Part 9

[105] “It mattered nothing that firms had voted ever since the Infirmary was founded; that contributors qualified only as members of firms had, as has now been ascertained, sat over and over again on the Board of Management, and on the Committee of Contributors. It was of equally slight importance that the firms whom it was now sought to disqualify had been among the most generous benefactors of the charity, and that, with the imminent prospect before them of great pecuniary necessity, it would probably be impossible, without their aid, to carry out even the plans for the new building. The firms had voted in favour of the ladies, and the firms must go, if, at least, the law would (as it probably will not) bear out the medical men in their reckless endeavour to expel them.”--_Scotsman_, January 29, 1872.

[106] At this meeting a Committee of Contributors, previously appointed, reported in favour of the admission of lady students, and against the exclusion of the votes of firms, and this Report was approved by 232 votes to 227. On this occasion there voted for the approval of the Report 41 ladies and 10 doctors; against it, 6 ladies, 44 doctors, and 5 druggists.

[107] See _Note S_.

[108] See _Note Q_.

[109] In support of this suggestion the Court remarked that the question had been needlessly “complicated by the introduction of the subject of graduation, which is not essential to the completion of a medical or other education.” They _forgot_, however, to mention that though a degree is “not essential” to a medical education, it _is_ absolutely indispensable to any practical use of it,--that is to say, to any lawful practice of the medical profession.

[110] The correspondence above referred to is given in _Note T_.

[111] _Scotsman_, March 25, 1872.

[112] _Scotsman_, May 7, 1872.

[113] Though a majority of the Senatus did decide to defend the action, I believe that it is understood that such decision did not imply, on the part of all who acquiesced in it, any moral conviction that we are not entitled to obtain the desired Declarator, since several other Professors appear to have agreed in feeling with the six dissentients, but to have acquiesced in the defence of the action for the sake of having a formal legal decision given on one side or the other.

[114] “I am bold enough to say that there is nothing in the art of healing which may not fitly be spoken of before an audience of both sexes, provided there be a generally good tone prevailing among them, and the lecturer be of a pure and manly spirit. Indeed, I will go farther, and say that his example in treating subjects of the kind incidental to his work with equal purity and courage will be far from the least valuable part of his teaching. It will bring home to the hearts of his hearers, with more force than any other argument, the truth that every creature, every ordinance of God, is good and pure.”--_Medical Women_, by Rev. THOMAS MARKBY. London: Harrison.

Compare with the above the following statement made by an Edinburgh medical student in the columns of the _Scotsman_:--“I beg leave to relate what I myself listened to in a lecture-room of the University, during the last summer session. On the occasion to which I refer, the Professor went a long way beyond the requirements of scientific teaching--into the regions of “spicy” but indelicate narrative--in order that he might appropriately introduce remarks to the following effect:--“There, gentlemen, I have minutely described to you those interesting incidents which it would have been impossible for me to notice if women were present; and I hope that we may be long spared the annoyance which their presence here would inflict upon us.” The tempest of applause that followed showed only too well the harmony which existed between teacher and pupils on points that would have been far better left unnoticed.”--_Scotsman_, December 26, 1870.

[115] See “_Medicine as a Profession for Women_,” p. 62.

[116] “The truth is, a class of young men, inferior socially to their predecessors of ten years ago, now resort to the Edinburgh School, which has lost much of its attractiveness now that London and other seats of learning are so well appointed and so efficiently worked.”--_Lancet_, February 17, 1872.

[117] “_Mundis omnia munda!_ Neither ladies nor lecturers are conscious of ‘indelicacy’ or ‘breach of decorum.’ Can it be that the unruly students are ‘nice’ only upon Dean Swift’s principle, because they are ‘nasty?’”--_Globe_, Dec. 10, 1870.

[118] See _Note U_.

[119] “The wrong done to individuals by denying them the training necessary to the pursuit of a branch of knowledge, and the practice of an art for which they may have a special taste and capacity, is very great; and it involves a wrong not less signal to society, in limiting the sources whence good may come to it.”

_Daily News_, Nov. 1, 1871.

