uld be carried
out in a decent and humane manner, so as not to shock the modesty of
either sex, especially women, and so that patients need not be ashamed
of submitting to medical treatment. Nowadays the venereal divisions of
hospitals often more resemble brothels. This state of things makes it
impossible for any woman with a particle of modesty to stay in these
places. It is evident that women who are more or less virtuous, and
even the better class of prostitutes, will avoid such hospital
treatment as much as possible, and will thereby become the worst
sources of infection.

By treating venereal disease in hospital with more regard for decency
and modesty, by abolishing the brand of shame, and by separating
patients according to their behavior, we might succeed in improving a
state of things which is often unbearable. Patients with venereal
diseases would then more willingly submit to hospital treatment and
would be more easily cured. In Italy much progress has already been
made in this direction.

In conclusion, I am convinced that if we should be contented for the
present with damming up prostitution and suppressing the causes which
render prostitutes more and more abject, without yet being able to
abolish the whole evil, a transformation of our social life, and
especially the suppression of the reign of capital as a means of
exploitation of the work of others, and suppression of the use of
alcoholic drinks, would eventually succeed in the gradual extinction
of prostitution and the substitution of concubinage, which has much
less evil results.

VENAL CONCUBINAGE

Venal concubinage occupies an intermediate position between
prostitution and concubinage. It is distinguished from the latter by
the fact that it is remunerated; but the distinction is very fine.

=Lorettes.=--This is an old term which may be applied to paid women
who are not regular prostitutes. It is hardly possible to distinguish
them from clandestine prostitutes (not on the police inscription).
They are women who do not practice solicitation or sell themselves to
the first comer, but generally keep to one man for a time.

=Grisettes.=--The Parisian grisette, whose type has become classic, is
a higher class of woman who, at any rate in her primitive simplicity,
was not wanting in romance. Relations with a grisette may be compared
to limited and free marriage, in which there is comparative fidelity.

Like some of the free prostitutes, the grise