PROSTITUTION. 461 PROTAGORAS. since it would diminish tlie number of those who submit voluntarily to control. If, as seems prob- able, the system increases the extent of indulgence in vicious pleasures through creating a popular impression that vice is innocuous, it is not incon- ceivable that reglementation, as at present prac- ticed, increases disease instead of diminishing it. Reglementation has always excited vigorous op- position of large classes in society. Adverse sen- timent has been especially strong in England and America. The enactment of the Contagious Dis- eases Acts created a party of 'abolitionists,' who carried on a propaganda against the system until it was finally abolished. The same party has an increasingh' influential following on the Continent of Europe, and aims eventually to abolish regle- mentation there. The system is attacked on the grounds, ( 1 ) that it legitimatizes vice and encour- ages it by the attempt to make it innocuous; (2) that it is in violation of the principles of personal liberty, since it creates a class of persons over whom the police have practically unlimited power, and permits the police, on mere susjiicion, to sub- ject individuals to arrest and an insulting inspec- tion; (3) that it tends to render ditKcult or im- possible the reform of those who have once fallen into vicious habits of life ; and ( 4 ) that it in- creases instead of checking the extent of disease. Furthermore, it creates a popular impression that prostitution is a necessary evil, and thus acts as a check upon efforts to prevent its increase and to assist fallen women to rise from their dishon- ojable vocation. How far the charges of the abolitionists are true it is impossible to say. A conservative view is that little good results from reglementation; possibly no more than could be gained by the now discredited policy of penalizing prostitution. Permanent amelioration of public health and morals depends upon limiting the absolute extent of vice. There can be little doubt that a greater regard for the welfare of neglected minors in the large cities would diminish the number of those wlio live by vice. Houses of refuge for those who desire to reform are now quite connnon. Such institutions have not hitherto been as successful as was exix'cted. Investigation has shown that not more than five per cent, of the inmates of some of these Olagdalen Houses' were perma- nently reformed. This has in part been due to the fact that such homes, founded by religious or- ganizations, assumed that the reformed prostitute was to live a life of severe penance. Institutions which have aimed merely to offer a temporary refuge, and have sought to secure the return of the prostitute to an honorable place in society. have been far more successful, (societies for the rescue of girls who have fallen into the hands of professional procurers are also becoming promi- nent, and have already eft'ected much toward the suppression of this form of slave trade. Finally, much may be expected from the present tendency to furnish greater opportiuiity to the poorer classes for education and culture, and from public and private endeavors to provide healthful amuse- ment and society for those who otherwise fall a ready ])rey to morbid desires. BiBLioGR.PiiY. Behrend, Die Proslitufion in Berlin (Erlangen. 1850) ; Parent-Duchatelet, De la prostitution dans la vilJe ilc Paris (Paris, 1857). This is the classic Avork on the subject. Its spirit is thoroughly scientific, but its con- clusions require revision in the light of recent in- vestigations. Acton, l^rostitulion Considered in Its Moral. Social, and Sanitarii Asj/crt (London, 1857 ) ; Hiigel, Zur Gcschichte, Stotisfik- und Jxege- lung der Frustijutioii ( 'ienna, 1805; ; Report of the Royal Commission on the Contagious Diseases Aets (London, 1871) ; Ames, Laws for the Regu- lation of Vice (London, 1877) ; Lecour, La pros- titution a Paris et a Londrcs (Paris, 1882), a work containing the most satisfactory account of the administration and history of the Parisian .system of reglementation; Kuhn-Reich, Vorle- sungen iiber die Prostitution im 19. Jahrhundert und die Yerhiltung der Syphilis (Leipzig, 1888) ; Fiaux, La police des inwurs (Paris, 1888) ; Tar- nowsky. Prostitution und Aholitionismus (Ham- burg, 1890) ; Blaschko, Die Verbreilung der Syph- ilis in Berlin (Berlin, 1892) ; Sdniiolder, Die Bestrafung und polizeiliche Behandlung der ge- werbsmUssigen Unzucht (Diisseldorf, 1892) ; Commenges, La prostitution clandestine a Paris (Paris, 1897) ; Sanger, The History of Prostitu- tion (revised edition. New York, 1898). This is the most extensive English work on the subject, but it takes praeticall_y no account of the scien- tific progress of the last three decades, and is therefore of limited value. Conference interna- tionale pour la prophyhixie dc la syphilis et des maladies v^n^reennes (Brussels, 1899-1900) , the mo.st valuable compilation on the subject, contain- ing papers and discussions covering practically every phase of the subject. Report of the Com- mittee of Fifteen {New York) on the Social Evil (New York, 1902). PROSTYLE (Gk. -npdtjTv^og, prostylos, having columns in front, from 7rp6, pro, before + orf/of, stylos, column ) . A temple w'ith a portico in front. A temple with a portico at both ends was termed amphiproit^ie. PROTAG'ORAS (Lat., from Gk. npu-a/opof) (c. 485-C.411 B.C.). A famous Greek sophist of the fifth eenturs- B.C., born at Abdera in ^parent- ly humble station. He came to Athen*as early as B.C. 445, and in that city and in Sicily won his fame as a teacher and philosopher. About B.C. 411 he was charged with impiety, because of his agnostic writings, and forced to flee into exile. He met his death by drowning in the Sicilian Sea.- Protagoras was the first to call himself a sophist and to teach for pay; his instructions frere valued so highly that tradition reports that he received as much as 100 min* (.$1800) from a single pupil. He enjoyed the intimate friend- ship of Pericles and won great reputation for his brilliancy and skill. His chief works were entitled. Truth. ('A/.;/f*fia or 'AvruoyiKu) and On the Gods [Hepl toiv Otuy). His doctrine was a form of agnosticism, which declared that there was nothing absolutely good or bad — that such qualities are based simply on convention; hence it follows that each individual is his own final authority. This teaching is sununed up in the (now proverbial) phrase, 'JIan is the measure of all things.' Protagoras further turned his at- tention to grammar and the explanation of diffi- cult passages in the poets; the distinction of genders and moods is also attributed to him. Consult Frei, Qucestiones Protagorcce (Bonn, 1845) ; Weber. Qucestiones Protagorew (Marburg, 1850) ; Blass, Attische Beredsamkeit. vol. i. : Rit- ter and Preller. Historia Philosophiw Orcecce (7th ed.. Gotha. 1888) ; Zeller. Philosophic der Oriechen, vol. i. (5th ed., Leipzig, 1892) ; Ueber-
