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The menstrual cup in The
Intimate Side of a Woman's Life, by Leona W. Chalmers (1937, Pioneer
Publications, Inc., Radio City, New York)
Leona Chalmers might have created the first commercial menstrual cup
(read a provisional history of the cup) in the
U.S.A. (among other contenders is the Daintette
cup), in the 1930s, although patents for cups go back to the 1860s in the
United States (here's the first).
This book has almost the exact title and cover photo of a pamphlet from
probably the same period, but in this tour de orifice she describes
enemas for women, douching (which she promotes, especially for the common
white or clear discharge from the vagina, leucorrhea), vaginal exercises
and sexual hygiene. Today we frown upon douching (read an admonitory essay), as it disrupts the natural acidity of the
vagina and destroys or flushes out necessary bacteria.
Frank Netter, M.D., drew the illustrations; he was a well-known medical
illustrator.
At the bottom of this page
I put the second of two testimonials on the back of the dust jacket, which
attributes many divorces to "unclean" wives. (Unclean wives, read this ad!)
Read the rest of
the chapter, Vaginal Hygiene (douching), from
which this section was taken.
The director of the cytology section of a state
public health department kindly donated the book.
Last of Chalmers selections
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The word "Rugae,"
at top right, means the ring-like ridges in the vagina.
That section reads,"Double rims engage rugae[,]
preventing seepage."
Below that statement are the words "small catheter."
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© 2000 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce
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