Parliament: Report from the Select Committee of the House of Lords on the Contagious Diseases Act, 1866, together with the Proceedings of the Committee, Minutes of Evidence and Appendix, [Command 46]

London, England: Select Committee of the House of Lords, 1871. First Edition. Softcover. Good. Folio - over 12 - 15" tall. A perfectly serviceable reference copy; nothing fancy, but complete and still relatively sturdy. Bound in tall, folio format, original printed blue paper wrappers, spine carefully repaired but still chipped and friable, easily Good of exterior, Very Good of interior. Folio format, measuring 13" tall by 8 1/2" wide. Published in London: House of Lords, 1871, reflecting the holding of the 1867-1868 session to hear comment upon the enactment of the 1866 Acts. Light, uniform toning to pages, moreso along edges, else clean and unmarked The Contagious Diseases Acts were passed by the British Parliament in 1864, 1866, and 1869, initially and ostensibly so as to address concern regarding the high levels of venereal disease in the armed forces, specifically the British Army and Navy, throughout the 1860s. In 1862 a committee was established to inquire into venereal disease in the British military, and on its recommendation the first Contagious Diseases Act was passed in 1864. The Act was specifically aimed at keeping down the levels of venereal disease in the armed forces by allowing plain-clothed police to "identify" (actually, to inscribe) "prostitutes" (or women dubbed as such) who were putatively infected with gonorrhoea or syphilis. The Act was enforced initially within eleven specified garrison and port towns. Included initially were Portsmouth, Devonport, Sheerness, Woolwich, Chatham, and Aldershot. The women and girls, if they failed to register themselves to the police, were required to undergo mandatory medical examination and treatment until thought uninfected if not cured. They could opt out by confinement in a Lock Hospital or be put to forced labor for up to three months, then extended to six and eventually 12 months. Like Catholic priests in the priesthood, British soldiers were discouraged from both homosexual contact and heterosexual marriage, and so various labor forms of prostitution were considered a necessary evil. No males were examined or surveilled upon or registered or incarcerated, one of many points of contention in multiple campaigns led to repeal the Acts. The Acts were extended eventually to the north of England, then to the civilian population, then throughout the Commonwealth, India to Malta, Canada to Australia. Most essentially, any woman who lived in, worked in, or passed through poor, surveilled upon areas were subject to arrest and compulsory medical examination on the suspicion of being a prostitute. Many women detained were not prostituted but were compelled anyway to undergo medical examination by police doctors and others. Included here are great, heaping cart-loads of empirical data regarding dates and places and numbers of women so surveilled upon, treated in Appendixes, types of clients, numbers of brothels, ports so surveilled upon, married women who were prostituted. xi + 150 pp.Member, I.O.B.A., C.B.A., and adherent to the highest ethical standards. Additional postage may be required for oversize or especially heavy volumes, and for sets.