Volume 5
Mr. Mandrake’s Compendium of Practical Aids
Pills and Solutions: Gleet – Gonorrhoea – Syphilis – Spermatorrhoea – Sterility – Painful Menstruation – A Test for Pregnancy – Vomiting during Pregnancy – Hysteria.
Devices: The Condom – The Dildoe – The Ladies Syringe – The Veedee Vibrator – Vigor’s Horse-Action Saddle – The Femme de Voyage and its Origin – Preventative Rings
For those of a discerning and curious nature, the sexual experience of the human being is often one of great interest and so a chemist’s position in life, such as my own, is not one of moral judgement. After advice has been sought from the prevalent medical authorities, it is my role to dispense – to both individuals and doctors alike – the best cures or treatments available to aid in the fight against their current bodily distresses.
I have, within my wide collection, cures and comforts for all diseases that can be collected in the recourse of sexual misadventure. And for those of a truly enquiring mind and most discreet nature, I am able to furnish you with the practical devices most helpful in matters of a sexual and medicinal nature. My compendium is one of a truly unique standard – there is not another like it in the world and I am most grateful for your discerning perusal of the said articles, information about which is held within the following pages.
Gleet: -
‘An inflammation of the urethra, causing itching and a pus or mucous to appear from the male genital organ, with pain during urination.’
Although harmless in appearance and often ignored by patient and doctor alike, gleet is a universal symptom of an underlying and poorly treated case of the clap. I have seen gleet itself refered to as ‘chronic clap’; by the French it is known as ‘Goutte militaire’; by the Germans, ‘Nachtripper’. Although not infectious in itself, gleet is symptomatic of a deeper infection within the patient – one who has indulged in either too much wine or too many women. Often the appearance of gleet has caused an unwise husband to accuse his wife or mistress of having infected him with gonorrhoea. This is a mistake on his part as the disease of gleet comes from within the man himself.
There are a number of treatments available to remove the discharge caused by inflammation of the male urethra: -
Alteratives: - Iodine; iron; electricity applied to the local or infected area of the body; violent exercise; and injections of Zinc Sulphate, or bicholride of mercury, or nitrate of silver.
Specifics: - Balsam; capaivae; cubebs; turpentine Peruvian Balsam; Juniper Oil; Sandalwood Oil.
Tonics: - Bark; red wine to be imbibed and also as an injection; sea bathing; cold bathing.
Astringents: - iodine of iron; perchloride of iron; lead, Zinc Sulphate (in mild form); injection of nutgall and injection of chloride of lime.
All will be available to you from a chemist’s dispensary or by a doctor’s recommendation. Should you feel unable to visit either, you can always purchase a box of ‘Holyroyd’s Gravel Pills’, a well-known cure-all for infection of the urinary organs. Price is 1s 1½d, if obtained from a chemist’s, or on receipt of 18 stamps to Holyroyd’s Medical Hall, Cleckton, Yorkshire. Don’t be put off; embarrassment must never stand in the way of good health.
Gonorrhoea: -
‘An infection of the genital organs, appearing in both sexes, and capable of being transmitted between them, also known as the Clap.’
The manifestation of this disease has led to widespread discussions amongst the medical fraternity. Previously ignored by many medical men who were preoccupied with the control and cure of that most destructive of diseases – namely, syphilis – gonorrhoea has been regarded as being of lesser importance and so any investigation into the symptoms was passed over. However, with the great advances that have been made in this area in recent years, gonorrhoea has been identified as a disease that is most in need of combative medical actions.
Taking between three to five days to incubate within the body after infection, the first symptoms of the disease are a stinging or prickling sensation around the genital area and a slight reddening of the flesh. This is followed by a mucous pus-like secretion which gradually increases in colour and texture over the coming weeks. The genitals will deepen in their inflammation, but at the end of the third week all symptoms will seem to decrease in severity. In certain cases, the irritation caused by the inflammation will have led to continual and painful erections for male sufferers, but this is not a universal symptom. Bed rest is the most important stage of treatment for a sufferer, with no physical activity of any kind to be attempted until all symptoms have passed. Other useful treatments are as follows: -
Acid, Boric
Acid, Camphoric
Acid, Gallic
Acid, Tannic
Alcohol is not to be touched
Belladonna
Cinnamon Oil
Cocaine: as an injection to relieve the pain
Lead Water and Laudanum
Silver Nitrate: as an injection
Urinating: with penis in hot water to relieve pain
Warm Baths: lasting ¼ to 2 hours, in the early stages of the infection
Zinc Salts in general.
Syphilis: -
This scourge of humankind is vulgarly known as the ‘Pox’ and its origin is clouded in mystery. Some believe it first appeared in Spain, others assert France. I consider the disease to have emerged with the origin of mankind. Modern syphilis has been established to appear in three separate stages: primary, secondary and tertiary. The first symptoms will make their appearance on the genital organs about three to four weeks after infection. This is due to the difficulty of washing thoroughly this area of the body and after a filthy connection the poison is apt to lodge in the folds of the skin of the delicate parts of both men and women.
The first symptom is an itching, followed by a redness of the parts, from which is observed to spring a small pimple or elevation. These, in time, will turn into ulcerated lesions which if left untreated will attack the organs and bones of the human body, destroying them. One of the greatest tragedies of such a disease is the ability for the infected parent to pass on the illness to an unborn child. Children born with congenital syphilis often exhibit deformities and malformations and suffer greatly during their life, a life which will be significantly shortened by the disease.
