ce the origin and
history of the condom, though it seems impossible to do so with
any precision. It is probable that, in a rudimentary form, such
an appliance is of great antiquity. In China and Japan, it would
appear, rounds of oiled silk paper are used to cover the mouth of
the womb, at all events, by prostitutes. This seems the simplest
and most obvious mechanical method of preventing conception, and
may have suggested the application of a sheath to the penis as a
more effectual method. In Europe, it is in the middle of the
sixteenth century, in Italy, that we first seem to hear of such
appliances, in the shape of linen sheaths, adapted to the shape
of the penis; Fallopius recommended the use of such an appliance.
Improvements in the manufacture were gradually devised; the caecum
of the lamb was employed, and afterwards, isinglass. It appears
that a considerable improvement in the manufacture took place in
the seventeenth or eighteenth century, and this improvement was
generally associated with England. The appliance thus became
known as the English cape or mantle, the "capote anglaise," or
the "redingote anglaise," and, under the latter name, is referred
to by Casanova, in the middle of the eighteenth century
(Casanova, _Memoires_, ed. Garnier, vol. iv, p. 464); Casanova
never seems, however, to have used these redingotes himself, not
caring, he said, "to shut myself up in a piece of dead skin in
order to prove that I am perfectly alive." These capotes--then
made of goldbeaters' skin--were, also, it appears, known at an
earlier period to Mme. de Sevigne, who did not regard them with
favor, for, in one of her letters, she refers to them as
"cuirasses contre la volupte et toiles d'arraignee contre le
mal." The name, "condom," dates from the eighteenth century,
first appearing in France, and is generally considered to be that
of an English physician, or surgeon, who invented, or, rather,
improved the appliance. Condom is not, however, an English name,
but there is an English name, Condon, of which "condom" may well
be a corruption. This supposition is strengthened by the fact
that the word sometimes actually was written "condon." Thus, in
lines quoted by Bachaumont, in his _Diary_ (Dec. 15, 1773), and
supposed to be addressed to a former ballet dancer who had become
a prost