Prostitution : considered in its moral, social, and sanitary aspects, in London and other large cities and garrison towns : with proposals for the control and prevention of its attendant evils / by William Acton.

  • Acton, William, 1813-1875.
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Prostitution : considered in its moral, social, and sanitary aspects, in London and other large cities and garrison towns : with proposals for the control and prevention of its attendant evils / by William Acton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    duty it shall be to investigate the truth of the statements on which such applications may he founded, and if satisfied of their truth to take charge of the pregnant woman thrown out of a situation, affording her work and assistance until confinement, and during her lying-in. It should further he the duty of the Board to settle at the time of the application the question of paternity, and if the seducer have left the neighbourhood, to discover and fix upon him the duty of providing for the child when horn. In doing this, it would be obviously necessary to guard against affiliating the child on the wrong person, and to see that the mother did not profit by the money obtained from the seducer, for this were no better than opening a regular and profitable market for female honour. The Board suggested should apply at their discretion the funds accruing for the keep and education of illegitimate children. Were the institution a recognised and a public one, I think the profes- sion will bear me out that for a good proportion of the mothers situa- tions might be found as wet nurses, and an opportunity thereby afforded them of recovering a respectable position. The situation of wet nurse would be acceptable and open to many thousands of women, were they cared for, from the time of their condition being discovered until their confinement, a period most trying to the unfortunate, and neglect during which leads too often to her permanent ill-health and to the birth of so sickly an infant that the mother loses all chance of being taken as a wet nurse. Further, I believe that if the women were thus relieved, a large number would be rescued from their position by marriage with their first paramours, when the latter were persons in the same rank of life with themselves. By applying such natural remedies, I think that illegitimacy might certainly be checked, and its sad consequences much softened to the unhappy mothers. This board could also materially alleviate, if not altogether remove, the evils attending on baby-farming. We have seen that the great evil of this system is that it places the lives of children in the hands of unscrupulous women, leaving them absolutely at their mercy, there being no power to prevent possession of the infants being obtained, or to enforce the bestowal of proper attention on the duties thereby undertaken. Now just as properly qualified and duly licensed persons only are allowed to take upon themselves the charge and management of lunatics, so those only who are properly quali- fied and duly licensed should be permitted to take upon themselves the charge and management of infants. I propose that the power of granting licenses and exercising supervision over all baby-farmers should be vested in this board. All persons wishing to adopt this calling might be required to send in their names and testimonials to it, and to receive a license from it on showing themselves to be fit and proper- persons to receive one; such license should be renewed annually, and a small payment might be made as duty thereon by the recipients. The names of all persons licensed might be registered; the number of babies to be received should be limited, and the receivers should be required to make a return to the board of all infants confided to them, with such particulars as it should seem from time to time necessary to require; and their houses should be at all times open to inspection by