Board of Bellevue Hospital,
New York, in reply to interrogatories addressed to them by
Isaac Townsend Esquire, President of the Board of Governors of
the Almshouse, by whose direction they are embodied in this work,
and also to a report from H. N. Whittlesey, m d.
(01:03):
Resident Physician of the Nursery Hospital, Randall's Island, on the
same subject. Copy Report of the Medical Board of Bellevue Hospital,
in reply to interrogatories of Isaac Townsend Esquire, President of
the Board of Governors of the Almshouse upon Constitutional Syphilis.
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Office of the Governors of the Almshouse, Rotunda Park, New York,
August twenty fourth, eighteen fifty five, to the Medical Board
Bellevue Hospital. Gentlemen, I am led to believe that a
large number of the inmates of Bellevue Hospital are affected
with syphilis in some of its many forms, And believing
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that the governors of the Almshouse are called upon to
take measures to remove, as far as possible, the cause
of this great malady, to dry up the sources of
an evil which prevails so extensively SAPs the health and
taxes the wealth of the city, et cetera largely, And
believing farther that if the vice cannot be stayed, humanity
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as well as policy, would suggest that the dangers which
surround it can be lessened. I propose a few interrogatories
tending toward the accomplishment of this great object, desiring your
views upon them in reply as early as first of
October one. What percentage of the total number of patients
admitted to Bellevue Hospitals suffer directly or indirectly from syphilis? Two?
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Are there not patients admitted to Belleview Hospital, whose diseases
are attributable to the taint of syphilis, and have not
many of the inmates been forced to place themselves under
treatment therein and thus become dependent on the city from
being unfitted in body and mind for the ordinary duties
of life in consequence of syphilitic diseases. Three are not
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the children of parents thus affected unhealthy? Four What means,
in your opinion, could be adopted to eradicate or lessen
the disease in the city By giving the above queries
your earliest attention, you will greatly oblige your very obedient servant,
Isaac Townsend, President. At a special meeting of the Medical
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Board of Bellevue Hospital, held December eighteenth, eighteen fifty five,
the following report, in answer to a letter from Isaac Townsend, Esquire,
President of the Board of Governors of the Almshouse, dated
August twenty fourth, eighteen fifty five, touching the subjects of
syphilis and prostitution, was read by doctor Alonso Clark, chairman
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of the committee appointed by the Medical Board to consider
and reply to said letter. On motion, the report was
accepted and ordered for transmission to the President of the
Board of Governors, after having received the signatures of the
President and Secretary John T. Metcalfe, m d. Secretary pro
Tem to the Medical Board of Bellevue Hospital, New York,
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December eighteen fifty five, Report on prostitution in Syphilis to
Isaac Townsend, Esquire, President of the Board of Governors of
the Almshouse. In answer to your inquiries, the Medical Board
of Bellevue Hospital respectfully reply that they caused a census
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of the hospital to be taken on the twenty fourth
October last, for the purpose of ascertaining what proportion of
the patients had suffered from venereal diseases. From that enumeration,
they learned that out of four hundred seventy seven persons
then under medical and surgical treatment, one hundred forty two,
or about one third, had been so affected. In the
(04:45):
several divisions of the House, the numbers are as follows.
Fideli said, of seventy two females on the surgical side,
seventeen or one in four point two four, of one
hundred and thirty females on the medical side seventeen or
one in eight Nearly of one hundred and eighteen males
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on the medical side, forty five or one in two
point six, of one hundred twenty seven males on the
surgical side sixty three or one in two, so that
out of two hundred and forty five males then under treatment,
one hundred and eight or one in two point two
seven had had some form of venereal disease, and among
(05:29):
two hundred and two females, thirty four or one in six,
had been similarly affected. Of the whole number who confessed
that they had had afflictions of this class, one hundred
and six had had syphilis, and thirty six had had gonorrhea.
