From J. McNEALE DONNELLY, Esq., C .B., M.D., Deputy Surgeon-General, Her Majesty's Forces, Burma
Division, to the Inspector-General of Jails, with Civil Medical Administration, Burma,—No. 338, dated
the 18th February 1887.
I HAVE the honour to
return herewith the. reports
mentioned in the margin
upon the lock-hospitals in
Lower Burma which I have perused with much interest.
To any one familiar with the great practical difficulties which beset the effec-
tive carrying out of the Contagious Diseases Act the defects complained of in
these reports by the different officers entrusted with the administration of the
various hospitals will be no matter for surprise. To derive from the Act all the
beneficial results it was intended to produce requires a police agency .of a very
perfect kind, and as this agency is wanting to aid the efforts, of the Superintend-
ents of the institutions, these efforts resolve themselves simply into curing
actual disease and preventing a small minority of immoral women from becom-
ing centres from which it might disseminate itself.
It is quite clear that these officers one and all are thoroughly devoted to the
main objects. of their efforts, namely, the protection of soldiers, sailors, and per-
haps a large portion of the general community from what has in all ages been
regarded as an evil. of the first magnitude. That they should be disappointed
when statistics point to their comparative failure to attain this end is only what is
to be expected; and it is not unnatural that the cause of failure should be thought
.by them to depend largely upon a disposition on the part of Magistrates to adhere
too closely to legal procedure, and upon police constables, indifferent, corrupt,
inefficient, and too few in number. But when the matter is looked into critically
it will be . seen that the source of all disease. is clandestine prostitution, and that
this exists to a great extent because the classes who seek the company of profligate
females entertain a preference for those who do homage to virtue by dropping a veil
over the revolting character of their calling, a veil which is stript off the moment a
woman is placed upon the register of a lock-hospital ; for these reports teach also
that when a woman's real life is exposed, and she is registered amongst those
licensed to ply their calling without let or hindrance, she tries every device to with-
draw from her new sisterhood ; she induces a friend to claim the position of her hus-
band and to demand from the Magistrate the immediate restoration of her name
to the ranks of respectable matrons ; she pleads her repentance for a life of
wickedness and her resolve to lead a better one for the future ; she absents her-
self ; she feigns illness ; and when her efforts are of no avail, she finally quits her
abode, her.friends, and often her native place in her desire to escape the odium
of being a common harlot. Clandestine prostitution is a very widespread vice,
and it. may. be classed amongst -those most difficult to be suppressed or controlled
by human laws which the Legislature is ever called upon to grapple with.. We
need not .therefore, while regretting the failure of the lock-hospital system at
Rangoon, Thayetmyo, and Toungoo to make much impression upon its abundant
vitality during the year. 1886, cast any reflection upon the energetic and con-
scientious labour of those who had a difficult task intrusted to them . and who
did their best to perform it.
The results attained can at none of the military stations be regarded as
satisfactory so far as the garrisons of these stations were concerned, for the
admissions, taken in the aggregate, exceeded those of 1885 by no less than 94.
But the year was so very exceptional that its statistics scarcely admit of compari-
son with any of those which preceded it. For the garrisons.were not merely com-
posed of fluctuating elements, but of elements which imported much of the
recorded affections. For instance at Rangoon, though the mean strength of the
garrison was only 603, its aggregate strength was 1,460, and the admissions
amongst this large number was only 53 in excess of those of 1885, while the
ratio per thousand was 437·81 as compared with' 286·99 of the preceding year.
1.—Annual Report on the Lock-hospital, Rangoon, for 1886.
2.—Annual Report on the Lock-hospital, Thayetmyo; for 1886.
3.—Annual Report on the. Lock-hospital, Toungoo, for 1886.
4.—Annual Report on the Lock-hospital, Akyab, for 1886.
5.—Annual Report on the Lock-hospital, Bassein, for 1886.