Lock hospital

A lock hospital was an establishment specialising in the treatment of contagious diseases. The earliest lock hospitals were built to isolate lepers from the general community, but with the eradication of leprosy their emphasis turned to the treatment of venereal disease; the term “lock” is thought to be derived from the old French loques, the dressings applied to leprosy sores.^[1]

The earliest voluntary hospitals for the treatment of venereal disease were established in the 18th century.^[a]Voluntary in the sense of being funded by volunteers. The first, the Lock Hospital and Rescue Home in London, was founded in 1746 by the surgeon William Bromfield.^[2]

By the mid-19th century the UK government was becoming increasingly concerned about the spread of venereal disease among its soldiers and sailors.^[3] Because it was regarded as a by‐product of prostitution, legislation was felt necessary to control and regulate women who engaged in the profession. As a result, in 1864 parliament passed the first Contagious Diseases ActSeries of UK Acts of Parliament to control women engaged in prostitution, in an attempt to contain the spread of sexually transmitted diseases among the UK's soldiers and sailors., giving police the power to detain and examine any woman they suspected of being a prostitute.^[4] If she was found to be infected, she was confined in a lock hospital.^[3] Women who refused to be examined were subject to a prison sentence of up to six months hard labour.^[5]

Treatment

Treatment was free, but patients were subject to strict rules, and were expected to assist when convalescing.^[6]

Most patients attending the London Lock Hospital, for instance, were diagnosed as suffering from secondary or tertiary syphilis, chancroid, complicated gonorrhoea or venereal warts. During their average stay of six to eight weeks they received medical treatment and religious instruction, in an attempt to divert them from their “deviant, promiscuous” lifestyles.^[7]

Until the early 20th century the favoured treatment for venereal disease, and many others, involved the use of mercury: ingested, inhaled or even bathed in. But it was completely ineffective, and often more dangerous than the disease itself. It was not until the identification by two German scientists in 1905 of the bacteria responsible for syphilis that the first real cure was developed in the form of arsphenamine, marketed from 1910 as Salvarsan.^[5]