The book proved controversial: while he meant to expose this profession as a risky one healthwise both for prostitutes and clients alike, and as an immoral practice, many considered that Acton actually humanized prostitutes by denouncing low wages among women as one of the reasons why they would turn to prostitution as a means of support.
Twelve years have elapsed since I submitted to public considera- tion the first edition of this work, I entered upon my labours with feelings far different from those which induce me to resume them. Then, the attempt to rouse attention to a question that seemed to myself one of national importance, appeared almost hopeless. Now, the mind and conscience of the nation are awakened, and opinions which would have been formerly dis- missed as idle dreams, are deemed worthy of serious attention.
During the intervening period prostitution, with its atten- dant evils, has been the subject of anxious inquiry. In the Secretary of State for War, and the Board of Admiralty, ap- pointed a Committee to report on the best means of protecting the army and navy from the ravages occasioned by venereal disease, and in an Act having this end in view β now well known as the Contagious Diseases Act of β passed through the legislature.
Prostitution appears to have diminished, its worst features to have been softened, and its physical evils abated. I believe I may claim, without vanity, to have in some measure paved the way for, and guided the progress of this change, and I hail with satisfaction the advent of the time which has at length arrived when we may contemplate work accomplished, and, guided by the experience gained from results attained, consider what more remains to be achieved.
Strange as it may appear, the same arguments that were urged against inter- ference by the legislature with venereal maladies previously ta the passing of the Contagious Diseases Bill β of whose futility that measm-e is the strongest possible acknowledgment β are still put forward with as much confidence as though they had never received such authoritative refutation, and must still be met and answered, so far as the civil population is concerned.
