the "doctor's gaze" in Eisenach had to maintain a "distance" from women's bodies (85)
"Touching, feeling, and examining seem to have been in a mental realm different from knowing, hearing, and telling. The body was surrounded by a personal sphere that could be physically penetrated only in legitimate relationships"
"Touching was culturally permitted along the boundaries of gender: women examined other women [...] Men who were relatives were not excluded: the husband or a cousin were allowed to touch" but a doctor might was subject to a "taboo against touching the body" (86)
interestingly though, "general knowledge and public expression concerning blood flow, pus, urine, and coughed-up matter do not seem to have been in any way disgraceful"
"Storch's stories are full of neighbors who knew about the flows, bleeding, the color of uring, the sliminess of the blood drawn--about everything that emanated from the body [...] female neighbors present during the doctor's visit could report details from the past; the chambermaids reported on the urine of their lady; a messenger brought details about an aborted pregnancy, 'which had a thick, tough skin, and in the middle a thing with black-brown skin' [...]; a mother I have already mentioned brought at noontime 'a large lump' in a bowl" (86)