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CONTRACEPTION

the vagina which are of value. It tends further to reduce the sensitiveness of the vagina, and therefore to diminish its capacity to play its normal part in the act of coitus. Various objections to douching on other grounds were made in 1918 by Dr. W. E. Fothergill.[1]

The substances added to the douche may be grouped into two series, (a) ordinary disinfectants, and (b) other chemicals which plasmolyse sperm, such as alum solution, soap mixtures, and so on.

Of the disinfectant solutions of one sort or another used by various people some are certainly undesirable, among which I include such substances as carbolic acid, lysol, and other corrosive disinfectants which have been advocated and widely disseminated. The injurious effect of such strong disinfectants has not been sufficiently realized, and sometimes even such dangerous substances as corrosive sublimate have been used as a vaginal douche with most serious results.

If for any reason the medical adviser desires the use of a douche as contraceptive in spite of these drawbacks, it should be pointed out that as a spermaticide plain

  1. ↑ W. R. Fothergill: "A Clinical Lecture on the Bad Habit of Vaginal Douching," Brit. Med. Journ., No. 2990. Pp. 445-6. 1918.

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