[241] It is not yet quite so bad as this. But the number of venereal infections that occur in consequence of wild love, and of free sexual intercourse in these relations of “intimacy,” is continually on the increase.
[242] Sexual freedom—that is to say, the formal organization of sexual promiscuity—was demanded by a certain Dr. Roderich Hellmann in a book which has now become very rare, because it was confiscated immediately after publication. Its title was “Sexual Freedom: a Philosophic Attempt to Increase Human Happiness” (Berlin, 1878). The author demands that immediately after puberty “the sexual organs shall have the opportunity of a regulated activity,” and that it shall now be allowed to persons of both sexes “to indulge in sexual intercourse as much as they please,” of course, with the avoidance of injury to health and of pregnancy. This remarkable freak proceeds to demand that public lavatories shall be done away with, so that persons of both sexes shall relieve themselves freely in one another’s presence in the open street, and, with equal freedom, shall display their sexual organs to one another for the purpose of sexual allurement!!
CHAPTER XIII
PROSTITUTION
“On that one degraded and ignoble form are concentrated the passions that might have filled the world with shame. She remains, while creeds and civilizations arise and fall, the eternal priestess of humanity, blasted for the sins of the people.”—Lecky.
CONTENTS OF CHAPTER XIII
Prostitution and venereal disease the central problem of the sexual question — My belief in the possibility of the suppression of both — Only in recent years has the scientific attack on both begun — The plaie sociale — Internal and local treatment — The scientific literature of prostitution — Rosenbaum’s work on prostitution in antiquity — Aretino, Delgado, and Veniero on the prostitution of the renascence — Franckenaus’s first medical polemic against brothels — The commencement of the scientific study of prostitution and venereal diseases in the eighteenth century — Rétif de la Bretonne and his “Pornographe” — “Moral Control” — Parent-Duchatelet’s fundamental work — Analysis of this book — Contemporary works on prostitution in Paris, London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Lisbon, Lyons, and Algiers — First employment of the term “male prostitution” — A peculiar species of souteneur — Prostitution in Hamburg — Dr. Lippert’s book — “Memoirs of a Prostitute,” the predecessor of the “Diary of a Lost Woman” — Gross-Hoffinger’s book on “Prostitution in Austria” — Demonstration of the connexion between prostitution and coercive marriage — Celebrated chapter on “Maidservants and Prostitution” — Schrank on prostitution in Vienna — Prostitution in Leipzig — In New York — General works on prostitution — Jeannel, Acton and Hügel — Books on secret prostitution, on prostitution of girls under age, on regulation and on brothels, and on the social importance of prostitution — Blaschko’s recent critical investigation on the subject of prostitution — Results of this investigation — Lombroso’s anthropological theory — The works of Tarnowsky and Ströhmberg, of Fiaux and von Düring.
Conception and definition of prostitution — Genuine and pseudo-prostitutes — Prostitution among primitive peoples — Religious prostitution as the germinal form of modern prostitution — This latter the product of the growth of large towns — Medieval conditions — Diminution in the number of brothels since that time — The demand for prostitutes — Relation between the number of prostitutes and the male population — The supply greater than the demand — Causes of the male demand for prostitutes — Prostitution as a product of civilization — Repression of primitive sexual instincts by civilization — The sexual supra- and sub-consciousness — Transient elemental activities of the sub-consciousness — Reports of J. P. Jakobsen and other writers on this subject — Gratification of these instincts by means of prostitution — This in part the product of the physiological masochism of men.
The numerous causes of prostitution — The anthropological theory and the doctrine of the congenital prostitute — Criticism of this view — Proof that many of the physical and mental peculiarities of prostitutes are acquired — The obliteration of the secondary and tertiary sexual characters in prostitutes — The nucleus of Lombroso’s theory — The economic factors of prostitution — Actual and relative poverty as a cause — Poverty a cause of prostitution in the mass — Women’s and children’s work — Prostitution as an accessory occupation — Insufficient wages — The inquiries of 1887 and 1903 on this subject — Examples — The large proportion of maidservants who become prostitutes — Explanation of this — Relative poverty of maidservants — Psychological factors of maidservant prostitution — Overcrowded dwellings — Families living in single rooms, and taking in lodgers for the night — Alcoholism — The traffic in girls — Sources of this — National and international preventive measures — Work done by the Jewish Committee to prevent the traffic in girls in Galatia — Measures taken in Buenos Ayres — The central police organization in Berlin for the suppression of the traffic in girls.