Chapter XIII…

Chapter XIII

=Prostitution=, and the =venereal diseases= so intimately connected with it, constitute, properly speaking, the =nucleus=, the =central problem=, of the sexual question. The abolition of prostitution and the suppression of venereal diseases would be almost tantamount to the solution of the entire sexual problem. Imagine the extension and the intension of the idea: No prostitution, no more venereal disease!

There is, in fact, no more gratifying notion, no more illuminating ideal, than that of moral and physical purity in the relations between the sexes. At a time in which, especially in social spheres, such abundant activity and such far-seeing ideas of reform are apparent, this notion of a campaign against prostitution and venereal diseases, in the hope of eradicating both evils, should stand in the forefront of all the demands of civilization, in order that finally the tragical influence, the poisonous sting, should be removed from the disordered, unhappy, amatory life of the present day, and herewith, unquestionably, a proper =foundation= should be laid for a more beautiful future for that life. This idea is unique; it is the greatest of all that man, at length become self-conscious,[243] has ever grasped; and to this idea belongs the future!

The French term prostitution and venereal diseases une plaie sociale, a rodent ulcer in the body of society. I take this apt comparison, and carry it a stage further, to show a clear picture of the way along which we must go in order to eradicate prostitution; for in this respect I am a confirmed optimist. I =believe= in the possibility of the eradication of venereal diseases, and of the abolition of prostitution within the civilized world by national and international measures. I do not join in the chorus of those who say, “because prostitution has always existed, it must always exist in the future; because venereal diseases have always[244] existed, they are unavoidable accompaniments of civilization.”

=How long is it=, then, since any attempt has been made to oppose prostitution and venereal diseases? As regards the latter, it is only within the =last few years= that we have begun, in the battle against them, to make systematic use of the results of scientific research; and the study of prostitution, and the measures based on that study for its control and prevention, do not date further back than the second half of the eighteenth century. In fact, for practical purposes, they date from the appearance of the classical and epoch-making work of Parent-Duchatelet (1836).

We are, indeed, =in the very first stages= of the campaign against prostitution and venereal diseases. All that has hitherto been done has been to make inadequate, isolated attempts to introduce unsuitable and half-considered regulations, based upon successive misconceptions, which have only made matters worse. =To-day= medicine, social science, pedagogy, jurisprudence, and ethics have combined in a =common= campaign; and this is not national merely, but unites all civilized nations in a common cause.

Here we find an actual prospect, a credible hope, of a radical cure of the plaie sociale. But such an ulcer can only be radically cured when we are not content merely with the =local= treatment of the existing sore; we must simultaneously attack the =internal= causes of this chronic disease, and in the case with which we have to do the internal causes are even more important than the external--that is to say, =ethics=, =pedagogy=, and =social science= are even more important and indispensable in the campaign against prostitution than =medicine= and =hygiene=. We shall never attain our goal by considering and fighting prostitution and venereal diseases, the consequences of prostitution, purely from the medical and hygienic standpoint. In this case, one-sidedness will prove tantamount to failure. The problem of prostitution must be approached from many sides, because the causes that have to be considered are =manifold=, alike anthropological, economic, social, and psychological, in their nature. There are =many varieties= of prostitution; in the same way there are numerous and various =types= of prostitutes. It is, therefore, impossible for one who is acquainted with actual life to hold fast in a one-sided manner to a single theory. Thus, in one and the same case the most various points of view have to be considered.

The =history= of prostitution is an extremely interesting chapter of the general history of civilization, which has =not hitherto= been written in a manner satisfying scientific and critical demands; but the =literature= of prostitution is already alarmingly comprehensive. Here, also, critical grasp and mode of presentation are still entirely wanting. It is impossible, in this place, in which we speak only of the present-day conditions, to enter at any length into the historical and literary aspects of the question of prostitution. This I must leave for a later, comprehensive work, for which I have for several years been collecting the materials. Here I shall only briefly refer, for the sake of the reader interested in the matter, to the most important writings on the subject of prostitution which have any scientific and historical importance.

Prostitution in antiquity is treated in a masterly manner by Julius Rosenbaum in his celebrated “History of Syphilis in Antiquity” (Halle, 1839); this is, down to the present day, the chief source of our knowledge of the conditions in antiquity. It is true that he starts from the false assumption that syphilis already existed in ancient times, a view which in the second volume of my book on the “Origin of Syphilis” (now in course of preparation) I show to be incorrect; this work will also contain a thorough study of prostitution among the ancients, based upon the more recent researches published since the year 1839, when Rosenbaum’s book appeared.

The first truly classical descriptions of the nature of modern prostitution dated from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; these are not scientific, belonging rather to the province of belles-lettres; but they are of great value in respect of the accuracy of their observations, and of their psychological insight into the nature of prostitution. I refer above all to the celebrated “Ragionamenti” of Pietro Aretino;[245] next, to the not less important work, published earlier, in 1528, “Lozana Andaluza,” by Francisco Delgado (Francesco Delicado).[246] Both these books, and also the celebrated “Zafetta” of Lorenzo Veniero (circa 1535), describe the conditions of prostitution at the time of the Italian renascence; these display a most astonishing similarity to the conditions of the present day, and the books mentioned have therefore still an instructive value.[247]

From the seventeenth century we have as important documents of civilization the description of prostitution in Holland in the interesting work “Le Putanisme d’Amsterdam” (Brussels, 1883; the original Dutch edition, Amsterdam, 1681), and also in the work published in the same year, 1681, “Disputatio Medica qua Lupanaria ex Principiis quoque Medicis Improbantur,” by Georg Franck von Franckenau,[248] noteworthy as being the first medical polemic against brothels.

Down to the middle of the nineteenth century the study of prostitution was most active in France.[249] In the second half of the eighteenth century, according to the expression of the de Goncourts, “pornognomonie” was a scientific problem. Various attempts at reform were made; as early as 1763 “=moral control=” was recommended; and in 1769 there appeared the celebrated “Pornographe” of Rétif de la Bretonne,[250] the first extensive work on the =state regulation= of prostitution, the great historical importance of which was recognized by Mireur, the well-known syphilologist of Marseilles, by the publication of a new edition (Brussels, 1879).

But it was with the publication of the immortal and most admirable work of Parent-Duchatelet,[251] on prostitution in Paris, that in the year 1836 the modern =scientific= literature of prostitution really began. It is the first work in which full justice is done to the importance of prostitution in =all= its relations, and it is based upon exact medical observations and psychological and social studies. Even to-day it remains unique in its kind, and a standing example of critical research and of French learned zeal.

A very short account of the contents of this epoch-making book of Parent-Duchatelet will best teach us its importance, and will give us an insight into all the problems connected with prostitution, and considered by the French author.

In the introduction, Parent-Duchatelet explains the reasons which led him to undertake the work, and the literary sources he has consulted. The first chapter then proceeds to the consideration of certain general problems, gives a =definition= of the term prostitute, an estimate of the =number= of prostitutes in Paris, their =origin= in respect of native country, position, culture, profession, their =age=, and the =first cause of their adoption of this profession=. The second chapter discusses the =manners and customs= of prostitutes, the opinion they have of themselves, their religious ideas, their sense of shame, their spiritual qualities, tattooing, occupation, uncleanliness, speech, defects and good qualities, the various classes of prostitutes, and, finally, the souteneurs. The third chapter contains =physiological observations= concerning prostitutes--namely, concerning their obesity, the changes in their voice, peculiarities in the colour of the hair and the eyes, the stature, the condition of the genital organs, and fertility. In the fourth chapter he deals with the =influence of professional prostitution on the health of the girls=, and describes the various morbid conditions which may result from their occupation. The fifth chapter treats of the public =houses of prostitution= (brothels), their advantages and disadvantages, the question of brothel streets, and the localization of prostitution in definite quarters of the town. In the sixth chapter the =inscription of prostitutes in police lists= is discussed; in the seventh =procurement and the owners of brothels=. Chapters eight, nine, and ten deal with =secret prostitution= in houses of accommodation, drinking-saloons, coffee-houses, tobacconists’ shops, etc.; chapter eleven discusses =street prostitution=; chapter twelve, the =diffusion of prostitution= in the various parts of Paris; chapter thirteen, the =relation of prostitution to military life=; chapter fourteen, =prostitution in the environs of Paris=. The fifteenth chapter describes the =ultimate destiny= of prostitutes; the sixteenth deals with their =medical treatment=--above all, the methods of examination to ascertain their state of health are accurately described. Chapters seventeen and eighteen deal with =hospitals= and =prisons= for prostitutes; chapter nineteen, with the former taxation of prostitutes; chapter twenty considers =questions relating to administration, and the special branch of police dealing with the institution=--for example, the suggestion (recently revived) is discussed of the medical examination of the male clients of prostitutes; prurient pictures and books are also considered, and thefts in brothels. The twenty-first chapter is devoted to the question which still attracts attention at the present day, viz., the =peculiar relationship between the owner of a house and the prostitutes living there=, and deals also with the legal aspect of the punishments decreed against prostitutes. Chapter twenty-two is occupied with a general discussion of the =legal questions= connected with prostitution. At the conclusion, in chapters twenty-three and twenty-four, the author discusses the question =whether prostitutes are necessary=, and this question (nota bene, from the standpoint of coercive marriage morality) he answers in the affirmative; he asks also =whether the police should be entrusted with the application of measures for the prevention of venereal diseases=, and this he agrees to conditionally only, for he considers that the =public= recommendation of protective measures should be forbidden by police ordinance. Finally, in the last chapter, the twenty-fifth, he speaks of the =institutions for the rescue of fallen women=, and he concludes his comprehensive work, in which he has dealt so thoroughly with all the subdivisions of his general topic, with the words:

“My work is at an end. When I commenced it, I pointed out what reasons I had for undertaking it, what aim I wished to attain. Had I not been firmly convinced that the investigations begun by me regarding the nature of prostitutes might favour health and morality, I should not have published them. I have exposed to the public gaze great infirmities of mankind; thoughtful men, for whom I have written, will thank me for doing so. He who loves his fellow-men will without anxiety follow me into the department of knowledge I have described, and will not turn away his glance from the pictures I have drawn. =He who wishes to know the good that remains to be done, and who wishes to learn how to pursue with good results the way by which something better is to be attained, must first know what actually exists; he must know the truth.=

“The profession of prostitution is an evil of all times, all countries, and appears to be innate in the social structure of mankind. It will perhaps never be entirely eradicated; still, all the more we must strive to limit its extent and its dangers. With prostitution itself it is as with vice, crime, and disease; the teacher of morals endeavours to prevent the vices, the lawgiver to prevent the crimes, the physician to cure the diseases. All alike know that they will never fully attain their goal; but they pursue their work none the less in the conviction that he who does only a little good yet does a great service to the weak man. I follow their example. A friend whose loss I shall always mourn drew my attention to the fate of the prostitute. I studied them, I wished to learn the causes of their degradation, and wherever possible to discover the means by which their number could be limited. What experience has taught me on this subject I have openly stated, and I am convinced that the lawgiver, the man whom the State has empowered with authority to care for public health and morality, will find in my book useful information.”

Parent-Duchatelet’s book, no less admirable in its execution than in its design, still remains the foundation for the scientific study of prostitution. It is the exemplar for all contemporary and subsequent works.

The powerful influence exercised by this book was shown above all in this--that works on prostitution appeared in rapid succession in the various capitals of the civilized world. These were all based to a greater or less extent upon the work of Parent-Duchatelet, and thus they constitute extremely valuable scientific monographs regarding the conditions of prostitution in particular towns, such as since that date have not been issued. Here there still lies hidden a wealth of material, a large part of which has not yet been utilized.

As an enlargement and continuation of the work of Parent-Duchatelet, there appeared three years later, in the year 1839, the work of the Commissary of Police Béraud[252] on the prostitutes of Paris and on the Parisian police des mœurs. The book is more especially distinguished by an elaborate history of prostitution, and by the wealth of psychological observations it contains; also by its exact information regarding secret prostitution.

In the same year a well-known London physician, Dr. Michael Ryan,[253] published his important book on =Prostitution in London=,[254] with a comparison of the conditions in Paris and New York. Ryan first dealt with the general =social= and =economic= causes of prostitution, with critical acumen, as we could not but expect from an Englishman. His book also contained an interesting account of the extraordinary diffusion in England at that time of pornographic books and pictures,[255] and concerning their publication and sale by pedlars, and the measures undertaken to repress this traffic. Valuable also are the detailed reports given in this book, on pp. 212-252, regarding prostitution in the United States, and especially in New York.

The example of Ryan was followed by his countrymen, Dr. William Tait and the Rev. Ralph Wardlaw. The former treated in a comprehensive work the subject of prostitution in Edinburgh;[256] the latter, in a shorter book, described prostitution in Glasgow.[257]

Very interesting is the book, of which a few copies only ever reached Germany (one of which is in my own possession), and which even in Portugal is extremely rare, of Dr. Francisco Ignacio dos Santos Cruz regarding prostitution in Lisbon,[258] in which the whole subject of Portuguese prostitution is admirably described, with special reference to the capital city. Santos Cruz gives most careful attention to the legislative aspect of the question. He was the first to advocate a measure which has recently been proposed also by Lesser (doubtless in ignorance of the work of his predecessor)--viz., the =formation of polyclinics for the gratuitous treatment of prostitutes=.[259]

Regarding prostitution in the town of Lyons, renowned for its immorality, Dr. Potton wrote a celebrated book, which received a prize from the Medical Society of Lyons in the year 1841. This work was based on official sources, and had especial reference to the relationships of prostitution to the hygienic and economic conditions of the population.[260]

A valuable book, also, is the work on prostitution in Algiers by E. A. Duchesne.[261] It contains an elaborate account of “=male prostitution=”--that is, prostitution of men for men--an expansion of the idea of prostitution which is, as far as my knowledge goes, found here for the first time. Naturally, in earlier works we find allusions to men who practise pederasty for money, but the idea “prostitution” had hitherto been strictly limited to the class of purchasable women.

We see this, for example, in the anonymous book “=Prostitution in Berlin, and its Victims=,”[262] published in Berlin seven years before the appearance of the work of Duchesne. The author definitely states that “the admirable book of Parent-Duchatelet on prostitution in the town of Paris, and its remarkable success, have chiefly given occasion to the publication of my own work.” The book is, however, quite independent in character, and treats of the individual relationships of prostitution in Berlin, on the basis of =official= sources and experience, in historical, moral, medical, and political relations, and also from the point of view of police administration. It contains an appendix on “=prostituted men=” (p. 207), who, however, are not homosexual prostitutes, but, according to the writer’s own definition, “men who make it their profession to serve for payment =voluptuous women= by the gratification of the latter’s unnatural passions.” This species still exists at the present day, but there is no particular name for the type. (In the seventies, in Vienna, men who could be hired to perform coitus were known locally as “stallions”--Ger. =Hengste=.) We must include them in the great army of souteneurs, although the term is not strictly applicable. Later we shall return to the consideration of this peculiar variety of male prostitution.

As an enlargement of the work just mentioned, we can regard the book published in the same year, 1846, by the Criminal Commissary, Dr. Carl Röhrmann, on =Prostitution in Berlin=.[263]

This book is especially remarkable from the fact that it contains “complete and candid biographies of the best-known prostitutes in Berlin,” an idea which has recently been revived, for example, in W. Hammer’s “The Life-History of Ten Public Prostitutes in Berlin” (Berlin and Leipzig, 1905).

Very valuable official material is, finally, to be found in a third work on prostitution in Berlin, written by the celebrated syphilologist F. J. Behrend.[264] It begins with a careful history of the police regulations regarding prostitution in Berlin, then discusses the consequences of the abolition of the Berlin brothels in the year 1845, and proceeds to demand new measures and regulations for the control of prostitution and for the prevention of syphilis in Berlin. As a collection of material, the book is of considerable value.

Little known, but thoroughly original, is the work of the Hamburg physician, Dr. Lippert, on =prostitution in Hamburg=.[265] Blaschko even fails to mention it in the bibliography at the end of his own work, presently to be described. Lippert adduces numerous and interesting new contributions to our knowledge of “the many-headed hydra, the colour-changing chameleon,” of prostitution. After an introductory sketch regarding the historical development of prostitution in Hamburg, he gives a “characterization of the present moral condition of Hamburg,” embodying important information regarding the number of brothel prostitutes and street-walkers, the topographical distribution of prostitution and of brothels, the secret houses of accommodation, the remarkable decline in the number of marriages, the relationship between legitimate and illegitimate births, and the number of drinking-saloons and dancing-halls; and he goes on to describe with more detail these individual factors of prostitution, and especially the opportunities for prostitution. The third chapter contains an extremely interesting physiological and pathological description of the Hamburg prostitutes. According to Lippert, the principal motives of prostitution are “=idleness=, =frivolity=, and, above all, the =love of finery=.” He rightly lays especial stress upon the last-named cause, which, in the more recent scientific investigations regarding the causes of prostitution, has, unfortunately, been too much neglected. Then follow data regarding the age, nationality, class, and occupation of prostitutes. We learn that as early as the date of this book of Lippert’s the greatest number of public prostitutes had originally been =maidservants= (p. 79), not girls of the labouring classes. Thus the fact that prostitutes recruit their ranks chiefly from the servant class is not, as recent writers assert, exclusively the consequence of the increasing mental culture of the modern proletariat, but is most probably rather connected with the freer configuration of the amatory life among the labouring classes, where the nobler form of “free love” has long been dominant. From the very nature of the case, this must lead to a limitation of the supply of prostitutes from this class. The chapter closes with an elaborate description of the physical and mental peculiarities of the Hamburg prostitutes, and of the diseases observed in them. In the fourth chapter the various classes of prostitutes are considered more closely--the brothel prostitutes (with an exact description of the celebrated brothel streets of Hamburg), the prostitutes living alone, the street-walkers, the “kept women,” the large group of secret prostitutes. There follow in an appendix interesting accounts of the public places which are related to prostitution; of prostitution in the Hamburger Berg and in the suburb of St. Pauli; and of the rescue work of Hamburg.

