o submit to hospital treatment. But any one acquainted with the facts
knows that the treatment is illusory. In a short time every woman in a
brothel is infected, with very few exceptions. But, on the one hand,
the proxenets and the prostitutes have every interest in shortening
the time in hospital; and, on the other hand, the visiting doctor,
who often lives partly by their fees, is obliged to treat them with
respect. [In Paris, the doctors in charge of the inspection of
prostitutes are paid by the State, and do not depend on fees from the
women.] The treatment of venereal disease being of long duration and
very uncertain in its effects, a vicious circle is formed.

A conscientious Dutch doctor, Chanfleury van Issjelstein, who
attempted to eliminate all infected prostitutes from the brothels,
succeeded in almost emptying them, by subjecting the infected women to
prolonged treatment in hospital. This led to a revolt which endangered
his life, and he had to abandon his scheme.

In ordinary hospital practice only visible sores are treated, and
gonorrheal discharges as long as they are apparent; the prostitutes
are then allowed to return to their brothels. Moreover, inspection is
made too rapidly; for, if every woman was examined carefully from head
to foot every week, neither the brothels, the prostitutes nor the
doctors could exist.

Certain persons have made the proposition, as ridiculous as it is
radical, of submitting every man who visits a prostitute to medical
inspection! This would indeed be the only means of preventing the
infection of prostitutes. But I ask my readers to imagine such a
measure put in practice. Is it likely that the _habitues_ of brothels,
some of whom visit prostitutes nearly every day or oftener, would make
this known to a doctor in their town, and submit, before each coitus,
to a medical examination which would cost them more time and money
than their pleasure! Can one imagine doctors examining whole _queues_
of clients waiting their turn in brothels when business is brisk!

Whilst an independent prostitute still possesses some human sentiment
and a vestige of modesty which cause her to choose as far as possible
a limited number of clients, the police certificate of regulation
officially places the woman who receives it in the class of the
pariahs of society, and this leads to her losing the little that
remains of her womanly nature. In brothels, the last vestige of her
human nature is tramp