- Email: [email protected]
PROSTITUTION: THE MEANS FOR ITS REFORM.
schools; the smoking, tthe deceased. We subjoin the inscription at the base of the lounging, billiard-playing, thrice-rejected candidate scrambles obelisk. Long may it stand to commemorate the quiet heroism through with the same ease as the most accomplished andand pious self-sacrifice of one who has found in the hearts of
capabilities.
The veriest idler at the
highly-informed of his fellows.
The habit of quarterly exami- ]professional brethren in all time to come a monument aere perennius nations; of set papers, combined with vivd voce and practical Regalique situ pyramidum altius ; non imber investigations; of classification of the graduates, and the instiQuod edax, non Aquilo impotens Possit diruere, aut innumerabilis tution of an honour division has been recognised by all other Annorum series et fuga temporum." educational bodies in the world. Our collegiate bodies alone, " TO THE MEMORY OF of the dust old covered by ASSISTANT-SURGEON JAMES THOMSON, prejudices, dozing torpidly upon the BORN AT CROMAR1Y ON THE 8TH OF MARCH, 1823, rock of ancient custom, sustain passively the shock of progresAND DECEASED IN THE CRIMEA ON THE 5TH OF OCTOBER, 1854. sive improvements, and present a spectacle of obstructive helpHe served with the 44th Regiment at Malta, in 1850, when lessness, and picturesque antiquity. the cholera broke out, and shortly proved fatal to all the surCertainly nothing can be conceived so well calculated to geons of the corps, himseJf alone excepted. The skill, fortitude, by him in arresting the progress of retard the progress of medical education as the examination in and humanity, displayed that disease, gained for him the praises of the Commander.inLincoln’s Inn-fields. What test of knowledge can be applied Chief. He was present with the same regiment at the battle of the in four brief conversations of a quarter of an hour ? Anatomy in 1854 ; and a few days afterwards, when the British Alma, is surely something more than the repetition of names, or the were leaving the field, he volunteered to remain behind with recollection of a verbal description of parts; at least this opinion seven hundred desperately-wounded Russians. Isolated from the vicinity of large bodies is now held everywhere except at the College and Hall. Sur- his countrymen, and endangered by of Cossacks, ill supplied with food, and exposed to the risk of geons are occasionally called upon to operate in practice, al- pestilence, he succeeded in restoring to health about four hunof the enemy, and embarking them for Odessa. He then though never at their examination for the diploma of fitness. dred died from the effects of excessive hardship and privation. Skill in diagnosis is not unessential to a practitioner in any This public monument is erected as a tribute of respect for position except when passing through the College ordeal. The the virtues of an officer whose life was useful and whose death "
was
art of prescribing is not useless; physiology is not effete, nor materia medica a dead letter in any relation of a surgeon’s life except with his examiners at the College. No doubt
glorious."
-
profession will feel great satisfaction in learning that the lectures delivered at our schools supply all that is at a general meeting of the share- and policy-holders of the demanded at these examinations, but they include so much Medical and Legal Life Assurance Company, held at Exeter Hall on Thursday last, it was unanimously resolved to merge more, that the impatient student declines to labour through the greater quantity that he may arrive at the less, and prefers the interests of that body in those of the New Equitable Comthe business of the two comto repair to the mill, where all information not strictly needed pany. Henceforth, therefore, for the College is carefully warned off the premises. Here lies panies will be conducted under the title of the New Equitable the gist of the whole evil, and towards the correction of this alone. The success of the distinguishing and characteristic medical all really useful reform must tend. At present there is a in the laws and most hurtful disparity between the rich feast designed by our principles, which form such prominent features of the New Equitable, must promote to an enorprofessors and the simple tastes of the examiners. The dispro- regulations mous extent the best interests of our profession. The greater portion is enormous. They suggest a banquet to those who and more rapid the success of the New Equitable, the more have the appetite of anchorites; they offer turtle to men who and certain will be the advantage which the profession are, figuratively, content with pea-soup; they pour libations ofspeedy derive from the business of life assurance generally. The will choice wines to abstemious sages who, metaphorically, ask for has acted with great spirit and wisdom in supnothing better than negus. We all suffer from this want ofprofession a Company which was the first to acknowledge porting harmony; nor will the evil be corrected until the intellectual the true value of medical testimony in life assurance transacrequirements of the examiners shall be raised to a par withi their reported preliminary prandial necessities. Reform is im. tions. THE
.
minent and inevitable. tary and unforced.
It
were
better that it should be volun.
Medical Annotations. "
IT is not often that
recognition of merit in medical men so even as that which has happened in military speedy the case of the deceased Dr. THOMSON, of the 44th Regiment. we
find
a
Ne
quid nimis."
