It’s amazing what you can find in old newspapers. I was looking at a Chinese-language newspaper from Singapore called the Union Times, and in an issue from 1912, I found an advertisement for a product that had been created by a certain Alexander Grossman.
Who was Alexander Grossman and what was the product that he sold? According to the advertisement, Mr. Grossman was a “great professor” who had discovered, and was now marketing, a “wonderful instrument” called the “Manhood Creator.”
That information was provided in English. Curious to know what kind of “manhood” was being referred to here (in 1912 they couldn’t have been talking about. . . right?), I started to read the Chinese text.
The advertisement starts off by talking in general terms about how this “wonderful instrument” can improve a man’s health. Then it gets more specific.
In particular, the text explains that the physical bodies of men and women are more or less the same (大同小異), with the one main difference being the “male tool” (陽具).
At this point the advertisement turns to talking about the importance of having a strong and healthy “male tool.”
“For each healthy man, the size of his tool has to be up to standard, for it is only then that he can be completely healthy.”
凡身體壯健之人，其陽具之長大度亦需合格，方成完全之健康
“If one’s tool is small, weak and emaciated, then it cannot perform its official duties. One’s body will gradually become weak, and when husband and wife meet in union, it will not last for long. Neither (husband nor wife) will be happy. This is the cause of the inability to manufacture a son.”
若陽具細弱或痿縮斯陽具已失其職守，身體亦漸成軟弱，及夫婦交合時，不能久持，彼此無樂趣，此所以不能為兒子之製造也
Having clearly clarified “the problem,” the advertisement then goes on to talk about “the solution.”
Here, however, it gets a bit vague again, and merely says that a man should “first use the instrument for a week,” and that he should then “engage in bedroom intercourse” and that this will enable his tool to enjoy “prosperity.”
先用此器具一禮拜之久，然後行閨房交媾之事，使陽具愈見發達
There are people who say that size doesn’t matter. . . The “great professor” here was trying to make money off people who believe it does.
I wonder if he was successful?
And as for the guys who tried it. . .
do you think this may have to do with Koro?
Haha!!! I had never heard of this (I guess that’s a good sign!), so I had to look it up. . . how interesting!!!
This is what Wikipedia says about it:
“Koro is a culture-specific syndrome in which an individual has an overpowering belief that his or her genitals (e.g., penis or female nipples) are retracting and will disappear, despite the lack of any true longstanding changes to the genitals.[1] Koro is also known as shrinking penis, and it is listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The syndrome occurs worldwide, and mass hysteria of genital-shrinkage anxiety has a history in Africa, Asia, and Europe.”
And Singapore is one of the places where it has occurred:
“A koro epidemic struck Singapore in October 1967 for about ten days. Newspapers initially reported that some people developed koro after eating the meat of pigs inoculated with anti-swine-flu vaccine. Rumours relating eating pork and koro spread after a further report of an inoculated pig dying from penile retraction. The cases reported amounted to 97 in a single hospital unit within one day, at five days after the original news report. Government and medical officials alleviated the outbreak only by public announcements over television and in the newspapers.”
Now I can see a great way to make money – market Mr. Grossman’s “wonderful instrument” wherever/whenever there is an outbreak of “koro hysteria”!! 😉
Maybe I am a little naive, but that kind of “instrument” might it have been – if it ought to have had such striking effects?!?
I dread to think. . . but I saw another advertisement for some “health” product that was some kind of “magnetic” belt that was supposed to use magnetic power to energize one’s body.
So perhaps (just guessing here) the “instrument” was also something that made use of magnetic power???