ed it impossible (as it is
still, to some extent, in some semi-civilized lands) for male
physicians to attend them. Dr. Willoughby, of Derby, tells how,
in 1658, he had to creep into the chamber of a lying-in woman on
his hands and knees, in order to examine her unperceived. In
France, Clement was employed secretly to attend the mistresses of
Louis XIV in their confinements; to the first he was conducted
blindfold, while the King was concealed among the bed-curtains,
and the face of the lady was enveloped in a network of lace. (E.
Malins, "Midwifery and Midwives," _British Medical Journal_, June
22, 1901; Witkowski, _Histoire des Accouchements_, 1887, pp. 689
et seq.) Even until the Revolution, the examination of women in
France in cases of rape or attempted outrage was left to a jury
of matrons. In old English manuals of midwifery, even in the
early nineteenth century, we still find much insistence on the
demands of modesty. Thus, Dr. John Burns, of Glasgow, in his
_Principles of Midwifery_, states that "some women, from motives
of false delicacy, are averse from examination until the pains
become severe." He adds that "it is usual for the room to be
darkened, and the bed-curtains drawn close, during an
examination." Many old pictures show the accoucheur groping in
the dark, beneath the bed-clothes, to perform operations on women
in childbirth. (A. Kind, "Das Weib als Gebaererin in der Kunst,"
_Geschlecht und Gesellschaft_, Bd. II, Heft 5, p. 203.)

In Iceland, Winkler stated in 1861 that he sometimes slept in the
same room as a whole family; "it is often the custom for ten or
more persons to use the same room for living in and sleeping,
young and old, master and servant, male and female, and from
motives of economy, all the clothes, without exception, are
removed." (G. Winkler, _Island; seine Bewohner_, etc., pp. 107,
110.)

"At Cork," saye Fynes Moryson, in 1617, "I have seen with these
eyes young maids stark naked grinding corn with certain stones to
make cakes thereof." (Moryson, _Itinerary_, Part 3, Book III,
Chapter V.)

"In the more remote parts of Ireland," Moryson elsewhere says,
where the English laws and manners are unknown, "the very chief
of the Irish, men as well as women, go naked in very winter-time,
only having their privy parts covered with a rag o