PROSTITUTION: THE MEANS FOR ITS REFORM. THAT fear of the world which is the beginning of hypocrisy The heroism must be of the most exalted character to elicit has been a great impediment to practical efforts for diminishnotice. Virtue must generally be its own reward, and to be ing the harm which uncontrolled prostitution is daily doing. must satisfy us without seeming to be. This is the usual set of Any argument, however untenable, against legislating on the the currents in which we are involved, and we can seldom subject is eagerly adopted as a sop to conscience, and a means of postponing the inquiry which must ere long take place. steer out of them. That total suppression is impossible all worldly knowledge and four hundred subscribed have towards a Nearly persons all human experience testify; yet even this still finds advocates-memorial which Sir JAMES M’GRIGOR appears to have first prosolely, we believe, because the dogged determination to be satisjected for that lamented officer. It consists of a granite obelisk, fied with nothing less averts discussion on a distasteful subject. erected near his native place in a conspicuous position, and of The same wilful blindness leads to the laborious misdirection of talents which might effect untold good if properly applied. a bursary in the parish school of Cromarty, the birth-place of
503
that enough is done when they read refutes (pp. 52-73): ‘ ‘ The notion that the career of the of a certain number of reformatories being established. If the woman who once quits the pinnacle of virtue involves a very subject come again under discussion, they forthwith compound swift decline, and the ultimate total loss of health, modesty, with their consciences by starting another reformatory to hew and temporal prosperity. Herein are contained three vulgar at the Hydra, and triumphantly hold up the first severed head, " 1. That once a harlot, always a harlot. without noticing that the decapitation has but stimulated at " 2. That there is no possible advance, moral or physical, fresh growth. And herein lies the secret of the comparative in the condition of the actual prostitute. failure of reformatories-the only active means yet employedL ’ 3. That the harlot’s progress is short and rapid." to diminish the evils of prostitution. For every woman reformed, there is another (and often there are several) ready to’ And the conclusion he arrives at, after a masterly exposure of take her place in the ranks of sin-enlisted by the overstrained these cases, is, "that prostitution is a transitory state, through prudery which has hitherto passed current as morality, and which an untold number of British women are ever on their pas. done the Devil’s work so effectually. When nothing is done! sage. Until preventive measures shall have been considerately to prevent this recruitment—when sanction is given to tempta- adopted, and thereafter too, if needful, it is the duty, and it tion in every form and shape that can lure an innocent woman should be the business, of us all, in the interests of the common. into the sin, it is hardly to be wondered that reformatories wealth, to see these women through that state, so as to save make little head against it. We willingly allow that their harmless as much as may be of the bodies and souls of them. originators are earnest and well-meaning in their work, And the commonwealth’s interest in it is this-that thereis righteous to judge, tender to pity, and strong to save; yet we never a one amongst them all whose partners in vice may not believe that reformatories, however well-conducted, must fail some time become the husbands of other women; never a one to effect the purpose of their establishment until some active but may herself, when the shadow is past, become the wife of and efficient means are devised to check this eager filling up of fjn Englishman, a mother of his offspring ; that multitudes are the ranks of vice, and to make prostitution less attractive to its mothers before they become prostitutes, and other multitudes votaries by controlling all excesses, and withdrawing the privi- become mothers during their evil career. If the race of the leges hitherto accorded only to the sinful. people is of no ccncern to the state, then only can the state Before considering the machinery best suited to effect thesE have no interest in arresting its vitiation." purposes, it is necessary that certain preliminary matters should Agreeing in these opinions, we need hardly allude to the be clearly understood. compulsory registration of prostitutes on the continental plan 1. It is folly to deny or attempt to shirk the open acknow- as totally inapplicable to this country, being opposed to all our ledgment, that the existence of prostitution is as much a fact notions of personal freedom, and to all our insular prejudices, as the existence of society, and will continue as long. But it being liable to open the door to many great abuses, and by is important that its influence should be, as far as possible, placing the well disposed on a level with the most depraved, confined to those who are direct sharers in the moral guilt; tending to make the comparatively good, bad, and the really and that the evil, since it must and will remain, should no bad, worse. It now remains that we briefly indicate the plan which seems more be permitted to thrust itself obtrusively forward thani that a foul, incurable sore should be exposed in the open streetb most fitted to cope with the evil in its every stage, with its We propose that there shall be estabto disgust passers by. causes and its effects. II. None can venture to indicate any rank of society from lished in London a Board of Moral Health, whose object shall which prostitution should be supplied; but everyone knows; be the control, either directly or through local authorities, of that there are certain classes from which its numbers shouldl all evils which are injurious to society either by their existence not be recruited ; and that women whose education, originall