John Maubray (1700–1732) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

physician, who practised in

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as an early teacher of

midwives A midwife (: midwives) is a health professional who cares for mothers and newborns around childbirth, a specialisation known as midwifery. The education and training for a midwife concentrates extensively on the care of women throughout their ...

. He wrote a book called "'' The Female Physician''" published in 1724, and became chairman of the

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. As a member of a group of London-based man midwives he was a follower of the ideas of the Dutch surgeon, Hendrik van Deventer (1651–1724), whose wife was also a midwife. The following is a quote from Maubray's "''The Female Physician''": Maubray was associated with the peculiar concept of the Sooterkin, which held that pregnant women who were regularly in the presence of certain animals could give birth to children bearing the same characteristics as those animals. Maubray was one of the experts in the case of

Mary Toft Mary Toft (née Denyer; baptised 21 February 1703 – January 1763), also spelled Tofts, was an English woman from Godalming, Surrey, who in 1726 became the subject of considerable controversy when she tricked doctors into believing that she ha ...

, who had allegedly given birth to rabbits, which he saw as proof of his theories. But, despite his credulity, he was also far-sighted, condemning the more barbarous instruments then being used in obstetrics and lobbying for the foundation of a lying-in hospital citing Hôtel Dieu in Paris as a model.Philip Rhodes, 'Maubray, John (d. 1732)',

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, Oxford University Press, 2004

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