I $6 MARRIAGE AND DISEASE. 



is continually being carried to the people. Prostitu- 

 tion is older than history, and has existed in all 

 nations and among all peoples ; only varying in degree 

 as the laws affecting the relationship of the sexes 

 varied. All attempts at the suppression of this vice 

 have signally failed ; and it is to be feared that so 

 long as human nature remains what it is, future efforts 

 in that direction are foredoomed to like failure. Pros- 

 titution is but the vicious overflow of that passion 

 which is the foundation of family and home, and 

 which calls forth all that is best and highest in 

 our nature, as well as much that is bad. So long as 

 that passion exists, so long will this evil continue. 

 That fact we must recognise, and having recognised, 

 the duty of society and the state is clear. It is not 

 to close our eyes against the evil we find it impossible 

 to remedy, and, ostrich-like, try to believe that what 

 we do not see does not exist; but, having admitted 

 the incurable nature of the evil, to set about mitigat- 

 ing its evil effects in every way that is possible. How 

 this social vice might be shorn of its terrible effect 

 upon the guilty and the innocent alike, has been 

 pointed out again and again, but until hypocritical 

 self-righteousness takes a less prominent place in our 

 creed, science will not be permitted to limit the ravages 

 of this disease in England. 



" In the eyes of every physician, and, indeed, in the 

 eyes of most Continental writers who have adverted 

 to the subject, no other feature of English life ap- 

 pears so infamous, as the fact that an epidemic, which 



