ose who "knowingly and wilfully
disseminate venereal infection." That same afternoon she left for ----,
where she continued to ply her calling unhindered. Who can estimate the
sum of the damage done by one such person? Not one of those men infected
was properly treated, although I did all I possibly could to convince
them of their own danger and of the risk of spreading infection to
others. Gradually, as the obvious signs of active disease abated, they
drifted away. I may say the Wassermann reaction proved strongly positive
in every case.... One of these men passed on his infection (syphilis) to
a young girl in this town, and she in turn infected other men, one of
whom came to me, while others went to my colleagues. Another man of the
first group, about middle age, and previously a very healthy, sober,
hard-working fellow, has developed thrombosis of his middle cerebral
artery as the result of a syphilitic endarteritis. He is totally
incapacitated, and in the Old Men's Home at ----. He remains a permanent
charge on the community."

(C.) _Hospital and Charitable Institutions Act, 1913, Section 19._

In 1913 the need for detention provisions, to cover any infectious or
contagious disease, received the attention of Parliament, and these are
embodied in section 19 of the Hospitals and Charitable Institutions Act,
1913, thus:

"19. (1.) The Governor may from time to time, by Order in Council
gazetted, make regulations for the reception into any institution
under the principal Act of persons suffering from any contagious or
infectious disease, and for the detention of such persons in such
institution until they may be discharged without danger to the
public health.

"(2.) Any person in respect of whom an order under this section is
made may at any time while such order remains in force appeal
therefrom to a Magistrate exercising jurisdiction in the locality,
and the Magistrate shall have jurisdiction to hear such appeal and
to make such order in the matter as he thinks fit. An order of a
Magistrate under this subsection shall be final and conclusive.

"(3.) Regulations under this section may be made to apply generally
or to any specified institution or institutions."

The Committee are advised that this section was not aimed solely at
venereal diseases. In that year, and prior thereto, was prominent the
difficulty of detaining consumptives who refused