sick-room without sharing his fees. Never- to come. But even with the door thus actheless so it was; whether derived from cidentally left open before her, it was only long experience, or natural gift, or from through trials which would have baffled a both of these, woman has manifested a less persevering person that she was able special inclination and ability for the study to enter it. She had limited and uncerand practice of medicine. At various times tain pecuniary resources— though the rewithin the past two centuries there had ap- verse was generally supposed to be the peared women who gained eminence in case and yet, in order to obtain medical special departments of medical knowledge; instruction, she was compelled virtually to and when seen in the lecture-rooms of Ger- establish a college of which she was to be many, Italy, or France, through the mists the only pupil. That she was enabled to of intervening generations, they seemed not do this reflects great credit on her instrucformidable, but somewhat imposing figures, tors, Drs. Aldis and Fraser. Since obtaineven to the eye of medical conservatism. ing her diploma, she has been engaged in Even Mr. Hosea Biglow, though a defender establishing a Dispensary for Women and of slavery in America, had a strong sympa- Children, which we hear has a fair prospect thy with liberty in other lands.

"I du believe in Freedum's cause, Ez fur away ez Paris is;

I love tu see her stick her claws

In them infarnal Pharisees."

He concludes, however, that Liberty's "a kind o' thing that don't agree with niggers." There are also many eyes which can recognise the heroes and heroines of the sixteenth century, but cannot perceive those of the nineteenth, though they meet them daily. Nothing can be more certain than that Hypatia and Olympia Morata are to-day struggling against every discouragement and prejudice to give their contribution to the welfare of mankind, and that some who find them romantic in the past sneer at them now as strong-minded.”

of success.

icine to which they devote themselves, viz., obstetrics, and the diseases of children.

Another step towards opening the medical profession in England to women was the establishment in 1864 of the "Female Medical Society," of which the Marquis of Townshend was President, and to which Drs. Edmunds, Aldis, Murphy, and Drysdale, have devoted their ability and energy. Immediately upon the opening of the institution established by this society; fourteen women presented themselves for instruction, and the number has steadily increased. The institution has, however, no charter, and its students can only work on in the hope that their cause will prevail, and with the certainty that the knowledge they gain cannot be taken away from them. It is the unanimous testimony of the medical gentlemen connected with this institution that the In this country Miss Elizabeth Garrett ladies in it are studious, earnest, and enwas the first to obtain a diploma from one tirely capable of comprehending the subof our recognised institutions Apothe-jects comprised in the departments of medcaries' Hall. As we had no medical college for women, and the medical colleges for men did not favour the idea of being in- France and Germany have thus far given strumental in qualifying women to compete us only schools for midwives proper, who, with them in scholarship and practice, Miss though acting independently as accoucheurs Garrett's privileges were of a very limited in all normal cases of confinement, are not character, and she could only obtain in- allowed to write any prescription or to instruction in a very arduous and unsatisfac- terfere surgically. They are really adjuncts tory way. Hospital advantages were ham- of the physicians, who gladly avail thempered with so many annoyances, that she selves of the services of the sage-femme sought the London Dispensary, Spitalfields, when the work is heavy and the pay light, as a dernier ressort for obtaining practical but set them aside when the hardship is instruction. She was particularly fortunate nearly passed and the happy consummation in securing for this end the aid of two phy- of a fee near at hand. And yet the trainsicians connected with the establishment. ing at the Maternity Hospital in Paris proAfter many unsuccessful efforts, she was at last permitted to come before the examining board of Apothecaries' Hall, and passed creditably. Her success in coming before the board was due to some technical informality in its constitution, which has been since "doctored," so that she is the only female licensed apothecary likely to be made by that institution for some time

duces such excellent physicians as Mesdames Boivin and Lachapelle! Last year a French woman having passed the Baccalaureate, requested permission to study medicine as a whole in France. The faculty at Montpellier refused. She then forwarded her request to the Minister of the Interior at Paris. He acceded on condition that she would only practise in Algeria, whence she

