Reply #3: This was a "medical device," not a "sex toy" [View All]

Anyone who's seen The Road to Wellville will remember Dr. Spitzvogel and his "movement therapy." Movement therapy involved manipulating the womb and the breasts to relieve the patient of her hysteria--hysteria being one of the most-diagnosed women's diseases of the era depicted in that historical film.

Doctors did not enjoy performing this therapeutic massage (it's not fun if you have to do it) and it took some time to properly remove the hysteria, so naturally machines that could be operated by a technician, or by the patient herself in the privacy of her own home, would be welcomed by the profession. This is one of them.

I know what you're thinking: "Why not just do it the old-fashioned way?" Many doctors thought the same thing; prescribing marriage was fairly common then.