Woman in Health and Sickness: What She Ought to Know for the Exigencies of Daily Life

Pictorial red cloth 12mo; 193 (3)pp. Stated fourth edition, preface dated 1909. Very Good with slight bumping to the corners and spine ends; mild foxing to the outer leaves only. Many typographic and Illustrated ads (including a full plate ad for Pears' Soap) extending through the pastedowns to the rear cover, claimed by "G. S. Nichol, Costumier and Furrier." Other advertisements range from vanity hair care and creams to specialty intimate items, including Southall's Towels (the first commercially marketed sanitary napkin), hydrostatic douches and hand enemas. Well-known companies like Pears' Soap appear alongside local concerns, like an Edinburgh brewery offering an "Invalid Stout", among other dietary supplements for women and their children.

The book was written for the average woman and devotes an uncommon amount of attention to actually dealing with their bodies, especially menstruation--from being able to predict and calculate cycles, to most hygienically managing bleeding (and the dangers of toxicity and disease in the case of mismanagement). Dr. Robert Bell (1845-1926) was a senior physician at the Glasgow Hospital for Women and leading cancer researcher. He was one of very few medically qualified practitioners who advocated integrating naturopathic elements (particularly diet and vegetarianism) into patient care. He was accused of quackery by the British Medical Journal in 1912 and successfully sued for libel--though his late career conclusions about the nature of cancer as a self-inflicted disease unsuitable for surgical intervention further aligned him with the naturopathic cause.