For the last five years the Bellevue Hospital had been compelled to admit female students who have matriculated in New York, because their charter does not refer to the sex of students. It does not seem so easy to take a backward step there as in Apothecaries' Hall, London. The women who insisted upon having their rights in the Bellevue Hospital were at first unhandsomely treated by both professors and students; but annoyance from this source has now ceased. However, there are many privi

came! But this year he has ennobled him- | New York city many of the large hospitals self by acting the part of a Minister of have since allowed women to attend the 'Justice' as well as of the Interior.' By physicians on their rounds through them. virtue of his decision, and "in spite of the opinion expressed by the professors, the American lady who last year applied for a degree has been empowered to pass her first examination, which she achieved successfully; and as a natural consequence, a French lady has now entered her name upon the books, and may even now be seen dissecting with the other students at the Ecole Practique." 99 * In 1865 about twelve ladies applied for admission into a medical college for males at St. Petersburgh, and were refused. Last year two Russian ladies leges-such, for instance, as the reception were admitted into the medical university for men at Zurich, Switzerland,—an excellent institution, whose conversion to the faith in the admissibility of women to the profession has been a fruitful topic of discussion in the old world and the new.

America is likely to furnish the largest quota of medical women for some time to come. They have there fully chartered colleges for their instruction, one at least in each of the principal cities of the Eastern States. New York, Philadelphia, and Boston. Prior to their establishment, one or two of the medical colleges for men admitted a limited number of women to their lecture-rooms. The first to do this, and call upon itself the ire of the whole medical profession, was the college located at Geneva, New York. Elizabeth Blackwell, an Englishwoman, was received there for instruction in 1847, after having applied in vain to many other institutions. Various eminent physicians tried to persuade her that her idea was eccentric, utopian, and impracticable. The ladies of Geneva at first declared she must be crazy, and that they never would employ a female physician. After her graduation, in 1852, she had the utmost difficulty in finding in New York, where she had resolved to locate, a boarding-house willing to have her name and title displayed. She was refused a position in the department for women and children of a dispensary, although she presented high certificates of qualification. Her application to visit merely the female wards of a hospital was laid on the table as unworthy of notice. This was the attitude toward women-physicians in America so late as 1852. Since then, twelve medical schools established for men have admitted women and granted them degrees. These were chiefly in Cincinnati and Cleveland, large cities in the Western State of Ohio. In

* Medical Times and Gazette, August 29, 1868.

in advance of information as to the operations for the day — which the women have found themselves unable to obtain in institutions which have long been arranged for the use of men alone. There were some women also who shrank from prosecuting all the studies incidental to a medical education in the same room with young men. And so they resolved to have hospitals and operating-rooms of their own.

About twenty years ago, at Boston, Massachusetts, the first American Female Medical College was established. Like the English college, they began in a small way, with but two professors, and a course of instruction limited to the object of "qualifying women to become midwives, and treat the diseases of women and children." In 1847, Mr. Samuel Gregory, of Boston, had lectured in Boston and its vicinity on the importance of educating women to practise medicine; and at the close of one of his lectures a petition was signed praying the Legislature to license a college for that purpose. In November, 1848, twelve ladies met and formed a medical class. Drs. Cornell and Ralfs were engaged to give the lectures. About the same time a number of gentlemen formed a society to assist the movement. In 1850 an Act passed the Legislature of Massachusetts incorporating the Female Education Society," for "the purpose of providing for the education of midwives, nurses, and female physicians," empowering it to hold property and to grant degrees. The society grew rapidly in numbers, and outgrew its former limitations of study, so that it has for many years had a full corps of professors teaching every branch of medicine and surgery. A few years ago the Legislature granted it ten thousand dollars for the erection of a building, and it has received about forty thousand dollars from bequests and donations. It has thus become self-supporting, and has supported a dispensary for several years,

