Observations on the Contagious Diseases Act (women, not animals) : showing how the new law debases women, debauches men, destroys the liberty of the subject, and tends to increase disease, being a reply to Mr. W. Paul Swain's paper on the working of the Act at Devonport / by Charles Bell Taylor.

  • Taylor, Charles Bell, 1829-1909.
Date:
[1869]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the Contagious Diseases Act (women, not animals) : showing how the new law debases women, debauches men, destroys the liberty of the subject, and tends to increase disease, being a reply to Mr. W. Paul Swain's paper on the working of the Act at Devonport / by Charles Bell Taylor. 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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    distinctly been inoculated by an instrument used for examiuinj; the ear, and Cullerier mentions that a lady contracted syphilis by tasting soup after her cook. A writer in the Westminstei- Review states, on the authority of Ricord, that a drop of syphilitic matter dissolved in half a pint of water, will form a solution any drop of which will inoculate with syphilis. Mr. Jonathan Hutchinson tells us that whole families in Nor- way became infected by using the same drinking vessels. Hospital authorities object to the admission of such cases on aceourt of the risk of contagion ; and Sir W. Jenner, referring to the same danger, says it is a wonder any of the medical men escape. Mr. Syme, professor of clinical surgery in the University of Edinburgh, and ceitainly one of the most dis- tinguished surgeons in Europe, says that there is no question that disease is thus communicated, and that he had repeatedly met with men in whom the disease was distinctly traceable to females who had been con- taminated through the procee lings of accoucheurs who use specula and are not careful in cleaning them. In face of the^e facts what honest man can deny that these poor women are subjected to great risk, when healthy and diseased alike are examined one atter another in quick succession ? Even, if the farce of washing were gone through by some irresponsible nurse, the water itself would become a sink of contagion ; but I have it on good authority that the washing process is occasionally neglected altogether ; and when we consider that a woman who is quite capable of communicating disease may on examination appear quite healthy (a fact I shall shortly demonstrate) we can readily understand, especially when time is an object, that the cleansing process may appear a work of supererogation when, in fact, it is most urgently necessary. I should like to know which of the advocates of the Act would face such a risk himself, or permit any female relative to be examined with the same speculum used for diseased prostitutes ? Mr. Acton states that 150 women are examined in two hours ; another writer that, including signing the certificates, each patient takes about two minutes. I should wish to know who does the washing, and how long they are about it ? The opinions I have expressed are those entertained by 50 Physicians and Surgeons who reside in 'Nottingham, many of whom have been connected with Lock Hospitals, or have, like myself, studied the disease at L'Oursine and Midi in Paris, all of whom have signed a memorial, which contains the following paragraph:—We are of opinion that the perfunctory performance of the duty of examination, such as this routine must of necessity practically become, while leading to false conclusions, and frequently failing to detect disease, will certainly spread contagion from one female to another, a risk that no healthy woman can justly be subjected to on any plea whatever. Lastly, Dr. Drysdale, Secretary to the Harveian Society, Physician to the Royal Free Hospital, and a well known author on syphilis and prostitution, who has recently returned from Paris, remarks in a paper published in the Medical Press last week;—Many of the Parisian medical men are much opposed to the system (Contagious Diseases Act). It was opposed by M. Auzias Turenne, at the Congress in 1867 ; and it is a well known fact that the wholesale examinations which I have wit- nessed, in company with Mr. Robert Dunn, at the Police Office in tho Rue de Jerusalem, not unfrequently arc the cause of spreadimj syphilis by means of the in-struinenis used ; and it is, I believe, almost inwossible to avoid the occasional contamination of female specula, when frequently used for a hundred or more prostitutes in the course of one morning's examination. I am almost ashamed to quote authorities in support of a proposition which is so self evident. The risk these poor women encounter is truly frightful. A moment's reflection, a slight knowledge of facts, and a little common sense, will enable any man to appreciate this as well as the most eminent Physician in the land. So much for the risk, now for the absurd statcment'advanced by myself that it is sometimes impossible to discover discasc -in the female. Mr. Swain expresses surprise that any one in the medical profcssioa