But while there is no doubt whatever as to the vast extent of the evil, these is great difference of opinion as to what may or can be done to check it. Many people treat the whole matter as if both the cause and the remedy were very simple. The Lock hospitals, the say, have been abolished, and hence venereal diseases prevail; reestablish these hospitals and this prevalence will be checked ; hundreds of soldiers who now fill the hospitals will then be doing their duty and instead of labouring under a disease which they may very likely transmit to their children, they will then be healthy and in due time the fathers of healthy families.

"If this opinion were correct we should not hesitate to urge that the lock hospital system should be reestablished in India without delay, and that it should be carried outwith unremitting care and attention but unfortunately the facts do not support such opinions ".

:

We have said that the hopes of reducing venereal disease among the troops by means of lock hospitals which were formed by the Sanitary departement in India, were not realised. Not only did these hospitals fail to effect a reduction in the ratio of venereal cases among European troops, but, as it happens, these diseases increased during the term of years in which they were in full operation. On this point we mayrefer to our Memorandum on the report of the Sanitary Commissioners with the Government of India for 1885.

10. These facts, so far as we can ascertain them, lead us to the conclusion that a compulsory lock hospital system in India had proved a failure, and that its reinstitution cannot consequently be advocated on sanitary grounds. Instating this conclusion, we may add that we are merely repeating an opinion which the Army Sanitary Commission has uniformly held, that venereal diseases in the army of India could not bed repressed by such restrictive measures, and in support of this statement we may refer to the memoranda on the Indian Sanitary Reports which issued from this office for many years. We believe that the best practicable meaus of diminishing the prevalence of these diseases is to be found in establishing a system of voluntary lock hospitals, and in providing the soldier, as far as possible, with healthy occupation and recreation, " Commanding officers should also be urged to encourage in every .way, all forms of athletic amusement, as far as possible, with healthy occupation and recreation".

We may remark that statistical returns from the Army Medical Department, shewing the amount of venereal disease in the army at home during the period when the contagious Disease Acts were in force, as compared with the period since their abolition, do not show that any more favourable results obtained during the time the Acts were in operation. As a matter of fact the ratio of admissions per 1000 has decreased since the Acts have been abolished (Parliamentary paper, no 318, and 1895, p. 25-28).

NOTE C

The rates of admissions for venereal diseases per 1,000 of strength in England and her possessions, as given by Brigade surgeon Climber in the United service Magazine in 1897 recently were: England 194.6; Gibraltar 306.5; Malta 157.5; Cyprus 185.3; Canada 97.1; Bermuda 43.9; Barbadoes 402.1; Jamaica 255.7; S. Africa 159.7; Mauritins 205.2; Ceylon 205.2; China 380.5; Straits 356.4; India 522.3; Egypt 408.3.

In foreign (conscription) armies the rate is usually very much lower.

United States 77.45; German 27.3; French 43.8; Austrian 63.6; Italian 71.3; Russian 43.0; Japanese 33.6. The Dutch Army in Indian Java has even more venereal disease than the English. Curionsly enough, whilst there is so much venereal desease in the 70,000 English troops in Hindostan, the native soldiers are quite free from such dieseases. The reason is evident. The native troops are all married, as their religion commands them to be.

NOTE D

Lord George Hamilton said in the House of Commons on January 25, 1897: The total aggregate admissions to hospital for venereal disease among the British Troops in India amounted in

1895 to 522 per 1,000; but this does not meau that 522 men per 1,000 were separately, and individually admitted, still less docs et indicate that 522 soldiers are incapacitated for duty from this cause. It is calculated on the latest returns that an average permanent reduction of 46 par 1,000 is the loss entailed by these diseases. "

On page 9, Départmental Committee's Report, 1897, it is calculated that during the years 1887-1896 76 men only in 70.009 were annually discharged from the Indian Army for venereal desease or about or not much more than one in a thousand.

Marriage or permanent unions between the sexes seems to be a certain cure for the evils caused by promiscuity. Why then, should not the English soldier marry, as will as the English policeman ? Children brought up in Barracks would make excellent soldiers and the army might be recruited from such a source and, youths inured to drill. Troops should as in Ancient Rome, be kept for long periods in one place: in fact, if they reside long in a place they form permanent attachmenst, and are practically married as M. Max Nordau says.This is the secret of the small amount of venereal disease among the Belgian troops or the French. They remain a long time in one place and form engagements which are a species of marriage, and quite different from the promiscutiy imposed on English soldiers in India by the Army regulations.

SERBIE

Prostitution et maladies vénériennes en Serbie.

Enquête de M. LE DOCTEUR MILITCHEVITCH

I. RÉPONSES RELATIVES A LA PROSTITUTION.

1o En Serbie la prostitution n'est pas libre. Elle est réglementée, et se trouve sous la surveillance de la police sanitaire, attachée au Ministère de l'intérieur.

Les prostituées inscrites se divisent en deux catégories :

a) Celles qui exercent la prostitution comme pensionnaires de maisons de tolérance;

6) Celles qui, exerçant ordinairement une profession avouable, comme bonnes, servantes, cuisinières, caissières, souscaissières, etc., dans les établissements publics, augmentent leurs revenus en pratiquant la prostitution.

En 1867, il y a eu en fait de prostituées inscrites:

4. Comme pensionnaires dans 32 maisons de tolérance: 426 per

sonnes;

B. Comme prostituées à profession principale avouable: 611 per

sonnes;

En tout 1,037 prostituées.

Le nombre de ces prostituées et des maisons de tolérance se répartit de la façon suivante pour l'année 1897 :

20 On inscrit et on soumet à la visite médicale réglementaire toute personne du sexe feminin, pour laquelle, après enquête, il reste démontré :

4. Qu'elle exerce la prostitution comme occupation ordinaire; B. Ensuite, celles qu'on soupçonne de s'adonner à la prostitution malgré les avertissements antérieurs;

C. Celles qui recherchent la société des personnes désignées sous A et B, malgré les avertissements antérieurs.

Pour établir qu'une personne s'adonne à la prostitution, on se