Note 30 — Chapter I · PROSTITUTION: DEFINITION AND EXTENT

Parent-Duchatelet reports (loc. cit., p. 582) two contrary opinions as current in his day: Some physicians hold that the prostitute has a constitution of iron (“santé de fer”), others that she dies before thirty. Neither view is sound. Parent-Duchatelet himself is able to trace the subsequent career of 1,680 women out of 5,081 who were stricken from the Paris list during a period of 10 years. They returned to various occupations; probably many of those whom he could not follow up did likewise (Ibid., pp. 584–5).