THE CONTAGIOUS DISEASES ACTS. Important Evidence in Favour of the Acts.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 34, 26 January 1884, Page 5

THE CONTAGIOUS DISEASES ACTS. Important Evidence in Favour of the Acts.

The annual meeting of the Royal Albert Hospital at Devonport on the 7th instant could haully, the "Lancet 1 .'•ays, have been expected to have taken place w itliout a decided opinion being expressed by the governors and subscribers on the effect of the abolition of the compulsory clauses The speakers, including- the president (Mr J. Carpenter-Gamier, ALP.), the Earl of Mount-Edgcumbe, Archdeacon Earle, Admiral Sir Houston Stewart, and the Mayor of Plymouth, all testified to the disastrous results of their suspension. Juvenile immorality had greatly increased. As Archdeacon Earle graphically put it, " the number of juveniles leading an evil course he saw in the streets was enough to grieve the heart of any father," and "contrasted greatly with a year ago." Rescue and prevention are much less frequent ; while open proflicacy has become rampant, and the condition of the streets is relapsing again into the disgusting state which preceded the passing of the Acts. The statistics which were adduced told the same tale only too plainly. Official returns show that during the five years pi'eceding the suspension of the Acts the average number of admissions into the lock wards was 155.9, and the average duration thirty days ; while the first quarter under the present voluntary system gave the average number of admissions as fifty-one, and the average duration forty-five days. As immorality had notoriously increased, the amount of contagion spread, and the increase in the severity of the disease can be readily estimated by our readers. The average number of cases of syphilis contracted among the military in the district during five years of the old system was 90. S7 per 1,000, whilst in the first quarter of the voluntary system the ratio had risen to 102.5. In the Naval Hospital at Stonehouse, on the Ist of September, 1882, the date of the Admiralty inspection, there were 261 cases, of which forty-five were venereal and contagious, whilst on the day of inspection in this year tbere were 169 venereal cases out of a total of 426. More striking even than these were the figures mentioned by Archdeacon Earle, showing that in the port of Plymouth in the six months ending the Ist of October, 1882, 997 cases— 277 females and 720 males — were treated, whilst during the past quarter of this year the number was 1,282, of which 91 were females and 1, 191 males. We feel quite sure, the " Lancet " adds, that the Acts must and will be replaced on the Statute Book ; but the injury that will be done in the meantime is incalculable, and is the more pitiable as it is so clearly and to such a large e&tent preventible. It will take many, years after the restoration ,of the A cts . before Plymouth can secure that their working , will be as efficient as at the date of their suspension,-,-"St. James's Gazette," J6th November, 1883,