What members of the Chrysalis Archaeology team thought was an old spice grinder turned out to be something a little grosser and very unexpected. While digging at City Hall Park in New York, the archaelogists found what turned out to be a feminine hygiene device made out of mammal bone that dates back to the early 1800s. The device was in what DNAInfo describes as a "massive heap of buried garbage," which adds to the overall grossness factor, but hey, it's important for history right?
Lisa Geiger is credited with making the connection because she remembered similar "vaginal syringes" at the Mutter Museum in Pennsylvania that were made of glass and brass. "Women used them for contraception, shooting solutions of astringents made from minerals or tree roots and barks into themselves before or after sex...They also used them as means to do what they thought was cleaning themselves."
So yeah, be grateful that you were not alive in 1803. For more information about the douche and the rest of the items found in the dig, head to DNAInfo.
[via ANIMAL]
