en of good social class, the disease being comparatively rare among
married men of the working class in England.

Gonorrhoea in its prevalence is thus only second to measles and in the
gravity of its results scarcely second to tuberculosis. "And yet," as
Grandin remarks in comparing gonorrhoea to tuberculosis, "witness the
activity of the crusade against the latter and the criminal apathy
displayed when the former is concerned."[236] The public must learn to
understand, another writer remarks, that "gonorrhoea is a pest that
concerns its highest interests and most sacred relations as much as do
smallpox, cholera, diphtheria, or tuberculosis."[237]

It cannot fairly be said that no attempts have been made to beat back the
flood of venereal disease. On the contrary, such attempts have been made
from the first. But they have never been effectual;[238] they have never
been modified to changed condition; at the present day they are
hopelessly unscientific and entirely opposed alike to the social and the
individual demands of modern peoples. At the various conferences on this
question which have been held during recent years the only generally
accepted conclusion which has emerged is that all the existing systems
of interference or non-interference with prostitution are
unsatisfactory.[239]

The character of prostitution has changed and the methods of dealing with
it must change. Brothels, and the systems of official regulation which
grew up with special reference to brothels, are alike out of date; they
have about them a mediaeval atmosphere, an antiquated spirit, which now
render them unattractive and suspected. The conspicuously distinctive
brothel is falling into disrepute; the liveried prostitute absolutely
under municipal control can scarcely be said to exist. Prostitution tends
to become more diffused, more intimately mingled with social life
generally, less easily distinguished as a definitely separable part of
life. We can nowadays only influence it by methods of permeation which
bear upon the whole of our social life.

The objection to the regulation of prostitution is still of slow
growth, but it is steadily developing everywhere, and may be
traced equally in scientific opinion and in popular feeling. In
France the municipalities of some of the largest cities have
either suppressed the system of regulation entirely or shown
their disapproval of it, while an inquiry among several hundred