BRITAIN Contagious Diseases Act Flashcards

1
Q

When was the Crimean War?

A

1853-56

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2
Q

When did the health of the British army become a national concern?

A

Crimean War

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3
Q

What established the link between the health of soldiers and venereal disease?

A

1857 Royal Commission on the Health of the Army

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4
Q

When were the frequent medical checks on soldiers abandoned because of humiliation?

A

1859

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5
Q

How many army hospital admissions were for venereal infections in 1860?

A

37%

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6
Q

What did the government establish in response to the 1857 Royal Commission?

A

1862 committee

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7
Q

Who was the central advocate of the 1862 committee?

A

Florence Nightingale

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8
Q

What did the 1862 committee propose?

A

Penalties for concealing, but not contracting, venereal diseases; lock hospitals

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9
Q

Who suggested that Britain’s prostitutes should be moderated like the French?

A

Sir John Liddell, a member of the 1862 committee

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10
Q

Who raised objections to the 1862 committee’s suggestions?

A

William Gladstone

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11
Q

Who was hereditary syphilis a big killer for?

A

Children under 12 months

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12
Q

What did syphilis cause if left long enough?

A

Blindness; deafness; insanity

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13
Q

What was prostitution regarded quietly by many as?

A

Social necessity

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14
Q

What specified that a man could divorce a woman on grounds of adultery?

A

Matrimonial Causes Act 1857

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15
Q

What did a woman have to prove, along with adultery, in order to divorce a man?

A

Cruelty; desertion

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16
Q

John William Acton (1813-75)

A

London surgeon of high reputation, specialising in the urinary and genital organs; did not consider prostitution to be a social evil but was concerned that the diseases it spread posed a considerable social problem

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17
Q

When did Acton publish his book?

A

1857

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18
Q

What did Acton make clear in his book?

A

Prostitution was a social necessity; danger of venereal diseases; need for state intervention

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19
Q

When did Acton declare that charity and religion had failed to prevent prostitution and a scientific government regulation was called for?

A

1860

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20
Q

When were there many organisations set up for the reform and salvation of prostitutes?

A

1850s

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21
Q

When was the first Contagious Diseases Act passed?

A

1864

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22
Q

Contagious Diseases Act 1864

A

Gave police within ports and garrison towns the power to arrest prostitutes for medical examination- if a woman was found to be diseased, she could be detained in a lock hospital until cured

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23
Q

What would happen if a woman failed to submit to examination, according to the CDA 1864?

A

Imprisonment

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24
Q

When was the second Contagious Diseases Act passed?

A

1866

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25
Q

Contagious Diseases Act 1866

A

Compulsory examinations introduced for prostitutes once every three months; examinations were to be performed on all suspected prostitutes within ten miles of a suspected port or garrison town

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26
Q

When was the third Contagious Diseases Act passed?

A

1869

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27
Q

Contagious Diseases Act 1869

A

This regulation extended to all garrison towns and allowed prostitutes to be held for five days before examination without trial; made it legal for prostitutes to be detained in a lock hospital for up to a year and subjected to fortnightly inspections

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28
Q

How many protected districts did the CDA 1869 establish across the country?

A

18

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29
Q

Who defended the CDAs?

A

Medical authorities like Acton and Elizabeth Garrett Anderson

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30
Q

How did the CDAs provide a stark lesson to women of all social ranks?

A

A parliament of men was more than capable of passing laws degrading to women and beneficial only to men

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31
Q

What found considerable evidence that the CDAs had improved conditions for prostitutes in protected areas?

A

1871 Royal Commission

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32
Q

Why did the CDAs increase the working life of women beyond the customary 3-4 years?

A

Frequent checks and timely treatment- legislation appeared to preserve their health and allow them to remain in their business considerably longer

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33
Q

What became a prized possession for prostitutes after the CDAs?

A

Health certificates

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34
Q

What did the 1871 Royal Commission find was the most popular aspect of the CDAs?

A

Reduced occurrence of scabies

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35
Q

How could prostitutes get their names removed from the registers?

