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An Exposure of the Contagious Diseases Acts, and of Government Lock Hospitals

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An Exposure of the Contagious Diseases Acts, and of Government Lock Hospitals Dr. Patterson?Exposure of Contagious Diseases Acts. 105 AN EXPOSURE OF THE CONTAGIOUS DISEASES ACTS, AND OF GOVERNMENT LOCK HOSPITALS. By ALEX. PATTERSON, M.D. In the Glasgow Medical Journal for last month, Mr. Lowndes, of Liverpool, a distinguished member of the society for the propagation of the Contagious Diseases Acts over the whole country, writes an elaborate reply to a few remarks I ventured to make in an article in connection with the Statistics of Glasgow Lock Hospital. Whilst averse to enter into controversy with a professional brother on any subject, more especially on a subject so unpleasant, here the matter is one of such interest that I feel it to be my duty to give reasons for my belief. With regard to the excellence of the precept, audi alteram partem, I quite agree with Mr. Lowndes. A leading London medical journal, which for many a long year had this very precept as its motto, now declines to admit a single article in opposition to the Acts, and so declines, because' it takes a different view of the question. The reciprocity is all on one side. With regard to the decrease or increase of prostitution in Glasgow, I may be permitted to state, that for thirty years I have been familiar with the streets of Glasgow by day and night, and without the slightest hesitation I affirm that they are immensely improved since 1870. Formerly there were large numbers of brothels in the city, some occupying two or three flats, and during the afternoon the inmates sat, often in a semi-nude state, at the windows, endeavouring to attract the attention of pedestrians, whilst at night the houses were brilliantly lighted up, and sounds of riot were to be heard at all hours. Solicitation at that time was so common, and so impudent, that in many parts of the city a foot passenger had to leave the pavement and take to the middle of the street. There are no houses of ill-fame of the foregoing description in the city now?or in the suburbs either, so far as I am informed on the best authority; and whilst solicitation still exists, it is of a mild description and rare, as compared with what it once was in Glasgow. Taking the great improvement in the streets, the diminution in the number of brothels, along with the remarkable decline in the number of admissions to the Lock Hospital, a fall which took place at once on the enforce- ment of the Police Act, I still hold the opinion that prostitu- tion is not increasing in Glasgow and its suburbs, in proportion to the population, but the reverse. Now for the proof, and 106 Dr. Patterson?An Exposure of the Contagious here audi alteram partem fits in conveniently. Dr. James R. Lane, a most respectable pro-Acts man, who appeared, I think, as a witness before the General Commission, and before the Select Committee last year, wrote a pamphlet in answer to a Mr. M'Laren, M.P., where he says, " speech by Another mode of showing very conclusively the diminution of disease is afforded by the fact that a large number of the Lock Hospital beds have been for some time unoccupied. At Aldershot, with 100 beds, 40 were vacant in the middle of the present month. At Portsmouth, with 120 beds, only 84 are occupied. At Chatham, with 88 beds, only 63 are " occupied." This is post hoc ergo propter hoc with a vengeance!" or is it so, when the argument tells the Acts ? only against" Take Captain M'Call's evidence (7,644-5), It is a matter of fact, not mere that the administration has reduced conjecture, " the number of prostitutes not residing in brothels." I have no doubt that the number in Glasgow has been very much reduced in the ratio that the brothels have been reduced." " Again (7,537), I am persuaded, especially as regards young men, that taking away the temptation in the streets lessens the desire to go to these women." (7,413), "It has been alleged that these women have only been distributed and forced into more private resorts. All my enquiries and observations, however, are opposed to the truth of such a " statement." Again (7,585), I have not the slightest doubt in my own mind, as a police-officer, that the number of prostitutes in and its suburbs has been reduced." Yet " Glasgow again, The summary of thefts is instructive of the good which has flowed from the efforts made by the magistrates and police to minimise street prostitution and brothel keeping in the municipality." From the year 1860 to 1869, the total number of informa- tions lodged for street thefts, with or without violence, was, .......... 