Page:Contraception; 1st ed. (IA in.ernet.dli.2015.94163).pdf/162

fill up the whole end of the vaginal canal and with it to occlude the cervical entrance with or without some intercalated chemical. If cotton-wool or lint is used, it has the advantage of not requiring cleansing, as after use it is of course destroyed.

Here, perhaps, one may mention the various rather primitive methods of packing the end of the vagina, which are still used in the East, and are obviously of considerable antiquity. Such, for instance, as the very soft wads of silky native paper used in Japan. Under this heading also may be mentioned the balls and bundles of feathers used in India and elsewhere in Asia.^[1]

Medicated tampons especially made to expand so as to fill the whole vaginal canal are, of course, widely used for other purposes. I do not know of any who have advised specially modified tampons for contraceptive use, but I myself have recommended the use of such tampons as contraceptives. The amount of expanding wool must, of course, be much less than in the usual tampon, as it should cover only the end of the vaginal canal, A specially prepared