A very good account of prostitution in Hamburg is also found in a book contemporary with that of Lippert, entitled “=Memoirs of a Prostitute, or Prostitution in Hamburg=” (St. Pauli, 1847). This work, which is now extraordinarily rare, resembles the book which recently gained such celebrity, the “Tagebuch einer Verlorenen” (“Diary of a Lost Woman”), by Margaret Böhme, in that it was edited by a Dr. J. Zeisig, professedly after the “original manuscript.” As usual, it has all happened before!

In the preface to his book, Lippert remarks that, since prostitution in Berlin and in Hamburg has now been adequately described, it was desirable that an analogous book should be compiled regarding Vienna, in order that we might have the necessary comparative statistics of “the three principal towns and principal factors of German prostitution.”

The actual account of prostitution in Vienna did not, however, appear till forty years later, in the year 1886. Still, as early as 1847 the book of Dr. Anton J. Gross-Hoffinger was published, describing exclusively the conditions of prostitution in Austria, and naturally chiefly concerned with conditions in Vienna.[266] In my opinion, this book has an epoch-making significance, because therein we find asserted for the first time, with all possible emphasis, that the institution of =coercive marriage= is the ultimate cause of prostitution, to which all the other causes are subsidiary. In no other book do we find so painful a description, drawn with such astonishing clearness, of the horrible conditions resulting from the artificial preservation of the official and ecclesiastical coercive marriage, which was really based upon economic conditions peculiar to the remote past. The two first sections, “Woman the Slave of Civilization” and “Woman in her Degradation,” are the most frightful accusations of conventional marriage. On pp. 190 and 191 the author formulates in fifteen paragraphs a law of marriage reform, which has a very close resemblance to the previously described ideas of Ellen Key. A perfect classic is the chapter on servant-girls (pp. 226-284), unique in its thoroughness, and affording an admirable description of the legal, moral, and economic relationships of domestic service.

“=The great army of domestic servants=,” he writes, “=constitute the ever-ready reserve force of prostitution. Daily from this reserve are drawn new recruits for the regular service, and daily the vacant places in the reserve are once more filled.=”

Gross-Hoffinger, in 1847, came also to the conclusion that in “free love” or “free marriage” was to be found the only salvation from the misery of prostitution.

The comprehensive work of Schrank upon prostitution in Vienna[267] is distinguished by an abundance of interesting isolated observations, and these are especially to be found in the earlier historical portion. The second part is occupied with the administration and hygiene of prostitution in Vienna. The work gives an exhaustive account of Viennese prostitution down to the year 1885.

Prostitution in Leipzig was described in three chapters of a general work on prostitution, published in the year 1854.[268] The titles of these three chapters are: “Moral Corruption in Leipzig”; “Tolerated Prostitutes and Tolerated Houses in Leipzig”; “Tolerated Prostitutes in Leipzig: their Morals, their Customs, their Hygienic Condition, their End.” Very interesting is the statement of the author that of the 3,000 maidservants in Leipzig, one-third were engaged in secret prostitution.

The prostitution in the largest town of the new world, in New York, also found an admirable description in the sixth decade of the nineteenth century in the great historical work of the New York physician, William M. Sanger.[269] Of the 685 large octavo pages which the book contains, pages 450 to 676 are devoted to the description of the conditions of prostitution in New York. The historical portion of the book is also extremely valuable, being based upon the best historical authorities.

With the year 1860, or thereabouts, this first period of the scientific literature of prostitution, characterized by monographs dealing with individual =towns=, in pursuance of the example of Parent-Duchatelet, came to a close. Just as Parent-Duchatelet had inaugurated this kind of description, so the French now undertook the introduction of the further researches into prostitution. First of all, Dr. J. Jeannel summarized the results of the books we have already mentioned in a general work on prostitution,[270] which contained a comparative view of the conditions in various countries and towns. An Englishman, W. Acton, also wrote a similar general work on prostitution;[271] whilst yet another general work on the subject was written by the German Hügel.[272]

The extremely important question of =secret= prostitution has been elucidated especially by the writings of Martineau[273] and Commenge;[274] the not less important question of prostitution practised by =girls under full age= is treated by Augagneur;[275] the =problems of regulation and of brothels= have been studied by Fiaux, whose work is comprehensive and based upon carefully compiled statistics, and the author attempts the solution of these problems;[276] the sometime French Minister Yves Guyot has discussed the problem of prostitution from the higher philosophical and social point of view;[277] in short, the French physicians illuminated this obscure province of thought from every side, and =laid the foundations for the scientific and critical study of prostitution=, which began with the last decade of the nineteenth century.

To Alfred Blaschko unquestionably belongs the credit of having broken entirely new ground in connexion with the problem of prostitution, by means of the debate instituted by him in the year 1892 in the Medical Society of Berlin, and by several works distinguished by a sharp-sighted, critical faculty.[278] Upon his exhaustive scientific studies, and upon the most careful practical considerations, Blaschko bases the demands:

“=Abolish Regulation!= =Away with Brothels!=”

At the same time, Blaschko is a convinced advocate of the economic theory of prostitution.

Almost at the same time, Cesare Lombroso, the celebrated alienist and criminal anthropologist of Turin, propounded his =anthropological= theory of prostitution, and enunciated the doctrine, which attracted so much attention, of the “Donna delinquinte e prostituta,” of the “=congenital prostitute=.”[279] This doctrine found an unconditional supporter in the St. Petersburg syphilologist Tarnowsky; whilst the latter strongly opposed the efforts made by the International Federation, founded in 1875 by Mrs. Josephine Butler, for the abolition of the regulation of prostitution.[280] Ströhmberg, in an interesting work on prostitution,[281] takes the same standpoint as Lombroso and Tarnowsky.

It is, however, noteworthy that quite recently the French observers also, and, above all, the experienced Fiaux, are inclining to the views of Blaschko, of the accuracy of which I myself am now fully convinced, notwithstanding the fact that in my work on prostitution in England,[282] which appeared eight years ago (October, 1900), I still advocated regulation. E. von Düring also, who, as professor of medicine in Constantinople for many years, has made elaborate study of the conditions of prostitution in that town, adheres, in an essay well worth reading, without qualification to the opinion of Blaschko regarding the uselessness of regulation and of brothels.[283]

After this brief enumeration of the most important descriptive and scientific studies of prostitution, we shall now proceed to a short account of the conditions that obtain at the present day.

The idea of “=prostitution=” is in no respect clearly and sharply limited. Parent-Duchatelet considered that prostitution only occurred

“when a woman was known to have accepted money for this purpose on several successive occasions, when she was openly recognized as being engaged in this occupation, when an arrest had occurred and the offence had thus been definitely discovered, or when in any other way it was proved to the satisfaction of the police” (vol. i., p. 11).

But in this way he entirely excluded the so-called “secret” prostitution--that is to say, he excluded by far the largest category of prostitution.

As soon as we take this latter into consideration, we find it necessary to have a wider conception of the term “prostitution.” This is recognized by the French physician Rey in his little book on “=Public and Secret Prostitution=” (German edition, p. 1; Leipzig, 1851). He regards as prostitution the act “by which a woman allows the =use of her body by any man, without distinction=, and =for a payment made or expected=.”

In this admirable definition we see the two most important characteristics of prostitution: =complete indifference with regard to the person of the man demanding the use of her body=, and the fact that =the act is done for reward=. The only point omitted from consideration is the condition mentioned by Parent-Duchatelet--namely, the =frequent repetition= of the act of prostitution with =different= men.

Schrank combines all these characteristics of prostitution in a much briefer phrase, by defining them as “=professional acts of fornication performed with the human body=,” by which, in the first place, we include male and female =homosexual= prostitution, which are not covered by the definitions previously quoted, and, in the second place, Schrank’s definition lays stress on the fact that in =genuine= prostitution the =monetary reward= is the aim of the act of prostitution much more than any kind of enjoyment. Where enjoyment plays a prominent part, =in addition to= the earning of money, we are no longer concerned with genuine prostitution. Even a prostitute, who in other respects is typically a woman of that class, ceases at that moment and for that time to be a prostitute, when her earnings become a secondary consideration, and the =man= to whom she gives herself the principal consideration.

For this reason, strictly speaking, a large proportion of secret prostitutes and numerous members of the half-world cannot be reckoned as prostitutes in the proper sense of the term--at any rate, =not always=; not when, for instance, the man who supports and pays them is at the same time their “lover”;[284] they then belong for the time being to the not less dangerous province of “wild love.” But in practice this distinction cannot be strictly maintained, for the =same= woman will very frequently undertake a genuine act of prostitution.

It is only the “sale of the sweet name of love,” as the celebrated politician Louis Blanc expresses it, which constitutes prostitution--the =complete lack= of all spiritual and all personal relationships on the one side, and the ignominious predominance of the =mercantile= character of the sexual union on the other. Hence there may be prostitution in marriage, although this always remains widely different from the sale of the body to =numerous= and =frequently changing= individuals.

The “prostitution” of primeval times, in which social relationships were so utterly different from ours, unquestionably resembled rather the wild love of the present day than our own prostitution. It was sexual promiscuity, not professional fornication. According to Heinrich Schurtz, prostitution is indeed not an exclusive product of higher civilization, but occurs also among primitive peoples, and appears everywhere where the unrestricted sexual intercourse of youth--wild love--is prevented, without early marriage taking its place. But what he describes as prostitution--for example, the living of several unmarried girls in the houses of men--is still no more than a peculiar form of wild love. Still, according to the reports of numerous travellers, there are among primitive peoples also =purchasable= women, and this must be explained, just as in our own case, from the combined influence of individual, social, and economic conditions.

To my mind there is no doubt that the so-called “=religious=” prostitution is to be regarded as at least a =germinal form= and =predecessor= of the prostitution of the present day. In this case also we had to do with =professional= fornication; only, although the temple-girls, just like our modern prostitutes, gave themselves =indifferently to any man= that offered the money paid for this service, that money did not, in the case of religious prostitution, go to the girl herself, but to the deity, or to the crafty priests who represented him; thus the priests really played the part of our modern brothel-keepers. It is absolutely unquestionable that in this religious prostitution a more ideal element also played a part. This subject was discussed at considerable length above (pp. 100-112).

Prostitution is everywhere a product of the =growth of large towns=; its peculiar characteristics are developed only in large towns. To the country it was always foreign until those beautiful times of the middle ages, in which prostitution was regarded as a =necessary of life=, like eating and drinking, and was organized in guilds, so that everywhere “women-houses” were instituted for the public, unconstrained use of all classes, for peasant and prince. At that time quite small towns also had their brothels. The appearance of syphilis, and the awakening of modern individualism, brought these conditions to an end; the brothels disappeared everywhere; and this tendency to a =continuous decrease= of barrack prostitution, to a progressive diminution in the number of brothels, has continually strengthened. On the whole, the rural districts to-day do not know prostitution; there we have only free love and wild love. The existence of prostitution is confined to the large towns, because in these all the necessary conditions are fulfilled, and, above all, because in large towns the possibilities for the gratification of the sexual impulse by marriage or by free love are in the case of men much more limited than they are in the country. In the town there is even a =demand= for prostitutes, but not in the country. It is true that the demand on the part of men does not correspond to the extension which modern prostitution has assumed in the large towns; this demand corresponds, as it were, to a portion only of prostitution. In his admirable work on the campaign against prostitution (Journal for the Suppression of Venereal Diseases, vol. ii., pp. 311-313) F. Schiller proves that prostitution has not increased merely in proportion to the increase in the male population, =but that in reality, in recent decades, it has increased, on the whole, in a much greater proportion than the population, and that different towns exhibit the most remarkable contrasts in the respective ratios of prostitutes to male population=.

For example, in Berlin prostitution has increased =to an extent almost double= that of the increase in male population. A similar relationship is to be observed in other large towns. Everywhere the supply of prostitutes =exceeds= the demand; and we cannot doubt that by this great supply the need for prostitutes is to a large extent at first aroused. Street-walkers and brothels =allure= many men to sexual intercourse who otherwise would not have felt any need for it.

But, on the other hand, the existence of a =voluntary demand= for prostitutes on the part of =men= is a fact which cannot be denied. In this sense prostitution has been described as mainly a “man’s question.”

Here we touch upon an extremely difficult problem, and one which, as far as I can see, no one before myself has definitely stated, perhaps because no one has =ventured= to do it--and yet, for our knowledge of prostitution, the question is one of great importance.

What precisely is the “need of man for prostitution” of which Blaschko speaks? Is it merely the sexual impulse? Or is there any other factor in operation?

Certainly the sexual impulse, simple sensuality, plays a large part in this male demand for prostitutes; but this does not explain the fact why married men, and so many men who, if not married, have yet opportunities for other sexual intercourse, have recourse to prostitutes; it does not explain the fact, by which I am myself continually and anew astonished, of the peculiar attractive force which prostitutes exercise upon cultured men with delicate æsthetic and ethical perceptions. Is there any deeper physiological relationship here involved?

I answer this question unconditionally in the affirmative.

It is not by chance that prostitution is mainly a product of civilization, that it finds in civilization its proper vital conditions, whereas in primitive states it cannot properly thrive.

In primitive times, unrestrained by the (just) demands of a higher civilization, and by the social morality intimately associated therewith, men could, without fear or regret, satisfy their wild impulses, no less in the sexual sphere than in others; they could give free play to those peculiar biological instincts of a sexual nature which lie hidden in every man. Their sexual “supra- and sub-consciousness,” to use the happy phrase which Chr. von Ehrenfels invented to denote the dualism of modern sexuality, were still =monistic=. To-day, however, the primitive instincts are =repressed= by the necessities of civilized life, and by the coercive force of conventional morality; but these instincts still slumber in every one. Each one of us has also his sexual sub-consciousness. Sometimes it awakens, demands activity, free from all restraint, from all coercion, from all convention. In such moments it seems as if the man were an entirely different being. Here the “two souls” in our breast become a reality. Is this still the celebrated man of learning, the refined idealist, the sensitive æsthetic, the artist who has enriched us with the most magnificent and the purest works of poetry or of plastic art? We recognize him no longer, because in such moments something quite different has awakened to life; =another= nature stirs within him and urges him with an elemental force to do things from which his “supra-consciousness,” the consciousness of the civilized man, would draw back in horror.

Such a delicate sensitive nature, open to the finest spiritual activities, as that of the Danish poet J. P. Jakobsen, must feel this contrast in an especially painful manner; it is precisely such natures--those in which the extremes we have described appear most sharply and most clearly--which afford us proof of the existence of a double consciousness. The primitive instinct breaks out, like a monomania--of which old psychiatric doctrine of “monomania” we are involuntarily reminded when we see how even men of light and leading, men who in other respects live only in the highest regions of the spirit, are subjected to the domination of this purely instinctive sexualism, so that they lead a “secret” inner life, of whose existence the world has no suspicion.

In “Niels Lyhne” J. P. Jakobsen has admirably characterized this double life.

“But when,” he writes, “he had served God truly for eleven days, it often happened that =other powers= gained the upper hand in him; by an overwhelming force he was driven to the coarse lust of coarse enjoyments; he yielded, overcome by the human passion for self-annihilation, which, while the blood burns as blood only can burn, demands degradation, perversity, dirt, and foulness, with no less force than the force which inspires the equally human passion for becoming greater than one is, and purer.”

These human instincts can be satisfied only by prostitution. By the purchasable prostitute this desire, described so aptly and with so much insight by Jakobsen, can be fully satisfied. To the origin of the desire we shall return in another connexion. The common, the rough, the brutal animal in the nature of prostitution, exercises a formal magical attractive force on large numbers of men.

Ludwig Pietsch, in his “Recollections of Sixty Years,” vol. ii., p. 337 (Berlin, 1894), tells of the celebrated cocotte of the Second French Empire, Cora Pearl, whom he saw in Baden-Baden:

“I have never been able to understand how it was that she exercised so powerful an attraction. In her appearance, her tumid, painted ‘pug-face,’ the secret was certainly not to be found. Perhaps the influence which she exercised on so many men rested principally in the quality which the royal friend of the Danish Countess Danner described to the latter, when explaining to her the reason of the power, to others quite incomprehensible, which Cora Pearl had exercised on his own heart. He said: ‘=She is so gloriously vulgar=.’”

This word speaks volumes, and illuminates the peculiar influence of prostitutes and prostitution upon man in an apt and powerful way.[285]

Admirably, also, has Stefan Grimmen, in his novelette “Die Landpartie” (published in Die Welt am Montag, No. 22, May 28, 1906), described this influence, which in this case was exercised by two demi-mondaines lying in the grass, upon the masculine members of a picnic-party, who were so enthralled as completely to forget the ladies of their company. The de Goncourts were also aware of the specific allurement exercised by prostitutes, for in one place in their diary they recommend a wife to adopt certain customs of prostitutes, in order to bind her husband to her for a long time.

