Charles D. Meigs wrote in 1848,

• "I hope the day is far distant when the spectacle shall be seen in our hospitals, of troops of women waiting in succession for a public examination of their genitalia, in the presence of large classes of medical practitioners and students of medicine... He is but the pander of vice who parades his thousands of uterine cases before the public gaze..."

In 1854 Meigs wrote,

• "I confess I am proud to say that in this country generally, certainly in many parts of it, there are women who prefer to suffer the extremity of danger and pain rather than waive those scruples of delicacy which prevent their maladies from being explored."

Kelly and the D&C

Kelly wrote, "For many years I have also done D and C operations in selected cases on my office table as part of the routine examination in hemorrhagic patients. Satisfactory conditions are: A cervix easily accessible, and a canal easily dilatable, and a patient plucky and not neurotic and able to bear some pain for a short time." (Kelly)

Hippocrates

The Hippocratic writings contain a section on women's diseases. Although probably not written by Hippocrates, this work appears to describe dilation of the cervical os. A series of six wooden dilators of increasing diameter was introduced to a depth of four fingerbreadths. At night the wooden dilator was replaced by a hollow lead probe filled with mutton fat. (Forrester)