The same writer mentions that Margaret Mercer was sent express from England in 1603 to attend on “His Majesty’s dearest daughter, the Princess Electress Palatine.”
It is also recorded that “Mrs Labany attended Mary of Modena, Queen of James II., when she was delivered, on June 10th, 1687, of James Francis Edward, afterwards called the Pretender.”[24] Mrs Wilkins, another midwife, seems also to have been present on this occasion, and it is stated that each of these persons received a fee of five hundred guineas for her services.
It is well known that Queen Charlotte was always attended by a woman,[25] and the late Duchess of Kent employed the Frau von Siebold, of whom mention is made elsewhere.[26]
Now that public attention is awaking to the subject, and educated women are once more desirous of undertaking this peculiarly womanly work, we may indeed anticipate, with the already quoted writer in the Athenæum, that a reactionary movement will soon make itself felt, and that the usage “which even up to the present time a large proportion of our English families, especially those of our northern towns and outlying country districts, have never adopted, will most likely be discontinued in all classes of English society before the end of the present century.”
On the Continent of Europe, owing to their better education, the midwives retain much of the position that they have for a time lost in England; and we hear that in Russia “a medical man is very rarely called in; notwithstanding, fatal cases are of far less frequent occurrence in Russia than in England;” and the same authority tells us that ladies practising midwifery are admitted into society as doctors would be, and are well paid, both by the Government and by private fees.[27]
While thus briefly tracing out the history of midwifery in modern times, and the causes which led to its practice passing from the hands of women into those of men, I have not paused to mention, in due chronological order, those women who, in the last three centuries, have been distinguished for a knowledge of the other branches of Medicine and Surgery. Of these I will now enumerate a few, though my time and space are far too limited either to give a complete list, or to relate any but the most prominent particulars of each case mentioned; but I can promise that any one who will consult the authorities quoted will be abundantly repaid by the long and interesting details that I am forced to pass over in almost every instance.
In the seventeenth century, in England, one of the women most noted for medical skill was Lady Ann Halket,[28] born in 1622, daughter of the then provost of Eton College. “Next to the study of Divinity she seems to have taken most delight in those of Physick and Surgery, in which she was no mean proficient; nay, some of the best physicians in the kingdom did not think themselves slighted when persons of the greatest quality did consult her in their distempers, even when they attended them as their ordinary physicians. Many from England, Holland, and the remotest parts of the kingdom, have sent to her for things of her preparing; and many whose diseases have proved obstinate under all the methods of physicians, have at length, by the physicians’ own advice, been recommended and sent to her care, and have been recovered by her.”
In 1644 was born Elizabeth Lawrence, afterwards wife of the Rev. Samuel Bury, of Bristol, who wrote her life,[29] and who bears witness that “it was not possible there should be a more observant, tender, indulgent, and compassionate wife than she was; a more sympathising spirit is very rarely found.” He records that “she took much pleasure in Anatomy and Medicine, being led and prompted to it partly by her own ill health, and partly with a desire of being useful.” The difficulties that she encountered in her studies may be guessed, since “she would often regret that so many learned men should be so uncharitable to her sex, and be so loath to assist their feebler faculties when they were anywise disposed to an accurate search into things profitable and curious. Especially as they would all so readily own that souls were not distinguished by sexes. And therefore she thought it would have been an honourable pity in them to have offered something in condescension to their capacities, rather than have propagated a despair of their information to future ages.” Her husband, however, tells us that “she improved so much, that many of the great masters of the Faculty have often been startled by her stating the most nice and difficult cases in such proper terms;” and, remarking that, “How much knowledge and skill soever she attained in the practice of Physick, by long observation, conversation, and experience, yet she was very distrustful of herself,” he adds that the “instances of her successes in the preservation of human lives were not easily numbered.”
As a contemporary of these Englishwomen, we find in Germany Elizabeth Keillen, who published several medical works, and died in 1699. She is said by Finauer to have had “great knowledge of medicine and chemistry.”