In this respect, we cannot fail to recognize a certain masochistic trait in the sensibility of men, which appears especially remarkable when we call to mind the contrast between the nature of the above described spiritually lofty persons and the nature of a prostitute. In this way we should be led to the view that =prostitution is in part a product of the physiological male masochism=--that is to say, of the impulse from time to time to plunge into the depths of coarse, brutal, sexual lust and of self-mortification and self-abasement, by surrender to a comparatively worthless creature. This attraction towards prostitutes is one of the most remarkable phenomena in the psyche of the modern civilized man; it is the curse of the evolution of civilization.

“The most ideal man also is unable to free himself from his body,” says Heinrich Schurtz; “refinement leads ultimately to an unnatural over-nicety, =which must necessarily be permeated from time to time by a breath of fresh unrefinement and coarse naturalism=, if it is not to perish from its own inward contradiction.”

In a certain sense the same need finds expression also in Gutzkow’s remark in the “Neue Serapionsbrüder,” vol. i., p. 198 (Breslau, 1877), that man sometimes has a need for “=woman-in-herself=,” not woman with the thousand and one tricks and whimsies of wives, mothers, and daughters.

Without question, this need is much more characteristic of man than of woman. Still, I am not prepared altogether to deny its existence in the latter. In another connexion I shall return to this extremely important question.

Naturally in this we see no more than a =favouring factor= of the appearance of prostitution =in the mass=; we do not speak of it as the definite cause of the production of any individual prostitute.

Speaking generally, I consider the dispute regarding the causes of prostitution as superfluous; a number of causes are in operation, and in each individual case it is always an unfortunate =concatenation= of circumstances, of subjective and objective influences, which have driven the girl to prostitution. The various =theories= regarding the causes of prostitution have therefore only a relative value. Not one of them explains it wholly; each explanation demands the assistance of others.

This is, above all, true of the celebrated theory of Lombroso, regarding the “=born prostitute=,” a theory which states, to put the matter shortly and clearly, that the girl is born with all the =rudimentary characteristics= of a prostitute, and that these rudimentary characteristics have also a =physical= foundation, in the form of demonstrable =stigmata of degeneration=.

Lombroso’s “born prostitute” is, above all, distinguished by a complete lack of the moral sense, by typical “moral insanity,” which is the true “=root=” of the prostitute life, for he regards that life as very little dependent upon the sexual. Prostitution, therefore, according to Lombroso, “is only a special case of the early tendency to all evil, of the desire which characterizes the morally idiotic human being from childhood upwards, to do that which is forbidden.”[286] The individual cause of prostitution, according to this view, is to be found, not in the sexual, but in the ethical province. With the ethical defects are associated greediness, the love of finery, a tendency to drink, vanity, dislike of work, mendacity, and an inclination towards criminality. To this moral degeneration there corresponds the presence of stigmata of degeneration, such as anomalies of the teeth, cleft palate, abnormal distribution of the hair, prominent ears, asymmetry of the face, etc.

The above-described type of degenerate woman does, as a fact, exist. But, in the first place, such women constitute only a small fraction of prostitutes, and such women are found =following other occupations=. Thus, the expression “born prostitute” is a false one; it should run, “born degenerate,” for not all born degenerates become prostitutes.

In the second place, =not all degenerate prostitutes are born degenerates=. In many cases the degeneration is a result of the professional unchastity.

“No one,” says Friedrich Hammer, “who has not personally investigated the matter can conceive how =rapidly= and =completely= the =process of transformation from an honourable girl into a prostitute proceeds=--the transformation into a street-walker. A few weeks before she was clean-looking and trim, perhaps with a somewhat frivolous appearance, but still able to understand the position in which she found herself; now, however, she seems to have completely ‘gone to pieces’; she is dirty and verminous, and on her face is an expression of absolute wretchedness, not, as you perhaps might imagine, of unbridled sensuality--=no, rather one of indifference=, of complete helplessness and loss of will, of unresponsiveness alike to punishment and to benefit.”[287]

The earlier investigators of prostitution, including the first of all, Parent-Duchatelet, did not fail to recognize that the mental and physical abnormalities of the prostitute were =changes= due to her mode of life. In many prostitutes we can observe a =typical obliteration of the secondary and tertiary sexual characters= after a prolonged practice of their profession. Virey remarked, very justly, that “in consequence of the frequent embraces of men, prostitutes gain a more or less masculine appearance”: their neck is thicker, their voice harsher and more masculine (J. J. Virey, “Woman,” pp. 157, 158; Leipzig, 1827).

Most prostitutes have done more or less injury to the functions of the human body, have completely disordered their sexual life, and are sterile. It is not to be wondered at that this sometimes manifests itself in their outward appearance--as, for example, in the slight development of the breasts, which often amounts to a simple atrophy. The “unmistakable development” of the tertiary characters of the male in individual prostitutes, which has led Kurella to propound the interesting hypothesis that prostitutes are a sub-variety of the homosexual,[288] rests for the most part upon their assumption of a masculine mode of life and masculine habits, which in the long-run cannot fail to influence also the bodily development--as, for example, smoking and the excessive use of alcohol, pot-house life, gluttony, and other masculine habits. The “deep masculine voice” of many prostitutes is unquestionably in most cases the result of the excessive use of tobacco and alcohol. To this striking =gradual= change in the voice Parent-Duchatelet devoted considerable attention (vol. i., pp. 86-88, of the German edition); it also attracted Lippert’s notice. Parent-Duchatelet refers the common development in prostitutes of the masculine voice to their excessive indulgence in alcoholic beverages, and to their exposure to frequent changes of weather (catching cold, etc.). Smoking also certainly plays a part.

Lippert draws attention to other changes (“Prostitution in Hamburg,” pp. 80 and 90):

“By the daily practice of their profession for many years their eyes acquire a piercing, rolling expression; they are somewhat unduly prominent in consequence of the continued tension of the ocular muscles, since the eyes are principally employed to spy out and attract clients. In many the organs of mastication are strongly developed; the mouth, in continuous activity either in eating or in kissing, is conspicuous; the forehead is often flat; the occipital region is at times extremely prominent; the hair of the head is often scanty--in fact, a good many become actually bald. For this reasons are not lacking: above all, the restless mode of life; the continued running about in all weathers in the open street, sometimes with the head bare; the often long-lasting fluor albus from which they suffer;[289] the incessant brushing, manipulation, frizzling, and pomading of the hair; and, among the lower classes of prostitutes, the use of brandy.

“The rough voice is the physiological characteristic of the woman who has lost her proper functions--those of the mother.”

However, the =majority= of =youthful prostitutes= exhibit purely =feminine= characteristics; it is only late in life that the above-described type becomes predominant, and this shows us that the masculine characteristics are the result of =objective= influences. From five to ten years bring about a notable difference. In the year 1898 I treated a maidservant for syphilis. At that time she was of an elegant, genuinely feminine appearance. Seven years later, in the year 1905, I saw her once more. What a change! Her face was bloated and widened; her eyes, once so bright and clear, had become cloudy and expressionless; her voice was rough; all the specific feminine forms and characters had been obliterated by extreme corpulence. It was no longer a woman, it was a “prostitute,” a special type of humanity, but one which had been =gradually produced=, and as a result of no more than six years of the practice of professional prostitution.

These facts do not by any means exclude the existence of =genuine degenerates= among prostitutes in a greater percentage than among non-prostitutes;[290] nor do they exclude the existence of genuine homosexuals among prostitutes. To this extent Lombroso’s theory contains a nucleus of truth; but it concerns only a fraction of the entire world of prostitutes. Lombroso has himself been repeatedly compelled to recognize the frequency with which he has encountered among prostitutes women of normal appearance, and even beautiful women.[291]

Finally, the doctrine of the “born prostitute” is contradicted by the fact that the same types of degenerate which are described by Lombroso among prostitutes are found also among women who are not prostitutes.[292] In fact, Lombroso has been led to this view by the recognition of an “equivalent of prostitutes among the upper classes”; but in this way he has only proved that the =same= moral degeneration that is encountered in a certain proportion of prostitutes is also seen in misconducted women of other and higher classes. There are, in fact, prostitute natures among the “upper ten thousand.”

The best limitation of the general value of the doctrine of the “born prostitute” is the concluding chapter of Lombroso’s book upon “Occasional Prostitutes.” He begins with the pertinent remark:

“Not all prostitutes are ethically indifferent--that is to say, they are =not all born prostitutes=; in this province =opportunity= also plays its part.”

Lombroso proceeds to develop this thesis, thus markedly limiting the application of his own theory, and recognizing that, in addition to natural predisposition, quite other causes and influences come into play in the production of prostitution.

Above all, the =economic= factors are of greater importance in the genesis and growth of prostitution, even though their influence is not an exclusive one.

I distinguish here between =real, genuine poverty= (lack of food, proper housing accommodation, etc.) and merely =relative poverty=. Hitherto, in considering the economic causes of prostitution, these two elements have not been distinguished with sufficient clearness.

=The fact that real, absolute poverty and lack of the necessaries of life drives many girls to a life of prostitution can, in view of recent statistical data, no longer be disputed.= More exact material dealing with this subject is to be found in the above mentioned writings of Blaschko, one of the principal advocates of the economic theory of prostitution; also in the works of Georg Keben,[293] Oda Olberg,[294] Anna Pappritz,[295] Pfeiffer,[296] Paul Kampffmeyer,[297] E. von Düring,[298] and many others. Here we have a superabundant material, a quantity of distressing and tragical individual data and proofs of Gutzkow’s thesis, that =the material evils of society always and everywhere undergo transformation into immorality=. Here unquestionably must we =first= apply the lever for the removal of this economic predisposing condition of prostitution. Hic Rhodus, hic salta! I am myself firmly convinced of this fact, although I do =not= consider that the causes of prostitution are to be found =exclusively= in economic conditions--an opinion which Anna Pappritz, for example, maintains in the most extreme form. It is quite true, however, that our entire sexual life at the present day is so intimately connected with the =social question= that the reform of the sexual life demands as an unconditional preliminary a reform of economic conditions. Prostitution =on the large scale=, as it manifests itself in modern days, and its =continuous increase= to an extent quite unparalleled in former times, is only explicable by the rapid transformation of economic conditions--as, for example, by the concentration of population in large towns, by the industrial revolution, and by the development of great aggregations of capital, by the consequent greatly increased severity of the struggle for existence, the postponement of marriage, and the ever-increasing number of individuals who are not economically and professionally independent. The increase in =child-labour= (naturally we refer especially to children of the female sex) has also to be considered as a remarkable phenomenon of modern industrial life; but, above all, we must take into account the fact that =woman’s work= is on the average regarded at a very low valuation, and is paid accordingly.

The insufficiency of their earnings is the immediate cause of the fact that so many women and girls seek =accessory earnings= in the form of prostitution. It is well known that employers reckon on this fact in drawing up their pay-lists, and frequently are so brutally cynical as to point out to their female employees the possibility of increasing their earnings in this manner--one very convenient to the employer!

The Reichsarbeitsblatt, No. 2, of the year 1903, publishes a very remarkable account of the conditions of work and life of the =unmarried female factory employees= in Berlin. It is based upon the reports of the professional factory inspectors in Berlin, who have access to material affording them accurate information regarding the mode of life of factory women. The reports concern 939 unmarried factory hands, and include all occupations in which in Berlin a considerable number of women were employed. The average age of the women who came under observation was 22-1/2 years; the oldest was 54 years; 53·5 % of the whole number were over 21 years of age; 42 % were between 16 and 21 years of age; 4·5 % were below 16 years of age. The average number of hours of daily work was 9-1/2; 3·2 % of all the women worked from 7-1/2 to 8 hours; 37·2 %, 8 to 9 hours; 47·7 %, 9 to 10 hours; and 11·9 %, 10 to 11 hours. The weekly wage amounted on the average to 11·36 marks (shillings); individually, the wages were very variable; 4·3 % of the women were paid less than 6 marks (shillings); 1·1 % were paid from 20 to 30 marks (shillings). =In a very large majority of instances the wages varied between 8 and 15 marks.= Supplies from a source independent of their wages, in the form of money, clothing, and means of subsistence, were received, according to their own statement, by 88 of the women; among these, 41 were assisted by parents, 4 by other relatives, 3 in other ways; 542 of those examined lived with their parents, 57 with other relatives--that is, altogether 64·2 of the total number--21·5 % lived in common lodging-houses, 14 % in their own rooms. The worst-paid workwomen lived chiefly with their parents; as soon as the wage sufficed to support them away from home a great many left their parents’ houses. The housing accommodation was ascertained in 846 instances; in 758 of these a single room constituted the dwelling, in 82 cases a kitchen, in 2 cases an attic, in 3 some other room. In isolated cases quite unsuitable places were used to sleep in. =Speaking generally, the conditions were worse= than appears from the above figures. Of 832 workwomen, only 169 had a room to themselves; 193 slept in a room with one other person, and 470--that is, 56·6 %--=with several persons=. With regard to the cost of their dwellings, there were 464 reports; the average payment was 1·79 marks (shillings) per week. The cost of the food (dinner and lesser meals) amounted on the average, in the case of 568, to 6·77 marks (shillings); of these, 205 paid less than 6 marks (shillings), 109 more than 8 marks (shillings) per week. The total cost for lodging and food amounted in the case of 867 workwomen on the average to 7·62 marks; 44·7 % had their principal meal at midday; 55·3 % in the evening; 79·4 % took it at home; 9·4 % in the factory; 11·2 % in a public kitchen, a cooking-school, or an eating-house. With regard to the expenditure for clothing, etc., =very scanty= details were obtained--too scanty to be worth recording. Of the 939 workwomen of whom inquiry was made on the point, 197, or 21 %, contributed money to the education or support of relatives or children; about 10 % paid (direct) taxes, with a mean expenditure of 8 pfennige (one penny) per week. For amusement, 233 women recorded an average weekly expenditure of 1 mark (shilling). To a considerable number of those examined it was possible to put a little money by; in most cases the amount averaged from half to one mark (sixpence to one shilling) per week; in many cases, however, the money saved =was spent at some other time during the year=, in consequence of diminished earnings or illness. The figures obtained, although in many cases they require further examination, elaboration, and illustration, still suffice to show that much remains to be done for the improvement of the conditions of life of female factory employees.

That these wages are quite insufficient is shown by the following table of the daily expenditure of a sempstress for food and lodging (based on the reports of von Stülpnagel):

Mk. Pf. Bedroom and coffee 0 20 Second breakfast 0 15 Dinner (midday) 0 30 Afternoon tea 0 15 Supper 0 20 Two bottles of beer 0 20 ------- Total 1 20

That amounts per week to 8 marks 40 pfennige (eight shillings and fivepence) for board-lodging. For the rest, clothing, washing, and a little amusement, have to be provided for, and this is only possible in the case of the highest wages, varying from 12 to 15 marks; but this higher wage =often enough= suffices, as Anna Pappritz herself admits. In many cases the weekly wage is only 5 to 8 marks. In the majority of occupations connected with the manufacture of ready-made clothing, trade is only brisk for four to six months in each year. Thus, there is necessarily a great deal of unemployment.

According to the Statistical Annual for the town of Berlin for the year 1907, the =annual wages= amounted:

For tailoresses to 457 marks „ sempstresses „ 486 „ „ hand buttonhole workers „ 354 „ „ machine buttonhole workers „ 700 „ „ other women factory employees „ 354 „

According to the report of the Statistical Bureau, the average yearly income of women factory employees throughout the German Empire was only 322 marks!

It is, therefore, no matter for surprise that the industrial councillors of Frankfurt-on-the-Main and of Wiesbaden, in their published reports on the wages of female factory employees for the year 1887, state:

“In Frankfurt, at the end of last month, among 226 persons under the observation of the police des mœurs (that is, not reckoning secret prostitution), 98 were female factory employees. Since for their necessary bare support (food and sleeping accommodation only), the minimum daily sum needed is 1·25 marks, it appears that the wages which can be earned by female employees of 1·50 to 1·80 marks can hardly suffice to provide for all their needs. It would seem, therefore, that the lowness of their earnings must play some part in the matter under discussion.”

The reports of the industrial councillors of Düsseldorf, Posen, Stettin, Neuss, Barmen, Elberfeld, Gladbach, Erfurt, etc., have a similar signification.

Important in relation to the incontrovertible connexion between material poverty and prostitution is the fact that in the majority of cases the prostitution of female factory employees is only =occasional=, and not professional prostitution--that is to say, such women have recourse to prostitution only when compelled thereto by deficient means.

As regards genuine =professional= prostitution, female factory employees, who live in a state of comparative freedom, contribute a smaller contingent of recruits than =maidservants=, whose position is always a =more dependent= one, and who are much less experienced in the struggle for existence, although, generally speaking, they live in better conditions. From a computation based upon figures for the years 1855, 1873, and 1898 (those for 1855 and 1898 relating to far too small a number of cases), Blaschko derives the opinion that formerly female factory employees provided a greater number of recruits to prostitution than they do at present; but that, on the contrary, the contribution of maidservants to the ranks of professional prostitution has enormously increased. This assertion cannot pass without contradiction. Gross-Hoffinger, in the work previously mentioned, pointed out that the class of maidservants was the true nucleus of prostitution, and devoted to this fact a long and illuminating chapter of his book. And at about the same time (1848) Lippert also wrote (op. cit., p. 79): “The principal sources of prostitution are =maidservants=, sempstresses, flower-girls, tailoresses, hairdressers, shop-girls, and barmaids.” (Gross-Hoffinger himself emphasizes the word “=maidservants=.”)

