The History of Prostitution

Condition of the Sick.-New Syphilitic Hospital.-Plan of Treatment.-Establishment of the Salpétrière.-Bicêtre.-Capuchins.-H

to allude to the rise and progress

It will suffice here to say that, throughout the Middle Ages, a species of disease, termed sometimes leprosy, sometimes pudendagra, appears to have prevailed in France as in other European countries, and

he real propagators of the malady. German physicians likewise traced its origin to Naples, and placed it about the year 1493,[199] ascribing it to an untoward planetary conjunction. The disease appeared at Barcelona in 1493, and in other parts of Spain in the following year.[200] But sixty years before, in 1430, public regulations had been made in London to prevent the admission of persons attacked with a disease very similar to syphilis into houses of prostitution, and requiring the police to keep constant watch over such

seases had existed before or not, they prevailed to a very alarmi

s white and pale, others again hard and reddish. They burst after a few days, and discharged an incredible quantity of vile fetid humor. When they began to suppurate they became true phaged?nic ulcers, consuming both flesh and bone. When they attacked the upper part of the body they gave rise to malign fluxions, which gnawed away the palate, or the windpipe, or the throat, or the tonsils. Some patients lost their lips, others the nose, others the eyes, others the whole organs of generation. Many were troubled with moist tumors on the limbs, which grew as large as eggs or small loaves. When they burst, a white and mucilaginous

he beginning of the sixteenth century, however, the extent of the mischief provoked sympathy from the physicians, and one or two treatises appeared on the subject. Sudorifics seem to have been the chief agent employed

he large pox (les grands vérolés)," and directed that they should be properly cared for.[204] This decree was never carried into effect. Thirty years afterward the condition of the sick was far worse than it had ever been, they being left to die in the streets. A new decree, in 1535, appointed commissioners to choose a locality for a hospital; and, notwithstanding some opposition from the religious authorities, they performed their task. A small hospital was appropriated to syphilitic patients, and persons suffering from itch, epilepsy, and St. Vitus's dance. It was soon filled, and several patients were th

pital for venereal cases; but for many years the strenuous opposition of the Hotel Dieu neutralized all the efforts that

sion to the Hotel Dieu, where they often contracted new diseases without getting rid of the old; but of females, not a word had yet been spoken. No one in that hundred and twenty-five years had ever raised

ere soundly whipped when they entered and when they left it, by way of punishing them for having contracted the disease. In 1675 the managers of the hospital declare

ht they should, and accordingly, though in violation of the rules of the establishment, a small room was appropriated to this class of patients. It appears that at this time a prostitute found some difficulty in obtaining admission to the Salpétrière; it being not unusual for unfortunate creatures to have themselves arrested for vagabondage, and to submit voluntarily to the whipping which the ethics of the day required in the case of females as well as males, in order to obtain medical treatment. It will be seen that our

d visit the hospital without being shocked at its aspect.[205] Medical men who saw the place expressed amazement that so many persons should exist in so small a room. Eight women slept in a bed, and in the room appropriated to those whose turn for treatment had not come, the patients slept by gangs, one half sleeping from 8 P.M. to 1 A.M., and the remainder from 1 A.M. to 7 A.M. The floor was covered with dirt and filth, and the windows were nailed down, for fear of their being broken if opened. There was but little linen, and that was in rags, and abominably dirt

rson could claim admission until a complete year had elapsed from the time of their first application, and every diseased person was turned out, whether il

re, and it is mainly from the memoires he addressed to the government that the preceding facts have been obtained. His representations seem to have met with but litt

s from the hospital of Bicêtre to the hospital of the Capuchins. That establishment was enlarged, and named the Hospital of the South (l'H?pital du Midi). Gardens and baths were pr

niences. The decorum of the hospital was frequently disturbed by the conduct of some of the men with regard to the prostitutes in the adjoining wards.

disease. It took the shape of a virulent chancre on the palate, and the girl was sent to the Hospital du Midi for treatment. She found herself thrust among the vilest prostitutes, whose language and sentiments shocked her so terribly that she insisted on leaving the hospital at once. The physician on duty declined to grant her request, whereupon the poor girl contrived to get into the yard, and threw herself into a well. She was drowned, and on an autopsy of her corpse it app

idi, the average annual admissions, from 1804 to 1814, were 2700; from 1822 to 1828 it exceeded an average of

e admission to the hospital are treated outside, all the m

ent or office. It was not till 1803 that a regulation was made by the prefect of police, requiring all public women to submit to be visited by a physician appointed by him. The plan was a bad one, as the physician was paid by fees which he was authorized to exact; and it was rendered worse in practice by the dishonesty of the

pital. Almost all chose the former. The physicians then undertook to decide themselves which should go to the hospital and which remain in their houses

. Tr

h

12

13

14

No re

16

17

No re

19

20

21

24

25

26

could not be compelled to take the medicines given them; and that, though laboring un

and progress of disease in that city. Of those which are furnished by M. Parent-Duchatelet, we shall

s. A

nts.

ien

2 5

3 7

102

eport

88

7 7

8 6

9 5

0 6

1 5

eport

3 6

84

5 8

93

eport

104

99

91

110

2 7

7

stimate for three

in twenty yea

different years. In 1828 it was six per cent., that is to say, six out of every hundred prostitutes were disea

rostitutes; next came August and September; while February, April, May, and July seemed seasons less favorable to disease. M. Duchatelet, howe