"Fabian" <lajzar@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:bt8em1$450b5$2@ID-174912.news.uni-berlin.de...
> Helen Ramsay hi kitbet:
>
> >> Here's a picture of it - note that the legs of the table are bolted
> >> to the floor.
> >>
> >> http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~delmare/images/manipulator.jpg
> >
> > Holy mackerel Andy! I'm glad I lived a century after that piece of
> > equipment was in use! Not that I'm the hysterical type mind you :)
> > Thanks, I think!
>
> I think just seeing that would put any modern woman into hysterics.

They came as a great relief to the doctors of the day.
In the mid-nineteenth century there was a positive epidemic of 'hysteria'
amongst middle and upper class women with almost 70% of women
Among the symptoms were 'irritability' 'persistent erotic fantasy' and
'excessive vaginal lubrication'.
Prior to the invention of machines such as the above the treatment had to be
administered er... by hand, as it were.
Some doctors complained that it could take 'up to an hour' to produce the
desired 'crisis of fever' which thus enabled the unfortunate victim some
respite from her symptoms.
Unfortunately 'hysteria' was diagnosed as chronic and incurable and patients
would be forced to return often for further treatment sessions.
[I'm not making this up]
The advent of the steam-powered mechanised treatment beds proved a boon to
the doctors as they could now treat a patient every 10 minutes or so and
therefore greatly increase their turnover and revenues. The machines were
not available to the general public.
Some went so far as to have multiple treatment rooms with a row of up to
five patients being treated, conveyor belt style, in a small hospital ward.
(I still struggle with that fearsome image)
It being the case that middle and upper class Victorian era women were not
deemed to be sexual beings by the arch-patriarchal society - the idea that
the treatment was in any way sexual apparently didn't occur to the (male
middle and upper class ) doctors.
(Well so all the sources say)
It wasn't until the early 20th century when the first portable electrically
powered versions (still enormous and resembling meat grinders by the way)
went on public sale and began to feature in the first pornographic films
that the penny seems to have dropped.
The electric vibrator was only the fifth household, er... tool, to be
electrified - it came after the toaster but before the vacuum-cleaner. Those
Victorian gals certainly had their priorities sorted. They were advertised
in needlecraft magazines primarily.
Between 1910 and 1920 the medical profession quietly dropped the treatment
from their repertoire, though diagnosis under the rubric of 'hysteria' was
not outlawed in Scotland until 1952.

So now you know.

--
The adorable Adam Whyte-Settlar
 - destined to be forever in the minority