Okay so I was googling some abbreviations because I don't know most of what people are saying here and ran into this article... I had to share it!!!
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In the Western medical tradition
genital massage of a woman to orgasm by a physician or midwife was a standard treatment for
female hysteria, an ailment considered common and chronic in women. In 1653,
Pieter van Foreest [1] advised the technique of genital massage for a disease called "womb disease" to bring the woman into "hysterical
paroxysm".
Such cases were quite profitable for physicians, since the patients were at no risk of death, but needed constant treatment. However, the vaginal massage procedure (generally referred to as 'pelvic massage') was tedious and time consuming for physicians. The technique was difficult for a physician to master and could take hours to achieve "hysterical paroxysm." Referral to midwives, which had been common practice, meant a loss of business for the physician, and at times husbands were asked to assist.
[2]
[edit] Development of vibrator
A solution was the invention of massage devices, which shortened treatment from hours to minutes, removing the need for midwives and increasing a physician’s treatment capacity. Already at the turn of the century,
hydrotherapy devices were available at
Bath, and by the mid-19th century, they were popular at many high-profile bathing resorts across Europe and in America.[
citation needed] By 1870, a clockwork-driven
vibrator was available for physicians. In 1873, the first electromechanical vibrator was used at an asylum in France for the treatment of hysteria.
While physicians of the period acknowledged that the disorder stemmed from sexual dissatisfaction, they seemed unaware of or unwilling to admit the sexual purposes of the devices used to treat it.[
citation needed] In fact, the introduction of the
speculum was far more controversial than that of the vibrator.
By the turn of the century, the spread of home electricity brought the vibrator to the consumer market. The appeal of cheaper treatment in the privacy of one’s own home understandably made the vibrator a popular early home appliance. In fact, the electric home vibrator was on the market before many other home appliance ’essentials’: nine years before the electric vacuum cleaner and 10 years before the electric iron. A page from a
Sears catalog of home electrical appliances from 1918 includes a portable vibrator with attachments, billed as ”Very useful and satisfactory for home service.”
[2]
SOOO.... any females need some therapy for hysteria???
Cure for Female Hysteria
