From wikipedia: An ancient Greek myth tells of the uterus wandering throughout a woman’s body, strangling the victim as it reaches the chest and causing disease. This theory is the source of the term hysteria, which stems from the Greek word for uterus, hystera. A prominent physician from the second century, Galen, wrote that hysteria was a disease caused by sexual deprivation in particularly passionate women: hysteria was noted quite often in virgins, nuns, widows, and occasionally married women. The prescription in medieval and renaissance medicine was intercourse if married, marriage if single, or massage by a midwife as a last recourse. It was a popular diagnosis in the Victorian era for a wide array of symptoms and treatment came in the form of a “pelvic massage” — manual stimulation of the woman’s genitals by the doctor to “hysterical paroxysm”, which is now recognized as orgasm.
Links: Female hysteria, Why Only Women Get Hysterical, In the History of Gynecology, a Surprising Chapter, Freud, Charcot and hysteria: lost in the labyrinth, Hysteria’s Notorious History, Medical texts and other fictions, The wandering womb, Unbalanced Drive Shaft, History of the vibrator, For pleasure, Come again?, Nerves and Narratives, The Wandering Libido and the Hysterical Body, and finally…
“As she laughed I was aware of becoming involved in her laughter and being part of it, until her teeth were only accidental stars with a talent for squad-drill. I was drawn in by short gasps, inhaled at each momentary recovery, lost finally in the dark caverns of her throat, bruised by the ripple of unseen muscles. An elderly waiter with trembling hands was hurriedly spreading a pink and white checked cloth over the rusty green iron table, saying: “If the lady and gentleman wish to take their tea in the garden, if the lady and gentleman wish to take their tea in the garden…” I decided that if the shaking of her breasts could be stopped, some of the fragments of the afternoon might be collected, and I concentrated my attention with careful subtlety to this end.”
Hysteria, By T.S. Eliot.
