The Bureau also secured the services of Mr. Abraham Flexner, whose reports on the medical schools in this country and in Europe are well known, to study the social evil and the various methods of dealing with it in the leading cities of Europe. Mr. Flexner spent the greater part of a year abroad, making a searching and exhaustive inquiry into the subject, and is now working on his report, entitled "Prostitution in Europe," which will be the second volume of the series, to be published in the fall. The third volume will deal with European police systems. Mr. Raymond B. Fosdick, a member of the staff of the Bureau and former Commissioner of Accounts of New York City, went to Europe in January for the purpose of making this study and is enjoying unusual facilities in the prosecution of his inquiry. The police are necessarily so important an instrument in dealing with prostitution that the success of whatever plan is adopted will depend largely on their organization and efficiency. No adequate descriptive and critical account of the British and Continental police systems exists. Much has been published from time to time, but there does not appear to have been any exhaustive study for the purpose of ascertaining the points of excellence, as well as the defects, of the European police and the lessons deducible from their experience. The police problems of the great European cities closely resemble our own; their police organizations have successfully worked through a period of storm and stress such as we are now passing through. Whatever differences may ultimately have to be taken into account, the experience of London, Berlin, and of other cities will, when fully reported, be rich in suggestions that will abbreviate our own period of experimentation. The fourth volume will be based upon studies made in those cities in the United States where different conditions exist or where special methods of dealing with the social evil have been introduced. In conclusion, it should be stated that the spirit which dominates the work of the Bureau is not sensational or hysterical; that it is not a spirit critical of public officials; but that it is essentially a spirit of constructive suggestion and of deep scientific as well as humane interest in a great world problem. JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, JR. _Chairman._ New York, May 1, 1913 Bureau of Social Hygiene P. O. Box 579, New York City COMMERCIALIZED PROSTITUTION IN NEW YORK CITY CHAPTER I VICE RESORTS:[1] (a) PARLOR HOUSES The actual business of prostitution in New York City is conducted in buildings which are designated in this report as vice resorts. These resorts are of several kinds. Most prominent are the so-called parlor house or brothel, the tenement house apartment, the furnished room house, the disorderly hotel, and the massage parlor. The present chapter deals only with the first named.