or by the excess to which they are carried. Whilst the control position, or family connexion makes the chain of sin ten timesi of prostitution and the restriction of its foul luxuriant growth, more galling, when they are once entangled in its coils, should and of the many patent evils already described, would be an be especially guarded. In London there are now hundreds ofimportant part of the duties of the Board of Moral Health, sueh women in every phase of degradation, whose history is there are many grave evils which only attain injurious magnicomprised in these words: seduction-desertion-prostitution. tude in large towns, and of which it might also take cogniIt is for their protection especially that the crime of seduction zance. Thus even the most thin-skinned delicacy could hear should be made one entailing such heavy penalties, and directly the name mentioned without feeling constrained to blush. But we would more particularly point to its efficacy as conpersonal punishment, as to deter the libertine by fears for his own safety. The necessity for such a check is admirably stated trolling prostitution. Endowed with power to summarily by Mr. Acton, in his valuable work on " Prostitution" (p. 173), check whatever is injurious to the moral welfare of society, and the author of the well-known article in the Westminster one stroke of the pen would close, at midnight, places which at Review, thus writes.:—" The man who submits to insult rather that time become haunts and hotbeds of depravity. The scenes than fight; the gambler who packs the cards, or loads the that disgrace our streets; the harlot who takes possession of dice, or refuses to pay his debts of honour; is hunted from the pavé, and solicits or abuses the passers-by at her will and amongst even his unscrupulous associates as a stained and pleasure; the cigar-shops (who licences them?) where women banished character. Let the same measure of retributive jus- stand and beckon at the door; the dens where prostitutes and tice be dealt to the seducer who deserts the woman who has thieves resort at all hours; the importation of foreign women for sinful purposes; the neglect of even external decency in trusted him, and allowed her come on the town." IIL Whatever is done for the control of prostitution, to be brothels and places of sinful resort: all these things, and effectual must be done by legislative authority. Any further a thousand like them, which, though individually small, exhibition of that profligate delicacy which assumes that such have collectively a vast influenee for evil, might be readily matters are not for state interference should be sternly checked controlled if only a central power were instituted to take as an hypocritical connivance at the present awful condition cognisance of, and at once repress, all aggressive sin. On the to which the evil ’has attained. Moreover, the vice is already other hand, such a Board would prove a definite place of appeal legally recognised, and referred to in Acts of Parliament passed for protection, and to which information could be supplied. during the present reign ; and, therefore, this mincing prudery- We have known instances where medical men, willing to help more delicate about the wording of the Statutes at large than the victim of a procuress, would have gladly applied to such of the Bible-is not only ridiculous, but also postfactum. an authority, but had neither time to spare nor money to spend IV. Legislative interference must not be based on the mis- in pursuing the case before a magistrate, with the certainty of taken theory concerning prostitutes, which Mr. Acton so justly having their professional character assailed. Moreover, it is
Very many persons think
errors-
.
.
504
deny that there are many cases involving the most in the attics; the medical men being of the Romanist faith; on society where a bribe ensures the blindand " an altar erected in the day-ward, at which daily prayers is and where some check needed. are read, and mass celebrated on Sundays and festivals at the of ness greatly policeman, Such a check the inspectors (well paid and carefully selected) least." Omnibzcs his pl’ovi8í8. The following passage in the prO’of the Board of Moral Health would supply. And for the reformation of the sinful the same machinery would be equally spectus of St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, (authorized by the signature available. Our reformatories are enormously expensive, con- of Dr. Wiseman himself,) reads, somewhat strangely when sidering the amount of work accomplished. This is in a great we remember the zeal with which the above-cited case of the measure due to a want of centralization, and of a common Marylebone pauper has been followed up :-" It is not, by any method of working. By the aid of the Board of Moral Health, means, intended to exclude Protestants from the advantage of information would be supplied for the most beneficial direction religious nursing. For where a case is considered in itself of their efforts, instead of trusting to chance or the police-court more worthy of admission than others proposed, it will be for the discovery of the cases most in need of help. Offences preferred, though the patient be not a Catholic." We would which now escape prosecution and punishment for want of not be understood to urge any objection to the management of some energetic and responsible power to pursue them, would fall this particular hospital; but we protest against the principle within the province of this new Board; the horrible old libertines on which it is established as being opposed to the best interests who are every now and then entrapped, and manage to escape of humanity, and of that true charity enjoined in the beautiful due punishment and exposure; the respectable citizens who, story of the good Samaritan, who never stayed to ask th& rejoicing in their present security, systematically let houses for creed of him who had fallen amongst thieves, and was woundede useless to
disgraceful outrages
"
!
