The history of underwear sheds light on what women
used for menstruation.
What
women used in earlier times: See nineteenth-century
Norwegian washable pads and an Italian washable
"rag" from before 1900 - German patterns for
washable pads, about 1900 - Japanese patterns
for washable pads (early 20th century) -
Contemporary washable
pads - Women sometimes wore washable pads
with a sanitary
apron - Egyptian
hieroglyphics telling of tampon use -
The first commercial tampons,
(U.S.A., 1930s) - Menstrual cups (1930s) -
Special underpants
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Articles and
comments about women and
menstruation in 17th
century England
John Freind, the number 7, and
why women have periods by Dr
Sara Read
John Freind (1676-1728) graduated
with an MB from Christ Church,
Oxford in 1701, and in 1704 he
became the Professor of Chemistry
there. He was a very famous
physician in his day.
Freind was an advocate of Isaac
Newton’s ideas about physics and
used these to inform his theories of
menstruation. In fact, though,
Freind was not an innovator in his
ideas, and more often than not, he
used physics to prove the ‘truth’ of
the ancient ideas about the reasons
for menstruation as set out by
Hippocrates in the first century CE.
In Emmenologia Freind wrote
that menstrual periods commonly
began when a girl reached the age of
14 and continued until the age of 49
as he believed in the Pythagorean
ideas about the perfection of the
number 7. Freind writes, ‘The
menstrous Purgation, or a flux of
Blood issuing from the Uterus every
Month, usually begins its Periods at
the Second Septenary, and terminates
at the Seventh, or the Square of the
number seven’ (p. 1). He also wrote
against the myths that abounded
about the ‘poisonous’ nature of
menstrual blood saying that ‘healthy
persons, that blood which is ejected
is not at all impure or tainted, but
very good and fragrant’ (p. 4). He
also reiterated Hippocratic ideas by
writing rather graphically that the
blood lost in a period should be
‘ruddy and florid resembling the
Blood flowing out of the Veins of a
Sacrifice newly slain’ (p. 2).
Freind explained that he thought
there were two main reasons why
women have periods:
1. To clear out the womb
to make it ready for a pregnancy,
and 2. To ensure that women had a
store of blood to nourish the
unborn child.
It was a normal early-modern belief
that the foetus was nourished by the
mother’s menstrual blood (they
believed that this was the reason
women do not have periods when
they’re pregnant).
Freind believed that the amount of
blood a woman might lose at a period
will vary from woman to woman but
that it was often around a pint:
The quantity of the
evacuated Blood is different
according to the variety of
Constitutions, Diet, Age, or the
Like; yet in healthy and adult
Persons it commonly amounts to
twenty Ounces, which agrees with
the measure assigned by
Hippocrates, namely two Heminas.
(p. 1)
A ‘hermina’ is approximate to half
an imperial pint. This is far
greater than the norms quoted in
medical literature today which say
2-3 fluid ounces is typical.
Freind’s book was challenged by
other writers in the eighteenth
century, but remains famous for
being the first one published just
on periods alone.
See a portrait of John Freind
(1725) at
<http://www.npgprints.com/image/806597/george-vertue-michael-dahl-john-freind>
© 2013 Sara Read
Dr Sara Read is a teacher in the
department of English and Drama at
Loughborough University, England.
She was awarded a PhD on the topic
of menstruation in early-modern
England in 2010, which is currently
being turned into a book, and has
written a number of articles on the
topic. She is co-editor of an
anthology of seventeenth-century
women’s writing which is being
published by Manchester University
Press in 2013.
.............................................................................................
More from Dr Read (and more):
Did
many women
intentionally
menstruate
into their clothing
in 17th-century
Britain? "Thy
righteousness is but a
menstrual clout: sanitary
practices and prejudice in
early modern England"
See
Dr Read's articles in
the MUM bibliography.
Other Out of the Past topics:
page
© 2013 Harry Finley
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