The Select Committee of the House of Commons on the contagious diseases acts (1866-69), sessions of 1879 to 1882, inclusive : the minority report / as adopted by Mr. Stansfeld, M.P. [and others] ; with references to the evidence on which it is founded.

  • Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on the Contagious Diseases Acts (1866-69)
Date:
1882
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Select Committee of the House of Commons on the contagious diseases acts (1866-69), sessions of 1879 to 1882, inclusive : the minority report / as adopted by Mr. Stansfeld, M.P. [and others] ; with references to the evidence on which it is founded. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    average ratios of such disease tluvn any of the uiisuhjected stations, except tlie large towns and cities—viz.: Preston, .Sheffield, Man- chester, Dublin, and London. One unsubjected city (Edinlxirgh) had, moreover, an average ratio less than Aldersliot and Colchester, and far below that of Windsor and Maidstone, aU' protected Capt. Harris's stations. The case of Windsor is the more remarkable, because Eeport 1880, according to the Police Eeturns, that station has fewer prostitutes ^ than any subjected station, except Winchester and Deal, the average number since 1876 being only 14, and tliat during the same period there have been no brothels of any kind in that district. Never- theless, in 1877 and 1878 (the last years comprised in the Army App 1880. Returns) the total ratios of venereal disease of all kinds at Windsor ^'^■^y 3^67™ considerably exceeded those of any other subjected station. It is Ev 1879 stated, indeed, by the Regimental Surgeons of the Infantry (the Ap 5, 6 and 8 Guards), periodically stationed at AVindsor, that the majority of the admissions to hospital there for primary sores and gonon'hosa Ev 1879. 2120 cases contracted out of the district (principally in London). 2558 But as these troops are regularly examined—wherever they are located—once a fortnight (and sometimes every week), the amount of disease possibly thus imported would form only a small part 2723 of the total amount debited to Windsor during the entire stay of each battalion there—i.e., nearly six months. Moreover, the hear- say evidence on wliich the statement is founded is obviously un- certain and unreliable. It is evident that the mere fact of the presence or absence of the Acts in any station, or set of stations, will not, per se, account for high or loAv ratios of disease; and this inference is remarkably illustrated and confirmed by a fact proved by Mr. Ev 1879. 409 Lawson, viz.: that in Aldershot Camp in 1868—9, while the Acts were in full operation there, the ratios of jDrimary sores in dif- ferent regiments varied from 142 to 23 per 1000 of force—the higher ratio being more than six times that of the lower—a differ- ence considerably greater than that which in the same years existed App. 1880, between the highest unsubjected station and the lowest subjected ^*156' station. This fact, indeed, indicates that the amount of disease in ^ ' different army stations is dependent, to a great extent, upon the character and habits of the men composing the forces at such j^laces Ev 1879. 415 respectively. Mr. Lawson .said, It depends vastly upon the Ev 1879 customs which exi.st among the men in the regiment. Tlie dis- 2361 parity sho^vn by the Army Medical Reports between the aimual ratios of disease in the Household Cavalry and Foot Guards, both stationed in London, is a further illustration of the same axiom. 12. The allegation of the official witnesses who support the Acts, as to the beneficial effects of the statutory operations on the health of the forces in the protected districts, rests upon the assuinption that the only material difference between the two groups of stations consists of the operation of the Acts in the one set and not in the other; and that in all other pai'ticulars