1717 TURNER, Daniel (1667 – 1742)
Syphilis: A practical dissertation on the venereal disease. In which, after a short account of its nature and original; the diagnostick and prognostick signs, with the best ways of curing the several degrees of that distemper, together with some historical observations relating to the same, are candidly and without reserve, communicated. In two parts.
The first work published in English to include the word syphilis, and also the first English work to include the word condom. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.
GMN 10530 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12723
1822 PLACE, Francis (1771 – 1854)
Illustrations and proofs of the principle of population including an examination of the proposed remedies of Mr. Malthus, and a reply to the objections of Mr. Godwin and others.
Place was the first important proponent of birth control in any English speaking country. The above work openly advocates contraception, though without indicating how it was to be achieved. Reprinted with additional m…
GMN 1696.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2447
1826 CARLILE, Richard (1790 – 1843)
Every woman's book; or, what is love? Containing most important instructions for the prudent regulation of the principle of love and the number of a family.
This radical and progressive sex manual was the first book to specify methods of contraception, including the sponge, condoms, and withdrawal. It also took the position, radical at the time, that with respect to sexua…
GMN 7508 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9680
1832 KNOWLTON, Charles (1800 – 1850)
Fruits of philosophy, or the private companion of young married people,
First edition published privately and anonymously. Second edition, with additions, Boston, 1833. Many times reprinted. Republished by Charles Bradlaugh and Annie Besant, 1891. Edited, with an introductory notice by No…
GMN 7036 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9203
1847 LOHMAN, Ann Trow (Madam Restell) (1812 – 1878); LOHMAN, Charles M.
The married woman's private medical companion, embracing the treatment of menstruation, or monthly turns, during their stoppage, irregularity, or entire suppression, pregnancy, and how it may be determined, with the treatment of its various diseases. Discovery to prevent pregnancy, its great and important necessity where malformation or inability exists to give birth. To prevent miscarriage or abortion when proper and necessary, to effect miscarriage when attended with entire safety. Causes and mode of cure of barrenness or sterility
Published pseudonymously by radical printer Charles Lohman who was married to the abortionist/entrpreneur Ann Lohman known as "Madame Restell." The Lohmans also sold condoms. Digital facsimile from U.S. National Libra…
GMN 13469 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15743
1850 HOLLICK, Frederick (1818 – 1900)
The marriage guide, or natural history of generation; a private instructor for married persons and those about to marry, both male and female, in every thing concerning the physiology and relations of the sexual system and production or prevention of offspring; including all the new discoveries, never before given in the English language.
Digital facsimile of the 196th edition, much enlarged and improved from Google Books at this link. Sappol (2002) estimated that Hollick's works on sexuality and reproduction underwent at least 500 editions of between …
GMN 13760 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/16045
1852 ROOT, Harmon Knox
The people's medical lighthouse; a series of popular and scientific essays on the nature, uses, and diseases of the lungs, heart, liver, stomach, kidneys, womb and blood; also a key to the causes, prevention, remedies, and cure of pumonary and other kinds of consumption;....Marriage guide....
One of the more comprehensive American works on popular medicine from the mid-19th century, frequently reprinted. The author, who published the work himself from his address in New York City, describes himself as A.M.…
GMN 13308 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15574
1855 DRYSDALE, George (1825 – 1904)
Physical, sexual and natural religion: by a student of medicine.
Drysdale emphasized that sexual intercourse should be pleasurable for both sexes, but believed that the ever-present possibility of pregnancy prevented it from being so. He also believed that overpopulation itself was…
GMN 7545 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9717
1859 ASHTON, James
The book of nature : containing information for young people who think of getting married: on the philosophy of procreation and sexual intercourse, showing how to prevent conception and to avoid child-bearing : also, rules for management during labor and child-birth.
Possibly the most enlightened, and detailed book on sex, reproduction, and contraception published during this period; illustrated in color. In addition to outlining the era's five most reliable methods of contracepti…
GMN 7720 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9892
1898 GRIFFITH, Francis Llewellyn (1862 – 1934)
The Petrie papyri. Hieratic papyri from Kahun and Gurob (Principally of the Middle Kingdom) edited by F. Ll. Griffith.
KAHUN GYNECOLOGICAL PAPYRUS
The Kahun Gynecological Papyrus (also Kahun Papyrus, Kahun Medical Papyrus, or UC 32057) is the oldest known medical text on papyrus, dating from circa 1800 BCE. It was found at El-Lahun, Egypt (Faiyum, Kahun, كاهم
GMN 7011 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9177
1917 –1940 SANGER, Margaret (1879 – 1966)
The Birth Control Review.
Sanger edited The Birth Control Review until 1929. A new series began in 1933. It was a birth control advocacy periodical published by the American Birth Control League, and later by its successor, the Birth Control F…
GMN 7106 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9273
1919 ROBINSON, Victor (1866 – 1947)
Pioneers of birth control in England and America.
Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.
GMN 8900 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/11078
1923 STOPES, Marie Charlotte Carmichael (1880 – 1958)
Contraception (birth control). Its theory, history and practice. A manual for the medical and legal professions.
The first formal handbook on birth control.
GMN 1641.2 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2124
1926 SANGER, Margaret (1879 – 1966)
Happiness in marriage.
Full text available from LifeDynamics.com at this link.
GMN 7105 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9272
1930 NORRIS, Charles Gilman (1881 – 1945)
Seed, a novel of birth control.
GMN 12158 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/14368
1931 HABERLANDT, Ludwig (1885 – 1932)
Die hormonale Sterilisierung des weiblichen Organismus.
