elf systematically to all the men
who wish for her, the probability that she will be infected by one of
them increases in proportion to the number of clients.

In the second place, as soon as she is infected, the danger is
increased by the number of men who have connection with her, for she
will probably infect a large proportion of them.

While paying much attention to venereal diseases and their
consequences, medicine has shown itself inconceivably blind in not
comprehending the bearing of this elementary arithmetic. We must take
into account the fact that the complete cure of syphilis is very
difficult, if not impossible, to prove; that this disease is extremely
infectious, at least during the first two years of its course; and
that it extends to the blood and the whole organism, so that it may be
communicated, not only by large visible sores, but by small
excoriations hidden in the mucous membrane of the vagina or the mouth,
etc.

We must also remember that gonorrhea is less painful in woman than in
man, and that, even in the latter, it ceases to be painful when it
becomes chronic. We may add that the microbes (the gonococci) are very
difficult to reach in all the recesses of the mucous membrane of the
sexual organs in which they are hidden, and that in women they
penetrate as far as the womb, when a cure becomes almost impossible.

If we consider that the sexual organs of woman form deep and hidden
cavities which it is very difficult to examine thoroughly, in spite of
all the apparatus of modern surgery, and that the mouth in prostitutes
is also frequently contaminated by unnatural manipulations; lastly,
that no part of their body is absolutely indemnified, it is easy to
understand the great danger of infection in public prostitution.

Recognizing the danger of venereal disease, the regulation of
prostitution was instituted by medical men with the good intention of
eliminating or of diminishing its danger, since they regarded its
suppression as impossible. This system consists in the official
supervision and inscription of every woman who prostitutes herself.
She is given an official form which obliges her to submit to medical
examination once a week or once a fortnight, under the penalty of
being arrested and punished.

To facilitate medical control, regulation generally endeavors to lodge
prostitutes in brothels or _lupanars_, under the direction of a
proxenet. In theory, the brothel is not exactly conside