Free prostitutes, that is to say, those who live in lodgings or rooms furnished by themselves, are bound to visit the Dispensary, and submit to examination once a fortnight. They choose the time and day themselves, but more than a fortnight must not elapse between the visits.
It appears, from tables published by M. Parent-Duchatelet, that these rules are strictly enforced. Free prostitutes are visited nearly thirty times a year, and prostitutes in tolerated houses more than fifty times. We have alluded elsewhere to the results of the visits.
Experience has proved that the only safe method of punishment for prostitutes is imprisonment. Formerly they were whipped, and at a later date their hair was cut off; but the humane spirit of modern legislation has rejected both these punishments as unduly cruel. At the present day, offenses against the rules concerning prostitution (delits de prostitution) are punished by imprisonment; misdemeanors and crimes provided against by the code being within the cognizance of the ordinary courts in the case of prostitutes as well as other persons.
Delits de prostitution have been divided by the Bureau des Mœurs into two classes, slight offenses and grave offenses; slight offenses are:
1. To appear in forbidden places.
2. To appear at forbidden hours.
3. To get drunk, and lie down in doorways, streets, or other thoroughfares.
4. To demand admittance to guard-houses.
5. To walk through the streets in daylight in such a way as to attract the notice of people passing.
6. To rap on the windows of their rooms.