[Beautiful girls' ugly malady--selected passages from the history of guilty sex and syphilis].

In Budapest at the end of the 19th century, visiting brothels was an important part of night life, including the risk of some venereal disease (v.d.) like syphilis, the in-vogue illness of the age. The expansion of prostitution could be explained with the continuous growth of economy and social development as a consequence of urbanization. Prostitution has grown in innumerable forms, levels and places in order to meet all requirements since this was the only tolerated form of sexuality "out of homes". The police headquarters' duty was to control the observation of rules prescribed for prostitutes. Data and information were available only on registered "professional" prostitutes because references on hidden prostitution were hard to find. Liberalization of the strict rules and regalements on brothels and "staff" began at the time when the increase of prostitution and simultaneously, of syphilis overreached the capacity of the Police and the Health Care System.