"An impressive effort and a valuable contribution to the history of the body... The book brings together a large amount of excellent research over the last two or three decades on women, race, embodiment, consumption, disease, and political culture... On the whole Wagner tackles her diverse sources consistently and well, in a way that should be of value to future scholars." -- Emma Spary Isis Journal, University of Chicago Press "This book ties together the rich but well-trodden field of political symbolism with an analysis of medical debates in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century France and Britain." Bulletin of the History of Medicine