Paris (1878–1887).
| Unregistered Prostitutes. | ||
| Able to read and write | 4,297 | 68.12% |
| Able to read and sign their name | 988 | 15.66% |
| Able to read but not to write or sign | 11 | 0.18% |
| Unable to read or write | 1,012 | 16.04% |
| 6,308 | 100.00% | |
From an examination of the statistics given it is evident that the number of illiterates is very large, however they may be decreasing in number now that primary education for the children of the poorer classes is becoming more and more general. Knowing how to read and write, however, proves very little as to the culture of the individual. The statistics only show the number of prostitutes who are totally illiterate, and we must certainly count many of the others as well among the ignorant.
It is clear that ignorance alone does not lead to prostitution. But it is clear that many prostitutes would not have become such, or would not have lent an ear to the flattering offers of good positions, etc., if they had known what an abominable life awaited them.
Among the secondary causes of prostitution must certainly also be classed:
f. Alcoholism. Not only have many women been seduced when they had drunk too much, and so have become prostitutes, but the demoralization which is the result of the constant abuse of alcohol may have the same effect.[167]
g. Degeneracy. According to some physicians (among whom [[353]]are Professors Lombroso and Tarnowsky, to cite only the most famous) the cause of prostitution is not to be found first in the environment, but in a pathological (or atavistic) condition. These authors have examined a certain number of prostitutes, and have drawn from this examination the conclusion that the stigmata of degeneracy often found in them indicate a state which is the cause of their misconduct; prostitution is in large part kept up by born prostitutes.[168]
There is one objection to be made to such a manner of proceeding, namely that we must in the very beginning give a precise definition of the social phenomenon which is called prostitution. This definition, which can perhaps be given only by the sociologist and not by the biologist, will show us at the outset that it is very difficult to represent anyone as born with a tendency to commit sexual acts for economic reasons. So Professor Lombroso understands a totally different thing by prostitution from what it really is. He says: “Sometimes in the beginning marriage does not even exist and prostitution is the general rule”[169] and as an example he cites that the Naïrs live in complete promiscuity. According to Professor Lombroso, then, everywhere that there is no marriage there is prostitution. In other words, according to him all nature is one grand brothel, in which, aside from the married women, all the females would be prostitutes! Truly Professor Lombroso has some sociological views all his own.
These authors claim, then, that prostitutes often present stigmata of degeneracy. An examination of the figures shows, however, that 63% of all the prostitutes examined show almost no such stigmata.[170]
For 63% of them then degeneracy cannot be the cause, nor does it follow that it is the cause in the remaining 37% of cases. For many women with these stigmata are not found at all among the ranks of prostitution. To bring out the real import of the researches in question we must put beside them the results of an examination of non-prostitutes. It is for this reason that I wish to call attention to the work of Dr. P. Näcke, “Verbrechen und Wahnsinn beim Weibe”, in which the author arrives at the result that only 3% of the normal women examined by him failed to show signs of degeneracy.[171] It seems to me, then, that when we find figures so low among normal women the thesis of Professor Lombroso is not proved. [[354]]