Of the one hundred and six who had had syphilis,
fifty three, or just one half, were still laboring under
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the influence of the poison with which they had been
inoculated in many instances years before. As almost all these
patients were admitted for other diseases or with affections which
the physician alone would recognize as the remote effects of syphilis,
it is perhaps fair to assume that they represent, with
some exaggeration, the class of society from which they come.
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The board has been favored with the census of the
New York Hospital Broadway taken for the purpose of ascertaining
the proportion of syphilitic cases among the patients of that institution,
from which it appears that the whole number of patients
on the eighth of December was two hundred thirty three,
and that ninety nine of that number had had venereal disease,
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and thirty seven were then under treatment for the same
affections recently contracted. Counting the old cases alone, most of
which were admitted, probably for other diseases, this proportion considerably
exceeds that above recorded for Bellevue Hospital, it being as
high as one in two point three five. It is proper, however,
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in this connection, to state that the reis turns for
Bellevue Hospital are believed to be incomplete. They are based
in a considerable degree on the confessions of the patients,
and it is known that many, especially among the women,
have denied any contamination, when facts subsequently developed have shown
that their statements were not true. Is it to be believed, then,
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that one in three or even one in four of
that large class of our population whose circumstances compel them
to seek the occasional aid of medical charities, are tainted
with venereal poison. This the Medical Board do not think
they are authorized to state, but the facts here cited
and others within their reach, justify them in saying that
(07:42):
venereal diseases prevail to an alarming extent among the poor
of the city. The large number of women sent by
the police courts to be treated for these diseases at
the penitentiary hospital would alone be sufficient evidence of this.
Yet such persons constitute but a small proportion of those who,
even among the poor, suffer from these disorders. Dispensary physicians
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and those in private practice can show a much longer
list of victims of impure intercourse, but the disease is
not confined to this class. The advertisements which crowd the newspapers,
introduced by men who confine their practice to one class
of disease in which they have treated twenty thousand cases
(08:25):
more or less, demonstrate how large is the company of
irregulars who live and grow rich on the harvest of
these grapes of sodom. And yet their long list of
unfortunates would disclose but a fraction of the evil. Among
those who are able to pay for medical services, the
Medical Board are unable to state what proportion of the
income of regular and qualified physicians in this city is
(08:47):
derived from the treatment of venereal diseases. But they know
it is large, and that many who never advertise their
skill receive more from this source than from all other
sources together. They believe that there is no one among
the avoidable diseases, however, prevalent, for the treatment of which
the well to do citizens of New York pay one
(09:07):
half so much as they pay to be relieved from
the consequences of their illicit pleasures. The city bills of
Mortality give little information regarding the frequency of venereal affections.
Luis venaria keeps its place in the tables and counts
its score or two of deaths annually. Although this class
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of disorders is not frequently fatal, except among children, it
is credited with only a fraction of the work it
actually performs. The physician does not feel called upon in
his return of the causes of death to brand his
patient's memory with disgrace or to record an accusation against
near relatives. During infancy, the real disease is buried under
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such terms as marasmus a trophia, infantile debility, or inflammation
while in adults inflammation of the throat, fagetina, ulceration, scrocula,
and the like take responsibility of the death. These affections
are strictly what the advertised denominate them private diseases a leprosy,
(10:16):
which the unfortunate always strives to conceal, and so long
as it spares his speech and countenance, usually succeeds in concealing.
The physician is his only confidant, and the physician refers
all to the class of innocent secrets which are not
to be revealed. The public therefore know little of the
prevalence of such diseases, and still less of the fearful
(10:39):
ravages they are capable of making. Still, as has been
just said, syphilis is not often the immediate cause of
death and adults, after its first local effects are over,
and these, though generally mild, are sometimes frightful. The poison
lingers in the system, ready to break out on any
provocation in some one of its many disgusting manifestations, often
(11:03):
deforming and branding its victim, threatening life and making it
a burden, and yet refusing the poor consolation of a
grave like the vulture which fed on the entrails of
the too amorous titious. It tortures and consumes, but is
slow to destroy, and often its visible brand, like the
scarlet badge once worn by the adulteress, proclaims a lasting disgrace.
