294 WOMAN IN SCIENCE 



numerous improvements she effected in lying-in hospitals, 

 for the large number of skilled midwives whom she fur- 

 nished, not only to France, but also to the whole of Eu- 

 rope, and, above all, for the excellent treatises which she 

 wrote on obstetrics, which gave her a reputation second to 

 none among her contemporaries, men or women. Her 

 Pratique des Accouchement s, in three volumes, based on 

 the immense number of fifty thousand cases at which she 

 presided, reveals an operator of rarest skill and genius. 

 This production was long regarded as a standard work on 

 the topics discussed, and for years exerted an immense 

 influence in the medical world. 



Less skillful as an operator, but of greater ability as a 

 doctor than Mme. La Chapelle, was her illustrious con- 

 temporary, Mme. Bovin. Possessing extraordinary insight 

 as an investigator and marvelous sagacity as a diagnos- 

 tician, Mme. Bovin achieved the distinction of being the 

 first really great woman doctor of modern times. Her 

 marvelous success as a practitioner Dupuytren said she 

 had an eye at the tip of her finger her extended knowl- 

 edge of the entire range of gynecology, but above all her 

 numerous treatises on the subject matter of her life work, 

 gave her a prestige that none of her sex had ever before 

 enjoyed, and commanded the admiration of the doctors of 

 the world. Her Memorial de I' Art des Accouchements 

 passed through many editions and was translated into 

 several European languages. And so highly were her sci- 

 entific attainments valued in Germany that the University 

 of Marburg recognized them by conferring on her hon- 

 oris causa the degree of doctor of medicine and, had its 

 rules permitted the admission of women, the Koyal Acad- 

 emy of Medicine would have honored her with a place 

 among its members. She was also the recipient of many 

 other honors, besides being a member of several learned 

 societies. But the greatest monument to her genius is a 

 large illustrated treatise in two volumes, in which she 