As with many sexual diseases, the curative treatments for syphilis are wide-ranging and often obtainable. Yet one treatment above all is seen as to be successful and that is the application of mercury:
Rules for the Application of Mercurial Ointments:
1. Every night the patient must take a warm bath for 15 minutes.
2. Rub a piece of ointment, as large as the last joint of the forefinger, into some part of the body every night with the palm of the hand, for a quarter of an hour.
3. The ointment is to be rubbed into one of the following places: - Inner side of the thighs, avoiding the groins; sides of the chest, avoiding the hairy armpits; inner surfaces of arms and forearms; buttocks; back or belly.
4. Never rub into the same place two nights running.
5. After rubbing in the ointment, leave it without washing any off until the next bath.
6. Clean teeth twice a day.
Rules for the Injection:
1. Get a glass syringe that holds about four teaspoonfuls of the mercury solution and has a bulbous end.
2. Urinate and inject in some tepid water before using the mercury injection, so as to clean and clear the passage.
3. Inject so as to distend the urine canal, and let the injection stay in half a minute. Do this twice each time.
4. Repeat the injection each time before making water, except at bedtime.
5. The injection may be weakened by the addition of water when the discharge has ceased and gradually discontinued.
N.B. Every patient must keep his person thoroughly clean by washing with soap and water every day.
Spermatorrhoea: -
The dangers associated with the seminal loss arising from masturbation have been discussed in other volumes; here I will only set out those methods most relied upon to treat this disease of men. Persons who are very sensitive nervously, and especially Americans, are liable to develop all or many of the symptoms of sexual nervous exhaustion, or spermatorrhoea, due to the stimulants of work, worry, tobacco, alcohol, trauma or excess.
There are three methods of treatment available to the sufferer: first, general or constitution treatment; second, local or medical treatment; third, surgical treatment. The majority of cases do not need to resort to the third and final option.
1. General Treatment: routine work, travel, massage and marriage.
2. Medical treatment: Digitalis, Camphoric Acid, Belladonna: to aid in the relaxation of the genital organs where there is no dream or orgasm; one-fourth grain of extract, and a grain and a half of zinc sulphate; Bladder to be emptied as soon as the patient wakes; Electricity: one electrode is placed near the rectum and the other near the urethra, a very mild current to be passed between them; Use of a spinal ice bag.
3. Surgical Treatment: Removal of the foreskin has some surgical success as it decreases the sensitivity of the male genital organ.
Sterility: -
This is a most delicate and painful of problems to arise from the genital organs. A simple list of treatments follows, as your doctor will best guide you in the maintenance of a healthy diet and vigorous exercise.
Alkaline Injections: in excessively acid secretions from the vagina.
Borax: vaginal injections in acid secretions.
Cantharides: as a stimulant where there is impotence in either sex.
Electrical Stimulation of the uterus.
Key-tsi-ching: a Japanese remedy for male sterility.
Phosphorus: functional debility in the male.
Painful Menstruation: -
Plenty of healthy exercise is recommended in these cases and riding especially will promote the circulation through the pelvis and give the generative organs a better chance of developing fully in youth, thereby greatly reducing any further pain. The diet should be wholesome. During the pain most patients improve with rest, even bed rest, but some find relief with active exercise.
Pessaries are absolutely useless and amongst the drugs that are of benefit, guaiacum mixed with or without sulphur and taken regularly in milk is a common aid. Castoreum oil has sometimes been known to banish the spasms felt within the uterus completely: give, in a tincture, from 20 to 30 drops three or four times daily during the pain. Old home remedies include a hot footbath and decent glass of hot gin-and-water at bedtime. Ergot, another useful tonic to ease the spasms, is a small pill made from the syrup of poppies, taken in the morning and in the evening during the menstrual flow.
A Test For Pregnancy: -
A new and ingenious test for pregnancy was reliably discovered by our American friends in 1844. They have found that the urine of a pregnant woman contains a particular and unique substance and have named this ‘Kisteine’. When the urine is left to stand it will separate and form a thin layer on the surface. This will only appear if the urine is left undisturbed for between two to six days. During this time minute opaque bodies will be observed to rise from the bottom to the surface of the fluid, where they gradually combine to form a continuous layer over the surface. This is the ‘Kisteine’ and will only appear to exist in the urine from the first month of pregnancy until the woman has safely delivered her child.
Vomiting During Pregnancy: -
Known as the dreaded ‘morning sickness’, the arrival of vomiting is one of the most unfortunate symptoms of the pregnant state and it is one of those situations that medicine has commonly failed to relieve. Cures renowned to ease the suffering of one woman will often do little to aid another. I have this simple piece of advice to offer: a cup of chamomile or peppermint tea should be taken on first waking. The patient should then be entreated to be still for an hour. This method has had the most success in alleviating the distressing sickness, but should it appear during the day, then any selected treatment seldom succeeds.
Hysteria: -
The cure of this illness can be found in manifold supply. However, for as many legitimate and reputable treatments that might be discussed, there can equally be found those of a dangerous and damaging nature which are promoted by quacks and charlatans.