Safe Sex in the Eighteenth Century

Last week in the UK was Sexual Health Week; next week, 26^th September is World Contraception Day. So, I thought I’d look at what could be liberally classified as “safe” sex in the eighteenth century.

As long as people have been having sex, they have tried to develop methods to prevent pregnancy and spreading disease. However, it wasn’t until the nineteenth century that any of these methods were truly effective.

These days, we’re lucky to have both effective prophylactics (preventatives against disease, such as condoms) and contraceptives (preventatives against pregnancy, such as the pill). Let’s not forget that we’re also lucky to have antibiotics to treat sexually transmitted infections. Treatments for “venereal disease” in the eighteenth century were as ineffective (and as life-threatening as an STI) as the pathetic prophylactics, but that is a topic for another post.

Until the nineteenth century, condoms were the only means of “safe” sex.

safe sex in the eighteenth century — Image by Sasin Tipchai from Pixabay

A Short History of the Condom

Some archaeologists argue that some cave paintings in France from 11,000 BCE depict condoms, but it’s open to interpretation.
Linen strips with strings to fit them in place that were found in Tutankhamun’s tomb (c.1332-1323 BCE) are displayed in Cairo as condoms, but again it’s not certain.
Before the fifteenth century in China and Japan, they used condoms made from tortoiseshell, thin leather, oiled paper or lamb intestines.
In Europe, Italian physician Gabriele Falloppio (1523-1562) worked to fight against syphilis AKA “The French Disease”. He devised a fabric sheath that had to be soaked in mercury (ahem, poisonous), ashes, salt, and wood shavings. He advised putting it on the penis after sex to clean away any infection, therefore it was useless.
Animal gut condoms replaced linen in the seventeenth century. The animal intestine (or sometimes fish bladder) was cut to size, sealed at one end, dried out, and fitted with a green or pink ribbon at one end to hold it in place. When required, it had to be soaked in milk or water to rehydrate it. After the deed, they rinsed it out, ready for reuse.
In 1839, the invention of vulcanised rubber revolutionised the condom industry. Rubber condoms appeared in 1855 and were reusable. The very thick rubber effectively blocked everything, including sensation.
Latex condoms arrived in the 1920s. Condoms were now mass-produced, affordable, and single-use.
Antibiotics and the pill led to a decline in condom use from the 1960s until the AIDS epidemic thrust them back into the heart of safe sex campaigns in the 1980s.

Was Sex “Safe” for the Georgians?

The eighteenth century saw a booming condom industry due to the belief that they provided effective protection. The British exported condoms around the world. In Britain they were called “French letters”, but elsewhere they were called “English raincoats”. An advert from 1785 listed a condom as a “fine machine”. Casanova, a known user of condoms, referred to them as my “armour”.

At this time, condoms were seen as a tool for philanders, prostitutes, and the immoral. Spermatozoa had been discovered in the seventeenth century, and Christians became enraged by barriers to “natural” progress.

Animal gut condoms were expensive, awkward to use, and didn’t work. They may have had some value as a contraceptive, but because animal gut is a porous membrane, bacteria can still pass through. Those who used condoms, including Casanova, continued to suffer from and transmit STIs.

Men wore condoms to protect themselves from infection when sleeping with prostitutes, for they believed that was where the disease came from—not from men spreading it (oh, the thought!). Yet men did not wear them when sleeping with their wives. If they did, that would suggest their wives were a source of the infection (heaven forbid!). As a result, men infected their wives, wives infected their lovers and disease spread.

So, the only type of safe sex in the eighteenth century was celibacy, and that was never going to happen.