My last post, Have you got the Painters in?, was so popular I have been urged to provide more information from my 1907 book, The Household Physician.
Well, truth be told, a couple of you have asked about menopause and trapped wind.
I thought I’d solved the latter by reading Dr McGregor Robertson’s advice on colic (laudanum and a warm water enema) but in fact I have since discovered he did have advice on trapped wind itself: ginger or peppermint is advisable (same as today’s advice from my own GP).
Menopause? “The Change of Life”. Here’s what the good doctor has to say:
“At this time the woman is in an unstable condition of health, and liable to many minor ailments, and also to some more serious. She is liable to headaches, flushings of the face, and disturbances of the digestive and nervous systems.”
That’s it! Considering how much detail he writes about every other subject, this important phase in a woman’s cycle is quickly passed over. However he is far more concerned about “Nervous Diseases of Women” in general, in particular, hysteria.
“Hysteria – is a puzzle and a plague to nearly every physician….very common in women between the ages of fifteen and thirty…….
Symptoms such as loss of appetite, obstinate vomiting, excessive development of gas in the bowels, fainting and fits of various kinds……..They are nervous and excitable, prone to laugh or cry at trifles, with little control over their emotions, irritable, querulous, and quarrelsome……
Treatment is firm and judicious control. Hysterical convulsions can usually be cut short by dashing quantities of cold water about the person’s face”
To be honest if I were faced with a farting, fainting, fractious woman, I’d be tempted to do the same
Finally, a caption please, for the photo below.
I know what I want to say, I'm just not sure I'm brave enough to say it….
ps "obstinate" vomiting??? What's that? I don't think I've ever vomited "obstinately" in my life (other than in the "don't be sick, don't be sick, please don't be….oh" sense of course).
I feel sorry for his poor wife!Hope she wasn`t being permanently doused in cold water about the face!
Not even going there with the caption….I`ll leave that to someone else`s filthy mind!lol
"Do excuse me but my wife is going through the menopause….."
Perkins I will demonstrate the act just once more to be sure you quite understand it, then it really is your turn.
It works better with your clothes off
I'd love to dash cold water about someone's face. All I need to do now is find someone who is hysterical – or make them so.
Plan B – obstinate vomiting. Great description, I can just hear Dr McG chastising someone for that in his 'none of this stuff and nonsense' way.
Nana Go-go – I think if I'd been Mrs McGregor I would just lie on a chaise longue and declare myself indisposed.
Knackered Mother, Kelloggsville and Auntie Gwen – That's brightened my morning! (I suspect he said that too!)
Steve – surely there are some candidates around Leamington Spa this morning. Are you not a first aider? Give it a go.
I'm afraid everything that entered my head for the caption resulted in a Beavis-and-Butthead-esque laugh…
"You might feel a little prick" said Dr McG.
That's the sanitised version, by the way….Took me a while to get there.
Soozx – that happened to me too, hence I asked everyone for their ideas so I could sit here and carry on laughing!
Plan B – Of course, the man on the right has to be the good Doctor, with a hands-on approach to medicince. Rather fabulous tache, don't you think?
Man on floor "So this pain is just trapped wind y'say? Well I'll be buggered!"
Troy – hahahahaha! Shame I'm not offering prizes.
"For God's Sake, Man, get up and leave the hysterical fainting to the women" or 'Simkins was far from happy with his partner for the Piddletrenthide Wheelbarrow Race'. See it is possible to be clean!
Wylye Girl – Bravo that woman! Love them!
I've just googled Piddletrenthide and it exists…how brilliant!
Ginger was confident that with his peppermint flavoured condom that anything he did to his friend would purely be following best medical advice.
(You see, I can keep it clean).
I daren't even attempt a comment, but I will be trying the cold water treatment the next time the Queenager comes over all hysterical. Shouldn't be long!
Troy – I think I may have to make this a regular column just to have you add captions!
Expat Mum – Excellent idea, let me know how you get on.
weeping with laughter here, exhausting! Definitely a regualr column please!
Tattie – I have four volumes full of gems like this. I think a regular dip into them is necessary!
Gary Larson has a very similar cartoon with cavemen – "Barrow". Precursor to the game of "Wheelbarrow"
Seems I have been going thro' the menopause (or should that be womenopause?) for some time now – headaches, disturbances to the digestive and nervous systems…. I was getting a bit hysterical about actually. Do 'flushings' allude my over-regular trips to the porcelain throne?
Madame SG – will come over and douse you I think: that will sort you out.
Part of the definition of hysteria from Wikipedia: "By the mid to late 19th century, hysteria (or sometimes female hysteria) came to refer to what is today generally considered to be sexual dysfunction. Typical treatment was massage of the patient's genitalia by the physician and, later, by vibrators or water sprays to cause orgasm." Hysteria comes from the Greek word hystera for womb. Based on this information, your 1907 physician was throwing his water a little bit high.
Sorry, I'm drawing a blank at the picture though it makes me laugh every time I look at it.
Thanx for stopping by my blog.
Carla – I remember reading this about the massages and vibrators as treatment. Sounds good to get that on prescription!