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The protracted suffering of mind and body produced by this
class of distempers, the ever changing and often loathsome form
of their secondary accidents, and the almost irradicable character of
the poison seem almost to justify an old opinion sanctioned
by a papal bull as late as eighteen twenty six,
that these diseases are an avenging plague appointed by Heaven
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as a special punishment for a special sin. The relentless
character of syphilitic diseases stands out in painful relief in
its trans mission from parent to offspring. Here it is
indeed that the children's teeth are set on edge because
the fathers have eaten sour grapes. The contaminated husband or
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wife is left, through years of childlessness or of successive bereavements,
to mourn over early follies and to repent. When repentance
is fruitless, the syphilitic man or woman can hardly become
the parent of a healthy child. A young man has
imbibed the contagion. It has become constitutional. After a few
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weeks or months perhaps of treatment, the visible signs of
the disease no longer torment him. He has contracted a
matrimonial alliance and soon marries a healthy and virtuous woman.
He flatters himself that he is cured. A few months
suffice to give him painful proof of his error, for
then his growing hopes of paternity are suddenly blasted. Instead
(12:58):
of the child of his hopes, a shriveled and leprous corpse.
This is but the first in a series of similar misfortunes.
He has poisoned the fruit of his loins, and again,
and again, and still again it falls withered and dead.
At length, Nature seems to have triumphed over this foe
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to domestic happiness, and the parent's hearts are gladdened by
the sight of a living child. Their joy is short lived.
The child is feeble and sickly, and in a few
days or weeks another death is added to the penance
list of the humbled and grieving father. This mournful story
will need no essential changes in the narration. Should the
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poison of impure intercourse, legitimate or illicit linger in the
veins of the mother. A child of such a connection
may be borne in apparent health, but before six months
have passed, some one of the numerous forms of infantile
syphilis will be likely to appear and threaten its life.
In the contest which follows between diseases treatment, the physician
(14:02):
is commonly victorious, but the contest is in many cases protracted,
and often it is to be renewed again and again.
And after all, it is not believed that children thus
tainted at their birth often grow up and acquire that
degree of health and vigor which is properly ascribed to
a good constitution. These are facts familiar to physicians practicing
(14:24):
in large towns. But the history of inherited syphilis is
not complete. If, in the case just recited, the wife
escaped contamination from her husband and her unborn child, yet
the sad consequences of that husband's folly are not yet exhausted.
That tainted child, now as sickly nursling at her breast,
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has a venom in its ulcerated lips, which can inoculate
the mother with its own loathsome poison. While it draws
its sustenance from the sacred fountain of infantile life. But
this is not all. These little innocence sometimes spread their
disease through the whole circle of those who bestow on
them their care and kindness. The contagion spreads through the
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use of the same spoon, the same linen, and even
by that highest token of affection, a kiss. It has
been known that a single diseased child has contaminated its mother,
a hired nurse, and through that nurse, the nurse's child,
and in addition to these, the husband's mother and the
mother's sister. Such are sometimes the weighty consequences of a
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single error. Prevention that the great source of the venereal
poisonous prostitution requires no argument. The first question, then to
be answered, is can prostitution be prevented? In answering this question,
it is necessary to remember that the history of the
world demonstrates the existence of this vice in all ages
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and among all nations. Since the day its first pages
were written. The appetite which incites it has always been
stronger than moral restraints, stronger than the law. No rigor
of punishment, no violence of public denunciation, neither exile, nor
the dungeon, nor yet the disgusting malady with which nature
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punishes the practice, has ever affected its extermination even for
a single year. Great as this evil has always been,
it cannot be denied that in our own time some
of the accidents of what is called the progress of
society tend, at least in large towns, greatly to increase it.
