ABSTRACT
The connection of venereal diseases with leprosy made by the medieval authorities alluded to above, reveals their inability to distinguish between the ulcerous conditions of venereal disease and those of leprosy. 1 The term ‘lock’, was derived from ‘loke’, a house for lepers. According to William Acton the origin of the term ‘lock’ was in the French word ‘loques’, meaning rags, bandages, and lints. Lock hospitals acquired the name because the first one was located on the site of the medieval leper house in Southwark. 2 Walkowitz suggests that ‘prostitutes’ became the social lepers of the industrial revolution as syphilis replaced leprosy as the symbol of social contagion and disease. 3
