See a set of the Daintette vaginal douche, with pamphlets, etc., 1928-29?, U.S.A.
The Perils of Vaginal Douching (essay by Luci Capo Rome) - the odor page
"Faultless Feminine Syringe," No. 240, made by the Faultless Rubber Company, Ashland, Ohio, U.S.A., perhaps from the 1960s or 1970s.
HOMEPAGE
CONTRIBUTE to Humor, Words and expressions about menstruation and Would you stop menstruating if you could?
Some MUM site links:
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MUM address & What does MUM mean? |
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Tour of the former museum (video) |
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Words and expressions about menstruation |
Would you stop menstruating if you could? |
What did women do about menstruation in the past? |
Washable pads |
Read 10 years (1996-2006) of articles and Letters to Your MUM on this site.
Leer la versión en español de los siguientes temas: Anticoncepción y religión, Breve reseña - Olor - Religión y menstruación - Seguridad de productos para la menstruación.

 

Portable bidet, in the ready-to-use position (Paris, France, 1928)

A bidet has allowed men and women since possibly the Crusades (11th to the 13th centuries) to wash feet, hair, beards, genitals and perineum. The bather usually rides it like a pony; pony is what the word meant in the French of 400 or so years ago. Bidets today often fit onto toilets.

The beautiful bidet featured here, below, seems to be made of oak, heavy enough to withstand water and usage, and metal painted a gold color. There are no fancy jets of water; the user poured water over her genitals - the old-fashioned way.

See the closed bidet and introduction to this bidet; and the bidet ready to use.

 

The user probably sat like the stick figure, riding the bidet like a pony - bidet means pony in the French of 400-500 years ago - and probably could lie back on the section at left. Although this bidet belonged to a woman, men used, and use, them too.
I might have the bidet's basin in backwards; rather than under her buttocks and vulva, the shelf - see below - may have been facing her, making a support for a sponge, soap, etc. A site visitor commented that the shelf away from the body would prevent water from splashing over the far side of the basin. Sounds right to me.
The section at right seems designed to support a container of water; the wood shows water damage.
The bidet is heavy, about 31 pounds (about 14 kilos), reflecting the weight of the wood, probably oak, and metal.
Decades of practice, and I still make crummy stick figures (above)? I paint, too.
All photos are by MUM director Harry Finley

 

A cork plugs the drainage spout in the center of the basin of the bidet, which is removable. The color is actually silver gray, not gold.

END of bidet. See the closed bidet and introduction; and the bidet ready to use & the Daintette vaginal douche, 1928-29?

Bidets for sale

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