CO129-487 - Others & Individuals - 1924 — Page 187

CONFIDENTIAL.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN VENEREAL DISEASE AND THE

REGULATION OF PROSTITUTION.

Prepared by

The National Council for Combating Venereal Diseases.

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Throughout modern historical times and especially since the great outbreak of syphilis in the middle ages, attempts have been made by Governments and Municipal Authorities to reduce the spread of these diseases through the Regulation"* of prostitution,

It was believed that by segregating professional prostitutes into known areas and by compelling them to submit to medical super- vision it would be possible to withdraw infected women from the practice of their profession and so reduce the spread of disease.

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Of the two venereal diseases – syphilis and gonorrhoea the latter has in the past and is still in some of the Latin countries, regarded as a comparatively slight ailment. Medical science is still without any specific cure and the accepted forms of treat- ment are long. Syphilis, owing to its destruction of life at its most productive ages (25-50) and to its disabling and obvious consequences has always been considered the more serious disease. Racially, both are serious gonorrhoea by causing sterility and, in children, bliídness, and syphilis owing to its congenital effects which may result in blindness, deafness and mental deficiency in the off-spring, as well as causing miscarriages and

still-births.

Until early in the present century the results of treatment were unsatisfactory and left the patient infective over a long period of time. With the discoveries of Mechkinoff, Schaudin, Bordet, Wassermann,

Ehrlich and others, the whole situation changed and it became possible not only to treat syphilis effect- ively by a method which greatly reduced the infective period but also to recognise this disease as the cause of many serious con- ditions whose origin had hitherto been unknown. The treatment of gonorrhoea has also within the same period been greatly improved.

On the preventive aspect in 1910, with the collaboration of various Governments and Municipalities in Europe, a scientific enquiry was undertaken by Professor Abram Flexner of the Rock- feller Instituto, into the systems for the regulation of prostitution then in force. The report of this enquiry published under the title "Prostitution in Europe" presented a clear picture of the then existing position and provided striking evidence of the methods by which the regulation system lent itself to the dis- semination of disease.

The Report of the Royal Commission on Venereal Diseases which sat from 1913-15 under the Chairmanship of Lord Sydenham, demon- strated that these diseases were spread throughout the community as a whole and not confined to the prostitute group. In Great Britain the regulation of prostitution has been abolished for

* "Regulation" as used in this memorandum means the system by

which prostitutes are segregated in a special area, are re- gistered by the police and are subject to various regulations including a periodical medical examination, either under national law, municipal bye-laws, or tolerated by the Government on conditions that such regulations are volun- tarily adhered to.

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