The Technology of Orgasm by Rachel P. Maines

Author:Rachel P. Maines
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 1999-11-02T16:00:00+00:00

FIG. 12. British male reaction to the ascending douche, from Joseph Buckley, Recollections of the Late John Smedley and the Water Cure (1888; Matlock, England: Arkwright Society, 1973).

ELECTROTHERAPEUTICS

Electrotherapeutic devices were an invention of the eighteenth century, beginning with electrostatic generators that transferred static electricity to the hands and progressing, in the nineteenth century, to various kinds of direct-current devices and electrets.64 The latter, such as “electric” hairbrushes and corsets, lacked any power source; their presumed efficacy consisted in the electrical charging of the materials during their manufacture.65 In the mid-nineteenth century, electric current from batteries, including so-called “vibrators” (actually inductive devices that rhythmically interrupted the current), were used to control dental pain.66 Audrey Davis says that subsequent developments included “a spectacular range of devices … for applying heat, electricity, water, x-rays, and various motions and vibrations to the body in the period beginning at the end of the nineteenth century.”67

In the second half of the nineteenth century and the early part of the twentieth, there was considerable medical and scientific interest in electrolytes, human skin conductivity, and the effects of electrical stimulation on the health of plants and animals.68 Some doctors thought that electrical contraction of muscles could be useful as a substitute for exercise.69 Of particular interest to physicians was the perceived potential of electrotherapeutic treatment of impotence and “sexual debility” in men, both thought to be caused at least in part by masturbation.70 Popular medical literature and advertising encouraged men’s anxiety about losing virility to the solitary vice, and thousands of electrical devices were sold directly to consumers on the strength of their alleged ability to restore masculine powers; some physicians specialized in providing electrotherapeutic services.71 Richard von Krafft-Ebing mentions these devices briefly, citing a case of a young man who masturbated with a battery. Arousal to orgasm in this fashion would certainly have convinced purchasers that their male powers were in a healthy condition.72 Historian of medicine David Reynolds remarks on the phenomenon:

It was perhaps inevitable that finally, at about the time of Freud’s initial papers on the sexual bases of neurosis, Rousell should report “It is especially in the genital organs that electricity is truly marvelous. Impotence disappears, strength and desire of youth return, and the man, old before his time, whether by excesses or privations, with the aid of electric fustigation, can become fifteen years younger.” Electrotherapeutic currents were also recommended for nymphomania. Presumably the treatment for nymphomania differed from that for impotency—perhaps a reversal of polarity. The responsibility of the nineteenth century physician in treating impotency and nymphomania with electricity was awesome. A mix-up in the leads could result in personal tragedy in one patient—a social menace in another.73

William Snowdon Hedley wrote in 1892 about a set of therapeutic procedures known as “hydro-electrization,” which included an “electric douche” applied with saline “water electrodes.” The method was recommended as a stimulant for “heightening cutaneous sensibility and quickening motor excitability.”74 In 1903 the International Correspondence Schools’ System of Electrotherapeutics recommended an electric douche regimen that combined electrical currents with hydrotherapeutic and sometimes vibratory or manual massage.

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