Acetic acid
Acetic
acid
In Brief
When Stephen, in Proteus, comically imagines a
Casanova rising "from the bed of his wife's lover's wife," he
puzzlingly adds that "the kerchiefed housewife is astir, a
saucer of acetic acid in her hands." Acetic acid is the chief
component of vinegar, and vinegar is sometimes used for
household cleaning, so this clause could refer to morning
chores. But the housewife is more likely getting out of bed to
perform a contraceptive douche.
Read More
Gifford halfheartedly asks whether the saucer of vinegar may
be intended "For cleaning stone or marble surfaces?" Other
published commentators (Kiberd, Johnson, Slote) do not repeat
his tentative opinion, but rather than offer more convincing
readings they simply ignore the puzzling detail. However, two
Iranian correspondents, Iman Fani and Nariman Tavakoli, have
independently written to me to propose something better:
lovers without access to more reliable forms of birth control
methods have long used acidic liquids like vinegar and lemon
juice for their supposed spermicidal effects.
The actual 18th century Casanova is said to have used lemons
as diaphragms, cutting them in half and scooping out the pulp
so they could be inserted around the cervix. Vienna's Museum
of Contraception and Abortion features a display of this
improvised spermicidal barrier, shown here. Sea sponges or
cotton balls soaked in vinegar have often similarly been used
as contraceptives, even though such barriers are highly
permeable. And women in various places and times (the practice
goes back at least as far as ancient Rome) have used lemon
juice or vinegar in vaginal douches, both to treat infections
and to prevent pregnancy.
The drab effect of calling the woman "kerchiefed" may lead a reader to suppose that she is not the "wife's lover's wife" who has just spent the night engaged in dramatic carnal revenge. But, as the "housewife," she clearly must be that person, and viewed in this way it seems that she is "astir" not because she is bustling about the house on a cleaning routine but because she has just roused herself from bed. Stephen's fantasy of "Paris rawly waking," then, four times strikes the note of people going about their post-coital routines. Belluomo gets up from the bed of his latest conquest and prepares to get dressed and start his day, while his lover goes off to sterilize the semen in her vagina. In Rodot's café two women "newmake their tumbled beauties" while their "wellpleased pleasers," also looking spruced up, pass by on the street.
