Embarrassing Ailments

Homocea

Source: The Graphic (London) 13 October 1894 I haven’t tried to transcribe this for obvious reasons, but I think it should be clear enough, and you can click to make it bigger. Some of the assertions on the sleeves of those elegant arms sound better than others; ‘touches the spot for hemorrhoids’ doesn’t conjure up […]

Ambition Pills

At first glance I thought this showed pictures of three men, but no – it’s the same fellow, transformed from the seedy old roué on the left into a fine specimen of manly vigour, ambitious to take on the world and all its laydees. The perkiness of a chap’s moustache was a good indicator of […]

Atkinson's Registered Rectum Supporter

The pic is a bit small so I’ve transcribed the text anyway, but you can probably get the idea how this contraption was worn. The white circular bit in the centre of the picture was a smooth piece of ivory designed to fit where the sun don’t shine. The inventor, Benjamin Atkinson, manufactured a variety of surgical mechanisms, such […]

Dr Scott's Aperitive Vase

The Aperitive Vase, a cure for constipation, is somewhat coyly advertised here, but adverts from earlier in the 1840s left less to the imagination: The apparatus is a fountain in miniature, so small that when filled it may be concealed in the pocket until it can be used conveniently; when, by an hydraulic double-action within it, the […]

Abernethy's Pile Ointment

Today’s advert is rather long. The Mr Abernethy referred to was the eminent surgeon John Abernethy (1764-1831), pictured right. He wrote about piles in his Surgical Observations (1804-06), a work that according to his biographer, George MacIlwain, was known as “the My-Book” because “he not unfrequently recommended his patients” to read it. Although Abernethy advised patients with a […]