ACTON'S WISDOM
203
which sometimes seems to be the chief constituent of society. Acton
was born in 1813, at Shillingstone, Dorsetshire, the second son of a
clergyman. In 1831 he was enrolled as apprentice to the Resident
Apothecary to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, where he worked
until 1836. He then traveled to Paris, where he devoted himself
to the study of what was to become his life's work, diseases of the
urinary and generative organs. In Paris he studied under and became
a permanent disciple of the well-known American genito-urinary
surgeon, Philippe Ricord; during -
this
period Acton also served for
some time as an extern in the Female Venereal Hospital. In 1840, he
returned to England, was admitted a Member of the Royal College
of Surgeons, and began practice
in
his specialty. He was for some
time, as well, Surgeon to the Islington Dispensary; and in 1842 became
a Fellow of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society of London.
As
a physician, it was said of him, Acton "was careful and
safe . . . and had much technical skill," and it was not long before
his practice became large. Sir James Paget, in his obituary notice of
Acton, rather primly remarks that he "never used the opportunities
of his large practice for an independent inquiry into the questions
still remaining in the pathology of syphilis, and in the parts of general
pathology which the study of syphilis may solve." He chose instead
to become a writer, taking as his subject not only the diseases in
which he was expert, but the social questions which were allied to
them, such as illegitimacy and prostitution. (One of his papers, which
I have not been able to obtain, is about "Unmarried Wet-Nurses"–
the possibilities of this title seem positively Joycean.) His first book,
published in 1841, was called
A Practical Treatise on Diseases of the
Urinary and Generative Organs in Both Sexes,
and was successful
enough to have gone through four editions by the time of Acton's
death in 1875.
Acton first came before the public eye, however, through his
writings on prostitution. He was one of the pioneers in the agitation,
investigation, and discussion that -finally led to the passage of the
Contagious Diseases Act of 1866; this legislation provided that in
certain areas where there were army encampments or naval stations
or depots--such as Canterbury, Dover, Gravesend, Woolwich, and
Aldershot-prostitutes be subject to periodical medical examination.
Any woman who was found on examination to be diseased was
