THE
HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION:
ITS EXTENT, CAUSES, AND EFFECTS THROUGHOUT
THE WORLD.
[BEING AN OFFICIAL REPORT TO THE BOARD OF ALMS-HOUSE GOVERNORS
OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.]
BY WILLIAM W. SANGER, M.D.,
RESIDENT PHYSICIAN, BLACKWELL’S ISLAND, NEW YORK CITY; MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN
ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE; LATE ONE OF THE PHYSICIANS
TO THE MARINE HOSPITAL, QUARANTINE, NEW YORK, ETC., ETC., ETC.
“To such grievances as society can not readily cure, it usually forbids utterance on pain ofits scorn; this scorn being only a sort of tinseled cloak to its deformed weakness.”—CurrerBell, Shirley.
NEW YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
PEARL STREET, FRANKLIN SQUARE.
1858.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred
and fifty-eight, by
HARPER & BROTHERS,
in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York.
DEDICATION.
TO THE GOVERNORS OF THE ALMS-HOUSE OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF NEW YORK.
Sirs,—To your honorable Board I dedicate the following pages, the resultof an investigation into the causes and extent of Prostitution.
Yours was the conception, mine has been the execution of the work; to youam I indebted for many valuable suggestions; to your kindness for muchencouraging approbation; and now to your hands I confide my labors, in theconviction that they will not be futile; that your patriotism, yourphilanthropy, and your humanity will be at once enlisted in the cause.
In so noble an endeavor it will be a source of satisfaction to rememberthat I assisted you in those generous exertions which will add freshlaurels to your names; that I had some share in the effort which willinduce future generations to remember with pride that the first blowstruck in the Western World at the gigantic vice Prostitution was aimed bythe Governors of the Alms-House of the City and County of New York.
I am your obliged fellow-citizen,
William W. Sanger, M.D.
Resident Physician’s Office, Blackwell’s Island,
New York City, August 10th, 1858.
ADVERTISEMENT.
The reader will perceive from the body of this work that the “History ofProstitution” was commenced in the year 1856. It was completed and readyfor the press at the close of 1857. On the morning of February 13th, 1858,the Island Hospital on Blackwell’s Island was entirely consumed by fire,which spread so rapidly as to render it impossible to save any thing fromthe flames. Among the property destroyed, my library and manuscripts wereincluded. Fortunately, the first draught of this work had been previouslyremoved from my office, and was preserved, and from that the presentvolume has been prepared.
Advantage has been taken of the opportunity thus afforded carefully torevise the work and introduce some additional facts, bringing the history,of New York especially, to the present time.
The chapters describing foreign prostitution are not claimed to beentirely original. They