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ANNUAL REPORT ON THE MILITARY LOCK HOSPITALS, MADRAS PRESIDENCY.
Natives. The area over which registration extends is seven square miles. There is a decrease
in the number of prostitutes this year, the number being 64 against 69 in 1880.
The women have, as a rule, been regular in their attendance at weekly examinations.
Three examinations are made weekly. Venereal diseases among the women have decidedly
decreased during this year, the total number of admissions being only 72 against 91 in
1880 and 114 in 1879. Parallel with a decrease in the admissions for primary syphilis among
the troops in garrison is seen a fall in the number of admissions from the same cause in this
Lock Hospital, and it is hard to resist the conclusion that they are related as effect to cause.
The type of the disease is stated by the Medical Officer in his last report to be mild, because the
sore was of the soft kind. The same point has been noticed this year, but no such inference
drawn, as it appears to be an open question whether primary syphilis in women does not often,
nay, almost always, take the shape of a soft sore though infecting the individual.
Extracts from the Annual Medical Report of the Lock Hospital at Secunderabad,
by Brigade-Surgeon E. S. CLEVELAND.
The Cantonment Committee looks after the working of the Lock Hospital. No special
measures were adopted for the control of prostitution ; all that has to be said is that a staff of
detective police, consisting of a head constable and four constables, is deputed for the detection
and apprehension of women who carry on prostitution with the European soldiers. These men
apprehended during the year 121 such women against 128 in 1880. As far as it is now
carried on, registration may be said to have been conducted with efficiency, for within the last
three years no less than 431 women have been brought on the register, the number registered
during the year being 121 against 128 in 1880. In an average strength of 364.18 women the
average number that presented at the weekly examinations was 302.60. In all there were
739 absences against 567 in 1880. Individual absentees numbered 171 as compared with
190 in the previous year. It may here be noted that the institution has tended to induce a
large number of these fallen women to enter a married life. In support of this fact it may be
mentioned, that in the year 1879 10 women abandoned their original calling ; in the following
year 32 ; and in 1881 31, making a total of 73.
Of the large number of cases admitted in the British hospitals very few of the men are
prepared to show the source of contagion, a matter much to be regretted, for if their assistance is
enlisted much may be done to mitigate the evil arising from their intercourse with both the
registered and unregistered women.
Better results have been attained in the year under review. Although the number of
women on the roll increased from 335 in 1880 to 382 in 1881, the number of admissions into the
hospital was the same as in the previous year. On the whole the working of the Lock Hospital
rules has been successful during the year, inasmuch as the number of admissions in the
European troops has diminished by 7.45 per cent. In connection with this subject it may here
be noted that it would be a very great advantage if the civil detective police were placed more
closely in concert with the regimental police than at present, so that the action of both may
bring better results than what has been achieved till now. Another point which claims notice
is the practice which now prevails among the prostitutes of Secunderabad taking shelter in the
city. Instances have lately occurred in which these women, while pretending to be residents of
the city, have come into the cantonment after dusk and carry on their calling. If the city
police were moved to have an eye on them, and the Secunderabad police at same time instructed
to see that these women do not come into the cantonment to spread the disease, some
advantage would be effected, especially as the city women are generally found to be diseased in
severe form.