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the book collector another kind [i.e., prostitution], a sewer more filthy, I confess, than all the others, but the study of which offers me the hope of effecting some good?’6 It was only logical. Sewers and prostitutes, each receptacles of human bodily excreta, could be cleaned and regulated scientifically, and because prostitution was legal in France, the task could be undertaken in an orderly fashion. This seemingly liberal approach to prostitution was a result of Enlightenment thinking that recognized the futility of suppressing male sexual desire while attempting to keep men disease-free through the medical regulation of prostitutes—it was they, and not their clients, who were required to undergo physical exams.7 What could be more reasonable? The new law codes of the Revolution that replaced those of the Ancien Régime made no mention of prostitution, and as it began to proliferate in the 1790s, the usual problems arose, from serious crimes to public disorder and disease—but it was not outlawed. Regulation, not eradication, became the goal, and brothels soon came under the supervision of the police. By 1823, all brothels were licensed and regulated, but a new problem arose: although registration was mandatory, many women worked illegally, that is, without a permit.8 The problems posed by prostitution, along with general health issues, continued to grow. In 1832 a cholera outbreak killed 20,000 Parisians while the number of prostitutes in the city reached an all-time high of 43,000 (out of a population of about 750,000). The health risks to both men and women from venereal and other diseases were becoming severe, the issue of public health as a responsibility of the state was emerging and the police were having trouble keeping up with the supervision of both legal and illegal prostitutes. Something had to be done to halt this threat to social stability, and Parent was the man to do it. The results of his work were published 6. Parent-Duchâtelet, De La Prostitution dans La Ville de Paris, 1836, vol. I, p. 7. 7. Syphilis, the great scourge of the 19th century, was medically attributed to prostitutes (rather than the men who infected them) and the examinations were intended not to protect the women, but their clients, many of whom were married. How to safeguard wives and mothers from venereal diseases—as well as prostitutes—became a major issue. 8. Registered prostitutes were known as soumises; illegal ones were insoumises. 50
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pavement nymphs and roadside flowers after he had spent a decade investigating the ‘sewer of another kind.’ In twenty-five chapters, Parent, who died of exhaustion the year his work appeared, discussed every aspect of Parisian prostitution by categorizing the prostitutes physically, geographically, medically and economically; he suggested methods of police and medical controls (he was an advocate of regulated brothels), and even proposed a way for prostitutes to pay taxes. He also supported the formation of institutions where women who had renounced prostitution could go to reconstruct their lives, taking a cue from his anonymous colleague. Throughout the entire work, and all subsequent works to follow on the subject, prostitution was seen as an exclusively female problem—not once is male sexuality called into question for requiring it.9 Parent created lists and tables showing the distribution of Parisian prostitutes by quartier, surveying areas throughout the city including the Île St. Louis, where, alone among neighborhoods, there were none; the Place Vendôme, where he found thirty-nine; and the Palais Royal, center of all things illicit, where he counted 346 prostitutes. They were also grouped by street, by suburb and by which département in France they had come from, even by which floor of a building they most frequently occupied. (It was the French first floor, the floor above street level.) Parent took advantage of the information supplied to him by the police, who, in 1816, had begun to keep more accurate data on the prostitutes they arrested than they had previously.10 By 1832, he had access to just over 5,000 records 9. I could find only one exception to this belief, and it was well before Parent. Mercier, always astute, was nearly alone in understanding that men created the demand for ‘wanton’ women, and that it was men who were less in control of their bodies than the women they paid for sex. ‘On compte à Paris trente mille filles publiques, c’est-à-dire, vulgivagues…On les appeloit autrefois femmes amoureuses, filles folles de leur corps. Les filles publiques ne sont point amoureuses; & si elles sont folles de leurs corps, ceux qui les fréquentent sont beaucoup plus insensés.’ (Op. cit., vol. 3, p. 114) 10. Parent, while conducting his research in the mid-1820s, must have come across Eugène François Vidocq (1775–1857), the notorious head of the Sûreté Nationale (France’s secret police force), which he founded in 1812 and headed until 1827. Vidocq, a legendary criminal who became a police spy and the world’s first detective, recalled his many exploits in several best-selling memoirs that became inspirational to many contemporary writers. Vidocq cites Parent in his work on criminals, Les Voleurs (The Thieves), 1837, and their connection, hitherto unrecorded, deserves more research. 51

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the book collector another kind [i.e., prostitution], a sewer more filthy, I confess, than all the others, but the study of which offers me the hope of effecting some good?’6

It was only logical. Sewers and prostitutes, each receptacles of human bodily excreta, could be cleaned and regulated scientifically, and because prostitution was legal in France, the task could be undertaken in an orderly fashion. This seemingly liberal approach to prostitution was a result of Enlightenment thinking that recognized the futility of suppressing male sexual desire while attempting to keep men disease-free through the medical regulation of prostitutes—it was they, and not their clients, who were required to undergo physical exams.7 What could be more reasonable? The new law codes of the Revolution that replaced those of the Ancien Régime made no mention of prostitution, and as it began to proliferate in the 1790s, the usual problems arose, from serious crimes to public disorder and disease—but it was not outlawed. Regulation, not eradication, became the goal, and brothels soon came under the supervision of the police. By 1823, all brothels were licensed and regulated, but a new problem arose: although registration was mandatory, many women worked illegally, that is, without a permit.8

The problems posed by prostitution, along with general health issues, continued to grow. In 1832 a cholera outbreak killed 20,000 Parisians while the number of prostitutes in the city reached an all-time high of 43,000 (out of a population of about 750,000). The health risks to both men and women from venereal and other diseases were becoming severe, the issue of public health as a responsibility of the state was emerging and the police were having trouble keeping up with the supervision of both legal and illegal prostitutes. Something had to be done to halt this threat to social stability, and Parent was the man to do it. The results of his work were published

6. Parent-Duchâtelet, De La Prostitution dans La Ville de Paris, 1836, vol. I, p. 7. 7. Syphilis, the great scourge of the 19th century, was medically attributed to prostitutes (rather than the men who infected them) and the examinations were intended not to protect the women, but their clients, many of whom were married. How to safeguard wives and mothers from venereal diseases—as well as prostitutes—became a major issue. 8. Registered prostitutes were known as soumises; illegal ones were insoumises.

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