Page:Contraception; 1st ed. (IA in.ernet.dli.2015.94163).pdf/188

Holland, but from what I know of Dutch women they are somewhat different from the English in build. In this country it was taken up by Dr. Haire, and as he was actively advocating it I wrote the following letter to the Lancet,^[1] which has not been answered:—

"In response to the challenge of Dr. Norman Haire to name the physiological objections I have to the Dutch cap he prefers to use, may I first welcome the fact that Dr. Haire has recently re-written the practical instructions issued by the Malthusian League, so that they now accept my main thesis, viz., that the best form of contraceptive is an internal rubber cap worn by the woman. The differences between the different varieties of cap are minor though not unimportant.

"My two main objections to the Dutch cap preferred by Dr. Haire are, put very briefly (1) It must be worn so as to cover the whole end of the vagina and depends on stretching the vaginal walls for its power to remain in position. For the same patient the diameter of the Dutch cap necessary is very much greater than that of the occlusive cap which does not stretch the vagina. The Dutch cap then stretches the vagina in such