This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1901 edition. Excerpt: . THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF LOUYSE BOURGEOIS, MIDWIFE TO MARIE DE' MEDICI, THE QUEEN OK HENRY IV. OF FRANCE.

THE ANNUAL ADDRESS OF THE RETIRING PRESIDENT BEKORE THE PHILADELPHIA COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY. BY WILLIAM GOODELL, A.M., M.D., t Delivered June 5, 1876. PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE SOCIETY. PHILADELPHIA: COLLINS, PRINTER, 705 JAYNE STREET.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by WILLIAM GOODELL, M.D., in the Office of the Librarian, at Washington. All rights reserved. Gentlemen Of The Philadelphia County Medical Society: --While hunting up an historical point in the noble Library of the College of Physicians, I chanced upon an old book which deeply interested me. It was printed at Paris in 1617; the wood-cuts were rude; the type none of the best; the diction quaint; the spelling very shaky, and the least said about the punctuation and grammar the better. By no means could it be termed an edition de luxe, nor did it contain the information I needed; but it kept me from my work until every word, from title-page to colophon, had been read. It was the first French work on midwifery ever written by a woman,1 and she, the famous Louise Bourgeois, midwife to her majesty, Marie De' Medici, the wife of Henry IV.

of France. With your good leave I purpose this evening to step out of the beaten track of presidential addresses, to guide you back nearly three hundred years, and to give you a sketch of this book, a glimpse at the manners and customs of bygone times, and an insight into the character of a remarkable woman. After the fashion of those days, the title-page of this book is illustrated by figures more or less devotional in character. These consist of a kneeling pope, an assumption of the Virgin, several saints of either sex, .