Quite a long time ago I posted a picture or two of these things. Viewer Dan W from the UK sent me this article with several more pix and a history of the devices. Click on the headline to read the entire article.
Dr. Young's Ideal Rectal Dilators Were a Real Thing!
Dr. Young’s Dilators were a real medical device sold in the United States from the late nineteenth century until at least the 1940s. They were a set of four “torpedolike” hard-rubber (later, plastic) instruments varying in diameter from 1/2 to 1 inch and in length from 3 to 4 inches.
Dr. Young himself praised rectal dilation as a cure for insanity, claiming that at least “three-fourths of all the howling maniacs of the world” were curable “in a few weeks’ time by the application of orificial methods”. Young also admitted that some patients panicked at the sight of the devices.
so nice!
ReplyDeleterectal dilators: I'm speeechless
ReplyDeleteWhat do we do about political constipation?
ReplyDeleteWhat's the old adage? Necessity is the mother of invention? LOL
ReplyDelete