The Technology of Orgasm: "Hysteria," the Vibrator, and Women's Sexual Satisfaction (26 page)

63
. Mortimer Granville,
Nerve-Vibration and Excitation
, 57.

64
. Noble Murray Eberhart, A
Brief Guide to Vibratory Technique
, 4th ed. rev. and enl. (Chicago: New Medicine Publication, 1915), 59.

65
. Vibrator Instrument Company,
Chattanooga Vibrator
.

66
. Monell,
System of Instruction in X-Ray Methods
, 595.

67
. Mary Lydia Hastings Arnold Snow,
Mechanical Vibration and Its Therapeutic Application
(New York: Scientific Authors, 1904).

68
. Richard J. Cowen,
Electricity in Gynecology
(London: Baillière, Tindall and Cox, 1900), 73–74; George J. Engelmann, “The Use of Electricity in Gynecological Practice,”
Gynecological Transactions
2 (1886): 134; Hermon E. Hoyd, “Electricity in Gynecological Practice,”
Buffalo Medical and Surgical Journal
, May
1890; George Betton Massey,
Conservative Gynecology and Electrotherapeutics
(Philadelphia: F. A. Davis, 1898); and Mary Cushman Rice,
Electricity in Gynecology
(Chicago: Laing, 1909).

69
. Alfred Dale Covey,
Profitable Office Specialities
(Detroit: Physicians Supply Company, 1912), 79–95; Samuel Spencer Wallian,
Rhythmotherapy: A Discussion of the Physiologic Basis and Therapeutic Potency of Mechano-vital Vibration, to Which Is Added a Dictionary of Diseases with Suggestions as to the Technic of Vibratory Therapeutics
(Chicago: Ouellette Press, 1906); and Wallian, “The Undulatory Theory in Therapeutics,”
Medical Brief
(Chicago), May-June 1905.

70
.
American Magazine
, 1916; see also 75, no. 2 (1912); 75, no. 3 (1913); and 75, no. 7 (1913): 127. Other such advertisements appeared in
Needlecraft
, September 1912, 23;
Home Needlework Magazine
, October 1908, 479, and October 1915, 45;
Hearst’s
, January 1916, 67, February 1916, 154, April 1916, 329, June 1916, 473; and
National Home Journal
, September 1909, 15. An advertisement soliciting male door-to-door sales representatives for vibrators appeared in
Modern Priscilla
, April 1913, 60.

71
. “Such Delightful Companions! Star Electrical Necessities,” 1922, reproduced in Edgar R. Jones, Those
Were the Good Old Days
(New York: Fireside Books, 1959). See also “A Gift That Will
Keep
Her Young and Pretty: Star Home Electric Massage,”
Hearst’s International
, December 1921, 82.

72
. Examples of advertisements for these devices include “Agents! Drop Dead Ones! Awake! Grab this new invention! The 20th century wonder, Blackstone Water Power Vacuum Massage Machine,”
Hearst’s
, April 1916, 327; “10 pennies lead ten people to get $32,000.00!” advertisement for Allen’s portable bath apparatus,
Men and Women
, May 1910, 80; “Corbin vacuo-masseur. For facial massage. A flesh builder. Price $1.50.”
Woman’s Home Companion
36 (May 1909): 57; “Ediswan Domestic Appliances. Use more electrical appliances in your home,” advertisement for pneumatic massage pulsator,
Electrical Age for Women
(Glasgow) 2 (January 7, 1932), inside front cover; booklet,
Vibration: Nature’s Great Underlying Force for Health, Strength and Beauty
(Detroit: Golden Manufacturing Company, [ca. 1905]); Good Health,
Twentieth Century Therapeutic Appliances
; Hamilton-Beach Manufacturing Company (Racine, Wise.), “What would you give for a perfect, healthy body?” 1913 advertisement for New Life vibrator, reproduced in Jones,
Those Were the Good Old Days
; Lambert Snyder Company (New York), “This marvelous health vibrator for man, woman and child; relieves all suffering; cures disease,”
Modern Woman
11 (April 5, 1907): 170; Lindstrom-Smith Company, advertisement,
Technical World
, 1928;
Popular Mechanics
, December 1928; Professor Rohrer’s Institute of Beauty Culture,
Rohrer’s Illustrated
Book of Scientific Modern Beauty Culture
(New York: Professor Rohrer’s Institute, n.d.); and Leslie Smith,
Vibratory Technique and Directions for Treatment with White Cross Electric Vibrator
(Chicago: National Stamping and Electrical Works, 1917).