The expenses of living are everywhere the great obstacle to
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early marriages, whether such expenses be positively necessary or be
demanded by the social position of the individual the fashion
of his class, and therefore become relatively necessary. Wherever these
expenses increase more rapidly than the rewards of labor, marriage
becomes impossible for a constantly increasing number, or can only
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be purchased at the price of social position. But abstinence
from marriage does not abolish or moderate the natural appetites.
The great law of nature on which the existence of
the race depends is not abrogated by any artificial state
of society. Moral or religious principles will restrain its operation
in some human laws, in some the fear of consequences
(17:20):
in some. Yet there always have been, and probably always
will be, many of both sexes who are not restrained
by any of these considerations. These have sustained, and probably
will continue to sustain, not only prostitution, but houses of prostitution.
In the face of every human law, suppressed in one form,
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it immediately assumes another. Again pursued, it retreats to hiding
places where darkness and secrecy protect it from the pursuer.
Severe penalties have heretofore, only increased the evils of prostitution.
If a hundred women are consigned to prison for this
vice to day, before a month has elapsed, a hundred
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more have taken their places, and the hundred, though punished,
are not reformed. Impelled by a love of their profession,
or some by the passion to emulate the more fortunate
of their sex and the finery of dress, a passion
which first occasion their fall, many by want, and all
by a sense that they are outcasts. They are no
(18:24):
sooner liberated than they return with new zeal to the
life from which they have been detained. Only by force.
Severe laws compel secrecy. They can do no more. When
prostitution is criminal. Disease, if known to others, is a
practical conviction. Under such circumstances, the contaminated will be slow
(18:45):
to confess disease and so subject themselves to punishment. Yet
their passions and their necessities alike forbid even temporary abstinence.
They spread disease without limit. Under this fact lies an
important thought. Were it no more disgraceful to contract syphilis
than it is to have fever and ague, the diseased
(19:06):
would seek early relief, which is nearly equivalent to certain relief,
and the disorder would soon be confined to the pitiable
few who have lost in drunkenness and misery. The instinctive
dread of all that is foul and disgusting in personal
disease prostitution, it is true, would then be restored to
its old Roman dignity. Yet venereal disease could then be
(19:29):
reached and all but eradicated. But a respectable syphilis does
not belong to our age and nation. It lost cast
in the beginning, and its exploits in modern times have
not been of a character to win it friends. The
supposition aims only to show, by contrast, the evils of
well intended but probably injudicious legislation regarding pains and penalties.
(19:53):
If the whip, confiscation and banishment in the hands of
Charlemagne and Saint Louis a did by a right good will,
and all the powers of a military despotism could not
suppress prostitution or even prevent the opening of houses of prostitution.
If penal laws in Europe from the days of these
earnest princes until now have utterly failed of their object,
(20:15):
as they notoriously have, it is fair to ask how
much more can prohibitory laws accomplish in a country where
the right of private judgment and personal liberty in speech
and action are the very foundation of the body politic.
They have hitherto been ineffectual in spite of such laws.
The vice is increasing. In consequence of such laws, Its
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most enormous physical evil is extending its baleful influence through
every rank and circle of society. It is still emphatically
the plague of the poor. It still brings sorrow and
misery to the firesides of the affluent of the title.
A utopian view of the perfectibility of man might look
for the remedy to this evil in sad universal early marriages,
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in domestic happiness, and in a universal moral sense, which
will compel men and women to keep their marriage vows.
But taking man as he is, we find the tides
of society set with constantly increasing strength against early marriages.
That domestic happiness is not synonymous with marriage, whether early
or late, And that the moral sense which should teach
(21:25):
all men to observe even their solemn promises, would be miraculous.
For these things, the law has done all that has
been thought wise to attempt, probably all that it can do.
But it may be asked, if government has the power
to relieve society of the vice of drunkenness, why despair
of its power regarding prostitution? In reply, it may be asked,
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if the drunkard himself is ever cured of his vicious
appetite by penalties? The statute despairs of this. It even
recognizes its inability to prevent the sale of entock cicating
drinks while they exist. It therefore claims the right to
seize and destroy them. Can it seize on and destroy
the inborn passion which fills and supports houses of prostitution?
