Condom use is centuries old. In records from many ancient and traditional cultures, use of adornments on the penis is mentioned—not for their contraceptive or disease preven¬tive properties, but rather as ways of doing homage to the erect member. An example is the penis sheaths fashioned from gourds by natives of New Guinea.

The earliest true condoms were made of fabric impregnated with whatever substance was thought to prevent pregnancy. Vinegar was once used. These were tied closed at the end. They didn’t fit well and were not wildly popular.

Later, progress led to the use of fish skin or animal gut, again tied off at the end. Casanova was rumoured to have used a blue silk ribbon on the end of his! Since the knowl-edge of those days didn’t include much about infectious agents, these condoms were reused—often, if one believes the tales of the owner’s virility.

The condom is said to be named for Colonel Condom, an army physician attendant upon King Charles II. Allegedly, Colonel Condom made devices from lambs’ guts to assist his king, who had an ever-wandering eye for the ladies. As Charles had at least fourteen children by various mistresses, there were clearly defects in the Colonel’s design (one wit wrote that ‘a king should be a father to his people and Charles was certainly father to a good many of them’). The British deny the very existence of Colonel Condom and refer to condoms as ‘French letters’, implying that all such things must be French.

A nineteenth-century New York sausage maker, Julius Schmid, realised the usefulness of his surplus sausage skins, sewn over at one end, for protecting the old sausage. Julius founded a condom company that thrives to this day!

Also in the nineteenth century, developments in rubber manufacturing allowed condoms to be mass produced and become popular. This popularity was enhanced by the development of a liquid latex process in the 1930s and subsequent automation made them very affordable.