opted the life. A girl, working
hard to live, sees some friend, perhaps making a call in the
street where the hard-working girl lives, clothed in finery,
while she herself can hardly get enough to eat. She has a
conversation with her finely-clad friend who tells her how easily
she can earn money, explaining what a vital asset the sexual
organs are, and soon another one is added to the ranks."

There is some interest in considering the reasons assigned for
prostitutes entering their career. In some countries this has
been estimated by those who come closely into official or other
contact with prostitutes. In other countries, it is the rule for
girls, before they are registered as prostitutes, to state the
reasons for which they desire to enter the career.

Parent-Duchatelet, whose work on prostitutes in Paris is still an
authority, presented the first estimate of this kind. He found
that of over five thousand prostitutes, 1441 were influenced by
poverty, 1425 by seduction of lovers who had abandoned them,
1255 by the loss of parents from death or other cause. By such an
estimate, nearly the whole number are accounted for by
wretchedness, that is by economic causes, alone
(Parent-Duchatelet, _De la Prostitution_, 1857, vol. i, p. 107).

In Brussels during a period of twenty years (1865-1884) 3505
women were inscribed as prostitutes. The causes they assigned for
desiring to take to this career present a different picture from
that shown by Parent-Duchatelet, but perhaps a more reliable one,
although there are some marked and curious discrepancies. Out of
the 3505, 1523 explained that extreme poverty was the cause of
their degradation; 1118 frankly confessed that their sexual
passions were the cause; 420 attributed their fall to evil
company; 316 said they were disgusted and weary of their work,
because the toil was so arduous and the pay so small; 101 had
been abandoned by their lovers; 10 had quarrelled with their
parents; 7 were abandoned by their husbands; 4 did not agree with
their guardians; 3 had family quarrels; 2 were compelled to
prostitute themselves by their husbands, and 1 by her parents
(_Lancet_, June 28, 1890, p. 1442).

In London, Merrick found that of 16,022 prostitutes who passed
through his hands during the years he was chaplain at Millbank
prison, 5