SOCIAL DISEASES VOL. II JANUARY, 1911 No. I. THE JOURNAL OF "SOCIAL DISEASES" This JOURNAL was established to serve as the official organ of the various societies formed in this country for the prevention of social diseases. As indicated in the editorial notice of the initial number, it was intended to be a medium of communication between the several societies and a center for the diffusion of information respecting the progress of the movement in different parts of the country. The secretaries of the different societies were requested to send items of interest in connection with the work of their respective societies, but thus far we have been compelled to rely for material chiefly upon the papers and discussions before the New York Society and the expense of publication has thus far been borne by this Society. We are enclosing in this number subscription blanks for Vol. II. If the responses are sufficient in number to justify it, the JOURNAL will be published as a monthly instead of a quarterly. THE AMERICAN FEDERATION FOR SEX HYGIENE As stated in a previous number, the sum of $5,000 has been pledged for the purpose of building up and strengthening this organization and placing it on a sound financial basis. At the present day, it is recognized that any important movement requires money to carry it on to big and successful issues. Efforts are now being made to raise a foundation fund of forty thousand dollars for three years by securing forty pledges for one thousand dollars each for this period. In Boston, where this attempt to raise money has been started, four subscriptions of one thousand dollars each and two for five hundred dollars each for three years have already been pledged. It is hoped to secure at least ten subscriptions in Boston and an equal or larger number in New York, and the remainder in various other cities in the country. According to the recent report of the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis, eight million dollars were raised in 1909, and nearly fifteen million dollars in 1910, to fight tuberculosis. It would seem reasonable to expect that a foundation fund of forty thousand dollars could be raised for an effective campaign against a class of diseases which, perhaps more than tuberculosis, constitutes the greatest social scourge of modern times. A STATED MEETING OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF SANITARY AND MORAL PROPHYLAXIS WAS HELD AT THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF MEDICINE, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1910, DR. PRINCE A. MORROW, PRESIDENT, IN THE CHAIR. General subjects for discussion: I. THE SANITARY SUPERVISION OF PROSTITU TION. Addresses by: PROF. EDWIN R. A. SELIGMAN, Columbia University. PROF. FELIX ADLER, Ethical Culture School. II. THE POWERS AND DUTIES OF THE HEALTH REAL DISEASES. STEPHEN SMITH, M.D., State Charities Association. The President: As this is a continuation of the last meeting of this Society I may assume the privileges of the floor for a few moments to correct a misstatement made in my paper at that meeting. I stated that the Page Law marked a new departure that in all previous legislation in this State dealing with prostitution, the diseases it engendered were entirely ignored. Although I referred to the fact that venereal patients were formerly committed by the courts to the Penitentiary hospital for treatment, I was not then familiar with the statute under which this was done. Upon looking up this matter I find that on April 6, 1849, the Legislature passed an act creating "A Board of Governors of the Alms House of the City and County of New York." The act creating this Board of Ten Governors assigned to them among other duties, "the medical care of all persons who had contracted infectious diseases in the practice of debauchery and who required charitable aid to restore them to health." This applied to all persons sentenced by the Court of Sessions to the Penitentiary for the commission of some crime or committed to the Workhouse by the Police Justice for vagrancy, drunkenness or disorderly conduct. All such persons were examined by the Resident Physician of Blackwells Island and, if found affected with venereal disease, they were transferred to the Penitentiary Hospital (now the City Hospital) and treated there until pronounced cured. They were then retransferred to the penitentiary or workhouse to serve out the remainder of the term for which they had been sentenced. Under the provisions of this act all poor persons in the city, laboring men and women, prostitutes and others requiring hospital treatment, could be sent to the Penitentiary Hospital on commitment by a police justice. This was technically termed a commitment "on confession." In order to avail themselves of the free hospital treatment, it was necessary for them to appear before the magistrate and confess they had venereal disease, whereupon they were committed to the hospital for a period of from one to six months. This period of commitment bore a relation to the duration of the treatment then deemed necessary for the cure of these diseases. At that time the opinion was generally held by the medical profession that gonorrhea could be cured in four or five weeks, and that six months was quite sufficient for the cure of syphilis. |