There was once an ailment, a wide-spread disorder until the early 1900's, called Hysteria. But what was it? Where did it come from? Why were women the only ones to suffer from it? And what is the connection between this strange illness and vibrators?

To begin to answer all these questions you should know the origins of the word 'hysteria', it stems from the ancient Greek word 'hystera', meaning uterus.

So the uterus is the center of this disease, its origins if you will. But why the uterus? The uterus has a long and unhappy history of being thought of as evil, as being the area of the woman's body that causes sickness, mental instability and craziness.

Hysteria turned out to be a great diagnosis for doctors to give their female patients. Since hysteria was caused by the uterus and everybody knew how unstable and weak women were, every illness that wasn't understood could be called Hysteria.

During the mid to late 1800's, a time when Hysteria was at its peak, many doctors noted a trend in women who suffered from this illness. Many of those women turned out to be virgins, nuns, widows and even some housewives. But what is it that connects all these women?

The possibly obvious answer to that question is sex, or rather, the deprivation thereof. Women were considered to be weak and rather susceptible to mental instability and many doctors believed that bringing a woman to "hysterical paroxysm" would treat Hysteria. What is "hysterical paroxysm"? In today's terms we would refer to is as an orgasm.

Since masturbation was a very terrible thing to do there were doctors who would help women who suffered from Hysteria. In order to do this they would provide women with pelvic massages, manually inducing hysterical paroxysm.

But unfortunately for the doctors this process was often very long, even taking up to a few hours. Spending that much of a day for just one patient was definitely not profitable. But to help them, in the mid 1800's some doctors were able to use a water hose to massage the pelvic region.

But thankfully in 1873 a new tool was created and first used in an asylum in France to treat Hysteria. This tool was called a electromechanical vibrator. This wondrous tool allowed doctors to help their patients in a matter of minutes, not hours.

As technology advanced more and more people got electricity in their houses, allowing women to treat themselves in the comfort of their own home. Sears even advertised their vibrators in their 1918 catalog where they said their vibrators were "Very useful and satisfactory for home service."

That started the wonderful vibrator movement, women could now enjoy themselves at home, safely, without masturbating, all to keep them healthy, sane and Hysteria-free.

These days women would have a tough time convincing anybody they had Hysteria and that's why they need to keep their vibrators around. But thankfully they don't have to.