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NZ Truth, Issue 578, 15 July 1916, Page 4

syphilitic sore — upon a seat or anywhere else — will "catch" syphilis; and any person whose eyes are accidentally touched with the germs of gonorrhoea will contract gonorrhoea of the eyes.

There is also no doubt that the germs just mentioned ■will cause a virulent inflammation of the mucous membrane of any part of the body with which it comes m contact. There was a case m Sydney some months ago m which the City Coroner investigated the circumstances of the death af,_ a woman who committed suicide^jf/on finding that, not only was she Infected, but her young infant also, and that the infection of the infant was not confined to the part usually supposed to be. the seat of the infection. The facts as to this case are to be found In the evidence given by an eminent medical man before the Select Committee of the New South Wales Assembly which was investigating the subject.

It is mere waste of time to speak of the abolition of prostitution as the way to abolish "enthetic" disease. It is quite true that much disease is spread by prostitutes (who, m many cases, acquire it from men arriving from unclean foreign ports) ; but it is also quite true that some of the most dangerous spreaders of disease are not professional prostitutes; but young girls who are employed, or partially employed, and who, if they become diseased, sometimes really do not know what has happened to them, and that they are m a contagious state.

The regulation of prostitution, and of the licensing of houses frequented by prostitutes would tend to cause such men as would become intimate with the girls mentioned to go to the licensed houses instead. If these houses were properly conducted and the inmates instructed as to the absolute necessity of cleanliness m every case, there Is very good reason to believe that disease would be most materially reduced. The licensed or municipal brothels of tho Middle Ages were swept away by the rising tide of Puritanism; but it is worth noting that, m spite of the numerous licensed and municipal brothels m those times, there was apparently no syphilis m Europe until about the end of the fifteenth century. Syphilis is believed by Dr. Iwan Bloch and other authorities to have been introduced into Europe by the sailors of Christopher Columbus, and to have been spread by the armies of Charles the VTII., of France, when he was besieging Naples.

The members of the Federal Committee to Which we have referred, are opposed to any form of licensing of houses or women; but they do not tell us why. Eminent medical men who gave evidence before the Sydney Committee declared m favor of licensing. Doctors proverbially differ. It is also difficult for most men to escape the influence of their environment. That of many medical men 1 is one of middle-class conventionality; and this may account for the evidence upon which, wo suppose, the Federal Committee has based its opposition to licensing. It is, however, refreshing to find that tho members of the Federal Committee "consider that it would be unwise to follow a policy of harrying brothels." The recommendations of the Federal Committee are intended to "restrict" disease. This is all they would do: they would never bring about its abolition. For this purpose, something very much more is required. Conventionality must be thrown to tho winds, and wowserism thrown overboard. Every power should be utilised to prevent disease from entering the Commonwealth/ and to eradicate it wherever found within the Commonwealth.