Sex, Drugs And Devices Through The Ages
Wednesday, March 10, 1999
The Globe & Mail
Sources: Various
Ancient Egyptians used honey and native sodium
carbonate to plug a woman's vagina and prevent
pregnancy. They also used crocodile dung
inserted as a pessary into the vagina.
Ancient Greeks believed Aphrodite, Greek
goddess of beauty and love, was created from the
flesh of Uranus who had fallen into the sea
during battle. As a result, foods that come from
the sea have been considered sexual stimulants,
especially oysters because of their resemblance to
female genitalia.
Ancient Chinese and Koreans have long
associated Ginseng with boosting sexual pleasure.
Chinese herbalism would later develop a whole
range of sexual enhancement medications from
ground rhinoceros horn to bear gallbladders,
traditions which would later raise the ire of
conservationists.
The woman of Constantinople in AD 400 used
sponges moistened with diluted lemon juices to
prevent pregnancy. Sponges soaked in vinegar or
soap solution are still in use today.
Italian anatomist Fallopius invents a linen sheath
for the penis in the early 1500s to prevent the
spread of syphillis. Later the sheath would be
named after King Charles II's court physician,
Dr. Condom in the 18th century.
Montezuma was on to something in the 1500s
too. The Aztec ruler reputedly drank 50 cups of
chocolate a day to boost his virility before he
visited his harem. (It might have also worked if
he had shared some.) Later, scientists would
confirm that chocolate contained an
amphetamine-like stimulant associated with love
and lust.
Casanova develops on a new take on Vitamin C
in the mid-1700s. He advocates using a half of
lemon (without the juice) fitted over the cervix as
a birth control device.
Aboriginal women of New Brunswick were
known to drink a strong alcoholic solution
brewed from dried beaver testicles to prevent
pregnancy.
A block pessary, a hard square rock with conical
carve-outs, was tried as a cervical cap in 1931. It
doubled as an instrument of torture.
The birth control pill becomes available in North
America in 1960. The sexual revolution starts.
Brassieres are considered as an alternative energy
source.
Injection therapies are developed for erectile
dysfunction in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
This therapy, in which drugs injected directly into
the penis, help relax the muscles and increase
blood flow to the penis, sets the stage for the
later gold standard of injection therapy.
In 1980s, North American men options for
increasing libido and enhancing performance
would expand: everything from testosterone
supplements to penile implants, in which an
inflatable pump is surgically inserted in the penis,
would be added to a growing list of performance
enhancers. Penis lengthening surgery would also
become popular.
A study in the 1980s, confirmed what West
Africans had known for centuries: that the bark
of the yohimbe tree contained a chemical which
raised erections in some men by increasing blood
flow to the penis. The FDA later approved the
herbal extract as a treatment for impotence. In
Canada, the extract is sold as an over the counter
herbal remedy. It has some toxic side effects.
Sexual performance peaks in the 1990s. Monica
Lewinsky reinvents cigars as sex toys. An
Australian surgeon discovers the clitoris is much
larger than previously understood. Viagra is
approved in countries all over the world -- and
finally in Canada in 1999.
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