This paper focuses on the interplay between medical opinion and popular ideas about gender and temperance in the work of Charles D. Meigs, a Philadelphia physician and pioneer of American gynecology. Based on research into medical writing and popular culture, it demonstrates how Meigs used popular images of women suffering from male intemperance -- notably, Lydia Sigourneyís story, "The Intemperate," to illustrate the "Natural" qualities of the female character: fidelity, obedience, and perseverance. Meigs' work as a doctor and temperance reformer illustrates the reciprocal relationship between medical science and popular culture during the early national. period, and sheds light on the evolution of nineteenth-century gender ideology.