Of Its Time

This was recently bought by my chum W from a carboot sale and she's lent it to me as she knows my love of social history [well she would as we've been chums since we were 11!] Having now read it I would have hazarded a guess that it was published somewhere between the 1930s and the early 1950s and a quick scour of the internet confirms it to be 1935. Something about the no nonsense King's English style of writing and slightly quaint patronising tone gives it away.

Written by Mrs Annie Phelps [note the Mrs is a very important feature] I would speculate that a document such as this was well ahead of its time. Mr and Mrs Phelps owned three chemists in London and offered discreet contraceptive services and advice to married couples or those about to embark on wedded bliss. The shops had separate entrances for the genders and different waiting rooms with nurses of both sexes available to put the customers at ease.

This publication recognised that intercourse was not just there for the procreation of children but also as a pleasurable act for loving couples to share and enjoy. It's aim was to dispel old wives tales that still held sway as to how to prevent conception eg coughing vigorously afterwards and women were told in the most stern tones that they were to ignore the "advice" freely given by them others but Mrs Phelps also was at great pains to explain why there was no such thing as a "safe period" or how easily natural methods of contraception were liable to fail. It gives a fascinating insight into how, for many, practising celibacy once their families were completed was the only way to stop bringing extra mouths into the world that they could neither afford to feed nor house. No benefit system to back you up back then.

The booklet gives very clear instructions on the various contraceptive aids available through Phelps Ltd and how to use them effectively. For those on a tight budget there were washable sheaths. Even back then there was a glandular preparation called Prepon to tackle impotency in men and a tonic called the French Rejuvenator for women who found them "incapable of interesting themselves in the sex act". Some of the statements are shocking when measured from the more liberal times many of us enjoy in our country today as Mrs Phelps berates the government for burying its head in the sand over sterilisation to stop people with afflictions such as TB, Epilepsy from having children. It has to be born in mind though that only 70 years or so previously many still believed that Epilepsy was caused by being bewitched.

At the back of the book there is an interesting little footnote which shows what Mrs Phelps was up against...not only were there political and religious obstacles preventing people from gaining the knowledge on how to practise family planning but the every National Newspaper refused to carry advertisements for "Family Limitation". For anyone who wanted a copy of the book it would be sent to them under plain sealed cover free of charge.

Fascinating window on to the world of yesteryear.

Arilx