The History of Prostitution: Its Extent, Causes, and Effects throughout the World

by William W. Sanger

So that out of 245 males then under treatment, 108, or 1 in 2·27, had had some form of venereal disease; and among 202 females, 34, or 1 in 6, had been similarly affected.

“Of the whole number who confessed that they had had affections of this class, 106 had had syphilis, and 36 had had gonorrhœa.

“Of the 106 who had had syphilis, 53, or just one half, were still laboring under the influence of the poison with which they had been inoculated, in many instances, years before.

“As almost all these patients were admitted for other diseases, or with affections which the physician alone would recognize as the remote effects of syphilis, it is perhaps fair to assume that they represent, with some exaggeration, the class of society from which they come.

“The Board has been favored with the census of the New York Hospital (Broadway), taken for the purpose of ascertaining the proportion of syphilitic cases among the patients of that institution; from which it appears that the whole number of patients on the 8th of December was 233, and that 99 of that number had had venereal disease, and 37 were then under treatment for the same affections recently contracted. Counting the old cases alone, most of which were admitted, probably, for other diseases, this proportion considerably exceeds that above recorded for Bellevue Hospital, it being as high as 1 in 2·35. It is proper, however, in this connection to state that the returns for Bellevue Hospital are believed to be incomplete. They are based in a considerable degree on the confessions of the patients; and it is known that many, especially among the women, have denied any contamination, when facts, subsequently developed, have shown that their statements were not true.

“Is it to be believed, then, that one in three, or even one in four, of that large class of our population whose circumstances compel them to seek the occasional aid of medical charities, are tainted with venereal poison? This the Medical Board do not think they are authorized to state. But the facts here cited, and others within their reach, justify them in saying that venereal diseases prevail to an alarming extent among the poor of the city. The large number of women sent by the police courts to be treated for these diseases at the Penitentiary Hospital would alone be sufficient evidence of this. Yet such persons constitute but a small proportion of those who, even among the poor, suffer from these disorders. Dispensary physicians, and those in private practice, can show a much longer list of the victims of impure intercourse.

“But the disease is not confined to this class. The advertisements which crowd the newspapers, introduced by men who ‘confine their practice to one class of disease, in which’ they ‘have treated twenty thousand cases,’ more or less, demonstrate how large is the company of irregulars who live and grow rich on the harvest of these grapes of Sodom. And yet their long list of ‘unfortunates’ would disclose but a fraction of the evil among those who are able to pay for medical services. The Medical Board are unable to state what proportion of the income of regular and qualified physicians in this city is derived from the treatment of venereal diseases, but they know it is large, and that many who never advertise their skill receive more from this source than from all other sources together. They believe that there is no one among the unavoidable diseases, however prevalent, for the treatment of which the well-to-do citizens of New York pay one half so much as they pay to be relieved from the consequences of their illicit pleasures.

“The city bills of mortality give little information regarding the frequency of venereal affections. Lues Venerea keeps its place in the tables, and counts its score or two of deaths annually. Although this class of disorders is not frequently fatal, except among children, it is credited with only a fraction of the work it actually performs. The physician does not feel called upon, in his return of the causes of death, to brand his patient’s memory with disgrace, or to record an accusation against near relatives. During infancy the real disease is buried under such terms as Marasmus, Atrophia, Infantile Debility, or Inflammation, while in adults, Inflammation of the Throat, Phagedæna, Ulceration, Scrofula, and the like, take the responsibility of the death.

“These affections are strictly what the advertisers denominate them, ‘private diseases’—a leprosy which the ‘unfortunate’ always strives to conceal, and, so long as it spares his speech and countenance, usually succeeds in concealing. The physician is his only confidant, and the physician refers all to the class of ‘innocent secrets,’ which are not to be revealed. The public, therefore, know little of the prevalence of such diseases, and still less of the fearful ravages they are capable of making.

“Still, as has been just said, syphilis is not often the immediate cause of death in adults. After its first local effects are over—and these, though generally mild, are sometimes frightful—the poison lingers in the system ready to break out on any provocation in some one of its many disgusting manifestations, often deforming and branding its victim, threatening life and making it a burden, and yet refusing the poor consolation of a grave. Like the vulture which fed on the entrails of the too amorous Tityus, it tortures and consumes, but is slow to destroy, and often its visible brand, like the scarlet badge once worn by the adulteress, proclaims a lasting disgrace. The protracted suffering of mind and body produced by this class of distempers, the ever-changing and often loathsome form of their secondary accidents, and the almost irradicable character of the poison, seem almost to justify an old opinion, sanctioned by a papal bull as late as 1826, that these diseases are an avenging plague, appointed by Heaven as a special punishment for a special sin.