ABSTRACT
Of all the problems relating to public hygiene which confront the social reformer, that of the prevalence of what are called the venereal diseases is one of the most insistent. The problem shapes itself differently to different minds - on a large scale or a small one - according to their different preoccupations. Some, with a fine scorn of details, ask for a large and valiant scheme for ‘stamping out’ the mischief. Others are content to ask only a little - the first thing that comes to hand - as, for instance, compulsory powers to detain such patients as have already found their way to the lock wards of the workhouse until they are sufficiently cured to be no longer a danger to others. 1 In this case the advantage, limited as it is in scope, at first sight seems obvious enough.
