The history of prostitution
No author can lay claim to a higher inspiration than that his work was conceived in the noble purpose of benefiting his fellow man, and the reader of the following pages cannot doubt that it was in this spirit and solely with this purpose that Dr Sanger compiled and gave to the American public " The History of Prostitution."
The subject may be termed a delicate one; nevertheless, it is essentially a practical one, and as such has commanded and must continue to command the attention of the law-maker, the physician, and the humanitarian. A vice which has been co-existent with the human race, which has preyed upon the morals, as well as the health of all peoples in all ages, which in the past, has defied the edicts of despotism no less than at present it defies the mandates of repressive legislation — such a vice should not in any spirit of prudery be put aside as unfit for public consideration.
Dr Sanger, who possessed unusual facilities for studying both the causes and effects of prostitution, supplemented his investigation of the subject on this side of the water by two years of observation and research abroad, devoting in all about seven years to the preparation of these pages.
The diligence and fidelity he gave to the undertaking are fully attested in the great volume of instructive data he has compiled. And where the author dropped the subject the editor of the present edition has taken it up and endeavoured to bring the investigation down to the present date.
From introduction:
Arguments are unnecessary to prove the existence of prostitution. The evil is so notorious that none can possibly gainsay it. But when its extent, its causes, or its effects are questioned, a remarkable degree of carelessness is manifested. Few care to know the secret - springs from which prostitution emanates; few are anxious to know how wide the stream ex- tends; few have any desire to know the devastation it causes.
Society has formally laid a prohibition on the subject, and he who presumes to argue that what affects one may injure all; he who believes that the malady in his neighbour's family to-day may visit his own tomorrow; he who dares to intimate that a vice which has blighted the happiness of one parent, and ruined the character of one daughter, may produce, must inevitably produce, the same sad results in another circle; in short, he who dares allude to the subject of prostitution in any other than a mysterious and- whispered manner, must prepare to meet the frowns and censure of society.
Keen was the knowledge of human nature, acute the perception of worldly sentiment in the breast of an accomplished woman lately deceased, when she wrote, " To such grievances as a society can not readily cure, it usually forbids utterance on pain of its scorn; this scorn being only a sort of tinseled cloak to its deformed weakness." How true the idea, many a man who has attempted to unveil a hidden crime, or probe a secret sorrow, but too well knows.
Not then to prove that prostitution exists, for that is so glaringly palpable that all must perforce concede it, but to ascertain. its origin, progress, and the end is the object of these pages.
The finger of scorn may be pointed at the labour; the self-righteous world may wrap itself in a mantle of prudery, and close its ears against sickening details; the complacent public may demur at an approach to sin and misery; the self-satisfied community may object to viewing wretchedness drawn from the obscurity of its hiding-place to the full light of investigation: nevertheless, there is now existing a moral pestilence which creeps insidiously into the privacy of the domestic circle, and draws thence the myriads of its victims, and which saps the foundation of that holy confidence, the first, the most beautiful attraction of the home.
Some contents of the book:
CHAPTER I
THE JEWS.
Prostitution coeval with Society. — Prostitutes, in the Eighteenth Century B.C. — Tamar and Judah. — Legislation of Moses. — Syrian Women. — Rites of Moloch. — Groves. — Social Condition of Jewish Harlots. — Description by Solomon. — The Jews of Babylon Page 36
CHAPTER II.
EGYPT, STRIA, AND ASIA MINOR.
Egyptian Courtesans. — Festival of Bubastis. — Morals in Egypt. — Religious Prostitution in Chaldffia. — Babylonian Banquets. — Compulsory Prostitution in Phoenicia.—Persian Banquets 40
CHAPTER III.
GREECE.
Mythology. — Solonian Legislation. — Dicteria. — Pisistratidie. — Lycurgus and Spar- ta.— Laws on Prostitution. — Case of Phryne. — Classes of Prostitutes. — Pomikon Telos. — Dress. — Hair of Prostitutes. — The Dicteriades of Athens. — Abode and Manners. — Appearance of Dicteria. — Laws regulating Dicteria. — Schools of PmRtitiitinii — Old Prostitutes. — Auletrides, or Flute-players. — Origin. —sjffowhirec^ — Performances. — Anecdote of Arcadians. — Price of Flute-players. — Festival of Venus Periboa. — Venus Callipyge. — Lesbian Love.— Lamia. — Hetairse. — Social Standing. — Venus and her Temples. — Charms of Hetaii'se. — Thargelia. — Aspasia. — Hipparchia. — Bacchis. — Guathena and Gua- thenion.— Lais. — Phryne. — Pythionice. — Glycera.—Leontium.— Other Hetairte. — Biographers of Prostitutes. — Philtres 48
CHAPTER IV.
ROME.
Laws governing Prostitution. — Floralian Games.—Registration of Prostitutes. — Purity of Morals. — Julian Law. — -^diles. — Classes of Prostitutes. — Loose Prosti- tntes^ — Various Classes of lewd Women. — Metrics.— Dancing Girls. — Bawds. lale Prostitutesi>-Houses of Prostitution. — Luminaria. — Cells of Prostitutes. -Houses of Assignation. — Comics. — Circus. — Baths. — Taverns. —Bakers' Shops. — Squares and Tho oughfares. — Habits and Manners of Prostitutes. — Social standing. — Dress. — Rate of Hire. — Virgins in Roman Brothels. — Kept Wom- en.— Roman Poets. — Ovid. — Martial. — Roman Society. — Social Corruption. — Conversation. — Pictures and Sculptures. — Theatricals. — Baths. — Religious In- decencies.— Marriage Feasts. — ^Emperors. — Secret Diseases. — Celsus.— Roman Faculty. — Archiatii 64
CHAPTER V.
THB EARLY CHRISTIAN ERA.
Christian Teacher preaches Chastity. — Horrible Punishment of Christian Virgins. — Persecution of Women. — Conversion of Prostitutes. — The Gnostics. — The Ascetics.— Conventual Life. — Opinion of the Fathers on Prostitution. — Tax on Prostitutes.— Punishment of Prostitutes under the Greek Emperors Page 86
CHAPTER VI.
PRANCE. — HISTORY DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
Morals in Gaul. — Gynecea. — Capitulary of Charlemagne. — Morals in the Middle Ages. — Edict of 1254. — Decree of 1358, re-establishing Prostitution. — Roi des Ribauds. — Ordinance of Philip abolishing Prostitution. — Sumptuary Laws. — Punishment of Procuresses. — Templars. — The Provinces. — Prohibition in the North. — Licensed Brothels at Toulouse, Montpellier, and Avignon. — Penalties South. — Effect of Chivalry. — Literature. — Erotic Vocabulary. — Incubus and Succubus. — Sorcery — The Sabat. — Flagellants.-r-Adamites. — Jour des Innocents.— ^Wedding Ceremonies. — Preachers of the Day 93
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