Wacky Stuff on Women's Bodies from The Olden Days

I was in the library today looking for some stuff on the history of women's education and got side-tracked by some weird old books on women, education, and bodies. I found this 1880 text, The Coming Woman: The Royal Road to Physical Perfection, where a lecturer and teacher of anatomy, physiology, and hygiene named Eliza Barton Lyman provides the following useful advice: (seriously. You can't make this stuff up).

1. Don't marry someone with a large brain and small neck, especially if he kind of looks like you: "Take a man and woman of equally refined nervous constitutions, with large brains, small necks and chests, weak muscles, similar color of hair, eyes, complexion and conformation of head; let them marry, and if children come, they will be puny and short-lived in most cases, intensely excitable, disposed to brain and nervous disturbances" (195).
   
2. Pregnant women should not have sex since they "as a rule, are averse to the sexual union during the period of gestation, and if a desire should be manifested at the time, it may be regarded as the result of some abnormal condition: perhaps from ulceration of the womb, leucorrhea, granulation of the vagina" (219). According to Lyman this can also cause epilepsy in the unborn child and give it a "stupid, animalized look" (221) and "the idiotic condition" (221).
   
3. Men should be forewarned that "an excessive loss of semen is just as destructive to physical, mental, and spiritual upbuilding, as a daily drainage from the arteries would be" (222). Semen is composed of "the best arterial blood" and would otherwise be directed to the brain or muscles. One ounce of semen equals 40 ounces of blood.
   
4. After a baby is born, you should coat its entire body in vaseline or, if that is not available, oil from chickens or turkeys (which is preferable to vegetable oils since it is "more penetrating and softening, and less gluey" (234).
   
5. Don't let your baby wear a diaper for too long, since this can destroy "the balance of the body" and produce "the extreme of 'toeing out,' bow legs, halting gait, etc.'" (240).
   
6. "It is the duty of every woman to make herself as attractive as possible, and thus be enabled to do a greater amount of good in the world" (298). If your husband cheats on you, it is your fault for not keeping yourself "sweet and pretty".
   

Women Scientists... sort of

Francis Crick's wife, Odile, died on July 5th. According to the New York Times, Odile Crick actually drew the sketch of the double helix that appeared in the original publication of "A Structure for Deoxyribonucleic Acid" and circulated widely in textbooks and articles. Meanwhile, the original article was typed by James Watson's sister Betty.

The article doesn't say whether Betty or Odile were paid or otherwise acknowledged for this work, but I'm guessing no. Somehow I'm guessing that Rosalind Franklin and other women scientists in that time period didn't have wives to type things for them or draw their pictures. Although some of them, like Lydia J. Roberts, a nutritionist, lived with family members. (Roberts lived with her sister, who basically kept house for her while she pursued her research).
The Doomsday Clock, used by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists to indicate "how close humanity is to catastrophic destruction" was designed by a woman as well: Martyl Langsdorf, the wife of Alexander Langsdorf, Jr. , a physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project. (Incidentally, according to the Bulletin, it is 5 minutes to midnight, or in other words, "We stand at the brink of a second nuclear age." Back in 1991 we were only 17 minutes to midnight. This could not be good.)

At any rate, this kind of supportive collaboration is interesting to me. Women have for many years, even centuries, worked as scientific illustrators, popularizers, and support workers. This continued well into the 20th century, and even today--the editor of the PBS science show Nova is a woman: Paula Aspell. Unfortunately, popularizers of science don't tend to get the same kind of credit as the interpid, adventurous researchers making the big discoveries--even if those discoveries wouldn't have occurred, or wouldn't have been known to others without them.