sex, and to children. If a woman has gifts in this country since the recent action of which justly lead her to study medicine, Apothecaries' Hall. "The principle," it there is no sex or age that should have the justly maintains, "which we conceive no exclusive benefit of those gifts. The pa- arguments either of benevolence or conventient has a right to the best treatment that ience should induce the leaders of the party can be obtained. We must even more to abandon, is that of professional equality strongly condemn the grounds on which -a common standing-ground, be it high some of these institutions have sought to or low, for men and women.' We must, bring to their aid some of the lowest con- however, join issue with the practical methventional prejudices. Whatever may be od suggested in the same article, that wothe temporary advantages of disseminating men desiring to become physicians should the idea that there is indelicacy in the be content to go to the universities in employment of male physicians by women, America or to that of Zurich, where women its general acceptance would more than are admitted. The only advantage offered counterbalance any good that the female by this course, that of obtaining registration colleges can hope to achieve. Women in England, is not, in our judgment, of have peculiar need of every aid that sufficient importance to compensate for the science or intelligence can furnish, and inconvenience and expense which must in though the time may come when many fe- many cases attend such exile into foreign male physicians may be as able to serve lands, or the suspicions that would be them as men, it can never be expected that urged, however unjustly, as to the thoroughevery community will have its finest medi- ness of the studies and examinations in uncal skill represented by a woman. Is the known institutions. Registration is in itfemale sufferer, then, to be encouraged to self but a relic of that State interference think that modesty requires her to forego with the natural development of medical the help she requires? The suggestion is science, the evil effects of which have been not only intrinsically base, but it is unwar- fully exposed in this Review.* If because ranted by anything in the long history of of the non-registration of a diploma, the the relation of the physician to his female certificate or evidence of a physician may patient. It is, we believe, far more likely, be objected to in a court of justice, it may in an advanced state of social enlighten- be so much the worse for the State; but if ment, to be proved that each sex is peculi- the diploma itself were signed by duly qualarly adapted to heal the other, than that ified and eminent examiners, the profeseach is to attend its own; but however sional competency of the person holding it that may be, no permanent interest such as could not be thereby lessened. Moreover, that which the female physicians have at it is not in the rear but in the van of the heart can be served by appeals to false sen-medical profession that women who desire timent, nor can genuine progress worthily to enter it as equals must look for their alenlist prejudices which true refinement and culture must continually remove further into the past. It is well known that the sisters Blackwell in New York, and Miss Garrett in London, owe much of their acknowledged advantages over their sisters of the same profession to the fact that their studies were not confined to any one branch, and that they were educated by the regular instructors of men. The fact is significant, and plainly means that women who would successfully claim the right they feel to any profession hitherto monopolised by men, must fulfil the conditions which men have fulfilled, and not ask to have the standard lowered in order that they may reach it.

A temperate and timely article in Macmillan's Magazine for September, in dealing with the practical difficulties in the way of women in England who desire to become physicians, wisely animadverts on the partial course of study and practice which alone are attainable through any institutions

lies. The medical reform in which women are now interesting themselves is, in principle, essentially the same as that for which nearly five thousand English medical men laboured together under the name of "The National Institute of Medicine, Surgery, and Midwifery," more than twenty years ago. They wanted to abolish the baneful monopolies and exclusive privileges of the London College of Surgeons, and to obtain for each of its members a voice in its government. But regarding the reform of that college as hopeless, they entertained the idea of organizing a board of Examiners for themselves, and sought legal power to confer diplomas on candidates for membership of their body. The judgment which, ten years ago, we pronounced on their attempt and failure is, mutatis mutandis, strictly applicable to the aims and efforts of the different parties who are now en

* See Articles-"Medical Despotism," April, 1856; "Medical Reform," April, 1858; " Medical Education," July, 1858.