(22:12):
Then it cannot do for the one what it hopes
to do for the other. Again, the suppression of slavery
and the slave trade have been cited in this connection
as illustrating the power of law in trespass, theft, violence,
or fraud. Someone is wronged, and those who have been
injured seek to bring the offender to justice. Here there
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is no aggrieved person. All who are in interest are
so in interest that they deprecate the interference of all law,
except what they claim to believe is the law of nature.
But is there no hope in the societies of moral
reform for the suppression or even checking of the general vice? None? Whatever,
(22:57):
The Association in New York deserves much praise for its
zealous benevolence. They have brought back some of these erring
women to the paths of virtue. But they have done
no more to stop the current of prostitution than he
could do to dry up the current of the Hudson
who dips water with a bucket. In truth, it may
be said that the paths of virtue have been found
(23:18):
to be slippery places for some that would be thought converts.
Wisdom's ways have been found too peaceful for these daughters
of excitement. This is said in no spirit of disparagement
to the efforts of the society. They may well be
proud of what they have done. But it is said
to show how little the kindest and the best can
do to reclaim those who have once fallen from virtue
(23:41):
and honor. Let the great fact then be well understood
that prohibitory measures have always failed, and from the nature
of the case, must forever fail to suppress prostitution. Let
this additional fact, illustrated in the foregoing remark be well
considered that penalties do not reform the offender, but that
(24:03):
they enforce secrecy in the offense and silence regarding its consequences,
which is a chief cause of the present wide diffusion
of the venereal poison. What then, is the proper province
of legislation in this important matter? The wise lawgiver does
not attempt impossibilities. He knows that laws which experience has
(24:26):
demonstrated cannot be enforced teach disrespect and disobedience to all law.
He knows that human passions cannot be changed by human legislation.
He knows that if he attempt the impossible greater in
the control of vice, he is certain to neglect the
possible and important. Less. He knows that the river will
(24:47):
not cease to flow at his command if it overflows
and desolates, He raises its banks and dikes in the
flood to prevent a general inundation. For hundreds of years,
the governments of Europe have tried right in vain to
dry up the sources of prostitution. With the opening of
the present century, they began to dike in the river
(25:07):
and prevent avoidable mischief. For a long time, we too
have had laws against prostitution, which, with every proper effort
on the part of those in authority, have proved as
useless as those who live by the solicit traffic could desire,
as mischievous and spreading disease as the quack advertiser could wish.
(25:28):
Is it not time then to inquire whether we have
not attempted too much, whether if we attempt less we
shall not accomplish more. May we not be able to
limit and control what we have not the power to prevent?
If we cannot do all that a large benevolence might
wish to accomplish in the name of humanity, is it
(25:48):
not our duty to do what is useful and practicable,
all that is possible. While the medical Board are persuaded
that by a changed policy such as is suggestion jested
by the facts and reasons herewith submitted, much can be
done to limit in control prostitution, and much more toward
the eradication of venereal diseases. They are not yet prepared
(26:11):
to offer the details of a plan by which they
hope these important ends can be attained. With the assistance
of the Board of Governors, they are now in correspondence
with the medical officers of many of the larger cities
of Europe where restrictive measures have replaced prohibitory. When they
have obtained the information which they hope this correspondence will furnish,
(26:32):
they will ask leave to submit a supplementary report. John W. Francis,
m D. President, John T. Metcalfe, m D. Secretary pro tem.
Note it is believed that not far from ten percent
of the inmates of Bellevue Hospital are admitted for affections
(26:53):
which have their origin remotely in venereal disease. A certain
form of rheumatism, certain inflammations of the throat, eyes, bones,
and joints, stricture and cutaneous eruptions are the most common
diseases of this class. What proportion, if any of those
who suffer from scrofula and scropulous inflammations from consumption and
(27:17):
other chronic diseases owe their present illness to a constitutional
syphilitic vice inherited or acquired. There are no means of
determining satisfactorily. Medical Board, Bellevue Hospital, New York. John W.