5,067 Value of property stolen, ..... .?24,446 Thefts committed in brothels?informations lodged, . 3,804 Value of property stolen, . .16,843 <?41,289 8,871 From 1870 (when the Police Act was enforced) to 1879, the number of informations of thefts was, . 2,887 The value of property stolen was, . ?11,509 Thefts committed in brothels?informations lodged, . 808 Value of property stolen, ...... 3,077 ?14,586 3,695 Diseases Acts, and of Government Lock Hospitals. 107 The Registrar-General's tables show that in 1869 illegiti- mates were rated at 9*7 ; in 1870, 9*5 ; in 1871, 9*4 ; and in the last year it had fallen to 8*2, i. e., from 9*7 to 8*2 in the ten years. There is no proof here of an increase of clandestine prostitution, rather the reverse, I am inclined to think. The managers of the Magdalene Institution and Homes (Re- port, Dec. 1880), state that "This much needed repressive action on the part of our civic authorities has had the effect of partially protecting the virtuous, and making the practice of vice more difficult, while it has led to a desire on the part of many to be delivered from a life of evil," in proof of which the statistics are given?in 1860 the number of admissions was only 46; 1871 they mounted up to 114, and the number continued to increase in direct ratio to the vigour of the administration, reaching 244 in 1880. Captain M'Call gives the reason. " They find their calling is so hard and unprofitable now, that they are glad to take refuge in the institution." Then, again, when women seek admission to the Magdalene, they are examined, and if found to be diseased, are desired to go to the Lock Hospital and return when well. In 1872, 34*7 per cent were sent to the Lock. In 1880 the percentage of diseased had fallen to 18*03, showing a diminution of nearly 50 per cent of diseased, while the number of admissions had more than doubled. The decline in admissions to the Lock Hospital began in 1870, and was so marked that it could scarcely be attributed to any other cause than the enforcement of the police laws. Taking all the evidence combined, each individual part of which corroborates all the other portions, surely I was fairly entitled to draw the inferences which I did. If I am wrong, then the Lord Provost of Glasgow, the Magistrates and Council, the Registrar-General, the Managers of the Magdalene Institution, with Dr. Gray, their respected medical officer, the Managers of the Lock Hospital, Captain M'Call, and Professor Dunlop, most of whom have probably known the city from early life, are incapable of observation, or of forming a reasonable judgment-?or, Mr. Lowndes alone is right. I am pleased to observe that Mr. Lowndes and his colleague have found it necessary to exclude spectators, thus following the example of Glasgow, and that since this has been done the number of admissions has much increased. Mr. Lowndes here unconsciously uses a most powerful argument against the Acts?it proves that the females who resort to voluntary hospitals are not hardened, but that the great majority of them still retain their native sense of modesty. Farther on " in the reply, Mr. Lowndes states that The Acts are not 108 Dr. Patterson?An Exposure of the Contagious directed against women, but against prostitutes." When have these prostitutes, taken care of by the Acts, ceased to be " women? When they are registered as Government women," and when they have become dead to all sense of shame. Then, if they are not women, what has so far altered them? The Contagious Diseases Acts undoubtedly. And what tends to keep them so for life ? Again I say, the Acts. Then, admitting (which I do not) that the Government prostitutes are not women, what is the use of the moral and religious agencies which, we are asked to believe, form such an essential part of the Acts? It is said these women follow prostitution as a trade; it takes two parties to trade?and who are the customers ? Where is the justice, I would ask, in any enactment, which punishes the one class, and that "more sinned against than sinning," while it lets the other go No man is compelled to go into the harlot's unpunished? " " company, while she, one more unfortunate ruined by him, and cast off by him, may have no other resource for a morsel of bread. Mr. Lowndes fails to see how the Diseases Acts " Contagious cause the last remnant of modesty to be driven away." I should have thought proof of my statement unnecessary, and that reason would, with most people, have led them to that conclusion. However, as to proof of the hardening process? Miss Brown, matron of Colchester Government Lock Hos- " pital, said (Q.
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