.
the avowed purpose of brothels at enormous rentals. We repeat that the avowed object of such a Moral Board of Health should be practical and practicable; to protect society against the excesses of the vicious, and the uncontrolled licence which now permits sin openly to disgrace our city and make our morality a by-word amongst nations.
WORK FOR WOMEN.
THERE is a certain periodical, containing original aa-ticles that evince a very high degree of mental cultivation, of which but few of our readers probably ever heard ; albeit medical men are usually Benedicts, and generally possess a betterknowledge of current literature than any other body of toiling RELIGIO MEDICI. We men, except those who spread their brains upon paper. Two railway-travellers-one a freethinker, the other anallude to a journal conducted by, and established for women. Unitarian-being deeply involved in discussion, are related to Not a trashy compound of "Minerva Press" stories, bon-bon have accosted a silent fellow-passenger with the inquiry, ’’ Sir, verses, and senseless small-talk, but a paper especially devoted what are you ? an Atheist or a Deist Sir,was the reply, to subjects that engage the thoughts of every woman who does "I am neither: I am a dentist !" think. There is, of course, much of that charming tendency This clever equivoque admirably represents the public posi- to involve matters of fact in a dense cloud of explanation, and tion of the medical profession when discharging the noble duties to cut the Gordian knot of really abstruse subjects with the it owes to all alike, whatever their creed or faith. This great sharp edge of common sense which peculiarly distinguishes the principle of disclaiming interference with the religious tenets female pen. But the WaveJ’ley Journal contains so much which of the sick is jealously maintained in our public hospitals, and it is important for women to know and reflect on, that we any injudicious attempt to change so good a rule immediately highly commend it, notwithstanding the infelicitous motto, checked. We believe there is no point in their management " Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might more universally approved; and the rarity of even a murmur for the great fault has hitherto been that women have’ learnt: against this perfect system of toleration amidst those whom only to employ their hands, and not their heads. In a recent article, the question of female doctors was thus suffering has made brethren, proves with what a liberal and humane spirit it is carried out. sensibly set at rest :We therefore deeply regret that it should have been thought " Though female M.D.’s are wanted, there are very few necessary by the governors of the Royal Sea-bathing Infirmary women who have sufficient physical power to prosecute a course to request an investigation into certain charges recently brought of medical study, and qualify themselves so thoroughly as. against the chaplain of that institution. The cause was as fol- either to gain or to deserve public confidence. A physician,, lows:-A catholic pauper, sent from Marylebone to the Margate too, who is liable to be called out at all hours, and in all to discharge arduous duties, ought to be, if not very Infirmary, wrote from there to the priest who attends the Mary- weathers, at least far stronger than the majority of Englishwomen strong, lebone Workhouse, stating that his religion was reviled, that now are."l he had books given him insulting to the Virgin Mary," and So Miss Hygeia Aspasia, whose gushing enthusiasm so often was so coerced that he wished to be removed. A meeting was has an hysterical origin, may unpick her embroidered dissectingaccordingly held before the board of guardians of robe and have her pearl-handled scalpels ground into crochetthe result of which left little doubt that the whole story was needles, condemned to fulfil her natural duties in life after a fabrication. For, in addition to the solemn denial of the trial by a jury of her peers. chaplain himself, it was proved that the man had been habiThe same number of the Waverley Journal contains an’ tually trying to provoke discussion, and a letter was read from account of a new Society, recently established by a number of the catholic priest visiting the Margate institution bearing tesladies, (at 17, Egremont-place, Brighton, and 16 A, Cavendishtimony to the chaplain’s kindness to all, and the evidence of street, Cavendish-square,) for the " diffusion of sanitary knowother catholic patients proved how unjust was the accusation. education" amongst their ledge and the promotion of Whether the charge was brought by the pauper himself, or at own sex. This is rather aphysical but the objects parorder, large the instigation of others, the result has evinced the careful enumerated include many that are of vital importticularly Watch that is taken in our general hospitals to prevent the ance to society. Provision is made for the establishment of wards where the disabled sick lie being made a place for reli- classes for imparting instruction in household matters of sanigious disputation. Yet we noticed with pain that the head of tary importance, especially in reference to the management of the Roman-catholic church in this country had the bad taste, children and infants :a year ago, to recommend " to the charity of all," an hospital " In order to make this part of the instruction thoroughly established under the exclusive control of catholic authorities, some orphan infants will be reared in the institution y practical, and where only the doctrines of that religion might be taught; the pupils will thus have an opportunity of gaining valuable ’ the nursing being conducted by lay nurses having their " cells" information, which is at present obtainable only from dearly’
Marylebone,
.