Francis m D. President, Isaac Wood m D. John T.
(27:41):
Metcalfe m D, Alonzo Clark m D, Benjamin W. Mc
cready m D, Isaac B. Taylor m D. George T.
Eliot m D. B. Four Parker m D, Valentine Mott
(28:04):
m D, Alexander H. Stephens m D, James R. Wood
m D. Willard Parker m D, Charles D. Smith m D.
Lewis A. Sayer m D. John J. Crane m D.
(28:28):
John A. Liddell m D. Stephen Smith m D. Copy
report of Doctor H. N. Whittlesey, Resident Physician of Randall's Island,
in answer to certain queries of Isaac Townsend, Esquire, Governor
of the Almshouse, upon constitutional syphilis, New York, November twenty eighth,
(28:52):
eighteen fifty five. Dear Sir, from repeated conversations with you,
I am led to believe that many diseases incidental to
the children on Randall's Island may properly be traced to
parents who are affected with constitutional syphilis. Please give me
your views as to the following questions as early as
tenth December. One among the children under your care, to
(29:17):
what extent does inherited syphilis exist? Two? Under what form
does constitutional syphilis present itself? And what diseases are attributable
to its taint? Three? Are not the children of parents
thus affected, unhealthy, scrupulous, subject to diseases of the eye, joints,
(29:37):
et cetera, Very respectfully, Isaac Townsend, Governor A. H. Doctor H. N. Whittlesey,
Resident Physician, are I Randall's Island, December twenty fourth, eighteen
fifty five, Isaac Townsend, Esquire, President of the Board of
(29:59):
Governors of the Almshouse. Dear Sir, in regard to the
interrogatories contained in your note of a recent date on
the subject of hereditary syphilis, I have the honour to
reply regarding its prevalence. It is a matter of record
that nine tenths of all diseases treated in this hospital
(30:20):
during the past five years have been of constitutional origin,
and for the most part hereditary. These diseases assume a
variety of forms and involve nearly every structure of the body,
terminating in cachexia, morasmus, fagdina, etc. Etc. The exact proportion
which hereditary syphilis bears to this sum of constitutional depravity
(30:44):
cannot be stated with accuracy for the following reasons. Children
are admitted to this institution between two and fifteen years
of age, thus throwing out of the category infantile syphilis
in all its forms, and except in few cases, showing
none of its specific characteristics having been modified by appropriate treatment,
(31:04):
but manifests itself by general constitutional depravity, and determines a
great variety of diseases, embracing nearly every form of skin disease,
affection of the mucous membranes in their dependencies, diseases of
the eye and ear, of the bones, especially of joints,
et cetera, proving the prolific and lamentable source of many
(31:25):
of the diseases incident to children of the class presented
in this institution, making then due allowance for its masked
form in which the consequences of inherited syphilis appear in
this institution, together with the absence of the previous history,
both of patience and parents. It is believed in approximate
estimate may be made of the part which this malady
(31:46):
bears to the sum of constitutional disease. From the foregoing
facts and from careful observation during the past few years
in this branch of the Almshouse department, it appears that
human degradation is the source of the stream of pollution
supplying this hospital with disease, and farther that of all
of the vices which make up the sum total of depravity,
(32:08):
both moral and physical prostitution and its consequences furnish the
larger proportion. Here we have the sad picture presented of
a large number of children doomed to an early grave
or to breathe out their miserable existence, bearing a loathsome disease,
carrying the penalties of vice of which they themselves are innocent,
being a generation contaminated and capable only of contaminating. In turn,
(32:35):
in the above sketch, I have confined my statement to
syphilis as manifested in the nursery hospital, where the average
number of cases of disease treated is about two thousand.