A

If they married/entered full-time employment

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36
Q

How did the CDAs affect the hospital admission rates for syphilis?

A

In protected areas, 37/1,000 soldiers were hospitalised with the disease, compared to 194/1,000 soldiers in unprotected areas

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37
Q

What has to be remembered about the 1871 Royal Commission?

A

They only interviewed certain types of witness- bulk of evidence collected came from Anglican ministers, doctors and military officers

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38
Q

What did some of the new laws make harder for prostitutes?

A

Access to reform institutions for those who wanted help to leave their profession

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39
Q

Which reform institution refused to care for women from government hospitals as it was opposed to the Acts?

A

Rescue of Women and Children

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40
Q

How did the police feel about the CDAs?

A

Regulation of prostitution was an unnecessary distraction from preventing and detecting more serious crimes

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41
Q

What was another worry about official intervention and prostitutes?

A

Damaged relations between prostitutes and their local communities

42
Q

Who argued that the impact of the CDAs on health was limited, as there were no checks on men within the armed forces?

A

Judith Walkowitz in 1980

43
Q

What was the prevention of venereal disease also hampered by?

A

Lack of medical knowledge around the subject

44
Q

Which VD was virtually untreatable?

A

Syphilis

45
Q

What raised the public concern about the legislation that would eventually develop into a movement for its repeal?

A

Suggestion that they may be enforced nationally

46
Q

Who reported in 1867 that further levels of state intervention would be needed to tackle the problem?

A

Harveian Society of London

47
Q

Who was involved in the campaign to extend the Acts?

A

Church of England clergymen; politically liberal doctors

48
Q

Which medical journal campaigned fiercely for the extension of the Acts?

A

‘The Lancet’

49
Q

When did opposition to the Acts increase?

A

1868-69

50
Q

Which notorious instrument would doctors use to carry out the medical checks?

A

Speculum

51
Q

Who did Elizabeth Wolstenholme invite to lead a campaign against the Acts?

A

Josephine Butler

52
Q

When did Wolstenholme invite a friend to lead a campaign against the Acts?

A

October 1869

53
Q

When was a protest signed against the Acts and the formation of the Ladies’ National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts (LNA)?

A

31 December 1869

54
Q

How many women were involved in the formation of the LNA?

A

Over 120

55
Q

Who were some of the women involved in the formation of the LNA?

A

Josephine Butler; Elizabeth Wolstenholme; Florence Nightingale; Lydia Becker; Harriet Martineau

56
Q

What did the number of signatures on the LNA petition quickly increase to?

A

Over 2,000

57
Q

How many allegations did the LNA make against the CDAs?

A

8

58
Q

What did the LNA include many of?

A

Quakers; Unitarians

59
Q

When was the Social Science Association founded?

A

1857

60
Q

What did the Social Science Association promote?

A

Public health; penal reform; industrial relations; female education

61
Q

Who was a member of the Social Science Association in the 1860s?

A

Elizabeth Wolstenholme

62
Q

Why could Wolstenholme not lead the LNA?

A

Too radical

63
Q

Why did Wolstenholme agree to marry when she became pregnant?

A

To avoid damaging the campaign against the CDAs

64
Q

Why didn’t Wolstenholme choose Nightingale or Martineau to lead the LNA?

A

Both were unmarried and childless

65
Q

Who did Wolstenholme partner with in 1875?

A

Ben Elmy

66
Q

Why was Butler a strong choice for leadership of the LNA?

A

Charismatic; strong-willed; fashionable; generally regarded to be beautiful; devout Christian

67
Q

Why did Butler oppose the CDAs?

A

Appeared to be legalising prostitution and were therefore morally abhorrent

68
Q

Why can Butler be viewed as a problematic leader?

A

Uncompromising

69
Q

What did Butler completely block that delayed the repeal of the CDAs?

A

John Stuart Mill’s proposal at the 1871 Royal Commission that the existing regulation be replaced by a system of voluntary examinations in private clinics

70
Q

What was James Stansfeld involved with before he joined the LNA’s campaign?