73
. Sears, Roebuck and Company,
Electrical Goods: Everything Electrical for Home, Office, Factory and Shop
(Chicago: Sears, Roebuck, 1918), 4.

74
. “Development in Electrical Apparatus during 1917,”
Electrical Review
, January 5, 1918; A. Edkins, “Prevalent Trend of Domestic Appliance Market,”
Electrical World
, March 30, 1918, 670–71; “Electrical Appliance Sales during 1926: Tabulation,”
National Electric Light Association Bulletin
14 (February 1927): 119; “Electrical devices for the household,” advertisement,
Scientific American
96 (January 1907): 95; “Electrical Exhibits and Demonstrations in Wanamakers’ New York Store,”
Electrical World
, November 3, 1906; “Electromedical Apparatus for Domestic Use,”
Electrical Review of London
99 (October 22, 1926): 682; and C. Frederick, “Selling Small Electrical Appliances,”
Electrician
99 (November 11, 1927): 590–91.

75
. Robert T. Francoeur,
Becoming a Sexual Person
(New York: John Wiley, 1982), 37.

CHAPTER 2 FEMALE SEXUALITY AS HYSTERICAL PATHOLOGY

1
. On this point see Eliot Slater, “What Is Hysteria?” in
Hysteria
, ed. Alec Roy (New York: John Wiley, 1982), 39–40.

2
. Susan B. Anthony is said to have regarded male behavior at sports events as evidence that men were too emotional to be allowed to vote.

3
. Edward Haller Shorter, “Paralysis: The Rise and Fall of a ‘Hysterical’ Symptom,”
Journal of Social History
19, no. 4 (1986): 549–82.

4
. George Wesley, A
History of Hysteria
(Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1979), 6.

5
. For example, Phillip R. Slavney,
Perspectives on “Hysteria”
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990), and Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, “The Hysterical Woman: Sex Roles and Role Conflict in Nineteenth Century America,”
Social Research
39 (winter 1972): 652–78.

6
. Apparent loss of consciousness for a brief interval after orgasm has been noted in some women. See Linda Wolfe,
The Cosmo Report
(New York: Arbor House, 1981), 125.

7
. Jean-Michel Oughourlian,
The Puppet of Desire: The Psychology of Hysteria, Possession and Hypnosis
, trans. Eugene Webb (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1991), 145.

8
. Ann Ellis Hanson, “Hippocrates: Diseases of Women,”
Signs
1 (1975): 567–84.

9
. Aulus Cornelius Celsus, On
Medicine
, trans. W. G. Spencer (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1935), vol. 1, chap. 4, 20.307.

10
. Soranus of Ephesus,
Gynecology
, trans. Owsei Temkin (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1956), 140–70.

11
. Aretaeus Cappadox,
The Extant Works of Aretaeus the Cappadocian
, ed. and trans. Francis Adams (London: Sydenham Society, 1856), 300–301, and Aretaeus, “On the Causes and Symptoms of Acute Diseases,” in ibid., bk. 2, chap. 2.

12
. Galen of Pergamon,
De Locis Affectis
, trans. Rudolph Siegel (New York: S. Karger, 1976), bk. 6, 2.39.

13
. Áetius of Amida, “Tetrabiblion,” trans. James Ricci, in
The Gynaecology and Obstetrics of the Sixth Century
A.D. (Philadelphia: Blakiston, 1950).

14
. Mustio [Moschion],
La “Gynaecia” di Muscione
, ed. and trans. Rino Radicchio (Pisa: Giardini, 1970), 122.

15
. The masculine paranoia implicit in this view of the uterus really does not deserve comment.

16
.
Medieval Woman’s Guide to Health
, trans. Beryl Rowland (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1981), 87.

17
. Danielle Jacquart and Claude Thomasset,
Sexuality and Medicine in the Middle Ages
, trans. Matthew Adamson (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988), 170. The authors cite several other medieval medical authorities who advocate vulvular massage as therapy, among them Albertus Magnus and John of Gaddesden.