We see, therefore, that the preponderance of ex-maidservants in the ranks of professional prostitution is by no means a new phenomenon, although, possibly, that preponderance is even =greater= now than it was in former times. And though in isolated instances it may happen that simple poverty forces a maidservant to become a prostitute, this explanation does not suffice for the generality of cases. The same reservation must be made in respect of seduction and illegitimate motherhood as causes of prostitution. And in so far as poverty is a cause, we must speak rather of =relative= poverty, poverty which has more of a subjective than an objective character.

Schiller rightly remarks, in his admirable essay on the “Prevention of Prostitution,” that in respect of prostitutes who have been maidservants, in the majority of cases there can be no question of insufficient wages and actual poverty (if we except the badly paid servants in public-houses, laundry-maids, and a few others), since the maidservant receives, in addition to her wages, free board and lodging, and therefore is in a much better position than the majority of female factory employees and of women engaged in home industries. Notwithstanding this, maidservants supply the largest proportion of prostitutes.

The majority of maidservants come from the country, where lax views prevail regarding sexual relationships. In addition, girls usually come to town when still very young. The want of education and experience of life is, in their case, very striking; and this is increased by their permanently dependent position, in contrast with the early independence of the town factory-women, who are speedily initiated into all the possible evils of town life. In addition, there comes into the question an influence which hitherto has been underestimated: the =love of finery=. Among maidservants this is especially powerful, since, in this respect, they are continually exposed to suggestive influences, arising from the clothing of their mistresses. This love of dress, in association with a far greater unscrupulousness in sexual matters than exists among workwomen, drives many servant-girls, even =without= real poverty, to prostitution. After they have lost their place, after they have acquired a distaste for work, have given birth to an illegitimate child, or have been infected with venereal disease, they very readily enter the ranks of professional prostitution.

This =subjective psychological= factor plays nearly as great a rôle as the economic factor. Blaschko himself draws attention to the fact that, in proportion to the hundreds of thousands of women who are compelled to earn their bread by hard, badly paid toil, the number of those who ultimately become prostitutes is really almost infinitesimally small; and that, therefore, we must regard as accessory causes of prostitution, defective will-power, want of industry, of perseverance, and of moral instincts, and, finally, also--and here Lombroso is justified--congenital deficiency. Hellpach is right when, in his most readable essay on “Prostitution and Prostitutes” (Berlin, 1905), he lays the principal stress on this “social-psychological” explanation of prostitution, and regards the purely economic factor as “the ultimate turning-point” in the fatal road that leads to prostitution. (Earlier than Hellpach, Anton Baumgarten attempted to give a social-psychological explanation of prostitution. See his essays, containing much valuable material, “Police and Prostitution,” and “The Relations of Prostitution to Crime,” published in the eighth and eleventh volumes respectively of the “Archives of Criminal Anthropology.”)

We must, therefore, hold firmly to the fact that the most =diverse= and =heterogeneous= vital conditions may ultimately lead to prostitution. Among these, =lack of education=, =premature habituation= to sexual depravation by =casual observation= and by =deliberate seduction=, play an important rôle. And these causes are themselves to a large extent secondary to the =miserable housing conditions= in great towns, recently so dramatically described by von Pfeiffer and Kampffmeyer.

“It is easier,” says Pfeiffer, “to thunder against immorality from the top of a lofty tower, than it is to resist every allurement in dull, narrow dwellings, in the midst of poverty and deprivation.... The lodger flirts with the wife; the married or free-loving pair, also living in the house, do not wait to begin their caresses until the children are out of the way. The children are witnesses of many scenes which are little adapted to the preservation of pure morals; they see things which they later come to regard as matters of course, and when they have the opportunity they act in the same way themselves, for they have not learned otherwise, and they think that every one does the same....

“The servant-girl becomes pregnant; no one knows what has become of her child’s father. Driven out of her place, she remembers that she has a married sister, and after long search she finds her in a damp basement dwelling. This dwelling consists of a single room and a dark kitchen; three shivering, dirty children are playing on the floor; the husband is out of employment; but still they can find room for this sister-in-law and her illegitimate child. Then perhaps there are better days for a time. But within the narrow limits of the one-roomed dwelling the association is too intimate, and the sister-in-law again becomes pregnant, and ultimately in the same week both the sisters are delivered as the result of impregnation by the same man. When we think how all this has taken place in the =only= available room, we can understand that the children must have seen a great deal little suited to childish eyes.”

The housing statistics of Berlin for the year 1900 give horrible reports regarding this, and even much worse conditions--conditions which are sufficiently explained when we consider how often families living in a single room take in a =male= or a =female lodger= for the night. One-roomed dwellings in which from four to seven sleep every night are common; those in which eight to ten sleep are by no means rare!

After what has been said above, no elaborate demonstration is needed to show that =alcoholism= everywhere, in the most diverse conditions, prepares the soil for prostitution. Kräpelin and O. Rosenthal have thoroughly exposed this intimate connexion between prostitution and alcoholism.

An even more important source of prostitution is to be found in =procurement= and in the =traffic in girls=--this grave social evil of our time. How often are children initiated into the practice of prostitution, for the sake of pecuniary gain, by their own parents, or by some other individual devoid of all moral feeling, and taught to serve as mere instruments of earning money by lust! Paris offers more examples of this traffic than any other European city, but London is not far behind, as was proved by the Pall Mall Gazette scandals of 1883, to which we shall return in another connexion. In Berlin itself in recent years the number of half-grown, and even childish, prostitutes has enormously increased. Prostitutes from thirteen to fourteen years of age are no longer rare.

An even sadder phenomenon is the modern =traffic in girls=, a characteristic product of the age of commerce, although earlier times were, indeed, familiar with it, especially France in the eighteenth century,[299] witness more especially the accounts of the celebrated Parc-aux-Cerfs.

The modern traffic in girls[300] is intimately connected with the =brothel question=. We can, in fact, assert that if there were no brothels there would be no traffic in girls. This is proved also by the =growing dislike= to brothels felt by prostitutes, who prefer a free life. For this reason, it becomes more and more difficult for the keepers of brothels to obtain inmates, and the international traffic in girls attempts to fill the continually increasing deficiency in the number of girls entering brothels.

The traffic in girls is to-day almost exclusively recruited from Eastern Europe. As regards its original sources, we find that Galicia--i.e., Austrian Poland--supplies 40 %, Russia 15 %, Italy 11 %, Austria-Hungary 10 %, Germany 8 %, of the “White Slave Trade.” Most of the girls are transported to the Argentine, where we find them in the brothels.[301]

The traders in girls, or “kaften” as they are called in Brazil, are, for the most part, Polish Jews. Rosenack shows, in his report on the campaign against the traffic in girls (a campaign actively taken up by the Western European Jewish Unions, and especially by the Jewish Association for the Protection of Girls and Women), that five out of six of the Galician Jews engaged in this traffic are what are called “Luftmenschen” (men of air)--that is, men without any definite or secure means of livelihood--and that only an improvement in their social conditions can put an end to the traffic in girls. As regards that part of the world, he considers that the measures resolved upon by the =National= and =International Conference for the Suppression of the Traffic in Girls= (Berlin, 1903; Frankfurt-on-the-Main, 1905) are not adapted to offer any important hindrances to the traffic. More effective has been the work of the Jewish Branch Committee in Germany for the suppression of the Galician traffic in girls. Dr. Rosenack, Berta Pappenheim, and Dr. Sera Rabinowitsch, in furtherance of the work of the committee, studied the local conditions; the population was instructed verbally and by leaflets and pamphlets. Endeavours have been made to improve the economic condition of the workwomen of Galicia. For this purpose, instructed female assistants are sent from Germany to Galicia. It has been possible to awaken in Galicia general interest in the work of the suppression of traffic in girls. In a Conference held at Lemberg, the Galician clubs and Jewish committees made representations to German and other societies, in order to formulate a plan, and to devise measures for the improvement of Galician conditions.

In Buenos Ayres, the principal town of entry for Galician girls, a committee has been formed to oppose the traffic in girls, the members of this committee being of all religions and nationalities. This has had one good effect--that the traders in girls have become alarmed; they no longer practise their profession so openly as before. The Argentine police are also taking an active part in the fight with the traffic. Not more than two of the judges at Buenos Ayres were found to make common cause with the “traders,” and to discharge them on receipt of large bribes. A law has been drafted for the punishment of those engaged in this traffic, by imprisonment for six years and confiscation of their property.

The traders in girls constitute an international ring, and the centre of their organization is in Buenos Ayres.

In Berlin, since 1904, there has existed a =central police organization= for the suppression of the international traffic in girls, the activity of which extends throughout the Empire. Every case of this traffic which comes to the notice of the police in Germany is reported to the central police organization. This draws up a list of all the traders in girls whose names are definitely known. It has started an album containing photographs of traders who have been punished, and it exchanges experiences with the police of other countries. It is to be hoped that in comparison with the other countries of Europe the number of German girls exported to brothels abroad will continually grow smaller, and that the local measures undertaken in Galicia and the Argentine will have a good effect in limiting, and ultimately suppressing, this traffic.

Henne am Rhyn has shown that to and from other countries--for example, from England to Belgium and Germany (Hamburg), from Galicia to Turkey, from Italy to North America, etc.--individual girls are transported. According to Felix Baumann, the number of traders in girls in New York approaches 20,000. They have close relations to the police, and they employ young handsome men, called “cadets,” to attract the girls. The abolition of brothels would here also be the best means of abolishing the traffic in girls.

Having now learned the sources of prostitution, we must proceed to give a brief account of the places in which it is carried on. Here we have first of all to distinguish =public= from =secret= prostitution.

As regards public prostitution, there are only =two= principal varieties to consider: street prostitution, where the women seek their victims in the streets, in order to carry them off either to their =own dwellings= or to =houses of accommodation=; and =brothel prostitution=. At the present day in most countries public street prostitution is far the most general form, and this is especially true as regards Germany, where in a few towns only brothels continue to exist. In many places this street prostitution--for example, in the Friedrichstrasse of Berlin, and also on the boulevards of Paris--gives rise to conditions which recall the worst days of imperial Rome. The =contact= between public life and professional prostitution is unquestionably a great evil. The activity of prostitutes in the open streets, the shameless and lascivious display of their sexual charms, their bold solicitation coram publico, the stimulating character of professional unchastity--all these poison our public life, obliterate the boundary between cleanliness and contamination, and display daily a picture of sexual corruption--alike before the eyes of the pure, blameless girl, those of the honourable wife, and those of the immature boy. Aptly has this =street= prostitution been termed the cloaca of our social life, which empties into the open street, whereas at least =brothel= prostitution only represented a hidden cloaca, whose offensive odour need not annoy all the world, as inevitably happens in the case of street prostitution. In addition, we have to consider the serious dangers involved in the practice of professional fornication in private dwellings and houses of accommodation, as they involve the decent families living in such houses. What do the children living in such houses see and hear? Frequently prostitutes are admitted to confidential family intercourse, and they seduce the daughters of poor people to join them in the practice of prostitution, and the sons to a vicious life or to become souteneurs. That the danger of contamination of the lower classes of the population by means of prostitution is by no means imaginary, is clearly shown by numerous examples from actual life. I subscribe to all that the advocates of brothels say in this respect.

And yet =brothels= are a =still= greater evil! They constitute an incomparably =more dangerous= centre of =sexual corruption=, a worse =breeding-ground of sexual aberrations= of every kind, and last, not least, the =greatest focus of sexual infection=. With reference to the last point, the matter will be discussed more fully in the chapter dealing with the question of regulation in connexion with the suppression of venereal diseases.

The brothel is the =high-school= of refined sexual lust and perversity. The detailed proof of this I must leave to the descriptions of the two writers most experienced in the life of brothels, Léo Taxil[302] and Louis Fiaux.[303]

It is a fact well known to all that many young men learn in brothels for the first time the manifold and artificial ways in which natural sexual intercourse can be replaced by perverse methods of sexual activity. =Here, in the brothel, psychopathia sexualis is systematically taught.= And what the old debauchee demands from the prostitute and pays her for, perverse intercourse, is =spontaneously offered to the youthful initiate=, because competition between the prostitutes, and the hope of a higher payment, lead them to do so. The opinion of the French authors just mentioned is perfectly credible--that there are young men who in this way have learned about perverse sexuality =before= they were fully acquainted with natural sexuality, and who thus have permanently acquired more inclination for these mysteries of Venus than for a natural and normal sexual intercourse.

“=Brothel-jargon=,” or “=brothel-slang=,” contains a number of words almost peculiar to this dialect, by which the contra-natural, abnormal methods of sexual intercourse are denoted in a more or less cynical manner; for example, faire feuille de rose = anilinctus; sfogliar la rosa (to pluck the leaves from the rose) = pædicare; faire tête-bêche = reciprocal cunnilinctus of two tribades; punta di penna = masturbatio labialis; pulci lavoratrici (learned fleas!) = tribades, etc.

A learned investigator like Fiaux is led by his observations of many years to the conclusion that =brothels= constitute not only the most =dangerous= form of public prostitution, but the most dangerous kind of prostitution that exists at all, and that it is urgently necessary that they should be abolished in all countries as soon as possible.

In addition to the two varieties and localities of “public” prostitution--that is, prostitution carried on under the observation of the police--there is a much more extensive =secret= prostitution, in connexion with which, however, the word “secret” must always be accepted with reserve, since in its case also it comes more or less under the eye of the public. This secret prostitution is, for example, accessible at numerous places, and these are very different one from another. Secret prostitution also has its types, its peculiarities--in short, its definite local colouring, according to the place in which it is practised. Let us give a brief account of the various localities of secret prostitution.

1. =Public-houses with Women Attendants, the so-called “Animierkneipen.”=--The =waitress= (barmaid) is the true exemplar of the secret prostitute, and further, in consequence of the perpetual association with alcoholism, is the most dangerous variety;[304] for the barmaid allures the guest even more to the excessive consumption of alcohol than to sexual indulgence. For this purpose barmaids receive a percentage of the receipts from the sale of liquor, and this sum, in addition to free board, is their only wage.

The “animierkneipen”[305] and the restaurants with women attendants can be plainly distinguished from a considerable distance by their =curtained= windows, and by the =red, green, or blue glass panes= over the doors of entry. These coloured panes are so characteristic of these places of lust and gluttony that at the last year’s District Synod of the Friedrichswerder section of the town of Berlin the attempt was made (cf. Vossische Zeitung, No. 248, May 30, 1906) to forbid the use of such illuminated panes for the advertisement of the houses of entertainment in Berlin with female attendants. To this proposal the reasonable objection was made that if this distinguishing mark were abolished, there would be no means of recognizing such places, and therefore no warning signal for blameless individuals.

Many “animierkneipen”--the French similarly term the girls in such places “les inviteuses”[306]--by their mysterious-looking interior; by the heavy curtains, which produce semi-obscurity; by small very discreet chambres séparées, lighted by little coloured lanterns and with erotic pictures on the walls; by their Spanish walls and their enormous couches--obtain the appearance of small lupanars. To these the richer customers and the initiates are brought, whilst the ordinary habitual guests commonly assemble in the larger bars, where also music--it must be admitted very bad music--in the form of a piano- or a zither-player, is not wanting.

The whole shameless activity of these “animierkneipen,” in which alcohol and indecency play the principal rôle, has recently been described by Hermann Seyffert in a manner no less perspicuous than true to life.[307] The clients of such places are, for the most part, immature lads, who squander here the money of their parents or their employers; but we find there also the habitual guests, usually elderly married men, who find in this atmosphere a welcome variety in comparison with the monotony of their homes. The quantities of alcohol which are consumed in the “animierkneipen,” both by the guests and by the attendants, are enormous. The barmaids must always drink at the cost of the guests, in order that the sales of liquor may be larger. O. Rosenthal[308] speaks of barmaids who consume twenty to thirty glasses of beer a day, and more, without mentioning brandy and liqueurs!

2. =Ball-Rooms and Dancing-Saloons.=[309]--Properly speaking, these are only a sub-variety of the places described in Section 1; they are enlarged “animierkneipen,” with the addition of (better) music and of dancing. But the beautiful days of the Bal Mabille and the Closerie des Lilas, or of Cremorne Gardens, the Portland Rooms, the Argyll Rooms, and the Orpheum have long passed away. The majority of the ball-rooms of Berlin and Paris (in London they disappeared long ago) have sunk to a lower level. Prostitution is now dominant. The “intimacy,” which in the earlier more idyllic ball-rooms felt so much at home, is now no longer to be found there. It is only necessary to visit the celebrated ball-rooms of Berlin--the Ballhaus in the Joachimstrasse, the “Blumensäle,” etc., not to speak of the seats of baser prostitution, as, for example, Lestmann’s Dancing-Saloon--in order to be aware of this fact. Here also the principal thing is drinking, and always more drinking! In Paris, in the dancing-rooms of Montmartre, we can see the “inviteuses” in full cry; some of the French dancing-rooms, however, appear more attractive from the æsthetic point of view than the haunts of Terpsichore in Berlin. A dancing-saloon that was not exclusively concerned with prostitution was that of Emberg in the Schumannstrasse, but in the year 1906 this was closed for ever. Now, similar great ball-rooms exist, properly speaking, only in the suburbs--in Halensee, Grünau, Nieder-Schönhausen, etc. Here also, however, the dance is not the principal thing--procurement and prostitution are widely diffused, as was pointed out fifty years ago by Thomas Bade in his essay, in this respect most convincing, “Ueber Gelegenheitsmacherei und Öffentliches Tanzvergnügen”--“Procurement in Relation to Public Ball-Rooms” (Berlin, 1858).

