Lazare Riviere (called Lazarus Riverius in Latin), born in 1589, practiced medicine in Montpellier, France, and eventually became physician to the French king. He wrote 17 books, each covering the diseases of a separate part of the body, and his collected works were published in Latin in 1655 in a single volume, The Practice of Physick. There were many subsequent editions, including several editions of the English translation by the famous London herbalist Nicholas Culpeper. Riviere's Book 15, Of the Diseases of Women, gives a good insight into the way 17th century medicine was practised, with its great emphasis on the regulation of the 'humours' by the use of herbal and other natural remedies. It also provides a marvellous view of the miseries which most medieval women, rich and poor, would have had to suffer during the ordeals of pregnancy and childbirth at that time. This is one of the first textbooks of obstetrics and gynaecology ever to be translated from Latin into English. Enough of the original text is retained to convey the flavour of the work, repetition and verbosity has been ruthlessly removed and the technical jargon has been translated into simple modern terms. The text is thus accessible to both the medical and the general reader.