Page:Wrong and Right Methods of Dealing with Social Evil - Elizabeth Blackwell (1883).djvu/85

Rh now loudly called for by a portion of the public press), is the determined opposition of the just, or religious men and women of the nation. Let that opposition cease, and London will become a Brussels or Hong-Kong.

The following analysis will show the error of supposing that there is any moral intention in the English acts.

PRINCIPAL ACT, 1866.

Heading.—An Act for the better Prevention of Contagious Diseases at certain naval and military stations.

There are forty-two clauses.

The first fourteen relate to the establishment of hospitals for diseased prostitutes, with the way in which they shall be instituted, and paid for by the Parliamentary grants to the military and naval services.

The next eighteen clauses refer to the compulsory and periodical examination of any woman, sick or well (within a radius of fifteen miles), whom the police believe to be a prostitute. These eighteen clauses refer to the details by which each woman is required to subject herself to examination for one year; the time and place for the examinations; the surgeons to carry them on; the hospital where any one found to be sick shall be detained in legal custody; the punishment and imprisonment of every woman, well or ill, who refuses to be examined.