UNCHASTITY 257 



the issuing of licenses for brothels has been practiced 

 in several large cities. One of the conditions of the 

 license makes it obligatory upon the keepers of houses 

 of ill-repute and their inmates to submit to medical 

 examination at stated intervals. By this means, it is 

 expected to detect the cases of foul disease at the out- 

 set, and thus to protect others by placing the infected 

 individuals under restraint and treatment. It will be 

 seen that for many reasons such examinations could 

 not be effective; but, even if they were, the propriety 

 of this plan of dealing with the vice is exceedingly 

 questionable, as will appear from the following con- 

 siderations : 



1. The moment that prostitution is placed under the 

 protection of law by means of a license, it at once loses 

 half its disrepute, and becomes respectable, as do gam- 

 bling and liquor-selling under the same circumstances. 



2. Why should so vile a crime as fornication be 

 taken under legal protection more than stealing or the 

 lowest forms of gambling! Is it not a lesser crime 

 against human nature to rob a man of his money by 

 theft or by deceit and trickery, than to snatch from 

 him at one fell swoop his health, his virtue, and his 

 peace of mind ? Wliy not as well have laws to regulate 

 burglary and assassination, allowing the perpetrators 

 of those crimes to ply their chosen avocations with 

 impunity under certain prescribed restrictions? 



3. By the use of certain precautionary measures, 

 the fears of many will be allayed, so that thousands 

 whose fear of the consequences of sin would otherwise 

 have kept them physically virtuous, at least, errone- 

 ously supposing that the cause for fear has been re- 

 moved, will rush madly into a career of vice, and will 

 learn only too late the folly of their course. 



