It is alniost impossible to form a just estimate of the effect of reglementation in checking the spread of venereal maladies. Until the last dec ade it was generally believed by the medical world that statistical evidence existed which dem onstrated clearly the sanitary advantages of reglementation. Those statistics have since been subjected to careful analysis. and have been prov en to be practically worthless. Defenders and op ponents of the system have practically agreed to discard statistical arguments and to rely upon common sense to defend their positions. Judged from this standpoint. it is obvious that the insig nificance of the proportion of registered prosti tutes to the total number and the comparatively long interval between inspections must limit nar rowly the possible improvement in public health. What is more serious. it appears in the light of recent progress in medicine that the period of con finement for treatment is not sufficiently pro longed, and that many who are dismissed as well are capable of transmitting conta gion. These defects in the system hardly admit of a remedy, since the police at present exhaust practically all means at their command to increase the proportion of registered prostitutes, and consequently it is impossible that more extensive registration can he instituted. To increase the frequency of inspections, or the length of the period of compulsory treatment, would greatly increase the difficulty of administration, since it would diminish the number of those who submit voluntarily to control. If, as seems prob able, the system increases the extent of indulgence in vicious pleasures through creating a popular impression that vice is innocuous, it is not incon ceivable that reglementation, as at present prac ticed, increases disease instead of diminishing it.
Reglementation has always excited vigorous op position of large classes in society. Adverse sen timent has been especially strong in England and America. The enactment of the Contagious Dis eases Acts created a party of 'abolitionists,' who carried on a propaganda against the system until it was finally abolished. The same party has an increasingly influential following on the Continent of Europe, and aims eventually to abolish regle mentation there. The system is attacked on the grounds. (I) that it legitimatizes vice and encour ages it by the attempt to make it innocuous; (2) that it is in violation of the principles of persotial liberty, since it creates a class of persons over whom the police have practically unlimited power, and permits the police, on mere suspicion, to sub ject individuals to arrest and an insulting inspec tion; (3) that it tends to render difficult or impossible the reform of those who have once fallen into vicious habits of life; and (4) that it in creases instead of checking the extent of disease. Furthermore, it creates a popular impression that prostitution is a necessary evil, and thus acts as a check upon efforts to prevent its increase and to assist fallen women to rise from their dishon orable vocation.
How far the charges of the abolitionists are true it is impossible to say. A conservative view is that little good results from reglementation; possibly no more than could be gained by the now discredited policy of penalizing prostitution.
Permanent amelioration of public health and morals depends upon limiting the absolute extent of vice. There can be little doubt that a greater regard for the welfare of neglected minors in the large cities would diminish the number of those who live by vice. Douses of refuge for those who desire to reform are now quite common. Such institutions have not hitherto been as successful as was expected. Investigation has shown that not more than five per cent. of the inmates of some of these 'Magdalen Houses' were perma nently reformed. This has in part been due to the fact that such homes, founded by religious or ganizations, assumed that the reformed prostitute was to live a life of severe penance. Institutions which have aimed merely to offer a temporary refuge, and have sought to secure the return of the prostitute to an honorable place in society, have been far more successful. Societies for the rescue of girls who have fallen into the hands of professional procurers are also becoming promi nent, and have already effected much toward the suppression of this form of slave trade. Finally. much may be expected from the present tendency to furnish greater opportunity to the poorer classes for education and culture. and from public and private endeavors to provide healthful amuse ment and society for those who otherwise fall a ready prey to morbid desires.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Behrend, Die Prostitution in. Bibliography. Behrend, Die Prostitution in. Berlin (Erlangen. 1850) : Parent-Duchatelet. Ile la prostitution flans in rill,- de Paris (Paris, 1857). This is the classic work on the subject. Its spirit is thoroughly scientific, but its con clusions require revision in the light of recent in vestigations. Acton, Prostitution Co;isidered iii Its Moral. Social, and Sanitary Aspect (London, 1857 ) ; 1Yingcl. Zur Geschichte, Statistik and Rege lung der Prostitution (Vienna, 1808) ; Report of the RoyalCommission on thc Contagious Discuses Arts (London, 1871) ; Ames, Lazes for the Rcyu Nam? of Vice (London, .1577) ; Leeour, La pros titution a Paris ct a Londres (Paris, I882). a work containing the most satisfactory account of the administration and history of the Parisian system of regimentation; Kiffin-Reich, For/e s/ingot. ((Lc dic Prostitution in? ID. Jahrhundert and die Venial nay der Syphilis ( Leipzig, BS'S) ; Fiaux, La police des mwurs (Paris, I8SS) ; Tar nowsky, Prostitution und .1boiition ism us ( Ham burg, 1800) Blaschko, Die Vcrbreituny der Syph ilis in Berlin (Berlin, 1892) ; Sehmffider, Die Bestrafuny and poll eiliclae Bchandluny der ge wcrbsmassigen Cnziucht (Diisseldorf, 1892) ; Conamenges. La prostitution clandestine a Paris (Paris, I807) ; Sanger, The History of Prostitu tion (revised edition. New York, IS98). This is the most extensive English work on the subject, but it takes practically no account of the scien tific progress of the last three decades, and is therefore of limited value. Conference interna tiomtle pour in prophylaxie de la syphilis et des maladies re'nccrc'ennes (Brussels, 1899-1000), the most valuable compilation on the subject, contain ing papers and discussions covering practically every phase of the subject. Report of the Com mittee of Fifteen (New York) on the Social Evil INew York, 1902).