Sex and quacks in the 18th century.

18th century society The 18th century was a very exciting time. Science was hugely fashionable, the Lunar Society of Birmingham (established by the likes of Josiah Wedgwood, Joseph Priestly, James Watt and Erasmus Darwin) had made its mark and the ‘Age of Enlightenment’ was upon us. In 1794, Erasmus Darwin of Lichfield (physician, poet, philosopher, botanist and inventor – one of the leading intellectuals of 18th century England and the grandfather of Charles Darwin) published Zoomania (or the Laws of Organic Life) in which he expressed his evolutionary concepts and medical philosophy in verse, whilst taking a little time out to examine cadavers in his cellar. His neighbours and friends, Garrick and Dr Johnson (of dictionary fame) would have no doubt joined Darwin to observe over a glass of canary (a type of sherry). This is the time of mummy unwrapping parties when the powerful and wealthy would invite friends round for a buffet served in a room where a doctor unwrapped a mummy brought back to England by early Egyptologists. Many believed the shackles of the early Church were struck away by the new scientists, and agnostics and atheists were no longer burned at the stake as heretics. These new thinkers were, however, often metaphorically burned in the press. The presses were also busy with the huge rise in production of erotic literature, which flooded the streets or could be bought discreetly for as much as a guinea by those with experimental taste. Some of the literature in pictures and text would be viewed as explosive even today. Sadomasochism, buggery and even bestiality feature. Many of us read Justine as students but little prepares us for the Marquis de Sade (1740–1814). Despite its claims to strike away sexual restraint, the work also has a darkness about it that is positively chilling even to a hardened sexual health historian like me. Liberal behaviour was accepted across most of the century dominated by the German kings, many of whom still had mistresses who featured largely (literally in some cases) in many levels of society. It seems there were forms of sexual equality, as women frequently took lovers once they had produced an ‘heir and a spare’. As each individual divorce still had to be debated in Parliament, many couples found it easier to live apart and were not necessarily rejected from polite company. Satins, velvets and embroidery blazed in rainbow colours and wigs were high dressed and powdered white. Painted faces, coral cheeks and mouths spoke of excess and whole family fortunes could be lost at the turning of a card. Homosexuality was so fashionable as a style that men feigned homosexual behaviour in speech and style – what we might describe today as ‘camp’. Sex and quacks in the 18th century