[18] The statutes of 1268 ordained that “les matrones ou sages femmes sont aussi, de la dite confrairie et subjects ausdits deux chirurgiens jurez du Roy au Chastelet, qui ont dressé certains statuts et ordonnances tant pour les droicts de la confrairie que pour leur estat de sage femme, qu’elles doivent observer et garder.”--Du Breul’s “Antiquités de Paris,” pub. 1639. [19] “The Midwive’s Deputie ... composed for the use of my wife (a sworne Midwife), by Edward Poeton, Petworth, Licentiate in Physick and Chyrurgery.” [20] “Letter to Dr----” written by Elizabeth Celleor, “from my house in Arundel Street, Strand, Jan. 16, 1687–8.” [21] “A Short Account of the State of Midwifery in London. By John Douglas, Surgeon. Dedicated to the Right Hon. Lady Walpole.” [22] It may be interesting to give the following quotation on this subject from a popular magazine of thirty years ago:--“The accoucheur’s is a profession nearly altogether wrested out of the hands of women, for which Nature has surely fitted them, if opinion permitted education to finish Nature’s work. But women are held in the bonds of ignorance, and then pronounced of deficient capacity, or blamed for wanting the knowledge they are sternly prevented from acquiring.”--_Tait’s Magazine_, June, 1841. [23] _Lancet_, April 13th and 20th; May 4th; June 1st; 1872. [24] It will be remembered that an attempt was made to throw doubt on the birth of this prince, but Dr Aveling remarks that “Dr Chamberlen, in his letter to the Princess Sophia, showed the absurdity of this hypothesis”--(_i.e._, of the charge of conspiracy). [25] “Delicacy had in those days so far the ascendancy, that the obstetrical art was principally practised by females, and on this occasion the Queen was delivered by Mrs Stephen, Dr Hunter being in attendance among the ladies of the bedchamber, in case of his professional assistance being required.”--HUISH’S “_Life of George IV._” [26] “It is a curious coincidence, considering the future connection of the children, that Madame Siebold, the accoucheuse spoken of above as attending the Duchess of Coburg at the birth of Prince Albert (August 1819), had only three months before attended the Duchess of Kent at the birth of the Princess Victoria.”--_Early Years of the Prince Consort._ [27] “Rites and Customs of the Greco-Russian Church,” by Madame Romanoff. Rivingtons, 1868. [28] Ballard’s “Memoirs of several Ladies of Great Britain.” Oxford, 1752. [29] “An Account of the Life and Death of Mrs Elizabeth Bury.” Bristol, 1721. [30] “Scuola Anatomica di Bologna,” by Medici. [31] Fachini. [32] Ibid. [33] Ibid. [34] Fachini. [35] “Gazette Medicale,” du 10 Janvier 1846. [36] Klemm, “Die Frauen.” [37] _Athenæum_, July 1859. [38] Arnault’s “Biographie nouvelle des contemporains.” [39] Quérard’s “Littérature Française.” [40] “The Boke of the Cyte of Ladyes,” by Christine Du Castel, 1521. [41] See _Note B_.