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Remember, the early nineteenth century, we're dealing with the period
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in the wake of the Napoleonic wars.
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And with those wars, as always happens
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--or happened--there was a major upsurge
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in socially transmitted diseases, and in particular syphilis.
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And so this sanitary movement was accompanied by the movement
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for moral sanitation through the registration
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and surveillance of prostitutes.
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And in France those responsible for moral sanitation
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actually made the link explicit; that is to say
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that they compared brothels with sewers,
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and said that they, the brothels, should become the target