Dr McPherson was getting old. He had a thriving practice in Harley Street patronised by the very first echelon of society where he was known for his discretion and his sympathetic and accommodating attitude. The sons and daughters of the nobility would be sent to him to treat some of the more unfortunate results of the errors of youth and he was well known for doing so with none of the prudery or piousness associated with the middle classes.
He held a firm belief that an Englishman's home is his castle and if his home actually was a castle who was McPherson to pass judgement on the Englishman's conduct or that of his, wife, sons and daughter or indeed under certain circumstances his servants. He was fond of saying “let he who is without sin...” and “to err is human...” “ now let us see what can be done about the matter!”.
If a young woman who seemed to be showing signs of being with child, phantoms of this sort were often cured by flushing the womb.
An addiction to laudanum; a week or two in his clinic could solve the problem.
Erratic and irrational behaviour, fainting and headaches; this female hysteria could be cured by a pelvic massage once or twice a week. A paroxysm or two invariably sent his patients away with more patience for the challenges of life.
It was the growth in female hysteria that made him feel that he was getting old and that it was time for him to take on an assistant. The pelvic massage had become one of his specialities over the last ten years but it seemed he was losing his touch. Often it took more than half an hour to bring his patients to a paroxysm but worse sometimes he did not manage to do it at all, even with the help of his Nurse.
He had heard that some doctors had employed the use of vibrating contraptions and indeed a few of his more modern patients had left him to favour these devices. McPherson could not even contemplate using such a thing they seemed him dangerous and complicated and if truth be told this area of his practice no longer interested him at all.
He was getting old!
So a letter from an old friend from Edinburgh recommending a recently qualified student looking to return to London seemed like the ideal solution. An assistant to take on this side of the practice under his guidance and with the help of his most capable Nurse would suit the case very well.
So it was that that Dr David Sharpe arrived in McPherson's consulting room at 8.00 am on the 1 st day of September 1878.
“Have you studied female hysteria, Sharpe?”
“ I have indeed Doctor, who has not?”
“ and have you treated it, young man?”
“err not as such, Sir, no I have read the literature but not actually err undertaken the treatment”
“Oh, read the literature, very good, very good, well that will make you a specialist for the purposes of our patients; it is not a difficult procedure, just a case of trial and error and persistence I find. Persistence, yes, that is it persistence Ha Ha.” McPherson gave a reassuring smile.
Sharpe had only the vaguest idea of the treatment for female hysteria. It had been the source of some student humour but then what had not; the pelvic massage!
“ Now Sharpe, I shall not throw you in at the deep end, ha ha! I shall give you into the careful instruction of Nurse Grey, an excellent woman. My right hand woman you might say when it comes to the pelvic massage. She has often stepped in to bring us to the final point. Knows the territory. Ha Ha! Knows the territory!”
“Nurse Grey, Dr Sharpe a specialist in the treatment of female hysteria. Ha ha!”
“Show him the ropes! Show him the ropes”
With that Dr McPherson put on his hat and coat favoured Nurse and Doctor with his reassuring smile and left the bemused Dr Sharpe and amused Nurse Grey in awkward company with each other.
Nurse Grey had mixed feelings about Dr Sharpe, he was a very well set up young man who might do very well at this sensitive treatment but he would need much more about him if he was not to embarrass the noble clients on whom all their future's depended.
Dr McPherson had indeed lost his touch recently and bringing many of their patients to a paroxysm had increasingly been her responsibility. She well knew what she was doing and some of her patients preferred a woman's touch but others liked it much less well.
She had been shocked at first to discover that noble ladies would employ a medical man to do for them, what she had done for herself since she was a girl. Some of them maintained the illusion that it was a simple medical procedure and certainly nothing sexual; others bucked and swore with uninhibited private exhibitions of lust and gratification. This would be passed off by McPherson with his natural grace and tact “the hysteria had its grip on you today, my lady, you were in great need of your treatment”
When a few very direct questions to Dr Sharpe made clear his total lack of experience of the pelvic massage she considered her choices.
