[1] "In the midst of our apparent material prosperity, let some curious or courageous hand lift up but a corner of that embroidered pall, which the superficial refinement of our privileged and prosperous classes has thrown over society, and how we recoil from the revelation of what lies seething and festering beneath!" _Mrs. Jameson's_ "_Communion of Labour_," pag. 20. [2] Anno 1663. Vide Roussel, Systeme Moral et Physique de la Femme, ed. 1855, p. 224, and Astruc, Maladies des Femmes, t. vii. [3] This surgeon was most probably a person named Chison, of whom Count Bussi Rabutin relates the following anecdote:--"Meanwhile Madame de Crequi went to seek Madame on the day which she had appointed for their party to St. Cloud. She there met Chison, who had come to see one of Madame's girls who was ill; he is La Valiere's medical man, and is facetious and witty; after he had learned the complaint of the young lady, Cheer up, said he to her, I have remedies for all, even for lovers' hearts. Ho! G---- G----! replied Madame, teach me them directly, for ten or a dozen that I have, whom I should like to cure, provided it costs me only a few garden herbs. Ha, Madame, replied he, it costs me much less than herbs, it costs me nothing but words. In fine, Chison, who sacrificed everything for the entertainment of Madame, related to her how the king had sent to him to inquire, and that he had demanded, with extreme emotion, whether Mademoiselle de la Valiere could really survive, and if her leanness was not a bad symptom. And what was your answer? replied Madame. What, said he, can your highness be in doubt? I assure you that I promised him, with as much boldness, the prolongation of her years, as if I had a letter from Heaven. I spoke as a philosopher of life, and death, and destinies; it needed nothing (when I saw the joy of the king) but to have promised him an immortality for the girl. True, G----, cried Madame; what secret charms has the creature to inspire so great a passion? I assure you, replied Chison, that it is not her body which supplies them."--_Hist. Am. des Gaules. Amours de la Valiere_, page 430. The "witty and facetious" Chison spoke with a certainty which experience alone could give; he had doubtless attended La Valiere in her "confinement." Do such conversations ever occur now? There is nothing new under the sun; what has been will be, and the laureate, not without reason, sings in Maud:-- "Yonder a vile physician blabbing The case of his patient." [4] Alison's History, page 111, vol. i. [5] Ibid. page 180, vol. i. [6] Alison's History, page 217, vol. i. [7] Astruc, des Maladies des Femmes. [8] Ex-Maitresse Sage-Femme, Surveillante-en-chef de l'Hospice de la Maternite et de la Maison Royale de Sante et de l'Administration Generale des Hopitaux et Hospices Civils de Paris; Docteur en Medecine de l'Universite de Marbourg, &c. &c. &c.