By 1869, any woman in a garrison town could be arrested on mere suspicion of being a prostitute and subjected to a vaginal examination against her will. Those with an infection could then be incarcerated in a ‘lock hospital’. Once inside, the women were stripped, bathed and issued with institutional clothing before they were subjected to a regime of two internal inspections a week with a speculum and required to flush out their vaginas with a medicated solution using a ‘vaginal douche’ four times a day. Most were incarcerated for a six-week period, although some found themselves locked up for
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