505
;
capabilities.
The veriest idler at the
highly-informed of his fellows.
The habit of quarterly exami- ]professional brethren in all time to come a monument aere perennius nations; of set papers, combined with vivd voce and practical Regalique situ pyramidum altius ; non imber investigations; of classification of the graduates, and the instiQuod edax, non Aquilo impotens Possit diruere, aut innumerabilis tution of an honour division has been recognised by all other Annorum series et fuga temporum." educational bodies in the world. Our collegiate bodies alone, " TO THE MEMORY OF of the dust old covered by ASSISTANT-SURGEON JAMES THOMSON, prejudices, dozing torpidly upon the BORN AT CROMAR1Y ON THE 8TH OF MARCH, 1823, rock of ancient custom, sustain passively the shock of progresAND DECEASED IN THE CRIMEA ON THE 5TH OF OCTOBER, 1854. sive improvements, and present a spectacle of obstructive helpHe served with the 44th Regiment at Malta, in 1850, when lessness, and picturesque antiquity. the cholera broke out, and shortly proved fatal to all the surCertainly nothing can be conceived so well calculated to geons of the corps, himseJf alone excepted. The skill, fortitude, by him in arresting the progress of retard the progress of medical education as the examination in and humanity, displayed that disease, gained for him the praises of the Commander.inLincoln’s Inn-fields. What test of knowledge can be applied Chief. He was present with the same regiment at the battle of the in four brief conversations of a quarter of an hour ? Anatomy in 1854 ; and a few days afterwards, when the British Alma, is surely something more than the repetition of names, or the were leaving the field, he volunteered to remain behind with recollection of a verbal description of parts; at least this opinion seven hundred desperately-wounded Russians. Isolated from the vicinity of large bodies is now held everywhere except at the College and Hall. Sur- his countrymen, and endangered by of Cossacks, ill supplied with food, and exposed to the risk of geons are occasionally called upon to operate in practice, al- pestilence, he succeeded in restoring to health about four hunof the enemy, and embarking them for Odessa. He then though never at their examination for the diploma of fitness. dred died from the effects of excessive hardship and privation. Skill in diagnosis is not unessential to a practitioner in any This public monument is erected as a tribute of respect for position except when passing through the College ordeal. The the virtues of an officer whose life was useful and whose death "
was
art of prescribing is not useless; physiology is not effete, nor materia medica a dead letter in any relation of a surgeon’s life except with his examiners at the College. No doubt
glorious."
-
profession will feel great satisfaction in learning that the lectures delivered at our schools supply all that is at a general meeting of the share- and policy-holders of the demanded at these examinations, but they include so much Medical and Legal Life Assurance Company, held at Exeter Hall on Thursday last, it was unanimously resolved to merge more, that the impatient student declines to labour through the greater quantity that he may arrive at the less, and prefers the interests of that body in those of the New Equitable Comthe business of the two comto repair to the mill, where all information not strictly needed pany. Henceforth, therefore, for the College is carefully warned off the premises. Here lies panies will be conducted under the title of the New Equitable the gist of the whole evil, and towards the correction of this alone. The success of the distinguishing and characteristic medical all really useful reform must tend. At present there is a in the laws and most hurtful disparity between the rich feast designed by our principles, which form such prominent features of the New Equitable, must promote to an enorprofessors and the simple tastes of the examiners. The dispro- regulations mous extent the best interests of our profession. The greater portion is enormous. They suggest a banquet to those who and more rapid the success of the New Equitable, the more have the appetite of anchorites; they offer turtle to men who and certain will be the advantage which the profession are, figuratively, content with pea-soup; they pour libations ofspeedy derive from the business of life assurance generally. The will choice wines to abstemious sages who, metaphorically, ask for has acted with great spirit and wisdom in supnothing better than negus. We all suffer from this want ofprofession a Company which was the first to acknowledge porting harmony; nor will the evil be corrected until the intellectual the true value of medical testimony in life assurance transacrequirements of the examiners shall be raised to a par withi their reported preliminary prandial necessities. Reform is im. tions. THE
.
minent and inevitable. tary and unforced.
It
were
better that it should be volun.
Medical Annotations. "
IT is not often that
recognition of merit in medical men so even as that which has happened in military speedy the case of the deceased Dr. THOMSON, of the 44th Regiment. we
find
a
Ne
quid nimis."
