As a loyal Witness, my dear departed mother sincerely believed in the "worse and worse" mantra. Somehow, despite the history
of U.S. warfare, slaughter of native Americans, dominance of urban gangs and lynching of blacks - the world was somehow better
when she was young ( or perhaps, too young to know any better). When I pointed out this violent past, she usually fell back on the
notion that people were "more moral" in times past, especially before 1914. Realizing that she was excluding bloodshed in the definition
of "moral", I then wondered why diseases like syphilis threatened the human race, if everybody was so "moral".
Anyway, this recent item caught my interest ( dedicated to the memory of my "worse and worse" ranting mother).
Taken from the book "The Passion Prescription" by Laura Berman pg. 25
" Sex toys have an interesting past but probably not in the way you would expect. Originally developed in the 1880's to treat hysteria,
vibrators were not considered sexual devices until the 1920's when they began appearing in the first erotic films. ... Hysteria was thought
to result from a disturbance of the uterus....Not surprizingly, the commonly prescribed treatment was massage of the female genitalia
to produce paroxysm, which is defined as a spasm or convulsion. Until the 1880's, physicians used their fingers to bring female patients
to paroxysm. The vibrator was invented to help speed along the process and relieve the physicians' tired hands."
I remember hearing about this on the History Channel. When your grandma got horny, she went to the doc and had him 'get her off',
thereby relieving her "hysteria".
You know, it's a wonder we haven't had some faithful sisters try to bring back this ancient medical wisdom. I wonder if Pastor
Russell knew about any of this stuff?
Thanks anyway, mom - you did the best you could.
metatron