Rubber banned
John Vincent looks at the extraordinary case of a Leeds doctor struck off for writing a book about birth control in Victorian times.
Well-to-do Victorian ladies were said to be so absurdly prudish that they shrouded the legs of pianos for the sake of decency. Well, it’s a nice story but an apocryphal one that did the rounds after a mention in the sea adventures of Royal Navy Captain Frederick Marrytatt.
Nevertheless, there’s no doubt that the vast majority of middle and upper class young ladies in 19th century Britain were kept entirely ignorant about sex.
It was considered improper for unmarried women of breeding to walk in public without a chaperone. Raising one’s petticoat to step over a puddle was considered provocative, even scandalous, as was retying one’s bonnet strings in public.
It is against this background, then, that we can imagine the furore that greeted
The Wife’s Handbook (1885), by Dr Henry Arthur Allbutt, of Leeds, the first work to describe contraceptive methods to be published by an English doctor. Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, contraception was considered an immoral topic of discussion, largely avoided by medical journals as beneath the dignity of a learned profession.
Dr Allbutt’s support for birth control within marriage and in the context of maternal health led to his prosecution by the
General Medical Council and he was struck off the Medical Register in 1887 after being “judged guilty of infamous conduct in a professional respect”. Bizarrely, he was also found guilty of selling the book “at too low a price”, implying that the middle classes could learn about contraception but not the poor.
Now a somewhat tattered later edition of the 6d (2.5p) book, an unrecorded imprint from 1901, containing an appeal for readers to support his fight against the “bigotry, ignorance and injustice” of being struck off, was immediately snapped up for £400 when offered by rare book and manuscript dealer Dr Christian White’s Ilkley-based Modernfirsteditions.
In a remarkable example of the horror with which Victorians greeted the mention of contraception, the copy was censored by an early reader, with references to pessaries, condoms or any accoutrements of birth control obscured or pasted over.
“This heavily censored edition gives a sense of the outrage that greeted its publication,” says Dr White.
A little more on Dr Allbutt, whose handbook is subtitled: “How a woman should order herself during Pregnancy, in the Lying-in Room and after Delivery. With hints on the Management of the Baby, and on other matters of importance necessary to be known by married women.” He worked every day except Sunday at his rooms at 24 Park Square, Leeds, and he also undertook consultation in Russell Square, London, several times a year.
Dr Allbutt, who also wrote a booklet entitled Infant Mortality and Premature Death, helped organise the Malthusian League, established in 1887 to promote contraception and the education of the public about the importance of family planning, maintaining that overpopulation was the chief cause of poverty and advocating the
Proof reading: A 26-strong collection of artists’ proofs from the family of renowned screen printer Chris Prater (19261996), who with wife Rose Kelly founded the London-based Kelpra Studio in 1957, is offered at the first Signed and Designed sale at Elstob & Elstob of Ripon on Friday. Prints include Victor Pasmore’s 1980 Blue Movement and Green (guide price: £1,500), Sir Terry Frost’s 1987 Yellow, Red and Black for Lorca (£900), silkscreens by John Piper (£600-£1,600) and Gordon House’s 1992 Tranescant Hands (£200).
Roman gem: An antique bracelet by Castellani, the Italian jewellers who initiated the archaeological revival movement in the mid-19th century, fetched £55,000 at a Tennants country house sale. The firm’ was founded in Rome in 1814.
What a sauce: At Vectis of Thornaby, a red and yellow Guy Warrior “Heinz Tomato Ketchup” van by Dinky made £792, while a Matchbox Citroen DS19 car made £4,080, six times over estimate and an extremely rare 1960s James Bond 007 figure by Cecil Coleman made a double estimate £1,440.
Green light: An 18 carat white gold oval emerald and diamond bracelet fetched £2,640 at the Scarborough salerooms of David Duggleby.
By the seaside: Paintings on offer at Tennants next Saturday from the collection built up over nearly 50 years by Yorkshire textile businessman George G Hopkinson feature a selection by Bradford-born Frederick Cecil Jones (1891-1966), whose view of Scarborough (1950), left, is estimated at £2,000-£3,000. Portrait of a young woman seated, en dishabillé, an oil by Leedsborn Philip Naviasky (1894-1983), bears a pre-sale estimate of £1,200-£1,800.