Belgium.
In the year 1856 the floating population of Brussels and its suburbs was 260,080, to which the garrison contributed 2414. In the same year the total registration of prostitutes, according to the law in their respect provided, numbered 638; these were divided into “filles de maison” and “éparses.” Although the police regulations are remarkably stringent, their effect upon public morality is absolutely nil, although it must be admitted that their surveillance has a beneficial effect upon the public health. Prostitutes in Brussels, disgusted by the exercise of municipal power, fly without the walls, and withdraw to St. Josse, which, with other extra-mural spots, is much infested with them. The same state of things is observable, more or less, in Antwerp, Bruges, Ostend, Ghent, Mons, Liege, and Namur. By the Belgian regulations the circulation of prostitutes in the streets after sundown is prohibited; women under twenty-one may not be inscribed, and the medical visitation takes place twice a week by the divisional surgeon, and whenever else he may please by the superintending officer. All the éparses and third-class filles de maison are seen at the dispensary, and the first and second classes of the latter order at their domiciles. The éparses may secure this privilege by payment of an extra franc per visit.
The tariff of duties payable by houses and women is as follows:—
Every first-class maison de passe pays 25 francs per month.
Every second-class maison de passe pays 15 francs per month.
Every third-class maison de passe pays 5 francs per month.
Every first class “maison de débauche” pays 60 to 78 francs monthly, according to the number of its authorized occupants—from 6 to 10—and 2 francs extra for each such additional person.
Every such second-class house pays 20 to 32 francs for from 3 to 7 women, and 1 franc extra for every additional.
Every such third-class house pays from 8 to 16 francs for from 2 to 7 women, and 1 franc extra for each additional.
Every first-class fille éparse pays on each inspection 40 centimes.
Every second-class fille éparse pays on each inspection 30 centimes.
Every third-class fille éparse pays on inspection 15 centimes.
Upon punctuality for four successive visits these payments are returned, for inexactitude they are doubled.
Directly a male military patient is taken into hospital he is minutely questioned by the surgeon who attends him as to the exact locality of the house wherein he thinks he was infected, and the appearance of the woman. She is soon arrested; and if the result of the medical examination should prove her diseased, she is placed on the police surgeon’s list and sent to hospital, where she is restrained for some time from spreading contagion.