ntrol has long
been led by well-equipped experts, headed by Blaschko of Berlin. Precisely
the same conclusions are being reached in America. Gottheil, of New York,
finds that the municipal control of prostitution is "neither successful
nor desirable." Heidingsfeld concludes that the regulation and control
system in force in Cincinnati has done little good and much harm; under
the system among the private patients in his own clinic the proportion of
cases of both syphilis and gonorrhoea has increased; "suppression of
prostitutes is impossible and control is impracticable."[159]

It is in Germany that the attempt to regulate prostitution still
remains most persistent, with results that in Germany itself are
regarded as unfortunate. Thus the German law inflicts a penalty
on householders who permit illegitimate sexual intercourse in
their houses. This is meant to strike the unlicensed prostitute,
but it really encourages prostitution, for a decent youth and
girl who decide to form a relationship which later may develop
into marriage, and which is not illegal (for extra-marital sexual
intercourse _per se_ is not in Germany, as it is by the
antiquated laws of several American States, a punishable
offense), are subjected to so much trouble and annoyance by the
suspicious police that it is much easier for the girl to become a
prostitute and put herself under the protection of the police.
The law was largely directed against those who live on the
profits of prostitution. But in practice it works out
differently. The prostitute simply has to pay extravagantly high
rents, so that her landlord really lives on the fruits of her
trade, while she has to carry on her business with increased
activity and on a larger scale in order to cover her heavy
expenses (P. Hausmeister, "Zur Analyse der Prostitution,"
_Geschlecht und Gesellschaft_, vol. ii, 1907, p. 294).

In Italy, opinion on this matter is much divided. The regulation
of prostitution has been successively adopted, abandoned, and
readopted. In Switzerland, the land of governmental experiments,
various plans are tried in different cantons. In some there is
no attempt to interfere with prostitution, except under special
circumstances; in others all prostitution, and even fornication
generally, is punishable; in Geneva only native prostitutes are
permitted to practice