3. =Variety Theatres, Low Music-Halls, and Cabarets.=--The principal object of these places, so characteristic of our time, is “to kill time” in as amusing a manner as possible, “amusement” being what the “average sensual man” of to-day, dull and empty-headed, demands. What he wants is the satisfaction of his desire for sensations by the appearance of more or less décolleté singers, dancers, acrobats, male and female, by the representation of tableaux vivants in which the parts are played by beautiful women, by the kinematograph, or by pantomime, by spicy songs, by the performance of clever jugglers, by wrestling and boxing matches between men and women, by juggling, and all kinds of spectacles, etc. In short, the most diverse “varieties”--hence the name--of amusement are offered here, and it is significant that these places of pleasure first appeared in the great seaports of Liverpool, London, Hamburg, and Marseilles, where the sailors, after the weary monotony of long sea voyages, found satisfaction in the variegated display of enjoyment offered to them in such places. Now the monotony, the emptiness of their life, drives innumerable crowds of townsmen to the variety theatres, which, even though as little as the drinking-saloons can they be called true “places” of prostitution, still serve as localities in which prostitutes meet their clients; and in this way evening after evening a large number use them as the field of their activities.

The lowest class of variety theatre, the “Tingel-Tangel” (low music-hall), also euphemistically called “Academy of Music,” is, in fact, nothing more than a brothel, the only difference being that the actual sexual intercourse does not take place in the house itself, as so often occurs in the similar “animierkneipen.” The singers appearing in these “tingel-tangel” are all low-class prostitutes. In most cases, whilst one of their number is practising the “art of song” (sit venia verbo), the others, sitting about the hall in shameless décolleté, display their charms, and incite (“animieren”) the visitors to drink. Clerks and students form the indulgent audience; in seaport towns the audience consists generally of sailors. Who is not familiar with the most celebrated tingel-tangel streets in the world, the Spielbudenplatz and the Reeperbahn, in St. Pauli, near the docks of Hamburg? In these streets we see one variety theatre after another, and all are crowded by a smoking, drinking audience, taking part in the choruses of the songs. A peculiar kind of these places of pleasure is constituted by the so-called “=Rummel=,” a speciality of Berlin. Wherever, within or without the town limits, by the demolition of old houses or in any other way, a large area remains free from building for a considerable time, these tingel-tangel proprietors invade the place, erect merry-go-rounds and cake-stalls, and there develops in the place a manifold activity, in which the lower classes of the population exclusively share. Here the very lowest types of prostitute seek their prey, and find it.

4. “=Boarding-Houses=” (“=Pensionate=”) =and Maisons de Passe= (=Houses of Accommodation=).--Anyone walking through the streets of Berlin will not fail to notice boards at the doors of certain houses, bearing the inscription, “Here rooms can be hired by the month, week, or day.” I do not assert that this announcement =always= represents an invitation to fornication, or the provision of an opportunity therefor; but in many cases these announcements serve as indications of the “intercourse” obtainable in such dwellings. Often several stories, or even the entire house, is devoted to this purpose. It professes to be a “Private Hotel” or Furnished Lodgings; but in reality it is a masked brothel, a “house of accommodation” for prostitutes and their clients, a place in which the landlord--in most cases the landlord is of the female sex--has for principal occupation the practice of procurement. Other dwellings, =without= these sufficiently well-known and suspicious boards attached to the door-posts, passing under the less striking name of a “pension,” are adapted rather for the exquisite and artificial enjoyment of the richer classes, and are employed for sexual orgies of a more extensive character, for the procurement and seduction of young girls, and for the assignations of the higher classes of the demi-monde and their clientèle.

5. “=Massage Institutes.=”--To these distinctly modern establishments, which mainly subserve the purposes of masochistic prostitution, we shall return in the chapter on masochism. Many prostitutes have some knowledge of massage, and masquerade as “masseuses”; their supplementary profession is ordinary prostitution, and for this reason we are justified in alluding to them in this section.

6. =The Weibercafés.=--These are found in all the large towns, especially in London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, and Buda-Pesth, and they serve as the principal places in which =prostitution is carried on by day=. Prostitutes sit here in great numbers hour after hour, and wait for their clients, who, of course, must pay for drinks which are consumed. Certain cafés in Berlin--as, for example, the “Café National,” the Café Keck in the Leipziger Strasse, etc.--are typical =nocturnal cafes=, in which from the onset of darkness until early in the morning prostitutes await their clients.

Naturally, the above classification does not include all varieties of modern prostitution, which exhibits many other modes of activity. Most of these others, however, have some sort of relationship to the varieties already described, and it is, therefore, unnecessary to deal with them all at length. Prostitution can, of course, be practised anywhere; and its allurements are found in all places in which great numbers of human beings come together.

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Appendix

THE HALF-WORLD

To prostitution in the wider sense of the term belongs also the “=half-world=” (“demi-monde”), under which name, first used by the younger Dumas, we include the various categories of “mistresses,” femmes soutenues (kept women), lorettes, cocottes, and fast women.

Alexandre Dumas, in the celebrated passage of his play “Demi-Monde” (Act II., Scene 9), gives by the mouth of Olivier de Jalin the following definition of the half-world:

“All these women have made a false step in their past; they have a small black spot upon their name, and they go in company as much as possible, so that the spot may be less conspicuous. They have the same origin, the same appearance, the same prejudices as good society; but they no longer belong to it, and they form that which we call the half-world (demi-monde), which floats like an island upon the ocean of Paris, and draws towards itself, assumes, and recognizes, everything which falls from the firm land, or which wanders out or runs away from the firm land, without counting the foreign shipwrecked individuals who come no man knows whence.

“Since the married men, under the protection of the legal code, have had the right to banish from the bosom of the family a woman who has forgotten her duty, the morals of married life have undergone a revolution which has created a new world--for what becomes of all these expelled, compromised women? The first of them who found herself shown the door, bewailed her fault, and hid her shame in retirement; but--the second? She sought the first one out, and as soon as there were two of them, they called the fault a misfortune, the crime a mistake, and began to make excuses for one another mutually. Having become three, they asked one another to dinner; having become four--they danced a quadrille. Now round these women there grouped themselves young girls also who had begun their life with a false step; false widows; women who bore the name of the lovers with whom they lived; some of those rapid ‘marriages’ which had lasted as liaisons of many years’ duration; finally, all the women who wished people to believe that they were something else than they really were, and did not wish to appear in their true colours. At the present day this irregular world is in full bloom, and its bastard society is greatly loved by young men. For here love is less difficult than in circles above--and not so expensive as in circles below.”

From the last sentence we see that the original idea of the “half-world” was not so wide as that of the present day; above all, the former notion did not, as it does at present, include the idea of prostitution. The ladies of the half-world of Dumas were “not so expensive” as ordinary prostitutes. Our modern demi-mondaines are characterized by the fact that their price is high. They are prostitutes for the upper ten thousand. And yet they have this in common with the other demi-monde--that they do not, like prostitutes properly speaking, give themselves indifferently to anyone able to pay the price, but they lay stress on the social position of their lover for the time being, and upon his character as a “gentleman.” They can even exhibit something of the nature of love. The modern half-world can most aptly be compared with the Greek hetairism. It forms a characteristic constituent of modern “high life.” Whether this especially manifests itself on the racecourse, at first nights at the theatre, in great charitable bazaars, at masked balls, at fashionable seaside resorts, at Monte Carlo, at floral festivals, and the like, there also we encounter the half-world; and its members, in respect of beauty, toilet, distinguished appearance, cultivation, and conversation, are in no way to be distinguished from the ladies of high society. Certain types of the demi-monde realize, in fact, the ideal of the Greek hetairæ; but even more than these, the modern demi-mondaine represents elaborated enjoyment. These women are thoroughly cultivated, the true law-givers of fashion, the arbiters in every question of taste. Mondaines and demi-mondaines are in outward appearance hardly to be distinguished one from the other; at least, this is the case in Paris, where a witty writer defined the distinction between them in this way--that the former received their lovers only in the daytime, the latter also by night.[310] It is only the connoisseur who is able to detect the “half-world aroma,” that indefinable quality which gives the demi-mondaine such an exceptional value in the eyes of the jeunesse dorée.

From what circles do the recruits of the half-world come? The ladies of the theatre, the stars of the variety stage and of the ballet, send their contingent; the aristocracy is also represented in their ranks; but many a distinguished lorette or “fille de marbre” is of low origin, and yet understands admirably how to adapt herself rapidly to all the demands of high life, to drive her dog-cart as smartly as the most genuine Countess, and in Longchamps, Karlshorst, Ostend, or Trouville, to play the part of the fine lady.

The one distinction between them--and it is the distinction of half a world--is the fact that this fashionable life of the demi-monde is not provided out of their own means, but out of the pockets of one, or more often of several, rich galants.

The type of the “grande cocotte” is encountered in its genuine and unadulterated form only in Paris. Here the demi-mondaine plays a great part in public life. The time of the earlier mistresses of princes, with their political intrigues and their far-reaching spheres of influence, is indeed over--a Lola Montez, an Aurora Königsmark is to-day no longer possible; and yet the Parisian demi-mondaine maintains influential relationships with the new great power of our time--the power of the =press=. The journalists who are in the service of the demi-monde are by George Dahlen termed the “Press-Fridoline,” because “their pens are paid, not with ducats, but with more or less enviable hours of love in distinguished boudoirs”;[311] and Victor Joze also describes the advertisements--paid for by a night of love, or perhaps only by a smile--which the writers of Paris give in the newspapers to the distinguished cocottes of the Quartier Marbœuf or of the Avenue du Bois de Boulogne, in order to attract the attention of Indian nabobs, Russian Grand Dukes, or American millionaires, to this or that fashionable beauty. This is characteristic of Paris. In other great capitals marketable gallantry does not seek publicity in this way, but pursues a more hidden course.

For what the German, and especially what the Berliners, term the “half-world” is very different from the type we have just described of the true Parisian demi-mondaine. Our half-world (the half-world of Berlin) is recruited for the most part from intelligent prostitutes, who are to be found chiefly in the public gardens, in the Zoological Gardens, in the Lehrter Ausstellungspark, and in the leading restaurants. Here =every evening= they seek new prey, every evening they sell their charms to a new lover for a definite sum of money; whereas the true lady of the half-world never has at any time more than one or two admirers, who provide for all the expenses of her life, and she never--at any rate =in public=--practises professional prostitution, as do the women just described.

Finally, there is yet another type, which must not be confused with the demi-monde. This is the =international prostitute=, who journeys from one place to another, has indeed often the appearance of a distinguished lorette, but leads a much more insecure, unstable life than the true demi-mondaine, and often combines with prostitution the profession of an adventuress. Now she is in Paris, now in London, now at Biarritz, now at Monte Carlo (the principal field of her activity), now in Constantinople, Smyrna, St. Petersburg, or Berlin. Sometimes she undertakes a voyage of discovery to the New World. Germany provides a not insignificant percentage of these international cocottes. Such wanderers are especially well known in the circles of officers and of speculators on the Bourse; by these they are not seldom “recommended,” after the manner in which a traveller is given letters of introduction. They may even be “raffled for,” as recently happened in an officers’ mess in Munich, and so pass to the share of the fortunate (generally much to be commiserated) winner. Abroad they prefer to adopt French or exotic names.

[243] Here, in the phrase “man at length become self-conscious,” we have the animating idea of this work, as it is of all fruitful efforts at the amelioration of the human lot. See the admirable development of this idea in E. Ray Lankester’s Romanes lecture, “Nature and Man”; and also in H. G. Wells’s later writings, more especially “A Modern Utopia” and “New Worlds for Old.”--TRANSLATOR.

[244] That this opinion is false, I have proved incontestably as regards syphilis in my book, “The Origin of Syphilis” (Jena, 1901). For the European and Asiatic world, syphilis is a specifically modern disease, not more than 400 years old.

[245] Venice, 1534.

[246] “La Lozana Andaluza” (“The Gentle Andalusian”), by Francesco Delicado. Traduit pour la première fois, texte Espagnol en regard par Alcide Bonneau, 2 vols., Paris, 1888. Regarding this work, see my book “The Origin of Syphilis,” vol. i., pp. 36-43.

[247] Cf. also the interesting work of Salvatore di Giacomo, “Prostitution in Naples in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries, based on Unpublished Documents,” revised in accordance with the German translation, and provided with an introduction by Dr. Iwan Bloch (Dresden, 1904).

[248] Reprinted in his “Satyræ Medicæ XX.,” pp. 528-549 (Leipzig, 1722).

[249] Cf. my work on “Rétif de la Bretonne,” p. 504 et seq. (Berlin, 1906).

[250] The contents of this work are enumerated in my above-mentioned book, pp. 505-512.

[251] A. J. B. Parent-Duchatelet, “De la Prostitution dans la Ville de Paris,” third edition, 1857 (Paris, 1836).

[252] F. F. A. Béraud, “Les Filles Publiques de Paris” (Brussels, 1839, 2 vols.).

[253] Dr. Michael Ryan was an acquaintance of Arthur Schopenhauer, who in June, 1829, sent Ryan a copy of his book “Theoria Colorum.” Cf. Eduard Grisebach, “Schopenhauer: the History of His Life,” p. 168 (Berlin, 1897).

[254] M. Ryan, “Prostitution in London, with a Comparative View of that of Paris and New York” (London, 1839).

[255] Cf. in this connexion also the report from other sources given in my “Sexual Life in England,” vol. iii., pp. 315-319, 440-447 (Berlin, 1903).

[256] W. Tait, “Magdalenism: An Inquiry into the Extent, Causes, and Consequences of Prostitution in Edinburgh,” second edition (Edinburgh, 1842).

[257] R. Wardlaw, “Lectures on Female Prostitution; its Nature, Extent, Effects, Guilt, Causes, and Remedy,” third edition (Glasgow, 1843).

[258] F. I. dos Santos Cruz, “Da Prostituiçao na Cidade de Lisboa” (Lisbon, 1841).

[259] “Estabelecimentos de Beneficencia para as Consultas Gratuitas,” pp. 203-206.

[260] A. Potton, “De la Prostitution et de ses Conséquences dans les Grandes Villes, dans la Ville de Lyon en Particulier” (Paris and Lyons, 1842).

[261] E. A. Duchesne, “De la Prostitution dans la Ville d’Alger depuis la Conquête” (Paris, 1853).

[262] “Die Prostitution in Berlin und ihre Opfer” (Berlin, 1846).

[263] C. Röhrmann, “Der sittliche Zustand von Berlin nach Aufhebung der geduldeten Prostitution des weiblichen Geschlechts”--“The Moral Condition of Berlin after the Abolition of Tolerated Prostitution of the Female Sex” (Leipzig, 1846).

[264] F. J. Behrend, “Prostitution in Berlin, and the Measures it is Desirable to Adopt against Prostitution and against Syphilis,” etc. A work based on official sources, and dedicated to His Excellency the Minister von Ladenberg (Erlangen, 1850).

[265] H. Lippert, “Prostitution in Hamburg” (Hamburg, 1848).

[266] A. J. Gross-Hoffinger, “The Fate of Women and Prostitution, in Relation to the Principle of the Indissolubility of Catholic Marriage, and especially in Relation to the Laws of Austria and the Philosophy of our Time” (Leipzig, 1847).

[267] Josef Schrank, “Prostitution in Vienna in Historical, Administrative, and Hygienic Relations” (Vienna, 1886, 2 vols).

[268] “The Moral Corruption of Our Time and its Victims in their Relationship to the State, to the family, and to Morality, with especial Reference to the Conditions of Prostitution in Leipzig” (Leipzig, 1854).

[269] W. M. Sanger, “The History of Prostitution” (New York, 1859).

[270] J. Jeannel, “Prostitution in Large Towns in the Nineteenth Century, and the Abolition of Venereal Diseases.”

[271] W. Acton, “Prostitution in its Various Aspects,” second edition (London. 1874).

[272] Hügel, “The History, Statistics, and Regulation of Prostitution” (Vienna. 1865).

[273] L. Martineau, “La Prostitution Clandestine” (Paris, 1885).

[274] O. Commenge, “La Prostitution Clandestine à Paris” (Paris, 1897).

[275] V. Augagneur, “La Prostitution des Filles Mineures” (Paris, 1888).

[276] L. Fiaux, “La Police des Mœurs en France et dans les Principales Villes de l’Europe” (Paris, 1888); “Les Maisons de Tolérance, leur Fermeture,” 3me édition (Paris, 1862); “La Prostitution ‘Cloitrée’” (Brussels, 1902).

[277] Yves Guyot, “La Prostitution: Étude de Physiologie Sociale” (Paris, 1882).

[278] A. Blaschko, “The Problem of Prostitution,” published in the Berliner Klin. Wochenschrift, pp. 430-435 (1892); “Syphilis and Prostitution from the Hygienic Standpoint” (Berlin, 1893); “Hygiene of Prostitution and of Venereal Diseases” (Jena, 1900); “Prostitution in the Nineteenth Century” (Berlin, 1902); “The Dangers to Health resulting from Prostitution, and the Contest with these Dangers” (Berlin, 1904).

[279] C. Lombroso and G. Ferrero, “Woman as Criminal and Prostitute.”

[280] B. Tarnowsky, “Prostitution and Abolitionism” (Hamburg, 1890).

[281] C. Ströhmberg, “Prostitution: a Socio-Medical Study” (Stuttgart, 1899).

[282] E. Dühren (Iwan Bloch), “The Sexual Life in England,” vol. i., pp. 201-445 (Charlottenburg, 1901).

