by prostitutes.  Barmaids supply a considerable number to the ranks of prostitution, largely on account of their addiction to drink; drunkenness invariably leads to laxness of moral restraint in women.  Another potent factor in the production of prostitutes lies in the flare of finery flaunted by some friend who has adopted the life.  A girl, working hard to live, sees some friend, perhaps making a call in the street where the hard-working girl lives, clothed in finery, while she herself can hardly get enough to eat.  She has a conversation with her finely-clad friend who tells her how easily she can earn money, explaining what a vital asset the sexual organs are, and soon another one is added to the ranks.”

There is some interest in considering the reasons assigned for prostitutes entering their career.  In some countries this has been estimated by those who come closely into official or other contact with prostitutes.  In other countries, it is the rule for girls, before they are registered as prostitutes, to state the reasons for which they desire to enter the career.

Parent-Duchatelet, whose work on prostitutes in Paris is still an authority, presented the first estimate of this kind.  He found that of over five thousand prostitutes, 1441 were influenced by poverty, 1425 by seduction of lovers who had abandoned them, 1255 by the loss of parents from death or other cause.  By such an estimate, nearly the whole number are accounted for by wretchedness, that is by economic causes, alone (Parent-Duchatelet, De la Prostitution, 1857, vol. i, p. 107).

In Brussels during a period of twenty years (1865-1884) 3505 women were inscribed as prostitutes.  The causes they assigned for desiring to take to this career present a different picture from that shown by Parent-Duchatelet, but perhaps a more reliable one, although there are some marked and curious discrepancies.  Out of the 3505, 1523 explained that extreme poverty was the cause of their degradation; 1118 frankly confessed that their sexual passions were the cause; 420 attributed their fall to evil company; 316 said they were disgusted and weary of their work, because the toil was so arduous and the pay so small; 101 had been abandoned by their lovers; 10 had quarrelled with their parents; 7 were abandoned by their husbands; 4 did not agree with their guardians; 3 had family quarrels; 2 were compelled to prostitute themselves by their husbands, and 1 by her parents (Lancet, June 28, 1890, p. 1442).

In London, Merrick found that of 16,022 prostitutes who passed through his hands during the years he was chaplain at Millbank prison, 5061 voluntarily left home or situation for “a life of pleasure;” 3363 assigned poverty as the cause; 3154 were “seduced” and drifted on to the street; 1636 were betrayed by promises of marriage and abandoned by lover and relations.  On the whole, Merrick states,