Page:Contraception; 1st ed. (IA in.ernet.dli.2015.94163).pdf/163

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

CHAPTER SIX

tampon may have very great medical advantages. I have myself advised a form which has been used with benefit containing ichthyol—ichthyol having, of course, definite curative properties well known to the medical profession. It appears also to act perfectly as a contraceptive. The use of a specially modified short tampon as a contraceptive is a method which many medical practitioners may find of specific use with their own patients.

Not only ichthyol, but a number of other preparations selected in accordance with the needs of the individual woman, could be administered in this way. The chief drawback to the method being the necessity of obtaining the specially prepared tampons, which are not cheap. The use of this method, therefore, would be confined to cases who are either really well-to-do, or who are patients sufficiently invalided to justify an expense much greater than is necessary for simple contraceptive means.

Comment.—I see in this method a suggestion, which is, in my opinion, most likely to lead to immediately useful advances in our knowledge of contraceptives. By the application of specially medicated tampons the combination of contraceptive means with locally curative applications might

137