[283] E. von Düring, “Prostitution and Venereal Diseases” (Leipzig, 1905).

[284] Goethe, in the poem “Der Gott und die Bajadere,” has very beautifully described the ennoblement of gross love by means of ideal love.

[285] Henry Murger, in his “Vie de Bohème,” also alludes to the “incomprehensible” fact that “persons of standing who sometimes possess spirit, a name, and a coat cut according to the fashion, out of their love for the common will go so far as to raise to the level of an object of fashion a creature whom their very servant would not have chosen as a mistress.”

[286] C. Lombroso, “Woman as Criminal and Prostitute,” p. 550.

[287] Friedrich Hammer, “The Regulation of Prostitution,” published in The Journal for the Suppression of Venereal Diseases, vol. iii., No. 10, p. 380 (Leipzig, 1905).

[288] H. Kurella, “A Contribution to the Biological Comprehension of Physical and Psychical Bisexuality,” published in the Zentralblatt für Nervenheilkunde, 1896, vol. xix., p. 239.

[289] Syphilis is not to be forgotten.

[290] This modified Lombrosism is advocated by B. A. H. Hübner in his interesting work concerning prostitutes and their legal relations (Monatsschrift für Kriminalpsychologie, 1907, pp. 1-11). He found that among sixty-four insane prostitutes, under observation in the Hertzberg Asylum in Berlin, not less than 59·45 % were already intellectually defective at the time they had come under police control as prostitutes.

[291] C. Lombroso, “Recent Advances in the Study of Criminals.”

[292] Schrank observes (“Prostitution in Vienna,” vol. ii., p. 216) that striking physical peculiarities do not appear to be either more or less frequent among prostitutes than they are among the generality of the population.

[293] G. Keben, “Prostitution in its Relation to Modern Realistic Literature” (Zurich, 1892).

[294] Oda Olberg, “Poverty in the Domestic Industry of Making Ready-made Clothing” (Leipzig, 1896).

[295] Anna Pappritz, “The Economic Causes of Prostitution” (Berlin, 1903).

[296] Pfeiffer, “Poverty and Overcrowding in Great Towns and in Relation to Prostitution and to Venereal Diseases,” published in The Journal for the Suppression of Venereal Diseases, 1903, vol. i., pp. 135-144.

[297] P. Kampffmeyer, “Poverty and Overcrowding in Great Towns,” etc., published in The Journal for the Suppression of Venereal Diseases, 1903, vol. i., pp. 145-160; “Bad Housing Accommodation in Relation to Prostitution and ‘Night-Lodgers’; the Necessary Legal Reforms,” op. cit., 1905, vol. iii., pp. 165-229.

[298] E. v. Düring, “Prostitution and Venereal Diseases.” p. 11.

[299] Cf. the description of the astonishing development of the French procurement of that day which is given in my “New Researches concerning the Marquis de Sade,” pp. 88-98 (Berlin, 1904). The Marquis de Sade, in his novel “The One Hundred and Twenty Days of Sodom,” has very fully described the traffic in girls of his time. Incredible revelations of this traffic, of the almost absolute power of the procuresses, and of their relations to the police, led in October, 1906, to an action against the procuress Regine Riehl, who, under the mask of a dressmaker’s shop, had for years conducted a brothel, in which the girls were entirely robbed of their freedom, were subjected to corporal punishment, and never received payment for their “work.” Cf. A. Blaschko, The Journal for the Suppression of Venereal Diseases, 1906, vol. v., pp. 427-433; also Karl Kraus, “The Riehl Trial” (Vienna, 1906).

[300] The literature of the “White Slave Trade” is extensive. I shall mention a few works only: Alfred S. Dyer, “The Trade in English Girls” (Berlin, 1881); the celebrated work of Alexis Splingard, “Clarissa, from the Dark Houses of Belgium,” with an introduction by Otto Henne am Rhyn, fourth edition (Leipzig, 1897); Otto Henne am Rhyn, “Prostitution and the Traffic in Girls” (Leipzig, 1903); Julius Kemény, “Hungara--Hungarian Girls in the Market: Revelations regarding the International Traffic in Girls” (Buda-Pesth, 1903). Cf. also the extensive references in The Journal for the Suppression of Venereal Diseases, 1904, vol. ii., pp. 207-212 (Report of the Jewish Commission for the Suppression of the Traffic in Girls). Regarding the traffic in girls in Holland, cf. J. Rutgers, “Sketches from Holland,” ibid., 1906, vol. v., pp. 531-355.

[301] Cf. regarding the conditions in South America, the report of Major D. Wagner, Secretary of the German National Committee for the Suppression of the Traffic in Girls, published in The Journal for the Suppression of Venereal Diseases, 1900, vol. v., pp. 378-382.

[302] Léo Taxil, “La Corruption Fin-de-Siècle,” p. 169 et seq. (Paris, 1894).

[303] Louis Fiaux, “Les Maisons de Tolérance: leur Fermeture,” troisième édition, pp. 169 et seq., 248, 250, 251 (Paris, 1892).

[304] According to recent statistical data, from 80 to 90 % of barmaids (in Germany) are infected with venereal diseases, so that they perhaps represent the most dangerous class of prostitutes.

[305, 306] “=Animierkneipen.=”--Kneipe signifies a drinking-saloon or pothouse, equivalent to the French cabaret. The Animierkneipe is a beer-saloon at which the attendants are women (Kellnerinnen), who are engaged on the terms described in the text, and whose function, therefore, is to attract the male customers of the place, to incite them (animieren) to drink freely, and to play the part of prostitutes when required. Thus they correspond to les inviteuses of the similar drinking-saloons in Paris.--TRANSLATOR.

[307] H. Seyffert, “Die Animierkneipen und ihre Geheimnisse” (“Animierkneipen and their Secrets”), published in Freie Meinung, 1906, Nos. 26 and 27. See also “Impropriety at Inns with Female Attendants in Prussia, with especial Reference to the Conditions in Cologne” (1891).

[308] O. Rosenthal, “Alcoholism and Prostitution,” p. 46 (1905).

[309] Cf. the elaborate descriptions by Hans Ostwald, “Berliner Tanzlokale” (Berlin and Leipzig); regarding the earlier dancing-rooms of London, see my “Sexual Life in England,” vol. i., pp. 324-334.

[310] Victor Joze, “Paris-Gomorrhe. Mœurs du Jour,” p. 173 (Paris, 1898).

[311] Georg Dahlen, “Sketches of European Society,” p. 126 (Berlin, 1885).

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

XIV. VENEREAL DISEASES

“In co-operation with alcoholic intoxication and with tuberculosis, syphilis plays in our day the part which in the middle ages was played by bubonic plague.”--ALFRED FOURNIER.

CONTENTS OF CHAPTER XIV

Prostitution the focus, not the cause, of venereal diseases -- Philosophy of venereal diseases -- Their age -- Time and place of their first appearance -- The origin of syphilis -- Practical importance of the proof of the recent character of syphilis -- The theologico-animistic theory of venereal diseases -- Refutation of this theory -- Blameless infection (syphilis innocentium) -- The notion of specific infective disease -- Scientific campaign against venereal diseases -- Syphilis as a specific disease of modern times -- Description of its symptoms, its course, and its termination -- Consequences of syphilis to the family, to the offspring, and to the race -- Congenital syphilis of the first and second generations -- Racial degeneration in consequence of syphilis -- The age at which infection with syphilis occurs in man and in woman -- The soft chancre (chancroid) -- Gonorrhœa -- Change in our views regarding the dangers of gonorrhœa -- Urethral gonorrhœa in the male -- Acute and chronic stages -- Complications -- Gonorrhœa in women -- The “diseases of women” -- Blindness due to gonorrhœa.

Appendix: Venereal Diseases in the Homosexual.

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Chapter XIV

The central problem of the sexual question is, as I pointed out at the commencement of the previous chapter, the suppression of prostitution and of =venereal diseases=, the former evil being the principal focus of the latter. I say the principal “=focus=,” not the “cause.” For, if all prostitutes were =healthy=, we could leave prostitution quietly alone--leaving out of consideration the moral depravity to which it gives rise--and venereal diseases would spontaneously disappear.

This opinion I advance at the beginning of the chapter on venereal diseases because, even at the present day, there is a remarkable species of =philosophy, or rather theology, of venereal diseases=, which propounds the most extraordinary hypothesis regarding their =origin=.

For example, the Alsatian writer Alexander Weill, in his confused work “The Laws and Mysteries of Love,” writes:

“Why should we bother our heads about the cure of syphilis? If anyone wishes to get rid of any evil, he must first of all ascertain its causes in order to remove these. If the cause of it is removed, the evil disappears spontaneously. If the snake has been killed, its poison no longer does any harm. But how can we put an end to the causes of syphilis, when this disease is spontaneously renewed and increased day by day by means of neglected prostitution, and by our social laws which combine to oppose the monogamy of youth and the increase of population? If to-day we could cure all patients suffering from syphilis, =to-morrow the same disease would return in a new form, for it would be recreated by the same irregularities that first led to its production= (!) It is absolutely useless to employ iodide of potassium and mercury, for every new infringement of natural laws would again bring into being new incurable diseases, which can only be avoided by those who have firmly resolved to observe these laws strictly.”

Weill, indeed, goes so far as to maintain that every man who =simultaneously, or rather in brief succession, has intercourse with two healthy women, acquires syphilis=, even although both these women remain faithful to him, because “=any kind of libertinism in sexual intercourse suffices by itself to give rise to this disease=!”

According to this view, which is shared by many members of the laity, venereal diseases, and, above all, the worst of them, syphilis, would be as old as sexual licentiousness itself--that is, =as old as the human race, and an inalienable associate of that race=.

In my book on “The Origin of Syphilis” I have disproved this view. I have answered the question, so important alike on general philosophical and on social-hygienic grounds, regarding the true nature of syphilis, and have proved that syphilis (and also the other venereal diseases) had a definite =local= and =temporal= origin; that syphilis has not existed since the beginning of time; and that some day, when certain definite conditions are fulfilled, the disease will disappear.

The history of syphilis is a matter of profound =practical= importance. From that history we learn with certainty that the most dangerous and most dreaded of the venereal diseases has, for the European world, and for the “old world” in general, the character of a =pure chance comer=; and we learn that =retrospectively=--regarded from the point of view of our present experience--at the time when the disease first began to flourish, it might perhaps have been nipped in the bud.

It is hardly possible to overestimate the =practical= importance of the recognition of this fact--that for the old civilized world syphilis represents a historical phenomenon, that it has a history, a beginning, or, as Voltaire half-ironically remarks, a genealogy.

Is there not a deliverance, a redemption, in the idea that for the old world there was a time in which syphilis did not exist; that this time, in comparison with the time which has elapsed since syphilis first appeared, was almost infinitely long; and that for this reason, when we look out into the future, the history of the lues venerea assumes the character of a simple episode in the history of European civilized humanity?

At the same time, the definite acceptance of this view would be an urgent warning to all those obscurantists of both sexes who imagine that the problem of the diffusion of venereal diseases can be solved exclusively by religious and moral considerations, and who thus confuse the simplest and clearest relationships, place everything upon an insecure foundation, and exclude every possibility of a successful campaign against syphilis.

Even to-day it unfortunately happens that many continue, as of old, to believe that sexual intercourse is a sin for which a punishment has been provided, and that this punishment is a venereal disease--for example, syphilis. Tylor, the celebrated English anthropologist, has proved that this idea has developed out of the =animism= extending back into prehistoric times, which regarded all illnesses as the work of demons. We are still influenced by this doctrine, this gloomy, demoniacal conception in respect of everything sexual. I need hardly remind the reader of the ideas of Tolstoi, and of his disciple, the unhappy Dr. Weininger, a disciple exceeding even his master in respect of fanatical condemnation of sexual intercourse. Until recently the laws regulating our German system of workmen’s insurance against illness continued to exhibit definite traces of our legislators’ adhesion to this view. The majority of physicians and historians who said that syphilis was as old as sexual intercourse itself, who employed the phrase ubi Venus ibi syphilis, were unconsciously influenced by this idea, that venereal diseases are to be regarded as a mark of the Divine wrath.

This theological theory, as we may call it, of the origin of syphilis is opposed by certain incontrovertible facts, which suffice to show its utter nullity and untenability.

The mere fact that there exists a =blameless= infection with syphilis (syphilis innocentium), that, for example, in certain districts of Russia as many as 90 % of the cases of this disease are acquired =quite independently= of sexual intercourse, by simple contact, shows the absurdity of this superstitious idea.

In the second place, it is a widely known fact that quite frequently persons who are still entirely uncontaminated, blameless initiates, become infected with syphilis on the very first occasion in which they have sexual intercourse, whilst greater experience and more exact knowledge of the threatening dangers induce notorious debauchees to adopt effective measures of protection (which, however, would be useless if syphilis were really a divinely decreed punishment for licentiousness of this kind!).

In the third place, the occurrence of syphilis =in little children=--partly owing to inheritance, partly, however, acquired in the way already mentioned by casual contact--affords a striking refutation of the above idea, which, unfortunately, still dominates and fascinates a large circle of people.

We could adduce further arguments against this view, but what we have said should suffice to show clearly the untenability of such a superstition. The syphilis of one individual is not the consequence of sexual intercourse, but the consequence of another case of syphilis in another individual--that is to say, syphilis is a =specific infective disease=, transmissible only by means of its peculiar specific virus, and this transmission can be effected =without any sexual intercourse=, by means of contacts of other kinds. =Syphilis arises only from syphilis.=

We have, therefore, to attack =this= disease precisely in the same manner as the other venereal diseases. As a Portuguese physician has most aptly remarked, to the tyranny of syphilis we must oppose the tyranny of human reason. The principal aim of a campaign against venereal diseases will be the =organization= of the means offered to us by reason and experience to cope with the disease. The knowledge of these means must be diffused in ever-wider circles of humanity, and care must be taken that every individual is fully and clearly informed regarding the importance and the dangers of syphilis and the other venereal diseases.

Here also history is our teacher, our lamp of truth, and promises us complete success as the result of our campaign against venereal diseases.

The results of my investigations regarding the origin of syphilis all point to a =single= extremely important fact--namely, that in the case of syphilis, and as regards the “old world,” we have to do with a =specific disease of modern times=, which made its first appearance =at the end of the fifteenth century=, and of the previous existence of which, even in the most distant prehistoric times, not the minutest trace remains. This view was held by very eminent physicians, even before the publication of my own critical work, based upon entirely new sources of study. Among these authorities I may mention Jean Astruc and Christoph Girtanner, in the eighteenth century; in the nineteenth century, the Spanish army surgeon Montejo, and of German physicians, above all, Rudolf Virchow, A. Geigel, von Liebermeister, C. Binz, and P. G. Unna. The great philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer held the same view.[312]

Ricord, the celebrated French syphilologist, spoke once of a romance of syphilis which still remained to be written. I should rather compare it with a =drama=, the separate acts of which are =centuries=. Of this drama, =four= acts have already been played. At the present moment we find ourselves at the =beginning= of the =fifth= act. Thus, we have an =entire= century before us, in which, with all the powers placed at our disposal by scientific medical research, by practical therapeutics, and by hygiene in association with social measures, we must work to this end, that this fifth act shall also be the =last=, as it is in the case of a proper drama.

The history of syphilis has remained so long obscure, because, until the time of Philipp Ricord--=that is to say, until the beginning of the second half of the nineteenth century=--the three venereal diseases, =syphilis=, or =lues=, the so-called =soft chancre= (=venereal ulcer or chancroid=), and =gonorrhœa=, were regarded as essentially one disease; whereas we know to-day that syphilis is a specific infective disease of a =constitutional= character, which permeates the whole body, and must be absolutely distinguished from the other venereal diseases, these latter being purely =local= in character. This earlier belief in the identity of all venereal infections, an error held even by so great an authority as John Hunter, who was misled by falsely interpreted experiments, renders it necessary that the historical side of the question should be considered also from this point of view.

If gonorrhœa and chancroid were of a syphilitic nature, then certainly syphilis must have existed from very early times. It would not be difficult to refer to syphilis some descriptions and accounts of diseases of the genital organs given by the ancient and medieval writers. It was the progressive enlightenment regarding the essential differences between the three venereal diseases which first proved the untenability of such opinions; we were further assisted by the knowledge of =pseudo-venereal= and =pseudo-syphilitic= diseases which we have obtained from modern dermatology. Moreover, in the old world syphilitic bones belonging to ancient or medieval times have =never= been discovered.[313] The first syphilitic bones date from =after the time of the discovery of America=. They appear, above all, =after the outbreak of the great epidemic of syphilis which followed the Italian campaign of King Charles VIII. of France, in the years 1494 and 1495=; it was then that syphilis first became diffused in the old world.

In my work on “The Origin of Syphilis” (Jena, 1901),[314] I have adduced proof, basing my views upon the criticism of older opinions, and assisted by the utilization of very abundant new sources of material, that syphilis was first introduced into Spain in the years 1493 and 1494 by the crew of Columbus, who brought it from Central America, and more especially from the island of =Hayti=; from Spain it was carried by the army of Charles VIII. to Italy, where it assumed an epidemic form; and after the army was disbanded the disease was transported by the soldiers to the other countries of Europe, and also was soon taken by the Portuguese to the Far East, to India, China, and Japan. At the time of its first appearance in the old world, syphilis was extraordinarily =virulent=. All the morbid phenomena produced by the disease had a more rapid and violent course than at the present day; the mortality was much higher; the consequences, even when a cure was effected, were much more severe. This virulence of syphilis at the time of its first introduction can only be explained, in accordance with our modern views of the nature and mode of appearances of the disease, by the fact that the nations of the old world (who, nota bene, were =all= attacked with equal intensity) had, until that time, been =completely free= from syphilis. =All classes= of the people and =all nations= were visited by syphilis to an equal extent and with the same violence.

