Gonorrhoea in Denmark. A survey of incidence over 82 years with comments on the reasons for the fluctuations noted.

Denmark has a longer tradition than most other countries in the combating of venereal diseases. Furthermore, venereal diseases have been notifiable throughout the last 82 years and we have reliable statistics of incidence, which have been collected in a uniform manner throughout the entire period. These constitute a basis for a long-term follow-up, indicating how the incidence of gonorrhoea is influenced by the campaign against venereal diseases. Then, depending on temperament or point of view, one may either appreciate the good results or be annoyed by the futility of the efforts exerted. The first public measure against venereal disease was a Royal decree of 1773 ordering that all treatment of venereal diseases on the island of Fyn should be paid for by the municipalities. This represented the introduction of free treatment for venereal diseases both in Denmark and in the world, and it has since been the main principle. In the year 1790, free treatment of venereal disease was extended to patients in the whole of Denmark and was made obligatory. Since 1802, i.e. 122 years before the Brussels Agreement of 1924, all foreign sailors irrespective of their nationality have been offered free treatment in Copenhagen. During the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, prostitution and prostitutes were regarded as the main focus of venereal diseases. The common feeling that prostitution controlled by the police was much less dangerous than loose uncontrolled women resulted in the Act of 1874, which decided that loose and vagrant women who were arrested because of prostitution and who continued in that