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CONDOMS

May 8, 2007 – 8:12 am

CONDOMS

The issues concerning sexually transmitted diseases and preventing conception in women have been around for far longer than we may actually know.  Although it is disputed whether they were used for sexual purposes or for religious rituals, condoms have been depicted in ancient Egyptian drawings dating as early as three thousand years ago.  This, without a doubt, makes condoms the earliest form of contraceptives developed by man.The first documentation, however, of what can be said to be the precursor of the modern condom is found among the writings of Gabriele Falloppio, a Renaissance anatomist and physician for whom the Fallopian tubes in the woman’s body were named.  In his writings dated 1564, Fallopio described having invented a sheath for the penis that is made of linen and treated with salt solution or herbs.  It was said this sheath did much in preventing the further spread of syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease, during the time.

Apparently, the sheath designed by Fallopio picked up in later years.  One of the people said to have been influential in spreading the word about the use of condoms in the 1600s was none other than the British King Charles II.  Legend has it that Charles II commissioned one of his men, in some accounts named Dr. Condom and in others as the Earl of Condom, to come up with a scheme that will prevent the king from acquiring sexually transmitted diseases and from fathering illegitimate children.  The solution that this Dr. Condom or Earl of Condom came up with was a sheath made from animal intestine.  It is still being contested whether the condom is named after one such actual person or is merely taken from the Latin word “condun,” which means to protect.

Anyhow, it was said that the condom was not effective for Charles II, but that was mainly because the condoms he had used were not washed despite repeated uses.  Interestingly, the oldest condoms ever found came from his time, 1640.  These condom artefacts were said to have belonged to Royalist forces who backed them king in his conflict with Oliver Cromwell.

The turning point in the development of the modern condom came in 1839, when Charles Goodyear discovered the process of vulcanisation, which made rubber for elastic and durable.  This allowed for the mass production of rubber condoms with seams at the sides beginning 1844.

A further stage in the development of the modern condom is attributed to Julius Fromm, who devised a way of manufacturing condoms using glass moulds in 1912.  These glass moulds were repeatedly dipped in the raw rubber solution and then dried using blasts of hot air.  The force of water then removed the sheath formed from the dipping around the mould.  The resulting products were thinner, more elastic and did not have seams at the sides.  Also, they were to be used only once.

Today, condoms come in latex and even in plastic.  Condoms remain important with regards to sexual hygiene and contraception; they are still among the most effective means of preventing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, not to mention contraception.