18
. Avicenna (Ibn Sina, 980–1037),
Liber Canonis
(1507; reprint Hildesheim: G. Olms, 1964), 3.20.1:44.

19
. Nancy G. Siraisi,
Medieval and Early Renaissance Medicine: An Introduction to Knowledge and Practice
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990), 115–23, 128, 135.

20
. Helen Rodnite Lemay,
Women’s Secrets: A Translation of Pseudo-Albertus Magnus’s “De Secretis Mulierum” with Commentaries
(Saratoga Springs: State University of New York Press, 1992), 6, 130–35.

21
. Giovanni Matteo Ferrari da Gradi,
Practica, seu Commentaria in Nonum Rasis ad Almansorem
(Venice: Iuntas, 1560), 389: “Haec itaque passio, cum primum, evenerit, curanda est. Cuius curatio est, ut pedes fortiter, fricenter & ligenter & cucurbitula magna sumini superponanter. & Obstetrici quoque precipiatur, ut digitum oleo, bene redolente, in circuitu oris vulvae, dum est intus, bene commoveat.”

22
. Philippus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim [Paracelsus], “On the Diseases That Deprive Man of His Reason,” in
Volumen Medicinae Paramirum
, trans. Kurt F. Leidecker (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1949).

23
. Ambroise Paré,
Workes of That Famous … Chirurgion
…, trans. Thomas Johnson (London: R. Cotes and Young, 1634), 634.

24
. Paré,
Workes
, 945.

25
. Audrey Eccles,
Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Tudor and Stuart England
(London: Croom Helm, 1982), 82.

26
. Eccles,
Obstetrics and Gynaecology
, 79.

27
. Robert Burton, The
Anatomy of Melancholy
, ed. Floyd Dell and Paul Jordan Smith (New York: Farrar and Rinehart, 1927), 355.

28
. Giulio Cesare Claudini,
Responsionum et Consultationem Medicinalium Tomus Unicus
(Frankfurt: Lazari Zetzneri, 1607), 402.

29
. G. Rattray Taylor,
Sex in History
, quoted in Richard Cavendish, ed., Man,
Myth and Magic
(New York: Marshall Cavendish, 1970), 193.

30
. Michael MacDonald,
Mystical Bedlam: Madness, Anxiety and Healing in Seventeenth-Century England
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 1981), 39. MacDonald does not mention the great antiquity of this concept.

31
. Abraham Zacuto,
Praxis Medica Admiranda
(London: Ioannem-Antonium Huguetan, 1637), 265–66.

32
. Nicolaas Fonteyn,
The Womans Doctour
(London: John Blage and Samuel Howes, 1652), B4–6.

33
. John Pechey,
The Compleat Midwife’s Practice Enlarged
, 5th ed. (1698), 232–33.

34
. Thomas Sydenham, “Epistolary Dissertation [on Hysteria],” in
The Works of Thomas Sydenham
, trans. R. G. Latham, vol. 2 (London: Sydenham Society, 1848), and Joseph Frank Payne,
Thomas Sydenham
(New York: Longman, Green, 1900), 143.

35
. William Harvey,
Anatomical Exercitations concerning the Generation of Livin Creatures
(London: James Young for Octavian Pulleyn, 1653), 501–2.

36
. William Harvey, “On Parturition,” in
The Works of William Harvey
, trans. Robert Willis (London: Sydenham Society, 1847; reprint New York: Johnson, 1965), 542–45.

37
. Nathaniel Highmore,
De Passione Hysterica et Affectione Hypochondriaca
(Oxford: A. Lichfield-R. Davis, 1660), 76–78.

38
. See, for example, Thomas Willis (1621–75),
Affectionum Quae Dicuntur Hystericae et Hypochondriacae Vindica contra Reponsionem Epistolarum Nathaniel Highmore
(London, 1681); published in English as his
Essay on the Pathology of the Brain and Nervous Stock
(London: J. Dring, 1681), 77–81. Willis’s objections were primarily to Highmore’s hypothesis that hysteria was a disease of the blood, not to the form of treatment. Culpeper, an older contemporary, apparently disapproved of traditional treatments for hysteria. See Nicholas Culpeper (1616–54), A
Directory for Midwives
(London: Peter Cole, 1651), 94–95, 110–11.