Clot Bey’s syphilis plan deployed un- trained army wives as medical inspectors

Evidence

In the second section of his Risāla Clot Bey, in a characteristically simplistic and didactic manner, set out a method that he thought would be effective in controlling the spread of syphilis through prevention rather than cure. It had to do primarily with the health condition of the women’s lodgings and their bodies. He said that the wives of the soldiers of each regiment were to be divided into four sections. Each of these sections was to be composed of the wives of the soldiers of each battalion within the regiment. They had to be set aside and examined by the wives of the doctors in charge of the men of the corresponding battalion. The doctors had to teach their wives how to detect signs of syphilis in the women they were to examine and the “women doctors” had to report to their husbands their findings after each examination, which was to be conducted every Thursday. More importantly, the soldiers were ordered not to allow into the camps any women except their wives “even if these women are their mothers or sisters since this will increase the financial burden of the soldiers, in addition to contributing further to the spread of diseases.” Finally, the lodgings of these women had to be regularly cleaned and this process had to be supervised by the colonel of the regiment himself. In addition, their lodgings had to be built “along two neat parallel lines with a wide street separating them and they have to be above the ground by a standardized height. In this manner disease could be stopped from spreading.” — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1163

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Clot Bey proposed inspecting soldiers’ wives to prevent rather than cure syphilis; Clot Bey devised a male-doctor-wife inspection scheme to control syphilis.
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Clot Bey proposed inspecting soldiers’ wives to prevent rather than cure syphilis; Clot Bey devised a male-doctor-wife inspection scheme to control syphilis.

Broader Connections

• Clot Bey devised a male-doctor-wife inspection scheme to control syphilis. #expands (0.92)