ector of prostitution, and thereby favoring the idea that the use of
prostitution was not in violation of good morals, or that the trade of
the prostitute was such that the State could allow and approve of. The
bill, which met with the strongest opposition both on the floor of the
Reichstag and in the committee, was pigeon-holed, and dared not again
come into daylight. That, nevertheless, such a bill could at all take
shape reveals the embarrassment that society is in.

The administrative regulation of prostitution raises in the minds of men
not only the belief that the State allows the use of prostitution, but
also that such control protects them against disease. Indeed, this
belief greatly promotes indulgence and recklessness on the part of men.
Brothels do not reduce sexual diseases, they promote the same: _the men
grow more careless and less cautious_.

Experience has taught that neither the establishment of houses of
prostitution, controlled by the police, nor the supervision and medical
inspection, ordered by the police, afford the slightest guarantee
against contagion. The nature of these diseases is frequently such that
they are not to be easily or immediately detected. If there is to be any
safety, the inspection would have to be held several times a day. That,
however, is impossible in view of the number of women concerned, and
also of the costs. Where thirty or forty prostitutes must be "done" in
an hour, inspection is hardly more than a farce; moreover, one or two
inspections a week is wholly inadequate. The success of these measures
also suffers shipwreck in the circumstance that the men, who transmit
the germs of disease from one woman to another, remain free from all
official annoyance. A prostitute, just inspected and found healthy, may
be infected that same hour by a diseased man, and she transmits the
virus to other patrons, until the next inspection day, or until she has
herself become aware of the disease. The control is not only illusory:
These inspections, made at command, and conducted by male, instead of
female physicians, hurt most deeply the sense of shame; and they
contribute to its total ruination. This is a phenomenon confirmed by
many physicians. Even the official report of the Berlin Police
Department admits the fact by stating: "It may also be granted that
_registration causes the moral sense of the prostitute to sink_ still
lower."[104] Accordingly, the prostitutes try their utmost to es