[180] Ibid., p. 1.
[181] In order that the reader may realize the immense extent of territory that was covered by this strenuous woman's explorations, during the twelve years she spent in Amazonia, it suffices to give the titles of her books, all of which are profusely illustrated by photographs taken by herself and by accurate charts of rivers, whose courses were previously almost unknown.
The books written in collaboration with her husband are Voyage au Tapajos, Voyage au Xingu, Voyage au Tocantins-Araguaya, Voyage au Itaboca et à l'Etacayuna, Voyage entre Tocantins et Xingu, et Voyage au Yamunda.
The books written by Mme. Coudreau after her husband's death are Voyage au Trombetas, Voyage au Cuminá, Voyage au Rio Curuá, Voyage a la Mapuerá and Voyage au Maycurú.
When one remembers that many of the watercourses here named would be considered large rivers outside of South America; that, notwithstanding their countless rapids and waterfalls, necessitating numberless portages, Mme. Coudreau explored all these rivers from their embouchures to as near their sources as the water would carry her rude dugouts, we can form some idea of the miles she traveled and of the stupendous labor that was involved in making these long journeys in the sweltering and debilitating and insect-laden atmosphere of the Amazon basin.
CHAPTER VIII
WOMEN IN MEDICINE AND SURGERY
As woman was the first nurse, so was she also the first practitioner of the healing art. Among savages the world over it is the women, in the great majority of cases, who have the care of the sick and wounded, and who, by reason of their superior knowledge of simples for the cure of diseases, occupy the position of doctors. In certain parts of the uncivilized world there are, it is true, shamans or medicine men; but these are conjurers or exorcists, who profess to expel disease, or rather the evil spirits causing the disease, by sorcery or incantation, rather than physicians who essay to cure ailments or relieve suffering by the use of substances which experience has showed to possess remedial properties. In a word, the shaman is a kind of a religious functionary who imposes on the ignorance of his tribe and who holds his position by the fear he excites, and not by any knowledge he possesses of the healing art. It was the same, we may believe, in the early history of our race—women, and not men, were the first physicians; and they were also most probably the first surgeons.