Lock hospital: Difference between revisions

[[File:London Lock Hospital.jpg|thumb|London Lock Hospital, 1831]]

[[File:Plan_of_the_Lock_Hospital%2C_Southwark_Wellcome_M0015151.jpg|thumb|Plan of the lock hospital of [[Southwark]]: it includes a "[[wikt:pledget|pleget]] room," devoted to the changing of [[Dressing (medical)|dressings]].]]

 

A '''lock hospital''' was an establishment that specialised in treating [[venereal disease|sexually transmitted disease]]s. They operated in Britain and its colonies and territories from the 18th century to the 20th.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/lockhospitalsloc00lown/lockhospitalsloc00lown_djvu.txt|title=Lock Hospitals and Lock Wards in General Hospitals|last=Loundes|first=Frederick W.|publisher=J. & A. Churchill|year=1882|location=London}}</ref>

The earliest lock hospitals in India were established around 1797 at [[Berhampur]], [[Kanpur]], [[Danapur]], and [[Fatehgarh]]. They were usually within bazaars, surrounded by a mud wall and staffed by a doctor and a female nurse. The local police were in charge of rounding up women suspected of being diseased, who could return home only after obtaining a certificate of discharge.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Wald |first=Erica |date=5 May 2009 |title=From begums and bibis to abandoned females and idle women |journal=The Indian Economic & Social History Review |volume=46 |issue=1 |pages=5–25 |doi=10.1177/001946460804600102|s2cid=143874173 }}</ref>

 

 

The term "lock hospital" originates from their use as [[leprosarium]]s, after the "locks", or rags, which covered the lepers' lesions.<ref>{{cite web|title=Lock Hospital, Hyde Park Corner|url=http://www.oldlondonmaps.com/viewspages/0334.html|work=Sara Douglass, Old London Maps|year=2006|access-date=2010-02-02}}</ref>

 

==See also==

 

==References==