Recently, I had the pleasure experience of perusing a gynecological manual from 1880. Those poor women! Sure, going to the gynecologist is never a walk in the park, but my lands! Pretty much every illustration had me rocking back and forth, hugging my torso, and apologizing to my ovaries for ever thinking mean thoughts about them.
Some of the more disturbing aspects were simply the names of the instruments used. How is it the inclusion of the person’s name in a surgical instrument makes it so much worse?
Among the many, many gynecological instruments mentioned:
• Hick’s Wire-Rope
• Kibbee’s Fever-Cot
• Molesworth’s cervical dilator
• Cutter’s “T” for anterior displacements
• Budd’s elastic probe
• Simon’s Scoop for removing cancer
• Sim’s Screw for removing tampons (in this case, “tampons” were used to stop hemorrhages
• Thomas’s Spoon-saw for removal of uterine fibroids
• Thomas’s flat elastic whalebone
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“Shhh, just keep sleeping.”
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I would be completely fine with never, ever seeing the word “vaginal fistula” again.
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Hold on tight, Ellie Mae, and thank Bozeman’s securing apparatus!
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The book also contained helpful hand-written cures for a number of other ailments. Please be sure to see the Hersteria Library for how to cure Hysterical Bladder and Fibroid Tumors in Womb.
Hersteria 