# I think I may have stumbled on the origin of the "catching VD from a toilet" myth! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 23, 2008, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-may-have-stumbled-on-the-origin-of-the-catching-vd-from-a-toilet-myth/464779 "2008-09-23T02:00:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-may-have-stumbled-on-the-origin-of-the-catching-vd-from-a-toilet-myth/464779/1 "2008-09-23T02:00:07Z")
Or, if not the origin, at least a volumey text where it’s reported to laypeople as medical fact. I’m having a blast reading a dusty old copy of _[The Hygiene of Marriage](http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/citation/89/3/643)_, written by one Mr. Millard S. Everett, Ph.D. in 1932. There’s some wonderful sections in support of eugenics, as well as a whopper of a chapter on homosexually as arrested sexual development, and conditioning techniques to get yourself over your fondness for the same sex. Anyhow, I just found this part, on a section discussing “venereal disease”, specifically, gonorrhea: > [@](#): > > Gonorrhea is rarely transmitted in any other way than those just indicated. The gonococcus is not a hardy germ. Is it very difficult to grow it outside the body. If it becomes dry, it dies immediately, so that it can be transmitted only in a moist medium. When it is transmitted in a moist state, it must find a suitable place to grow in the body. The eyes are one such place. if moist secretions on a towel were wiped into the eyes, a serious infection would set in. Again, if a moist depost of bacteria from a toilet seat were lodged on the genitals, an infection might begin. While the probabilities of thus acquiring the disease are very small, yet a few simple precautions in regard to the use of individual towels to avoid contact with eye infections, and in regard to clean toilet seats, will not be amiss. So it seems that our parents and grandparents weren’t smoking too much dope - they really \*were \*told by trained professionals that they might have gotten crotch rot from a dirty toilet seat! Stay tuned for further installments, including two chapters’ worth of material on the topic of contraception without a single bit of information on the methods of the day, effectiveness or side effects - because federal law prohibited publishing information about birth control that could be sold across state lines. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-may-have-stumbled-on-the-origin-of-the-catching-vd-from-a-toilet-myth/464779/2 "2008-09-23T02:07:33Z")
That was definitely propogated both then and earlier. 1910 [American Journal of Dermatology and Genito-urinary Diseases - Google Books](http://books.google.com/books?id=B70TAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA283&dq=Gonorrhea+%22toilet+seat%22+date:1885-1933&lr=&num=30&as_brr=0) ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-may-have-stumbled-on-the-origin-of-the-catching-vd-from-a-toilet-myth/464779/3 "2008-09-23T02:35:39Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > That was definitely propogated both then and earlier. > > 1910 [American Journal of Dermatology and Genito-urinary Diseases - Google Books](http://books.google.com/books?id=B70TAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA283&dq=Gonorrhea+%22toilet+seat%22+date:1885-1933&lr=&num=30&as_brr=0) Wow. I love this stuff. By the time I got to sex ed (late 80’s) it was so thoroughly debunked that it was simply scoffed at - never an indication that it was, at one time, actual medical theory. Makes me wonder what obviously true and sensible bits about our current medical knowledge will seem as silly and wrongheaded in 60 years. BTW, do you know when “testosterone”,“estrogen” and “progesterone” were identified and named? He talks about “internal secretions” of both genders, but no mention of hormones by name. There was apparently some early HRT going on though, with “extracts of glands” given to women after a “pan-hysterectomy”. I can find oodles of information on the hormones as biological entities, but not on the history of their discovery or naming. You’re so good at the history of words! ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-may-have-stumbled-on-the-origin-of-the-catching-vd-from-a-toilet-myth/464779/4 "2008-09-23T03:05:12Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > You’re so good at the history of words! Yeah, I’m good at the history, not so good at the spelling-- “propogated” as opposed to “propagated.” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-may-have-stumbled-on-the-origin-of-the-catching-vd-from-a-toilet-myth/464779/5 "2008-09-23T03:07:45Z")
My dad always told me that the only people who catch VD from toilet seats are preachers. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-may-have-stumbled-on-the-origin-of-the-catching-vd-from-a-toilet-myth/464779/6 "2008-09-23T03:09:52Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > BTW, do you know when “testosterone”,“estrogen” and “progesterone” were identified and named? He talks about “internal secretions” of both genders, but no mention of hormones by name. There was apparently some early HRT going on though, with “extracts of glands” given to women after a “pan-hysterectomy”. I can find oodles of information on the hormones as biological entities, but not on the history of their discovery or naming. I think you’ll get a better picture of these words and their early uses by using Wikipedia. While I can perhaps antedate the word by a year or two, their summaries are great. [Testosterone](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testosterone) ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-may-have-stumbled-on-the-origin-of-the-catching-vd-from-a-toilet-myth/464779/7 "2008-09-23T03:14:39Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > My dad always told me that the only people who catch VD from toilet seats are preachers. > > 😛 Or deeply closeted homophobic Senators? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![beanpod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9adbd/32.png) [@beanpod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beanpod)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-may-have-stumbled-on-the-origin-of-the-catching-vd-from-a-toilet-myth/464779/8 "2008-09-23T17:06:01Z")
**WhyNot** , you might be interested in this book: > **[Amazon.com: Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality:...](https://www.amazon.com/Sexing-Body-Politics-Construction-Sexuality/dp/0465077145)** > > Amazon.com: Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality: 9780465077144: Fausto-Sterling, Anne: Books _Sexing the Body_ by Anne Fausto-Sterling. It was the main book for my intro to feminist theory class in college, so it does have an editorial bent, though. It does have some interesting information on when testosterone and estrogen were discovered, and how they were politicized. ---
**Author:** ![Telperien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-may-have-stumbled-on-the-origin-of-the-catching-vd-from-a-toilet-myth/464779/9 "2008-09-23T17:10:00Z")
Ah, but they left out with whom they were on that toilet! ---
**Author:** ![Carl\_Corey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Carl\_Corey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carl_Corey)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-may-have-stumbled-on-the-origin-of-the-catching-vd-from-a-toilet-myth/464779/10 "2008-09-23T18:37:10Z")
So does the book recommend douching with Lysol?