A

Worked in Gladstone’s cabinet until the Liberal election defeat in 1874

71
Q

What did Stansfeld do for the LNA?

A

Reshaped the movement into a more effective political pressure group

72
Q

What did Stansfeld encourage the formation of?

A

National Medical Association in 1875

73
Q

When did the Conservative government agree to establish a committee of inquiry into the Acts?

A

1879

74
Q

When did the Liberals return to power?

A

1880

75
Q

When did the inquiry into the Acts continue to gather information until?

A

1882

76
Q

Who did Stansfeld’s role in the LNA cause some tension with?

A

Middle-class women- they felt that men were too influential within the movement

77
Q

Who did the middle-class women in the LNA prefer to make alliances with?

A

Working-class men, who were generally easier to manage

78
Q

When did Stansfeld push through the final repeal of the Acts?

A

1886

79
Q

Which different tactics did the LNA use?

A

Petitioning; interfering in elections; drawing attention to women mistaken for prostitutes; co-operation with prostitutes

80
Q

What was a notable success for the LNA in interfering with elections?

A

1870 candidacy of Henry Storks for Newark- a new Liberal candidate was elected who opposed the Acts

81
Q

Why was the Storks triumph short-lived for the LNA?

A

He stood again in 1870 for Colchester- when protesters entered their own pro-repeal candidate, it split the Liberal vote and handed the Conservatives victory

82
Q

Henry Storks

A

Governor of Malta; enforced the CDAs rigorously across the island

83
Q

What did Storks do in response to the LNA’s first attack on him?

A

Withdrew his candidacy on the day of the election

84
Q

What was the problem with the LNA interfering with elections?

A

Protestors were almost entirely dependent on Liberal candidates and were unable to exert influence over Conservative MPs

85
Q

Who won the 1874 general election?

A

Benjamin Disraeli’s Conservative Party

86
Q

What did the LNA lose as a result of the 1874 general election?

A

Liberal MPs who were sympathetic to its cause

87
Q

What is the most dramatic example of the LNA drawing attention to women who had been incorrectly identified as prostitutes?

A

Mrs Percy in Aldershot 1875; drowned herself while police were investigating her

88
Q

What did the cases of women being mistakenly identified as prostitutes do?

A

Fuelled public fear that the CDAs risked the dignity of innocent women

89
Q

What is one noticeable failure of the LNA in regards to the CDAs?

A

Its inability to mobilise working-class women against the Acts

90
Q

When did it become clear that the LNA’s campaign had failed to sway public opinion in subjected ports and towns?

A

1882

91
Q

Where did campaigners succeed in persuading prostitutes to resist the legal requirements of the Acts in the early 1870s?

A

Plymouth and Southampton

92
Q

What was the ‘Siege of Devonport’?

A

Campaigners worked with prostitutes in resisting medical examinations; provided legal and financial support throughout trials

93
Q

When did the ‘Siege of Devonport’ run out of steam?

A

1871

94
Q

When did the prostitutes in Devonport become compliant with the Acts?

A

1872

95
Q

What was an early sign that parliament took the demands of protesters seriously?

A

1871 Royal Commission into the effects of the legislation

96
Q

When were the Contagious Diseases Acts suspended?

A

1883

97
Q

What was the most successful tactic of the LNA?

A

Convincing large elements of society that the CDAs were immoral

98
Q

What did Butler and her followers do while the HoC discussed the suspending of the Acts?

A

Held continous prayers next to parliament throughout the night

99
Q

Why was the medical profession less enthusiastic about the continuation of the Acts?

A

New understandings of the long-term consequences of gonorrhea and syphilis persuaded many that regulation was no longer a viable option

100
Q

What are some examples of the long-term health problems caused by VD?

A

Infertility; pelvic ailments

101
Q

What did the medical profession move to promote rather than regulation?

A

Chastity; precaution

102
Q

What did the CDAs become the ultimate embodiment of?

A

Sexual injustice allowed by a political system that excluded women