From this field is excluded every variety of the disease
except the one viz. Constitutional syphilis affecting children after having
been modified by treatment in the infant H. N. Whittlesey, m. D.
(33:02):
It has been stated already that the information obtained in
the course of this investigation is to a very great
degree undoubtedly reliable. But a few words more in reference
to the same subject will not be out of place
if we consider the importance such information assumes when it
is made the basis of serious deduction. These women were
examined singly and alone, and a person who has been
(33:25):
engaged for a number of years in any particular inquiry
is able by his experience to judge whether his informants
are speaking the truth in their replies. For this, among
other reasons, we are satisfied that in almost every case
there was no deception practiced, but that the answers obtained
were true in all essential points. Another evidence of correctness
(33:48):
is the degree of congruity that characterized the greater part
of the replies. Farther than this, a reference to the
questions themselves, as reprinted in chapter thirty two will show
that they were so arranged that falsehoods would be easily
detected unless very carefully contrived before the time of examination,
of which those examined had no notice, and consequently no
(34:10):
opportunity for fraud or deception could possibly exist. It is
not denied that there were many difficulties to be encountered,
although the mode of operation was simple. It may be
briefly described as follows. The captain of each police district,
and oftentimes the writer with him, explained his object to
the keeper of the house, assuring her that there was
(34:32):
no intention to annoy, harass, or expose her, and particularly
that no prosecutions should be based upon any information thus collected.
This latter promise was supported by a letter from a
high legal functionary addressed to the Mayor and police Department,
assuring them that the particulars they collected should not be
used in any manner prejudicial to the women themselves, as
(34:55):
it was believed that a collection of the necessary information
required by such a to work as the present would
be productive of good to the city. When satisfied upon
the subject of prosecution, they were told that the real
motive was to obtain correct particulars of prostitution without exposing
individual cases, so as to enable the public to judge
(35:16):
of its extent and assist them in forming an opinion
as to the necessity of arrangements which would ultimately become
protective to our citizens at large, as well as to
housekeepers and courtisans. And many of the housekeepers expressed a
hope that the design might be accomplished. Their interests therefore
led them to speak the truth. In short, from the
(35:40):
precautions taken and from the result itself, very little doubt
can be entertained as to the authenticity of the principal
part of the replies on all essential points. And upon
this consideration, these replies have been made the basis of
the description and remarks upon prostitution in New York. The
task is can pleaded, and the reader's attention may be
(36:02):
invited to the various facts substantiated as embodied in the
following recapitulation. There are six thousand public prostitutes in New York.
The majority of these are from fifteen to twenty five
years old. Three eighths of them were born in the
United States. Many of those born abroad came here poor
(36:26):
to improve their condition. Education is at a very low
standard with them. One fifth of them are married women.
One half of them have given birth to children, and
more than one half of these children are illegitimate. The
ratio of mortality among children of prostitutes is four times
(36:47):
greater than the ordinary ratio among children in New York.
Many of these children are living in the abodes of
vice and obscenity. The majority of these women have been
prostitutes for less than four years. The average duration of
a prostitute's life is only four years. Nearly one half
(37:08):
of the prostitutes in New York admit that they are
or have been sufferers from syphilis. Seduction, destitution, ill treatment
by parents, husbands, or relatives. Intemperance, and bad company are
the main causes of prostitution. Women in this city have
(37:29):
not sufficient means of employment. Their employment is inadequately remunerated.
The associations of many employments are prejudicial to morality. Six
sevenths of the prostitutes drink intoxicating liquors. To a greater
or less extent, parental influences induced habits of intoxication. A
(37:56):
professed respect for religion is common among them. A capital
of nearly four millions of dollars is invested in the
business of prostitution. The annual expenditure on account of prostitution
is more than seven millions of dollars. Prohibitory measures have
(38:17):
signally failed to suppress or check prostitution. A necessity exists
for some action. Motives of policy require a change in
the mode of procedure. End of Section sixty two. End
of the History of Prostitution by William Sanger
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