About the benefit from reading old books and the harm from retelling them

In the article the book by historian A.A. Ilyukhov.Prostitution in Russia from the XVII century till 1917. (Moscow, 2007) is analyzed. The main attention is drawn to the author.s inaccurate appraisals of the books of the Russian researchers of XIX c., to his debatable interpretations of some events of the World history of medicine and problems of cultural science. The contents of the book is evaluated as a repeating of the well-known facts, which were analyzed in detail in the Russian literature of XIX. the beginning of XX cc.