Lucina sine concubitu. A treatise humbly addressed to the Royal Society; in which is proved ... that a woman may conceive and be brought to bed, without any commerce with man

1930. Very good to fine; minor wear to extremities.. A quirky illustrated facsimile of an eighteenth-century treatise written as a hoax. The disgruntled author had been rejected by the Royal Society for membership in 1750, and his response was to publish proof "that a Woman may conceive, and be brought to Bed, without any Commerce with a Man". A facsimile of the 1750 edition was published in 1885 (edited by Edmund Goldsmid), and this edition is a facsimile of THAT edition, with added in-text illustrations. Only some of the illustrations pertain to the subject matter (there is a cartoonish gynecologist which vaguely relates to the topic, but there is also a stick figure on a sail boat that appears to be random?), but all exude a playfulness and derision that echoes text's origin as a hoax/satire.

No copies of this edition are recorded in OCLC (March 2022). 8vo (9.5" by 6.5"), pp. [6], 32, [2], with in-text illustrations, stapled in original illustrated blue wrappers.