PROSTITUTION: THE MEANS FOR ITS REFORM. THAT fear of the world which is the beginning of hypocrisy The heroism must be of the most exalted character to elicit has been a great impediment to practical efforts for diminishnotice. Virtue must generally be its own reward, and to be ing the harm which uncontrolled prostitution is daily doing. must satisfy us without seeming to be. This is the usual set of Any argument, however untenable, against legislating on the the currents in which we are involved, and we can seldom subject is eagerly adopted as a sop to conscience, and a means of postponing the inquiry which must ere long take place. steer out of them. That total suppression is impossible all worldly knowledge and four hundred subscribed have towards a Nearly persons all human experience testify; yet even this still finds advocates-memorial which Sir JAMES M’GRIGOR appears to have first prosolely, we believe, because the dogged determination to be satisjected for that lamented officer. It consists of a granite obelisk, fied with nothing less averts discussion on a distasteful subject. erected near his native place in a conspicuous position, and of The same wilful blindness leads to the laborious misdirection of talents which might effect untold good if properly applied. a bursary in the parish school of Cromarty, the birth-place of
503
that enough is done when they read refutes (pp. 52-73): ‘ ‘ The notion that the career of the of a certain number of reformatories being established. If the woman who once quits the pinnacle of virtue involves a very subject come again under discussion, they forthwith compound swift decline, and the ultimate total loss of health, modesty, with their consciences by starting another reformatory to hew and temporal prosperity. Herein are contained three vulgar at the Hydra, and triumphantly hold up the first severed head, " 1. That once a harlot, always a harlot. without noticing that the decapitation has but stimulated at " 2. That there is no possible advance, moral or physical, fresh growth. And herein lies the secret of the comparative in the condition of the actual prostitute. failure of reformatories-the only active means yet employedL ’ 3. That the harlot’s progress is short and rapid." to diminish the evils of prostitution. For every woman reformed, there is another (and often there are several) ready to’ And the conclusion he arrives at, after a masterly exposure of take her place in the ranks of sin-enlisted by the overstrained these cases, is, "that prostitution is a transitory state, through prudery which has hitherto passed current as morality, and which an untold number of British women are ever on their pas. done the Devil’s work so effectually. When nothing is done! sage. Until preventive measures shall have been considerately to prevent this recruitment—when sanction is given to tempta- adopted, and thereafter too, if needful, it is the duty, and it tion in every form and shape that can lure an innocent woman should be the business, of us all, in the interests of the common. into the sin, it is hardly to be wondered that reformatories wealth, to see these women through that state, so as to save make little head against it. We willingly allow that their harmless as much as may be of the bodies and souls of them. originators are earnest and well-meaning in their work, And the commonwealth’s interest in it is this-that thereis righteous to judge, tender to pity, and strong to save; yet we never a one amongst them all whose partners in vice may not believe that reformatories, however well-conducted, must fail some time become the husbands of other women; never a one to effect the purpose of their establishment until some active but may herself, when the shadow is past, become the wife of and efficient means are devised to check this eager filling up of fjn Englishman, a mother of his offspring ; that multitudes are the ranks of vice, and to make prostitution less attractive to its mothers before they become prostitutes, and other multitudes votaries by controlling all excesses, and withdrawing the privi- become mothers during their evil career. If the race of the leges hitherto accorded only to the sinful. people is of no ccncern to the state, then only can the state Before considering the machinery best suited to effect thesE have no interest in arresting its vitiation." purposes, it is necessary that certain preliminary matters should Agreeing in these opinions, we need hardly allude to the be clearly understood. compulsory registration of prostitutes on the continental plan 1. It is folly to deny or attempt to shirk the open acknow- as totally inapplicable to this country, being opposed to all our ledgment, that the existence of prostitution is as much a fact notions of personal freedom, and to all our insular prejudices, as the existence of society, and will continue as long. But it being liable to open the door to many great abuses, and by is important that its influence should be, as far as possible, placing the well disposed on a level with the most depraved, confined to those who are direct sharers in the moral guilt; tending to make the comparatively good, bad, and the really and that the evil, since it must and will remain, should no bad, worse. It now remains that we briefly indicate the plan which seems more be permitted to thrust itself obtrusively forward thani that a foul, incurable sore should be exposed in the open streetb most fitted to cope with the evil in its every stage, with its We propose that there shall be estabto disgust passers by. causes and its effects. II. None can venture to indicate any rank of society from lished in London a Board of Moral Health, whose object shall which prostitution should be supplied; but everyone knows; be the control, either directly or through local authorities, of that there are certain classes from which its numbers shouldl all evils which are injurious to society either by their existence not be recruited ; and that women whose education, originall