Halberlandt, professor of physiology at Innsbruck, invented the first hormonal contraceptive, Infecundin, using corpus luteum extracts from females rich in the hormone progesterone. His initial report on the contracep…
GMN 13561 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15838
1936 HIMES, Norman Edwin (1899 – 1949)
Medical history of contraception.
Reprinted with updating preface, 1963, 1970.
GMN 1662 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2215
1938 SANGER, Margaret (1879 – 1966)
Margaret Sanger: An autobiography.
GMN 7406 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9578
1953 CHANG, Min Chueh (1908 – 1991); PINCUS, Gregory Goodwin (1903 – 1967)
The effects of progesterone and related compounds on ovulation and early development in the rabbit.
First practical demonstration of an oral contraceptive.
GMN 1931.2 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2754
1954 DJERASSI, Carl (1923 – 2015); MIRAMONTES CARDÉNAS, Luis Ernesto (1925 – 2004); ROSENKRANZ, George (1916 – ); SONDHEIMER, Franz (1926 – 1981)
Steroids. LIV.Synthesis of 19-Nov-17α-ethynyltestosterone and 19-Nor-17α-methyltestosterone.
Synthesis of Norethisterone (or norethindrone) (or 19-nor-17α-ethynyltestosterone), the first highly active progestin analog that was effective when taken by mouth. This molecule became part of one of the first succes…
GMN 7085 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9252
1955 GARDINER, Sir Alan Henderson (1879 – 1963)
The Ramesseum papyri. Edited by Sir Alan Gardiner. 2 vols.
A collection of ancient Egyptian medical documents from the early 18th century BCE, found in the temple of the Ramesseum. As with most ancient Egyptian medical papyri, these documents mainly concern ailments, diseases…
GMN 8391 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/10568
1963 FINCH, Bernard Ephraim
Contraception through the ages.
GMN 1671.6 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2298
1977 STOPES, Marie Charlotte Carmichael (1880 – 1958)
Marie Stopes: A checklist of her writings
The printed dust jacket reads differently from the title page: "Marie Stopes: A preliminary checklist of her writings together with some biographical notes."
GMN 13376 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15647
1978 HATCHER, Robert Anthony; TRUSSELL, James; NELSON, Anita L.; KOWAL, Deborah; POLICAR, Michael
Contraceptive technology.
Standard work on the subject; 20th edition, New York: Arden Media, 2011. Hatcher originated the work in 1978. Collaborators on the 20th edition are Hatcher, Kowal, Nelson, Policar, and Trusell. An offshoot of the main…
GMN 7115 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9282
1978 REED, James W.
The birth control movement and American society: From private vice to public virtue.
A history of contraception in the United States.
GMN 13757 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/16041
1983 MUSALLAM, Basim F. (1943 – )
Sex and society in Islam: Birth control before the nineteenth century.
GMN 9095 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/11274
1986 NOONAN, John T. Jr.
Contraception: A history of its treatment by the Catholic theologians and canonists. Enlarged edition.
GMN 8368 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/10544
1986 NETTER, Albert (1910 – 2012); ROZENBAUM, Henri
Histoire illustrée de la contraception: De l'antiquité à nos jours.
GMN 13786 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/16073
1989 KNOWLTON, Charles (1800 – 1850); BESANT, Annie (1847 – 1933); CHANDRASEKHAR, Sripati (1918 – 2001)
"A dirty, filthy book." The writings of Charles Knowlton and Annie Besant on reproductive physiology and birth control and an account of the Bradlaugh-Besant trial, by S. Chandrasekhar. With the definitive texts of Fruits of Philosophy by Charles Knowlton, The Law of Population by Annie Besant, Theosophy and the Law of Population by Annie Besant.
GMN 7044 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9211
1990 MCLAREN, Angus (1944 – )
A history of contraception from antiquity to the present day.
GMN 7533 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9705
1990 MURPHY, James S.
The condom industry in the United States.
GMN 13391 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15662
1992 RIDDLE, John M. (1937 – )
Contraception and abortion from the ancient world to the Renaissance.
Riddle argued that the ancient world possessed effective and safe contraceptives and abortifacients; however this knowledge about fertility control, widely held in the ancient world, was gradually lost over the course…
GMN 7043 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9210
1994 BRODIE, Janet Farrell
Contraception and abortion in nineteenth-century America.
GMN 10299 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12490
1997 RIDDLE, John M. (1937 – )
Eve's herbs: A history of contraception and abortion in the West.
A history of the use of plant products, such as ergot, as abortion agents.
GMN 7722 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9894
2000 BILLER, Peter (1945 – )
The measure of multitude: Population in medieval thought.
Chapters 6-8 cover "Avoidance of offspring" or aspects of contraception.
GMN 9094 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/11273
2001 TONE, Andrea (1964 – )
Devices and desires: A history of contraceptives in America.
GMN 13389 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15660
2002 KAPPARIS, Konstantinos A.
Abortion in the ancient world.
GMN 11032 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13228
2003 JÜTTE, Robert (1954 – )
Lust ohne Last: Geschichte der Empfängnisverhütung von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart.
Translated into English as Contraception: A History (Cambridge & Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2008).
GMN 7721 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9893
2007 CAPO, Beth Widmaier (1973 – )
Textual contraception: Birth control and modern American fiction.
GMN 12159 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/14369
2008 DOWBIGGIN, Ian Robert (1952 – )
The sterilization movement and global fertility in the twentieth century.
GMN 9967 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12156
2013 PARRY, Manon
Broadcasting birth control: Mass media and family planning.
Explores the films and radio and television broadcasts developed by twentieth-century birth control advocates to promote family planning at home in the United States, and in the expanding international arena of popula…
GMN 10774 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12970