Even to-day we observe everywhere, when syphilis is introduced into regions which have hitherto been =free= from the disease, that it has the same acute course, the same violence of morbid manifestations, that characterized its first appearance in Europe. In the four centuries that have elapsed since its introduction into Europe there has occurred a gradual =mitigation= of the syphilitic virus, or rather a certain degree of immunization of European humanity against the disease. Speaking generally, syphilis has to-day--in comparison with that earlier time--a relatively mild course. To this point we shall return later.[315]

The two other venereal diseases, =gonorrhœa= and =chancroid=, unquestionably existed in Europe in the days of antiquity. But they also are =specific infective diseases=, and are only produced by the virus peculiar to each, just as syphilis has its own peculiar virus.

Ricord (1800-1889), in the years 1830 to 1850, proved the complete =diversity= of syphilis and gonorrhœa, established the doctrine of the three stages of syphilis--primary, secondary, and tertiary--and, finally, taught us to distinguish the =soft, non-syphilitic chancre= (=chancroid=) from the =hard, syphilitic chancre=. Virchow, in his celebrated essay on “The Nature of Constitutional Syphilitic Affections” (Virchow’s Archiv, 1858, vol. xv., p. 217 et seq.), then threw a clear light on the peculiar course of constitutional syphilis and on the causes of the occasional disappearance and sudden reappearance of the morbid phenomena. Hitherto, however, our knowledge of venereal diseases had rested on an extremely insecure foundation; and =the truly scientific study of the subject= may be said to have begun in the year 1879, with Albert Neisser’s epoch-making discovery of the =gonococcus= as the specific exciting cause of gonorrhœa. In the years 1889 to 1892 there followed the discovery of the =bacillus of chancroid= by Ducrey and Unna, by means of which discovery the complete distinction between the soft and the hard chancre was definitely proved; and, finally, the three years 1903 to 1906 were characterized by =remarkable discoveries=, the full importance of which is not as yet fully realized, =regarding the nature of the syphilitic virus=. In the year 1903 Eli Metchnikoff succeeded in transmitting syphilis from human beings to =apes=, and thus laid the foundation for progressive research regarding syphilis by means of experiments on animals; this was carried further by Lassar, by the inoculation of the syphilitic virus from one ape to another, and also by A. Neisser in his experimental researches in Java;[316] and in March, 1905, the Berlin protozoologist Fritz Schaudinn, since prematurely lost to the world of science, published his first studies on the probable exciting cause of syphilis, the so-called “=spirochæte pallida=.” Numerous subsequent investigations have established the connexion between this spirilla-form, belonging to the order of protozoa, and syphilitic disease. In this way we have been brought notably nearer to the discovery of the certain cure of syphilis and to the discovery of means of immunization against the disease. In this direction quite new views are opening before our eyes.[317] Numerous ideas suggested by recent discoveries in the province of syphilitic research are described in the admirable essay by J. Jadassohn, “Contributions to Syphilology,” published in the German “Archives for Dermatology and Syphilis,” 1907. Cf. also the account of the recent doctrines regarding syphilis by P. G. Unna and Iwan Bloch, “Die Praxis der Hautkrankheiten,” pp. 548-592 (Vienna and Berlin, 1908).

When some day humanity has been freed from the “=sexual plague=,” from the hydra of venereal diseases, and when a monument is erected to the liberators, four names will there be commemorated: Ricord, Neisser, Metchnikoff, and Schaudinn!

After these preliminary remarks on the nature of venereal diseases, I proceed to a short description of them, and I begin with the most dangerous of all the venereal diseases, =syphilis=.[318]

The first manifestations of syphilis make their appearance about three or four weeks =after= infection, at the place at which infection has occurred, and this is not in every case the genital organs. It is true that syphilis is most commonly transmitted by means of sexual intercourse, but frequently also by contacts of other kinds--for example, by =kissing=; by gynecological or surgical examinations and operations; by =drinking from a glass= which has previously been used by some one suffering from syphilis; by the use of uncleansed pocket-handkerchiefs, towels, and bedding, which have been used by a syphilitic patient; by the use of tobacco-pipes, wind-instruments, tooth-brushes, tooth-picks, a glass-blower’s mouthpiece, etc., belonging to strangers; =by an uncleansed razor=; by the nasty habit of licking the point of a pencil; by moistening postage-stamps with the tongue; by sucking the wound in circumcision; =by the suckling of the infant at the breast of a syphilitic wet-nurse=, etc.[319] In England the custom, when taking a judicial oath, of kissing the Bible has repeatedly sufficed to transmit syphilitic infection.

In certain districts in which the level of civilization is a low one--as, for example, in some parts of Russia and of Turkey--as many as 50 to 60 % of all infections occur independently of sexual intercourse.

All the =discharges= from syphilitic lesions in all three stages of the disease are infective. The infective character of the tertiary stage of syphilis was formerly doubted, but has recently been proved beyond dispute. =Blood= also, although more rarely, can prove infective. On the other hand, the =pure= secretions--that is, the physiological secretions, not contaminated by morbid products--such as the saliva, tears, and milk, are not infective. Syphilis is, however, very frequently transmitted by means of the =semen=.

Infection occurs in places in which there is a solution of continuity of the skin or mucous membrane, such as a scratch or a superficial wound, through which the virus can enter. In this way an apparently healthy syphilitic patient--when, for example, he gets a small abrasion on the penis (or, in the case of a woman, in the vagina)--can transmit syphilis if the other individual also has a similar abrasion through which infection can occur.

As we have said, it is not till the lapse of two to four weeks after infection has occurred that the first manifestations of syphilis appear, in the form of a small vesicle or nodule in the infected area; less often merely an abraded area of a peculiar red colour. Gradually this nodule or area enlarges, and becomes continually =harder= at the base, whilst the surface often undergoes ulceration, and secretes extremely infective pus (the so-called “=hard chancre=” or “=primary lesion=”[320]).

This induration is in most cases a certain sign that the syphilitic virus has already entered the body; at least, it has only been possible in a few very rare cases, by excision or cauterization of the hard chancre, to prevent syphilis from entering the blood. Almost always, notwithstanding such endeavours, the manifestations of general infection of the body soon appear.

From the place of infection--that is, from the place at which the hard chancre forms--the syphilitic virus next passes by way of the lymph-stream into the inguinal glands, so that these, in the third or fourth week after the appearance of the hard chancre, begin to swell and to become hard. This swelling of the inguinal glands is painless (the so-called “=indolent bubo=”), in contrast to the painful swelling which accompanies the soft chancre. From this region the poison now proceeds by way of the bloodvessels and lymph paths on its wanderings all over the body, the individual stages of which can be detected by swellings of the lymph-glands of the axilla, the elbow, the neck, etc. Sometimes other symptoms of general infection are noticeable; above all, the appearance of =fever= (never earlier than forty days after infection), =pains= in the muscles, joints, nerves, also severe headaches, a general feeling of =lassitude=, =pallor=, and a falling-off in the nutritive condition.

These are the forerunners of the so-called =secondary= stage of syphilis, which now manifests itself by the appearance of a multiform =skin eruption=, rendering the diagnosis of syphilis absolutely certain. For this reason, in doubtful cases of ulceration of the genital organs the patient should inspect his skin very carefully every day for several weeks or months, and keep watch for the appearance of red spots or nodules. This syphilitic eruption on the skin is also in the later periods one of the most certain and most characteristic insignia of the disease.

The eruption commonly appears first on the trunk, in the form of rose-coloured spots (the so-called “=roseola syphilitica=”), spreads thence over the whole body, and in many cases, simultaneously with or shortly after the spotted eruption, =nodules= appear on the skin, and marked thickenings form on the mucous membranes, especially at the anus, in the mouth, and on the tongue (the so-called “=plaques muqueuses=,” or “=condylomata=”). The patient’s attention is spontaneously directed to these lesions by painful sensations in the mouth or by itching of the anus. Often it is these painful sensations, associated with a violent inflammation of the tonsils and pharynx (the so-called “=angina syphilitica=”), which first lead the patient to consult a doctor, after all the earlier symptoms have passed by unnoticed! As characteristic forms of the secondary syphilitic changes in the skin must, therefore, be mentioned the so-called “=corona Veneris=,” by which distinguished name is denoted an eruption on the forehead, especially along the margin of the hair, which by members of the laity is easily confused with other affections of the skin common in this locality; the so-called “=collier de Venus=,” or =leukoderma syphiliticum=, a peculiar pigmentation of the skin on the throat and the back of the neck in the form of =brown= patches with =white= intervening areas. This symptom, =which occurs almost exclusively= in women, is an absolutely certain sign of syphilis. Equally characteristic is the so-called “=syphilitic psoriasis=,” the appearance of peculiar patches and thickenings on the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet; characteristic also is the syphilitic =loss of hair=, by its sudden onset and by the patchy way in which it occurs. Not rarely do we see =purulent= eruptions on the skin in this secondary stage of syphilis.

The syphilitic eruption of the skin is only an external manifestation of a disease affecting the entire body, for the internal organs also suffer. The affection of the liver manifests itself by jaundice; that of the brain and the meninges by headaches and by =weakness of memory=, which is often well marked at this stage; that of the spleen by swelling; that of the kidneys by the appearance of albumin in the urine; that of the bones by very painful inflammatory swellings; that of the eyes specially by the well-known =syphilitic iritis= (60 % of all inflammations of the iris are syphilitic in nature!).

If the disease remains untreated, the appearances just described become more general and continually more severe; and after some time, quite new morbid symptoms are superadded (often as early as the third year, on the average five to ten years after infection, but also later), resulting from the transformation of the syphilitic morbid process into the =tertiary= stage. To these new manifestations belong the appearance of large =nodules= in the skin and other organs, which sooner or later undergo ulceration, the so-called “=syphilitic gummata=”; their ulcerative destruction may entail the greatest disfigurement or danger to life--for example, perforation of the hard palate; sinking of the bridge of the nose (the syphilitic “=saddle-nose=”); ulcerative destruction of large portions of the bones of the skull, of the intestine, of the liver, the lungs, the testicles, the bloodvessels (especially dangerous are gummous diseases of the bloodvessels of the brain), the brain, and the spinal cord. =Apoplectic strokes= occurring in comparatively young persons and =nervous paralysis= of the most various kinds, as well as sudden =deafness= and =blindness=, are in most cases referable to syphilitic disease. Many chronic diseases of the liver, kidneys, and nervous system, are consequences of previous syphilis; also =calcification of the arteries=, the very dangerous dilatation of the great bloodvessels, especially of the aorta (aneurism of the aorta), are very often of syphilitic origin.

By the researches of Alfred Fournier and Wilhelm Erb, we know to-day that two severe diseases of the central nervous system--=tabes dorsalis= or =locomotor ataxy=, and =general paralysis of the insane= (=paralytic dementia=)--are almost always (in about 95 % of the cases) referable to earlier syphilis. Among 5,749 cases of syphilis encountered in his own private practice, Fournier observed no less than 758 cases of brain syphilis, 631 cases of tabes, and 83 cases of softening of the brain. Tabes and general paralysis of the insane are all the more dangerous because they are no longer, properly speaking, “syphilitic” diseases, and therefore they cannot be cured by antisyphilitic treatment; they are severe degenerative changes of the central nervous system, which has been, as it were, prepared for their occurrence by the previous syphilis. These belong to the class of the so-called “=parasyphilitic=” diseases in which antisyphilitic treatment has little or no good effect.

Even more tragic are the consequences of syphilis to the =family=, the =offspring=, and the =race=. =Syphilis in married life=, =congenital syphilis=, and the =degeneration of the race by syphilis=--these are the tragic manifestations which come under consideration in this connexion.

In his admirable work on “Syphilis and Marriage,” Alfred Fournier, the greatest living authority on syphilis in all its manifestations and relationships, has described the momentous influence exercised by syphilis in conjugal life; and in his recently published work, “Syphilis a Social Danger,” he has dealt also with congenital syphilis and racial degeneration. He found that, on the average, among 100 women suffering from syphilis, 20 had been infected by their husbands, either at the very commencement of married life, or in its later course, or finally through the offspring after conception. Divorce on the ground of syphilitic infection by the husband is at the present day of frequent occurrence.

The transmission of syphilis to the child by =inheritance= may be effected either by the father or the mother; when both the father and the mother are syphilitic, it occurs with absolute certainty. The various possibilities of transmission, and the contingent immunity of mother or child, as they are expressed in Colles’s law (Baumès’s law), and in Profeta’s law, cannot here be further dealt with. If the mother has herself been infected with syphilis, or if she was previously syphilitic, either the child is not carried until term, abortion or miscarriage ensuing, or, finally, it is born with symptoms of congenital syphilis.[321]

The frequent occurrence of premature births and still-births in any family suggests strong suspicions that they are due to syphilis. The =general mortality= of the children in a family is regarded by Fournier as an important sign to the physician of congenital syphilis. Syphilitic infection of the father gives rise to a mortality in the children of 28 %; syphilis in the mother causes a mortality in the children of 60 %; when the disease affects both parents, the mortality among the children amounts to 68 %. Absolutely astounding is the mortality of the children of syphilitic prostitutes; it amounts to from 84 to 86 %.

Children born =alive=, suffering from congenital syphilis, are generally weakly,[322] of deficient body-weight; have often a flaccid, wrinkled skin, covered with typical syphilitic eruptions, and frequently with great purulent vesicles, especially on the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet (“pemphigus syphiliticus”); the internal organs also, the spleen, the liver, and the bones, exhibit morbid changes. Characteristic is the syphilitic affection of the upper air-passages, especially the syphilitic “cold in the head” (=syphilitic rhinitis=--“snuffles”), of new-born congenitally syphilitic children. Congenital syphilis further gives rise to severe =disturbances of development= and to phenomena to which Fournier has given the name of “=late syphilis=” (“syphilis hereditaria tarda”), because they first make their appearance in the later years of life.[323] Permanent =debility=, =arrest of development=, =stigmata of degeneration=, in the form of various =malformations=--as, for example, notching of the edge of the upper central incisor permanent teeth (a symptom first described by Jonathan Hutchinson), malformations of the nose, the ears, and the palate, dwarfing, deaf-mutism, malformations of the external and internal reproductive organs, rickets,[324] epilepsy, and mental weakness--are the consequences of congenital syphilis. Tarnowsky, Fournier, and Barthélémy have traced the consequences of congenital syphilis into the second and third generation, and so have discovered an important cause of racial degeneration. Syphilis in the grandfather can still exercise its disastrous influence in the grandson, and give rise to the above-mentioned stigmata of degeneration.[325] Indeed, congenital syphilis of the second generation often appears with the same severity as that of the first generation; and, like acquired syphilis, congenital syphilis in women can cause a predisposition to miscarriages and still-births.

According to statistics obtained by Edmond Fournier, relating to 11,000 cases of syphilis (10,000 men, 1,000 women) from the private practice of his father, Alfred Fournier, regarding the age at which infection occurs, it appears that in =men= it most commonly occurs between the ages of twenty and twenty-six years (the maximum number of infections during the twenty-third year); in =women=, between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one; 8 % of syphilitic males and 20 % of syphilitic females were infected before the age of twenty years. Syphilis is to a considerable extent at the present day a disease of =inexperienced youth=. This fact is important in relation to the problem of prevention and the problem of enlightenment.[326]

Of much less importance than syphilis is the purely local =soft chancre=, or chancroid, which never results in general infection. Chancroid is produced by a specific exciting cause, a chain-forming bacillus (streptobacillus), Bacillus ulceris cancrosi, which is found in the pus secreted by the ulcer. =One or two days= after infection, a small pustule forms at the site of inoculation, generally on the external genital organs. This pustule soon bursts, and a deeply hollowed ulcer makes its appearance, which usually undergoes rapid increase, and frequently, owing to the infective character of the pus, gives rise to new chancres in the neighbourhood of the original one, so that the soft chancre is commonly multiple. When suitably treated with antiseptic powders and cauterization, chancroid usually heals quickly; there are, however, very dangerous varieties of chancroid--for instance, the =serpiginous= chancre, which continues to creep irresistibly forward; and the =phagedænic= or =gangrenous= chancre, which puts the skill of the physician to the utmost test. A less dangerous but extremely disagreeable complication of chancroid is inflammation of the inguinal glands, most commonly only on one side; this painful “bubo” (painful in contrast with the painless syphilitic bubo) has a well-marked tendency to suppuration. If this occurs, and the pus finds its way to the surface, fistulas and new chancrous ulcers are liable to occur at the place where it opens. By rest in bed, the inunction of iodide ointment, the application of cold compresses, the injection into the bubo of a solution of nitrate of silver, and the internal use of iodide of potassium, this unfortunate course may be prevented.

A remarkable =change of views= has, in the course of the last thirty years, taken place in respect of the nature and importance of =gonorrhœa=.[327] Whereas formerly this was regarded as a comparatively harmless disease, we know to-day that gonorrhœa in the male, and still more in the female, gives rise to tedious dangers and painful morbid phenomena, and is the source of unspeakable sorrows, and of the miserable ill-health of numerous women, and that it is the chief cause of =sterility= in both sexes.