or by the excess to which they are carried. Whilst the control position, or family connexion makes the chain of sin ten timesi of prostitution and the restriction of its foul luxuriant growth, more galling, when they are once entangled in its coils, should and of the many patent evils already described, would be an be especially guarded. In London there are now hundreds ofimportant part of the duties of the Board of Moral Health, sueh women in every phase of degradation, whose history is there are many grave evils which only attain injurious magnicomprised in these words: seduction-desertion-prostitution. tude in large towns, and of which it might also take cogniIt is for their protection especially that the crime of seduction zance. Thus even the most thin-skinned delicacy could hear should be made one entailing such heavy penalties, and directly the name mentioned without feeling constrained to blush. But we would more particularly point to its efficacy as conpersonal punishment, as to deter the libertine by fears for his own safety. The necessity for such a check is admirably stated trolling prostitution. Endowed with power to summarily by Mr. Acton, in his valuable work on " Prostitution" (p. 173), check whatever is injurious to the moral welfare of society, and the author of the well-known article in the Westminster one stroke of the pen would close, at midnight, places which at Review, thus writes.:—" The man who submits to insult rather that time become haunts and hotbeds of depravity. The scenes than fight; the gambler who packs the cards, or loads the that disgrace our streets; the harlot who takes possession of dice, or refuses to pay his debts of honour; is hunted from the pavé, and solicits or abuses the passers-by at her will and amongst even his unscrupulous associates as a stained and pleasure; the cigar-shops (who licences them?) where women banished character. Let the same measure of retributive jus- stand and beckon at the door; the dens where prostitutes and tice be dealt to the seducer who deserts the woman who has thieves resort at all hours; the importation of foreign women for sinful purposes; the neglect of even external decency in trusted him, and allowed her come on the town." IIL Whatever is done for the control of prostitution, to be brothels and places of sinful resort: all these things, and effectual must be done by legislative authority. Any further a thousand like them, which, though individually small, exhibition of that profligate delicacy which assumes that such have collectively a vast influenee for evil, might be readily matters are not for state interference should be sternly checked controlled if only a central power were instituted to take as an hypocritical connivance at the present awful condition cognisance of, and at once repress, all aggressive sin. On the to which the evil ’has attained. Moreover, the vice is already other hand, such a Board would prove a definite place of appeal legally recognised, and referred to in Acts of Parliament passed for protection, and to which information could be supplied. during the present reign ; and, therefore, this mincing prudery- We have known instances where medical men, willing to help more delicate about the wording of the Statutes at large than the victim of a procuress, would have gladly applied to such of the Bible-is not only ridiculous, but also postfactum. an authority, but had neither time to spare nor money to spend IV. Legislative interference must not be based on the mis- in pursuing the case before a magistrate, with the certainty of taken theory concerning prostitutes, which Mr. Acton so justly having their professional character assailed. Moreover, it is
Very many persons think
errors-
.
.
504
deny that there are many cases involving the most in the attics; the medical men being of the Romanist faith; on society where a bribe ensures the blindand " an altar erected in the day-ward, at which daily prayers is and where some check needed. are read, and mass celebrated on Sundays and festivals at the of ness greatly policeman, Such a check the inspectors (well paid and carefully selected) least." Omnibzcs his pl’ovi8í8. The following passage in the prO’of the Board of Moral Health would supply. And for the reformation of the sinful the same machinery would be equally spectus of St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, (authorized by the signature available. Our reformatories are enormously expensive, con- of Dr. Wiseman himself,) reads, somewhat strangely when sidering the amount of work accomplished. This is in a great we remember the zeal with which the above-cited case of the measure due to a want of centralization, and of a common Marylebone pauper has been followed up :-" It is not, by any method of working. By the aid of the Board of Moral Health, means, intended to exclude Protestants from the advantage of information would be supplied for the most beneficial direction religious nursing. For where a case is considered in itself of their efforts, instead of trusting to chance or the police-court more worthy of admission than others proposed, it will be for the discovery of the cases most in need of help. Offences preferred, though the patient be not a Catholic." We would which now escape prosecution and punishment for want of not be understood to urge any objection to the management of some energetic and responsible power to pursue them, would fall this particular hospital; but we protest against the principle within the province of this new Board; the horrible old libertines on which it is established as being opposed to the best interests who are every now and then entrapped, and manage to escape of humanity, and of that true charity enjoined in the beautiful due punishment and exposure; the respectable citizens who, story of the good Samaritan, who never stayed to ask th& rejoicing in their present security, systematically let houses for creed of him who had fallen amongst thieves, and was woundede useless to
disgraceful outrages
"
!
