66 Early Practice of Medicine by Women. [February, 
Language and Literature, from 1793 to 1808. To these 
names should be added those of Novella Calderini, Madda- 
lena Buonsignori, Dorotea Bocchi (who was both doctor and 
professor) Christina Roccati, Ph.D., Zaffira Ferretti, M.D., 
Maria Sega, M.D., and numerous graduates of Padua, Pavia, 
Ferrara, and other Italian universities. 
Leaving the Italian peninsula, which was so productive of 
remarkable personages, we will briefly examine the position 
of women practitioners of medicine in other parts of 
Europe. 
Beaugrand states that the most ancient document extant 
relative to the organisation of surgery in France forbids the 
practice of surgeons and of female surgeons who have failed 
to pass a satisfactory examination before the proper author- 
ities. This paper bears the date 1311. References to female 
surgeons appear again in an edict of King John in 1352. 
From these documents it appears that women exercised the 
function of surgeon under legal authority. At a somewhat 
later period we find the calling of physician followed by 
women in Spain, Germany, and England. 
In Spain, the Universities of Cordova, Salamanca, and 
Alcala honoured many women with doctors’ degrees. We 
note also the appearance at Madrid, in 1587, of a learned 
medical work entitled “ Nueva Filosofia de la Naturaleza 
del Hombre,” and published over the name Olivia del Sabuco. 
Of this person, however, nothing whatever is certainly 
known, and it has been conjectured that the name Olivia 
was a pseudonym assumed by some eminent physician. 
In Germany many women cultivated medical science : 
Barbara Weintrauben was an author of no great merit ; the 
Duchess Eleanor of Troppau, Catharina Tissheim, Helena 
Aldegunde, and Frau Erxleben are deserving passing notice. 
The last-mentioned was one of the most successful female 
practitioners of the last century. Her maiden name was 
Dorothea Leporin, but she is best known as Frau Erxleben. 
Fraulein Leporin pursued her medical studies at the Uni- 
versity of Halle, and obtained a diploma in 1734. She 
settled in the little town of Quedlinburg, at the foot of the 
Hartz Mountains, became the wife of the rector of the 
Church of St. Nicholas in the same place, industriously 
practised her profession, and became eminent for her skill 
and learning. Her son, J. C. P. Erxleben, inherited from 
his mother a love of scientific pursuits, and became a dis- 
tinguished naturalist and professor in the University of 
Gottingen. 
In England, Anna Wolley and Elizabeth of Kent were 
