The Origin of the Condom

I just love history. And while I was browsing on the internet, I happened upon this fairly lengthy abstract of an article published in the British Medical Journal. It gives a run-down of the history of the condom. So, for your enjoyment, I will re-print it here:

Although it is one of medicine's most effective advances, we know tantalisingly little about the origins of the condom. The likes of Bartolomeo Eustachio, James Parkinson, and Thomas Hodgkin have fallen over each other in the scramble to attach their names to parts of our anatomy or our ailments. Yet the identity of Dr Condom-if indeed such a medic ever existed-has remained, appropriately, sheathed in mystery. Suggested references to early condoms in prehistoric cave paintings and ancient Egyptian tomb art probably owe more to researchers' overly fertile imaginations than to hard evidence. Historians are on firmer ground with records from Asia that document condom use before the 15th century. Fashioned from oiled paper or animal membrane in China, and from tortoiseshell or animal horn in Japan, these were minimalist devices that dealt only with the tip of the problem. The appearance of syphilis in Europe at the end of the 15th century spurred Westerners to follow suit. The Italian anatomist Gabriele Falloppia advocated a prophylactic made of linen as a barrier against the disease and in 1564 said: "I tried the experiment on eleven hundred men, and I call immortal God to witness that not one of them was infected." Because the eponymous Fallopian tubes had already been named, his invention remained nameless. The earliest surviving examples of condoms, made from mammal and fish intestines and dating back to 1646, were recently discovered in a latrine at Dudley Castle, England, where they had probably been flung by Royalist troops making a hasty exit. But the first reference in print to the name that has endured was penned by the irrepressible libertine John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, in a poem written in 1665 entitled A Panegyric upon Cundum. Plainly his enthusiasm was in vain, for Rochester died in his prime of venereal disease. It may have been his ode that spawned the belief that condoms were invented by a physician to Charles II named Dr Condon or Condom. But it seems that Dr Condom never existed. Nevertheless, by the 18th century condoms were widely available, though not universally enjoyed. James Boswell donned "armour" for one of his numerous encounters but grumbled that it was "a dull satisfaction." This was scarcely surprising, as condoms were generally made from sheep's or pig's gut, secured with a silk ribbon. Condoms acquired a certain foreign allure. Casanova described his experience in an "English overcoat." But although an early 18th century poem praised "matchless Condon" whose fame would last "as long as Condon is a Name," the identity of the inventor of one of the world's favourite contraceptives remains hidden.