A 51
44
the eye, and in some measure under the control, of
Government. On these grounds, therefore, independently of those which have been pressed upon you by Sir J.
Stirling and others, I think that these houses of
ill-fame and their inmates should be registered, and
subjected to police regulations, in the first instance,
of a sanitary character; that a strict medical
inspection should be enforced, and that all
diseased persons should be removed to hospitals
and placed under treatment. The expense of their treatment should be paid either by the public, or,
if possible, by the persons from whose control they
are taken; against whom, I will here observe,
rather than their unfortunate instruments, the penal
provisions of the law should be mainly directed.
law framed on these principles, besides the direct
effect it would have on the public health, would
furnish some immediate protection to those who
are the first victims of the present system, and would
facilitate such further measures as the Government
might deem it expedient to take
hereafter."
A
In the words of the Secretary of State of
1880, the Secretary of State "considered the necessity for the protection of the inmates, as
distinguished from their medical treatment, to be
a valid reason for giving to the Government supervision
and control over all brothels in the country"
•
3. As a result an Ordinance of 1858 was
passed "for checking the spread of Venereal diseases".
Greater power of interference was given
by Ordinance 10 of 1867.
These Ordinances had two main principles:·
1.