Paradoxically, while female patients were being massaged to paroxysm week after week, men prone to excessive onanism and unwholesome nocturnal secretions were diagnosed with “spermatorrhea.” Torturelike contraptions were contrived to strap and zap them back to normal.

Men fortunate enough to be diagnosed with more amorphous ailments were sometimes treated with vibrator massage. The legendary naturalist John Muir patented his own vibrator for men in 1899.

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The use of vulvular massage as a therapy for “hysterical” patients dates back to Hippocrates. During the 19th century, it caught on as a treatment for the rampantly diagnosed afflictions hysteria and neurasthenia. The doctor of Alice James, the sickly sister of the famous Henry and William, probably brought her routinely to “hysterical paroxysm.”

The treatment wasn’t generally thought of as sexual, but rather as ho-hum therapy. Not surprisingly, it was a cash cow for the medical profession. Women had to return week after week, year after year. But doing it by hand was exhausting, tedious work; some women had to be massaged for an hour before they reached paroxysm.

Thus, entrepreneurial doctors experimented with mechanizing the process. Hydrotherapy—the shooting of water directly at the patient’s reproductive region—proved effective and became quite fashionable. It had its drawbacks, though: It was messy, expensive, and not easily portable.

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(via keithbirthday)

Australian illustrator Guy Shield successfully proposed to his girlfriend (now fiancée) last weekend using a series of carefully designed but seemingly arbitrary illustrations. The illustrations, when folded into a specific structure, spelled out the hidden message. (via Marriage Proposal By Illustration « Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog)

Kelly Allen