1838, men 569 Women 634 Total 1209 1839, " 695 " 738 " 1433 1840, " 704 " 757 " 1461 Assuming that one third of the venereal cases in Berlin were treated privately, this gives an average of 1 in 450, or in every four hundred and fifty men there is one syphilitic subject, whereas M. Parent-Duchatelet's calculation for Vienna is 1 in every 250."[266] The same report continues: "Every official will bear out my assertion that the number of brothels is in inverse proportion to illicit prostitution; that is, the fewer of the former, the more of the latter, and the greater the difficulty of dealing with them, and preventing syphilis." In 1841 another memorial was presented, with further complaints against the same houses in the Königsmauer. This was referred to the police authorities with the brief injunction, "Make an end of the nuisances about which there are so many complaints." The _Schulkollegium_ of the province of Brandenburg now joined their influence to swell the public outcry that the few houses of prostitution on the Königsmauer were hurtful to public morals, and a bad example to youth, and, on the ground of interest in their students and pupils, demanded that they be closed. The police, who had previously taken every precaution against a violation of public decency, now deputed a special inspector to give his personal attention to the locality. He reported there was no valid ground of complaint as to the outward conduct of the inhabitants, or the internal management of the houses. Thus satisfied as to the nature of the opposition, the police treated the college officials somewhat cavalierly, and recommended them to prohibit their students visiting such an out-of-the-way place: a very sensible piece of advice, and the best that could have been given under the circumstances. According to Dr. Behrend (who has written on Prostitution in Berlin), the leading spirits of this agitation were a clergyman, and a distiller who had a brewery and spirit-store in the vicinity of the Königsmauer. The clergyman proceeded upon moral and religious grounds, and led the crusade against brothels as a public disgrace, unworthy a Christian nation. We do not learn what line of argument the distiller adopted, or whether the prohibition of liquor in houses of prostitution influenced his zeal. These agitators applied to the police with a succession of general complaints as to the luxury of the houses, the gains of the women, the bad example to the young, and other topics of a similar nature. They met with but scant favor; however, they were assured that every possible means should be used to keep the offenders within the bounds of existing rules.