.
the avowed purpose of brothels at enormous rentals. We repeat that the avowed object of such a Moral Board of Health should be practical and practicable; to protect society against the excesses of the vicious, and the uncontrolled licence which now permits sin openly to disgrace our city and make our morality a by-word amongst nations.
WORK FOR WOMEN.
THERE is a certain periodical, containing original aa-ticles that evince a very high degree of mental cultivation, of which but few of our readers probably ever heard ; albeit medical men are usually Benedicts, and generally possess a betterknowledge of current literature than any other body of toiling RELIGIO MEDICI. We men, except those who spread their brains upon paper. Two railway-travellers-one a freethinker, the other anallude to a journal conducted by, and established for women. Unitarian-being deeply involved in discussion, are related to Not a trashy compound of "Minerva Press" stories, bon-bon have accosted a silent fellow-passenger with the inquiry, ’’ Sir, verses, and senseless small-talk, but a paper especially devoted what are you ? an Atheist or a Deist Sir,was the reply, to subjects that engage the thoughts of every woman who does "I am neither: I am a dentist !" think. There is, of course, much of that charming tendency This clever equivoque admirably represents the public posi- to involve matters of fact in a dense cloud of explanation, and tion of the medical profession when discharging the noble duties to cut the Gordian knot of really abstruse subjects with the it owes to all alike, whatever their creed or faith. This great sharp edge of common sense which peculiarly distinguishes the principle of disclaiming interference with the religious tenets female pen. But the WaveJ’ley Journal contains so much which of the sick is jealously maintained in our public hospitals, and it is important for women to know and reflect on, that we any injudicious attempt to change so good a rule immediately highly commend it, notwithstanding the infelicitous motto, checked. We believe there is no point in their management " Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might more universally approved; and the rarity of even a murmur for the great fault has hitherto been that women have’ learnt: against this perfect system of toleration amidst those whom only to employ their hands, and not their heads. In a recent article, the question of female doctors was thus suffering has made brethren, proves with what a liberal and humane spirit it is carried out. sensibly set at rest :We therefore deeply regret that it should have been thought " Though female M.D.’s are wanted, there are very few necessary by the governors of the Royal Sea-bathing Infirmary women who have sufficient physical power to prosecute a course to request an investigation into certain charges recently brought of medical study, and qualify themselves so thoroughly as. against the chaplain of that institution. The cause was as fol- either to gain or to deserve public confidence. A physician,, lows:-A catholic pauper, sent from Marylebone to the Margate too, who is liable to be called out at all hours, and in all to discharge arduous duties, ought to be, if not very Infirmary, wrote from there to the priest who attends the Mary- weathers, at least far stronger than the majority of Englishwomen strong, lebone Workhouse, stating that his religion was reviled, that now are."l he had books given him insulting to the Virgin Mary," and So Miss Hygeia Aspasia, whose gushing enthusiasm so often was so coerced that he wished to be removed. A meeting was has an hysterical origin, may unpick her embroidered dissectingaccordingly held before the board of guardians of robe and have her pearl-handled scalpels ground into crochetthe result of which left little doubt that the whole story was needles, condemned to fulfil her natural duties in life after a fabrication. For, in addition to the solemn denial of the trial by a jury of her peers. chaplain himself, it was proved that the man had been habiThe same number of the Waverley Journal contains an’ tually trying to provoke discussion, and a letter was read from account of a new Society, recently established by a number of the catholic priest visiting the Margate institution bearing tesladies, (at 17, Egremont-place, Brighton, and 16 A, Cavendishtimony to the chaplain’s kindness to all, and the evidence of street, Cavendish-square,) for the " diffusion of sanitary knowother catholic patients proved how unjust was the accusation. education" amongst their ledge and the promotion of Whether the charge was brought by the pauper himself, or at own sex. This is rather aphysical but the objects parorder, large the instigation of others, the result has evinced the careful enumerated include many that are of vital importticularly Watch that is taken in our general hospitals to prevent the ance to society. Provision is made for the establishment of wards where the disabled sick lie being made a place for reli- classes for imparting instruction in household matters of sanigious disputation. Yet we noticed with pain that the head of tary importance, especially in reference to the management of the Roman-catholic church in this country had the bad taste, children and infants :a year ago, to recommend " to the charity of all," an hospital " In order to make this part of the instruction thoroughly established under the exclusive control of catholic authorities, some orphan infants will be reared in the institution y practical, and where only the doctrines of that religion might be taught; the pupils will thus have an opportunity of gaining valuable ’ the nursing being conducted by lay nurses having their " cells" information, which is at present obtainable only from dearly’
Marylebone,
.
505
;