EXTRACTS
FROM THE
ANNUAL REPORTS ON THE MILITARY LOCK HOSPITALS,
FOR THE YEAR 1881.
Extracts from the Annual Medical Report of the Lock Hospital at Bangalore,
by Surgeon A. F. DOBSON.
No change has taken place in the hospital accommodation during the period under report.
The European and East Indian women are located in two wards, which are well ventilated and
ample for the requirements, as are also the wards for Natives, of which there are three in number,
each 56 feet long by 15 feet wide, and well suited for such patients.
The Superintendent of Police keeps a register of all brothels and prostitutes within an area
of fourteen square miles, as specified in the special Contagious Diseases Act sanctioned for
Bangalore ; the same applies to prostitutes who consort with Europeans. Tickets are given to all
registered women, and they are bound to attend at the hospital for examination at least once a
week, their absence being reported to the Superintendent of Police. If contaminated in any
way they are detained in hospital for treatment. Registration is, I consider, very insufficient
for the purpose. The soldiers of the garrison rarely, if ever, contract disease from those prosti-
tutes who are registered. The detective agency, which consisted of one European chief con-
stable and five constables, was reduced to one Native head constable in March 1880, from which
date up to the present time a steady decline has taken place in the number of women on the
register, and from the fact of there being only 85 registered prostitutes with an estimated
Native population of 71,144 within the area over which the Contagious Diseases Act Rules are
in force, it necessarily follows that clandestine prostitution must be carried on to a considerable
extent in the town and cantonment of Bangalore. During the year only three East Indian
women were convicted by the Civil authorities for practising their trade without a license, and
none came voluntarily to be registered. There has been a decrease of 61 in the total
number of admissions compared with the previous year, and the diseases have been for the most
part amenable to treatment ; but those which proved obstinate, and necessitated lengthened
detention in hospital, were chiefly attributable to the existence of displacement of the uterus
, whereby, owing to the excitement caused by frequent sexual intercourse, permanent irritation
of the intra-uterine mucous membrane is set up, ending in "chronic endometritis," and as all
such cases are included under the head of gonorrhœa, the greatest number of admissions has
resulted from this affection, there being as many as 330 cases ; next in order of frequency
menses, 188 admissions ; syphilis, primary, 95 ; syphilis secondary, observatio, condylomata,
ulcer of os uteri, and ulcer of cervix uteri include 35, making a total of 648 admissions for all
diseases and with an average daily sick in hospital of 45.60 for the year.
I would recommend for the better working of the Act that vigorous measures be insti-
tuted for the detection of unlicensed prostitutes and placing of them on the register.
Extracts from the Annual Medical Report of the Lock Hospital at Cannanore,
by Surgeon J. LEONARD.
The building occupied as Lock Hospital is a small bungalow with accommodation for
twelve patients. Superficial area and cubic space allowed to each patient during the year had
been 70 square feet, and 940 cubic feet respectively.
No Cantonment Sub-Committee has been convened during the year.
One head constable and two constables are detailed for this special duty ; a constable
attends the European Regimental Hospital every morning, and the soldiers admitted for venereal
diseases proceed with him and point out the woman from whom they have contracted the disease.
The woman is then brought to the Lock Hospital, where she is examined, and, if found diseased,
3