"The problem of medical reform would have been completely solved in 1845 by the large association of general practitioners afterwards called the National Institute of Medicine, Surgery, and Midwifery,' if it had but freed itself of the general superstition regarding the necessity of securing the aid of the State in the form of a charter or Act of Parliament This Institute

proposed that such of its members as should pursue their studies after its incorporation,

66

deavouring to obtain for women facilities necessary to qualify candidates for such a for medical education, and legal recognition diploma, we maintain that women have alas physicians either in the form of a char- ready within their reach in this country adeter for a new medical college where they quate means of acquiring the theoretical may study, and from which they may ob- knowledge of medicine, and that it is quite tain diplomas, or in the form of admission within their power to create, if they cannot for examination by the several medical bod- find, the necessary opportunities for both ies now established. We therefore quote practical anatomy" and "hospital prachere the words we made use of in 1858 : - tice." Miss Garrett may have exhausted the resources of Apothecaries' Hall so far as her sex is concerned, but women have not exhausted the independence and the ability of those physicians who are already willing to come forward to instruct them. It is, on the contrary, well known that almost in proportion to the advance of modern scientific research has been the disposition of its leaders to encourage the studies of tasks. They may certainly claim several women and their efforts to fulfil nobler eminent physicians in this country as friends in their new undertaking. The efforts that have been made to open the hospitals of London to the observation of female students have indeed failed, but not without revealing an amount of liberality on the part of the physicians connected with them which may prove of much value in the future. And though after an attendance for some time on the practice of Drs. Chapman and Drysdale in the Farringdon Dispensary, ladies were excluded from it, several of the members, including, if we understand rightly, the chairman of the committee, declared that they were personally in favour of the admission of women to the dispensary, and that they only voted for their exclusion be

6

should be admitted only after giving evidence to examiners of their fitness to practise as physicians, surgeons, or accoucheurs, and thus would have abolished the old and absurd system which involves the necessity that a candidate should be examined by two or three different bodies before he is competent to act as general practitioner.' It proposed to give its members a voice in its constitution and government, and to take care that its standard of professional education should be as high as possible, consistently with providing a sufficient number of medical men to supply the wants of the community. The one thing wanting to give efficiency and permanency to the "National Institute' was a belief in its own

self-sufficingness. Had it had this, it would also have had the courage to ignore the State, to exercise its own inherent power of judging of the fitness of candidates for admission into its body, to admit them accordingly, to give them a cer-cause their presence might, by being an tificate of their admission, which in the estimate of the public, would be an adequate testimonial of professional qualifications, and to honour them by the title learned, or teacher, in the shape of the Latin word doctor. The State is powerless to determine whether a man be learned, unless by a commission of learned men; what need, then, is there, when a body of learned men has pronounced a favourable judgment concerning the qualifications of any given person, that they should abstain from styling that person learned until the State has authorized them

offence to many subscribers, lessen the funds of the institution. But there is ample room in London for new hospitals and dispensaries, where men and women shall be admitted on equal terms. We therefore submit that it were well for English women desiring to become physicians, to try thoroughly the resources near at hand before they conclude to cross the ocean, or even the Channel.

The possibility that women, if adequately to do so? It can neither supervise their exami- educated, may develop powers adapted to nation nor correct their judgment, and it is employments monopolised by men, has led equally powerless to add or to take from the es-to a jealousy for female delicacy and elevasential qualifications of the person in question."

Our advice to women desirous of a reliable testimonial of their competency to practise medicine is to co-operate in establishing a Board of trustworthy Examiners, whose certificate of medical efficiency might constitute as good a diploma as any now conferred by authority of Parliament or the Crown. And with respect to the studies

tion above work which is a little suspicious: men have never made an outcry against women's entering upon any occupation however hard or " degrading," unless that occupation were one in which they would compete with men !

However, mingled with some selfishness, there is no doubt more of honest prejudice in the opposition to all that tends to widen the sphere of woman's interest and useful