The brothels of Brussels are of two kinds: _les maisons de debauché_ and _les maisons de passe_; these are visited by _les filles éparses_, who keep their appointments there. The two classes of houses are distinguished by different-colored lanterns hung over the doors. All classes of prostitutes are required to be examined twice a week; those who live in brothels of the first and second class are visited by the physicians, while the very poor women of the third class, and all those who do not reside in brothels, are obliged to attend at the Dispensary. If they are punctual in their visits for four weeks in succession they are exempt from all tax; but if, on the contrary, their attendance is irregular, they can be imprisoned from one to five days. Any woman who does not live in a brothel can be examined at her own residence, provided that she pays at the Dispensary a sum amounting to about eighty-five cents. For this she receives four visits, and the physicians will continue to call upon her as long as the payments are made in advance. Thus the denizens of the aristocratic brothels are saved the inconvenience of attending at the Dispensary, as also that portion living in private lodgings who can afford to pay the fee to release themselves from going to the office as common prostitutes, while the half-starved, ill-dressed pauper of the third class must wait at the Dispensary until examined, and then return to her squalid home, where none but her companions and the police-officers are ever seen. The medical staff of the Dispensary is composed of a superintending inspector, whose duty is to be present in the Dispensary when examinations are being made, and to visit the houses once a fortnight at least; of two medical inspectors, who, during alternate months, examine, one the women in the brothels, the other those who attend at the Dispensary. The date and result of every examination are marked on a card belonging to each woman, in the registers kept at the brothels, and in the records of the Dispensary. If a woman be found affected with syphilis or any other infectious disease, the owner of the brothel must send her immediately, in a car, to the hospital, and as soon as her cure is complete her card is handed to her, and she is at liberty to resume her calling. CHAPTER XVI. HAMBURG.