Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/527

* PEOSSNITZ. 459 PROSTITUTION. tria, E 2). It mauufaetures woolen cloth, eash- niei-es, malt, sugar, brandy, agricultural imple- ments, linen, and cotton stufl's. Population, in ISOO, 19..512; in UiuO, 24,054, mostly Czechs. PROSTATE GLAND (from Gk. 'rrpoaraTK, prostates, one who stands before, from -iwiardvat, pro'istanai, to stand before, from rpo, pro, before -j- iardvai, histamii, to stand). A pale, fii-m, glandular body, surrounding the neck of the bladder and the commencement of the male ure- thra. The prostate gland secretes a milky fluid having an acid reaction, and when examined with the microscope showing columnar epithelium with granular nuclei. In old age it is liable to become enlarged, and it is also sometimes the seat of various diseases. Inflammation of the organ is rarely idiopathic, but not infrequently occurs as the result of gonorrlia?a, or the use of instruments. Abscess may happen either as the result of acute inflammation, or it may occur with comparatively little antecedent inflamma- tion, as sometimes happens in pysemia. Prosta- titis is liable to produce retention of urine, either from inflammatory exudation or from the pres- sure of the congested organ. In such cases the urine must be drawn from the bladder by a ■catheter, an operation which, under the circum- stances, requires considerable skill and knowledge in order to avoid injuring the gland. The en- largement spoken of above as occurring in elderly and aged persons, although liable to afl'ect all classes, is more usual in those who have led ir- regular lives. In rare cases there is excessive development of the glandular element, and some- times tumors are developed. The gland is rarely the seat of cancer as well as of tubercle. Pro- static calculi may occur, generally in old people, more rarely in young subjects. Prostatic en- largement is treated surgically by removal of the organ entirely or in part, the operation consti- tuting prostatectomy. It is a grave operation. Consult Park. Hurgery hy American Authors (Xew York. 1001). PROSTITUTION (Lat. prostitutio, from prostituere. to ex])ose publicly, to place before, from pro, before, for + statu'erc. to place, from stare, to stand). Customary and common practice of lewdness for hire. Prostitution appears to have arisen in every race upon its emergence from the semi-promiscuity of barbaric life: certainly, no highly civilized i)eoplc has ever been free from it. While it may thus be regarded as universal, it is not, however, a constant phenomenon, since its volume has unquestionably shown great ten- dency to variation. The causes of prostitution are too complex for enumeration, but its principal conditions may be briefly indicated. It is most common where large •classes of men live under conditions which do not permit of the founding of families, and where numerous women exist in so degraded an environ- ment that they are not greatly influenced by the social abhorrence for professional vice. These con- ditions are fulfilled in most large cities, and for this reason it is not unnatural that prostitution has increased in the last century, since the pro- portion of the population living in cities has great- ly increased. (See PoprL.TiON.) It may there- fore be regarded as a phenomenon of social pa- thology, since it is closely dependent upon the social grouping of population and distribution of wealth. It may be pointed out that the «se of alcoholic beverages increases the num- VOL. XVI.— 30. her who live by vice, not only by increasing the attractiveness of such a life, but by creating in many homes conditions of so degraded a char- acter thtt young children are early familiarized with evil. Kecent changes in the mode of life of a large part of the race have no doubt given rise to many forms of physical degeneracy which nat- urally find expression in this form of vice. Fur- ther, the fact that a great deal of money finds its way into the hands of the prostitute renders it inevitable that a class of individuals .should arise who make it their business to provide opportuni- ties for vicious indulgence and to .secure new victims for prostitution: and although there is no foundation for the popular belief that systematic procuration is responsible for the greater numljer of prostitutes, it remains true that in many cities there have existed and still exist agencies for procuring unwilling victims for vice. Attempts to repress prostitution by penal laws have been common in all nations wh'ich have de- veloped a high standard of personal purity. Such attempts were frequent in Jewish history. Pros- titution was intimately associated with "the wor- ship of certain pagan deities (e.g. Astarte), and was therefore more severely punished than a mere moral ofi'ense would have been. In the early Germanic tribes prostitution, like any other form of unchastity. was severely punished as an ofl'ense against social and religious institutions. The conquest of the Roman Empire by Chris- tianity resulted in the promulgation of repressive laws against prostitution. By the capitularies of Charlemagne, whipping, imprisonment, and ex- posure were imposed upon the prostitute and those who sheltered her. Repressive enactments appear frequently in the later iliddle Ages, esjje- cially after the great epidemic of syphilis in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries,' when many States and cities adopted the harshest measures of repression, employing imprisonment, mutila- tion, and even capital punishment to this end. Upon her accession to the throne of Austria, Ma- ria Theresa entered upon a systematic policy of repression, punishing severely 'both the prostitute and those who consorted with her. Repressive policies still appear sporadically in both Europe and America, but the inherent difficulties of po- lice control of morals, together with the fruit- lessness of past repressive policies, prevent their general adoption. As an alternative to repressive measures, many governments have adopted the policy of tolerating prostitution itself, but under such "regulations as might divest it of its attendant evils." These may be classed as social and hygienic. The social ef- fect which was earliest recognized was its ten- dency to lower the general standard of chastitv, and thus to impair the integrity of the family and to undermine the whole constitution of so- ciety. Classical and mediawal regulation endeav- ored to meet this evil by drawing a clearly defined line between women devoted to vice and those of honorable life. The prostitute was com- pelled to live in special quarters, and to wear a distinguishing garb. The same spirit evidently lies at the basis of mmlern police regulations, common in German cities and not uncommon in America, creating a •reservation' within which prostitutes may live unmolested. It is assumed that when scattered among the general popula- tion prostitutes act as centres of contagion of moral disease. In small cities such regulations