Gonorrhœa is principally a =disease of the mucous membrane=, and is, in this way, distinguished from syphilis, which is a general disorder, diffusing itself by way of the bloodvessels. In rare cases, indeed, gonorrhœa can exhibit general morbid manifestations, the so-called =gonorrhœal rheumatism=, gonorrhœal affections of the spinal cord and of the heart, and gonorrhœal nervous troubles, all of which are so rare, that for practical purposes they can be left out of consideration.

The typical seat of gonorrhœa is the =mucous membrane of the urinary and the genital organs= of the male and the female; in the male affecting =chiefly= the urinary organs, and in the female affecting chiefly the genital organs. The cause of =genuine= gonorrhœa is always infection, the transmission from one human being to another of the purulent inflammation produced by the =gonococcus= discovered by Neisser in 1879. =Simple urethral inflammations= with a purulent discharge also occur in which no gonococci are found. These arise also from infection, but their actual exciting cause has not yet been discovered. Not less obscure is the relationship of many of the irritants giving rise to simple urethral catarrh--for example, that which is active during menstruation--to the supposed exciting cause. In any case, these simple catarrhs have a very mild course, and undergo a cure after a few days or weeks, spontaneously or as a result of treatment with mild injections.

Quite otherwise is it with genuine gonorrhœa. In the male it begins from two to six days after the infective intercourse, with a burning sensation on passing water, itching at the urethral orifice, which very easily becomes reddened, and this is soon followed by the discharge, either spontaneously or as a result of pressure on the urethra, of a thick fluid, at first mucous, later purulent, and then of a yellow or a greenish colour. Inflammation, discharge, and pain, the latter especially in association with urination, increase during the subsequent weeks; in addition, in a good many cases there are slight fever, lassitude, and mental depression, and the patient is tormented, especially during the night, by violent, painful erections. In exceptional cases there are hæmorrhages from the urethra (the so-called “=Russian clap=”). In some cases the disease terminates favourably; this is especially observed after the first attack of gonorrhœa. As early as the third week the above symptoms become less severe, and in the fourth or sixth week after infection the whole morbid process may come to an end, the discharge ceases, the urine becomes clear once more, and, in fact, definite cure of the gonorrhœa ensues.

But the number of those who are so fortunate is comparatively small. In the majority of cases, there are other morbid phenomena and complications; the gonorrhœa becomes “=subacute=,” and later “=chronic=.” Ricord wrote many years ago: “When anyone has once acquired gonorrhœa, God only knows when he will get well again!” Happily, this pessimism is no longer fully justified at the present day; but it is a fact that in the majority of cases =even to-day= gonorrhœa is a very obstinate, wearisome illness, a long-continued burden, not only for the patient, but also for the doctor. The gonococci proliferate in the deeper layers of the mucous membrane, and pass upwards into the =posterior= part of the urethra, this latter migration being manifested especially by frequent and painful =strangury=; further, the =bladder=, the =prostate gland=, and the =epididymis= may be attacked. Bilateral epididymitis has often serious consequences as regards the procreative capacity. In about 50 % of the cases incapacity for fertilization (impotentia generandi) has resulted.

If the gonorrhœa becomes chronic, thickenings occur in isolated portions of the urethral mucous membrane; the urine remains turbid for a long time; the discharge, it is true, becomes scantier, but shows itself with the most annoying persistency every morning as soon as the patient leaves his bed, in the form of the so-called =“bon jour” drops= in the meatus; there are also troubles connected with the prostate (painful sensations, especially during defæcation), and symptoms of stricture of the urethra may occur. Very often, also, relative impotence and severe sexual neurasthenia are observed, as consequences of chronic gonorrhœa. Worst of all is the =long duration of the infectivity=. There is always the danger that somewhere or other some gonococci may remain hidden, and, given an opportunity, may start the process all over again, or may transmit the infection to another person. Zweifel reports a case in which a man actually infected a woman thirteen years after he had first acquired gonorrhœa!

The infection of a woman with gonorrhœa, as we know to-day, is a disaster. It is the immortal service of the German-American physician Noeggerath that, in the year 1872, he proved that the majority of the stubborn “=diseases of women=” were nothing more than the consequences of gonorrhœal infection. Gonorrhœa selects by preference the internal reproductive organs of woman; upon the extensive mucous membranes of these organs the gonococci find the most favourable conditions for their persistent life; they find a thousand out-of-the-way comers and hiding-places, where they can elude the therapeutic activity of the physician.

“They grow luxuriantly, like a weed which it has not been possible to uproot, over the entire surface of the genital mucous membrane, attacking with the same vigour the mucous membrane of the uterus and that of the Fallopian tubes. In women, as in men, they induce ulceration, they cause adhesions, and they give rise to sterility. But in the case of women, something further must be added--that, namely, this disease has upon them a miserably depressing effect, and that, in contradistinction from men, they are likely to suffer for many years from intense pains. Whenever they execute certain bodily movements, it may be during ten years in succession, they experience pains, often horribly severe, and in most cases they are condemned to a life of deprivation and misery--not usually for any fault of their own, since most women are infected by their husbands” (Zweifel).

Gonorrhœa in women, attacking successively the vagina, the uterus, the Fallopian tubes, the ovaries, and the peritoneum, is a true martyrdom, a hell upon earth. Sick in body and in mind, these unhappy women drag out a miserable existence; and to them so often the last consolation, that of motherhood, is denied, for gonorrhœa is the most frequent cause of sterility in woman.

Patients infected with gonorrhœa further run the danger of =blindness=, by transference of the gonorrhœal virus to the =eye=. This is one of the most distressing of the possible results of the disease. New-born children whose mothers are infected with gonorrhœa are during birth exposed to the same danger of eye infection, as they pass down the genital passage. In earlier days a very large proportion of the blind were persons who had lost their sight in this way very shortly after birth. Since Crédé advocated the admirable method of introducing nitrate of silver solution into the conjunctival sacs of new-born children, gonorrhœal inflammation of the eye has become one of the greatest rarities.

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Appendix

VENEREAL DISEASES IN THE HOMOSEXUAL

It is an old belief, shared by the homosexual themselves, that venereal infections are extremely rare among them. If male homosexual persons had sexual intercourse =only with one another=, this assumption would be in some degree plausible. For the principal focus of venereal infection is feminine prostitution, by which venereal diseases are transmitted to heterosexual men. But since these homosexual men often undertake sexual acts with heterosexual men--apart from occasional sexual intercourse with women--a priori there is a possibility of infection in their case, and such infection is, in fact, observed. Above all, many male prostitutes also indulge in intercourse with women, and thus diffuse venereal troubles among homosexual men.

It is obvious that =syphilis= can be diffused among the homosexual as easily as among the heterosexual, for syphilis is transmitted by many varieties of contact--by kisses, other caresses, etc. But how is it as regards =gonorrhœa=?

In the case of heterosexual men and women gonorrhœa is almost exclusively transmitted by the sexual act, by the introduction of the male penis into the female vagina. The analogous act between men--that is to say, pæderasty, immissio penis in anum--is unquestionably far =rarer= than the ordinary sexual act between men and women; it is commonly replaced by mutual onanism, by kisses and other caresses, and quite frequently by coitus in os. This last is much commoner than genuine pædication. Of gonorrhœa of the rectum produced by pædication when the active man is suffering from gonorrhœa, we very rarely hear. But is there, in the case of homosexual men, any possibility of gonorrhœal infection due to coitus in os?

There can be no doubt that typical =gonorrhœa of the mouth= occurs. The observations of Kuttler, Atkinson, Rosinski, Dohrn, and Kast, have proved it.[328] Horand and Cazenave have even observed gonorrhœal infection of the urethra as a result of oral coitus![329] A homosexual patient told me that some years before, after coitus in os with a man, he had for several weeks had a discharge from the urethra, which spontaneously ceased, and therefore cannot have been genuine gonorrhœa, but only urethritis resulting from infection by contagious angina. In the case in question, the urethral catarrh was certainly due to the coitus in os, since any other sources of infection could be excluded.

On the other hand, in a second case an apparently =gonorrhœal infection of the oral cavity= was transmitted from the urethra.

A homosexual man, forty-five years of age, one day allowed a =heterosexual= man to perform coitus in os on him. Some days afterwards he experienced difficulty in swallowing, was feverish, and saw in the looking-glass that the uvula was swollen. A specialist for throat troubles diagnosed merely a catarrhal infection. The illness became worse, and a second throat specialist detected the presence of a purulent angina of both tonsils, ordered painting with argentamin, also vapour baths, and an astringent gargle, whereupon the affection gradually subsided. Six weeks later the patient had swelling and pain in the joints of the right knee and foot; under cold compresses these swellings subsided after a fortnight. Of the whole trouble nothing now remains.

This description, on the part of a patient who is thoroughly trustworthy, aroused strong suspicion of a =gonorrhœal angina=, with a consecutive gonorrhœal arthritis. Unfortunately, the purulent discharge from the tonsils was not examined for gonococci by either of the physicians in attendance. The case remains, anyhow, very remarkable.

In the case of homosexual women, it is obvious that syphilis, and also gonorrhœa, can be transmitted, the latter by mutual friction of the genital organs. I do not know what actually occurs in practice.

[312] Cf. Iwan Bloch, “Schopenhauer’s Illness in the Year 1823. A Contribution to Pathography based upon an Unpublished Document.” Published in Medizinische Klinik, 1906, Nos. 25 and 26. (This gives an account of all Schopenhauer’s utterances regarding syphilis.)

[313] At a meeting of the Société d’Anthropologie de Paris, held on April 19, 1906, I read a paper on “La Syphilis Prétendue Préhistorique,” in which I discussed this question. The important question of ancient bones is further considered in the second volume of my work on “The Origin of Syphilis,” pp. 317-364 (now in the press).

[314] The results of this study I have briefly epitomized in an address given before the Social Science Congress in Berlin, entitled “The First Appearance of Syphilis in Europe” (Jena, 1904).

[315] Regarding the gradual acquirement (by means of natural selection) of immunity to epidemic diseases, the works of Archdall Reid may be most profitably consulted (“The Present Evolution of Man,” London, 1896; “The Principles of Heredity,” London, 1905). Dr. Reid’s views on the part played in human history by the transference of diseases from immunized to non-immunized races are of especial interest. Unfortunately, as regards syphilis, he accepts Hirsch’s erroneous statements relative to the antiquity of that disease, and its origin in the eastern hemisphere (see also p. 384, note ^{346}).--TRANSLATOR.

[316] Cf. A. Neisser, “The Experimental Investigation of Syphilis as it Stands at the Present Day” (Berlin, 1906).

[317] Cf. Erich Hoffmann, “The Etiology of Syphilis” (Berlin, 1906); Hans Hübner, “Recent Researches into the Nature of Syphilis,” published in the Journal for the Suppression of Venereal Diseases, 1906, vol. v., pp. 468-481.

[318] I must not omit allusion to some recent admirable works on venereal diseases: A. Blaschko, “Venereal Diseases”--a popular exposition--(Berlin, 1904); Paul Zweifel, “Venereal Diseases and their Importance to Health” (Leipzig, 1902); Alfred Fournier, “Syphilis a Social Danger”; Karl Ries, “Blameless Sexual Infection” (Stuttgart, 1904); O. Burwinkel, “Venereal Diseases” (Leipzig, 1905); Waldvogel, “The Dangers of Venereal Diseases and their Prevention” (Stuttgart, 1905). In view of the large number of popular works on venereal diseases, those without professional knowledge should confine themselves to the best names, because in this province trashy literature is extraordinarily abundant, and by the false and erroneous views it diffuses, it does much more harm than good. The writings mentioned in this note I am able to recommend as thoroughly scientific and =trustworthy=.

[319] Galewsky, “The Transmission of Venereal Diseases in the Suckling of Children,” published in the Journal for the Suppression of Venereal Diseases, 1906, vol. v., pp. 365-371.

[320] It is true that such a hardening may also occur in other non-syphilitic affections of the genital organs--for example, when they are peculiarly situated or as a result of cauterization. Only the physician can determine whether in such a case syphilitic infection has actually occurred.

[321, 322] According to English experience, the congenitally syphilitic child rarely exhibits any sign of syphilis when born. Thus, Hutchinson writes (“Syphilis,” p. 73): “At the time of birth, the congenitally syphilitic infant almost invariably has a clear skin, and appears to be in perfect health.” According to Osler also (“Medicine,” sixth edition, p. 269): “The child may be born healthy-looking or with well-marked evidence of the disease. In the majority of instances the former is the case, and within the first month or two the signs of the disease appear.”--TRANSLATOR.

[323] Cf. the recently published admirable work of Edmond Fournier, “Recherches et Diagnostic de l’Hérédo-Syphilis Tardive” (Paris, 1907).

[324] Parrot regarded rickets as a manifestation of congenital syphilis, but this view has never found acceptance in England. Hutchinson remarks (“Syphilis,” p. 408): “The typical forms of rickets are constantly met with in conditions which do not lend the slightest support to the suggestion of syphilis.” As Cheadle remarks: “Syphilis modifies rickets; it does not create it.”--TRANSLATOR.

[325] This view must be accepted with reserve. See, for instance, Osler’s “Medicine,” sixth edition, p. 271: “Is syphilis transmitted to the third generation? The general opinion is opposed to this view. Occasionally, however, cases of pronounced congenital syphilis are met with in the children of parents who are perfectly healthy, and who have not, so far as is known, had syphilis, and yet, as remarked by Coutts, who reported such a group of cases, they do not bear careful scrutiny. The existing difference of opinion is well illustrated in the account by G. Boeck (Berl. Klin. Wochenschrift, September 12, 1904) of four instances of hereditary lues in the second generation, while in the same journal Jonathan Hutchinson expresses his belief that syphilis is not transmitted to the third generation.”--TRANSLATOR.

[326] As more important scientific works on syphilis I must mention that of Isidor Neumann (Vienna, 1899, second edition), containing the entire bibliography of the subject; that of Joseph Lang (Wiesbaden, 1896, second edition); but, above all, the epoch-making work of Alfred Fournier, “Traité de Syphilis” (Paris, 1898)--English translation, Fournier, “The Treatment and Prophylaxis of Syphilis” (Rebman Ltd., London, 1906).

[327] The most important scientific work on gonorrhœa is that of Ernest Finger, “Blennorrhœa of the Sexual Organs,” fifth edition (Leipzig and Vienna, 1901).

[328] Cf. M. von Zeissl, “Diagnosis and Treatment of Venereal Diseases,” third edition, pp. 171, 172 (Berlin and Vienna, 1905).

[329] Op cit., p. 172.

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Chapter XV

PROPHYLAXIS, TREATMENT, AND SUPPRESSION (BEKÄMPFUNG) OF VENEREAL DISEASES

“The friend of humanity may with some confidence anticipate a gradual diminution in the prevalence of venereal diseases, and may hope for their complete extinction in a not too distant future. All that is requisite for the attainment of this end is that those engaged in the study and practice of general hygiene, and those concerned in the safeguarding of public morality, should not weary in their efforts; and that scientific research should pursue its aims firmly and clearly, uninfluenced by the tyranny of custom, and independent of prejudice.”--K. F. MARX.

CONTENTS OF CHAPTER XV

The suppression of venereal diseases -- Organization of the campaign against them -- International Conference in Brussels -- Foundation of the German Society for the Suppression of Venereal Diseases -- Three methods of carrying on the campaign against venereal diseases.

Personal Prophylaxis against Venereal Diseases: Rôle of cleanliness -- The preputial secretion and balanitis -- Importance of circumcision -- Technique of the cleansing of the genital organs before and after sexual intercourse -- Examination for disease -- Dangers of repeated coitus -- Special protective measures -- The condom -- Varieties and technique of its use -- The instillation of solutions of silver salts -- Their relative value -- The inunction of fat -- Metchnikoff’s ointment for the prevention of syphilis -- Antiseptic washings -- The public advertisement of protective measures -- Legal protection against venereal infection -- Opinions of legal authorities on this subject (von Liszt, von Bar, Schmölder).

The Suppression of Venereal Diseases by Medical Treatment: Favourable conditions as regards syphilis -- Mitigation of the syphilitic virus -- Mercury and its importance -- A “triumph of medicine” -- Methods of employing mercury in the treatment of syphilis -- Mode of action of the mercury cure -- Means for the after-treatment of syphilis -- Curability of syphilis -- Treatment of gonorrhœa -- Necessity for microscopical examination and the scientific methods to be employed -- The different modes of treatment -- The determination of the cure of gonorrhœa -- Facilitation of the treatment of venereal diseases for the great mass of the public -- “Krankenkassen”[330] and venereal diseases.

State Action and Public Action in the Campaign against Venereal Diseases: Statistics of venereal troubles -- Blaschko’s researches -- Frequency of venereal diseases in Denmark -- Among various classes in Germany -- Prussian statistics of April 30, 1900 -- Conclusions deducible from these statistics -- The different sources of infection -- Prostitution the principal source of infection -- Danger of youthful prostitutes -- Measures to be taken by the State against the diffusion of diseases by prostitution -- Regulation -- Criticism of this measure -- Its illegality -- Its uselessness and its dangers -- Favourable results of the withdrawal of “moral control” -- Prostitution and crime -- Soutenage -- Criticism of Lombroso’s theory of the relations between prostitution and criminality -- The brothel question -- Diminution in the number of brothels -- Dangers of brothels -- Brothel streets and the limitation of prostitution to definite quarters -- Proposals for the examination of the male clientèle -- Criticism of these proposals -- The true way towards the suppression of prostitution.

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