>During this time, the prevailing attitudes of feminine modesty made it improper for a woman to gesture or describe parts of her own body. Because of this, when seeing a physician, a woman would indicate medical issues by referring instead to the respective anatomy of the doll.[](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_medical_doll#cite_note-:2-2)
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[Source.](https://wellcomecollection.org/works/evy5pc79)
[More information.](https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co125591/diagnostic-figure-in-form-of-recumbent-woman)
If, like me, you were wondering what the heck they were diagnosing, here’s the answer (from [wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_medical_doll)):
>During this time, the prevailing attitudes of feminine modesty made it improper for a woman to gesture or describe parts of her own body. Because of this, when seeing a physician, a woman would indicate medical issues by referring instead to the respective anatomy of the doll.[](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_medical_doll#cite_note-:2-2)