Proposal to form a London female sanitary society, and savings' bank / by William Acton.

  • Acton, William, 1813-1875.
Date:
[1857]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Proposal to form a London female sanitary society, and savings' bank / by William Acton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    TO FORM A LONDON FEMALE SANITARY SOCIETY, AND SAVINGS' BANK. BY WILLIAM ACTON, FOEMEELT EXTEENE TO THE VBNBEEAl HOSPITALS OF PAEI8, AND LATE 8UEGE0N TO THE ISLINGTON DISPENSAET. It is notorious that a large class of women exists in all European capitals, who, gaining easUy and spending improvidently large sums in the days of youth and health, sink presently into sickness, and are often left without means of obtaining medical advice. Hitherto these women have not only neglected themselves, but have been shunned and ignored by society. As a consequence, there are few, if any, charitable institutions open to them. Government refuses to acknowledge their existence; and it is only when reduced to the greatest straits that they will apply to the parish for relief, or can summon up resolution to enter the wards of an hospital. It may readily be believed that many a woman, seeing herself thus cast out from the world without sympathy and without a friend—a very Hagar in the desert—resorts to drinking ardent spirits as her only solace ; and, dead to all hope of again re-entering society, wreaks sullen vengeance on it by disseminating contagious diseases. As I cannot too often recall public attention to the consequences of neglecting this class of females, I will here repeat a few facts I have else- where stated,* showing the extent of this contamination. In the army, one man in five, or, more correctly, 181 per 1000, are attacked. In the navy, one in every seven men in the home service suffers from venereal disease; one out of every three merchant sailors admitted into the Dreadnought Hospital, and one out of every two surgical out-patients at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, are similarly affected. Every return of the Registrar-General, as well as the statistics of chil- dren's hospitals, shows more and more the frequency of infant deaths from sypliilis, and adds to the many reasons for attempting to ameliorate A Practical Treatise on Diseases of the Urinary and Generative Organs in both Sexes. By William Acton. Second Edition, pp. 7 cl acq.