She could let him flounder around with a patient. Whilst this might put him in his place. Her loyalty to Dr McPherson and a certain amount of self interest in keeping her very advantageous place ruled this out. She could attempt to instruct him tactfully through a treatment. This would be necessary in any case but he would have to know the basics. She could arrange for him to have a practice run at things. This was obviously the best course of action but who could she find for him to practice on. Nurse Grey was a resourceful and determined woman and her thoughts fell on Lizzie Hearth one of the domestics who had expressed an interest in Nursing. She liked Lizzie who was a bright girl who knew her place but wanted to better it.
“Lizzie” she said “I want to talk to you about Nursing and an opportunity there may be for a girl that can show discretion and a level head. Do you think you have those qualities my girl?”
“Oh yes, Miss” said Lizzie. Who was also bright enough to know that few opportunities came without prices for girls of her class”
“Lizzie, do you understand the term Gynaecology? “
“It's about your your business, down there, Nurse”
“Well yes , Lizzie, that's very well put and do you know what is female hysteria?”
“ Oh yes, I have heard that the Doctor treats the Ladies for it and they shout and moan, I have heard them” “ I can't tell you what the girls say about it Nurse, well actually its the older servants who say the worst things”
“What do they say Lizzie” Nurse Grey said attempting to imitate the Doctors reassuring smile.
“No, No Nurse I could not repeat it and I don't think I believe it”
“Lizzie you will only make me cross if you keep pretending you are so shy and innocent, we can talk like friends together, and you would like to be my friend wouldn't you Lizzie?”
“Oh yes Nurse”
“ Now there is nothing you can say that will shock me”
“Well Nurse, they say that the Doctor gives them a good seeing to because their husband are all too stupid or girlsih to do their duty themselves, that's what they say Nurse, not me but I have told you now”
“ And what do you think they mean by a “ good seeing to””
“Well you know Nurse I suppose they mean that he …. you know “
“No you must tell me, Lizzie”
“That he you know...fucks them I suppose”
Nurse Grey froze “ Is that what you think? Is that what all the servants think? Well so much for the idea that the servant know everything!”
“ Dr McPherson is a man in 60s he can't remember when he last had an erection, no no my girl he does them by hand and he is even losing his touch at that, so to speak”
“Ooohhh” said Lizzy “ and so the new doctor has been called in to stiffen things up a bit”.
“Well yes and no Lizzie” “the treatment is a pelvic massage and if it is done correctly it brings about a paroxism and this in turn wards of Female Hysteria which is the condition the ladies are being treated for. Do you understand Lizzie?”
“ errr...and when they shout “yes, yes faster you old fool”...?”
“ It is the hysteria speaking and paroxysism is the cure which will sooth them in due course” The Nurse explained nodding her head slowly.
Lizzie was also nodding her head “ and these ladies need this treatment twice a month or so”
“some more often some less so” explained the Nurse sharing a knowing smile “ and this is where you can help, Lizzie.”
“Now tell me the truth. Do you, as many girls do, give yourself a pelvic massage and a paroxism”
“No Nurse how could you think such a thing?”
“ Oh Lizzie, not ever, lots of girls do it you know”
“ Oh yes Nurse I do know I share a room with three of them that do it almost every night, they call it diddling Nurse and sometimes two of them lie together and diddle each other. They say “come on Lizzie have a little diddle with us, just stroke it between your legs and soon it will start to feel nice.”
And I can hear them making the beds creak faster and faster and they moan but quiet not like the ladies and they don't shout or anything just when they have their, they call it their release, they just breath and kind of pant, sometime they will do it again and again, and then they will sigh and go to sleep.”
“ Yes Lizzie that's the pelvic massage and paroxism by the sound of it”
“I just can't seem to get the measure of it Nurse and I don't really like the sound of it, it all seems a bit dirty down there.”
“Well Lizzie” said Nurse Grey “I think you may be just the girl for this job. We need a kind of example, so the new doctor can be instructed in this treatment, since he has not undertaken it before”
“and you want me to ask one of the others to let him diddle them?”
“No Lizzie. I want you to allow the doctor to give you a pelvic massage”
“ME?
“Yes it is often the role of the Nurse to allow the doctor to perfect his skills, bandaging an arm for example, clipping a toe nail.
