A Little Whimsy

  As I have mentioned several times before, one finds the most interesting things when trolling through information about bygone days. *Ahem*, I found the history of the vibrator.   

Female hysteria was a once-common medical diagnosis, made exclusively in women. (No longer recognized by modern medical authorities as a medical disorder.)  Its diagnosis and treatment were routine for many hundreds of years in Western Europe. Hysteria was widely discussed in the medical literature of the Victorian era.

 Women considered to be suffering from it exhibited a wide array of symptoms including faintness, nervousness, insomnia, fluid retention, heaviness in abdomen, muscle spasm, shortness of breath, irritability, loss of appetite for food or sex, and "a tendency to cause trouble".

Since ancient times women considered to be suffering from hysteria would sometimes undergo "pelvic massage" — manual stimulation of the genitals by the doctor until the patient experienced "hysterical paroxysm" (orgasm).

Water massages as a treatment for hysteria c. 1860.

Galen, a prominent physician from the second century, wrote that hysteria was a disease caused by sexual deprivation in particularly passionate women: hysteria was noted quite often in virgins, nuns, widows and, occasionally, married women. 

The prescription in medieval and renaissance medicine was intercourse if married, marriage if single, or vaginal massage (pelvic massage) by a midwife as a last recourse.

So, my conclusion from all of this? The next time some one questions your toys-- tell them it's just what the doctor ordered! 

Five Card Stud

2011 Passionate Plume Finalist

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