hose moral worth is
weak take the traffic into their own hands when they can, and sell
themselves to men to satisfy their sexual appetites, instead of
allowing themselves to be passively exploited as articles of commerce.
Man being the stronger finds it advantageous in the lower and
barbarous states of civilization to monopolize this traffic for his
own profit, and deliver the women under his domination to
prostitution. We have seen that fathers give their daughters, and
husbands their wives to prostitution.

For the same reason, the woman who prostitutes herself in our modern
civilization, always runs the risk of being abused without payment;
which is not to be wondered at considering the doubtful quality of the
usual clients of the prostitute. It is therefore natural that she
should seek for a means of protection. She thus takes a male
protector, or "bully," whom she pays; or else she joins the service
of those who make a business of prostitution--or _proxenetism_.
Proxenetism and protectors are thus the parasites of prostitution.

Prostitution flourished amongst the ancients and also in the Middle
Ages, especially after the Crusades (Chapter VI). I do not propose to
write the history of prostitution; it is sufficient to be acquainted
with that of the present day. I may, however, remark that among a
number of primitive races, and in young and progressive nations, whose
sexual life is still comparatively pure, prostitution is only feebly
developed. It is especially to Napoleon I that we owe the present form
of regulation and organization of prostitutes. Like all his
legislation on marriage and sexual intercourse, this regulation is the
living expression of his sentiments toward woman; oppression of the
female sex, contempt of its rights, and degradation of its individuals
to the state of articles of pleasure for men, and machines for
reproduction.

=Organization and Regulation of Prostitution.=--We have just seen the
social conditions under which prostitution becomes quite naturally
organized, with its protectors and its proxenetism. There is another
factor to be added--that of venereal disease. The infectious germs of
syphilis and gonorrhea are usually met with in the genital organs of
man and woman; so that every coitus between a healthy and an infected
individual may infect the former. Hence the danger of the spread of
infection increases with the number of mutations in sexual
intercourse. If a woman offers hers