Product Type
Condition
Binding
Collectible Attributes
Seller Location
Seller Rating
Published by NY, 1851
Seller: Second Life Books, Inc., Lanesborough, MA, U.S.A.
12mo, pp. 238. Bottom 1/2 inch of title page cut off (below the imprint), name on end paper. Bound in little stained and worn publisher's cloth, stamped in blind. Some foxing and staining to the text. A good tight copy. Scarce. This is one of the first books to mention the use of the condom in the United States and, in a footnote (on page 144), offers them for sale from the author at her office in New York for $5 a dozen Most of the book offers practical medical advice, but the chapters on prevention of pregnancy offer information not often seen in books of this period. According to the Library Company of Philadelphia, "A.M. Mauriceau" was possibly a pseudonym for the infamous Madame Restell, "the most notorious abortionist in New York, and this widely distributed book was essentially an advertisement for her services, as well as for the contraceptive devices sold through the mail by her husband." This was originally issued in 1847.