Page:Contraception; 1st ed. (IA in.ernet.dli.2015.94163).pdf/186

the objections which apply to it are often, through ignorance, supposed to apply to the true occlusive cap. This uncritical carelessness of those who condemn "caps" has done much harm.

This cap, as seen in the illustration (Pl. iii, fig. iv), differs from the other two in being a perfectly simple concave cap of thin rubber. It was described and figured long ago by Mensinga.^[1] Essentially it is the segment of a sphere, approaching in size but not quite a hemisphere, and inserted in its edge without any very definite thickening, is a thin metal spring rim. In use this cap lies in the vagina convex side upwards, unlike the cervical cap, and is intended, not to cover the cervix in particular, but to close the whole end of the vagina. Some who use it profess great satisfaction with it, but there is a good deal of evidence that it is very unreliable and very difficult to secure absolutely in place in order to maintain its position. Fürbringer wrote against these caps many years ago, saying: "Their intro-