NOTES.

NOTE A, p. 11.

The following are a few only out of many indications of the existence of the painful feeling alluded to in the text. The reader will hardly need to be reminded that this is especially a subject respecting which a maximum of feeling may well exist with a minimum of expression, for hardly anything but a sense of duty would make a woman write on such a question to the newspapers.

... “But there remains to be considered the modesty and delicacy of the patients,--a question hardly yet mooted; these poor women having, I suppose, too much of the reality to raise the point. It cannot be denied that at least one-half of the patients of medical men are women, or that usually (from natural causes) they require medical services more certainly and frequently than men; and operations delicate or indelicate, so called, must be performed, questions, delicate or indelicate, must be asked, and answered too, if not by the patient herself, by the nurse, who, I believe, is usually a woman.

“There is much reason to believe that many women, either owing to the nature of their malady, or from constitutional nervousness or reserve, never avail themselves of the services of a medical man without reluctance. To them it is always a painful effort--the twentieth time as much as the first. It would, I think, be odd if something of this kind were not felt very strongly by every woman on some occasions, and I have seen very experienced mothers quite distressed, if by any chance, they were deprived of the assistance of ‘the doctor they were used to.’ The wives of medical men have told me that it was their one comfort to feel that in their hour of suffering only their own husband and a good nurse need be with them. I think this is not unnatural.”--Letter by “MEDICUS,”

_Pall Mall Gazette_, May 11, 1870.

“I happened to be speaking to a young shopwoman--a total stranger to me--and in the course of conversation advised her to seek medical advice, when she replied, with a sudden gush of tears in her eyes, that she _had_ been in the Infirmary, in Dr Matthews Duncan’s wards for a fortnight, and had during that time suffered so much from the constant presence of crowds of male students during certain inevitable but most unpleasant examinations of her person, that, as she herself forcibly expressed it, ‘it almost drove me mad.’” _Daily Review_, Nov. 18, 1870.

“SIR,--A new obstacle has been thrown in the way of women acquiring a knowledge of the medical profession. The special obstacle at present is injury to the delicacy of mind of the male students. This delicacy, if real, must be a serious drawback to the proper exercise of their profession in after life. That it is so, many a suffering woman knows.

“The question, however, arises--which evil is the greater,--that five hundred youths, in full health and vigour, should be made a little uncomfortable by the presence of seven women, or that seven times five hundred women, unnerved by suffering, should be subjected to the very trial they shrink from.

“That women do truly shrink from this trial, the number of wretched, broken-down sufferers from chronic disease but too clearly proves. It is only when racked by constant pain that a woman’s natural delicacy at last gives way, often only to hear said the words (how bitter they are!) ‘too late.’

“The returns of the Registrar-General could easily prove the vast sacrifice of life, did delicacy not again step in with ‘consumption and liver complaints,’ as more euphonious terms for the real disorders of which these are the mere after-results.

“This objection, looked at fairly, is a case of the delicacy of five hundred men _versus_ that of all suffering women.

“I leave the fathers and husbands of Edinburgh to judge righteous judgment thereon.--I am, &c., A SUFFERER.”

_Scotsman_, November 21, 1680.

“I think most thoughtful women will bear testimony to the amount of preventible suffering that passes unaided, because the natural sensibilities of women prevent their resorting with comfort to treatment by medical men for certain diseases. I can count almost by dozens the cases which have come under my personal observation of health ruined, and life’s pleasures and usefulness alike lost with it, because young girls (and sometimes older women too) will not submit to receive from a man, however respected, the personal examination and treatment necessary for their restoration, and because no woman’s skill has been at their command. Let your readers divest themselves for a moment of conventional habits of thought, and inquire what would then be their instinctive opinion of the existing custom which compels one sex to be dependent on the other for medical treatment of the most delicate kind. Imagine the case reversed. If henceforth women alone were to attend on men, what would the world say to that? At any rate, is it not time that women should at least be allowed a choice in this matter? And if this be so, it is clear that some women must be thoroughly educated for the medical profession....--I am, &c., A WOMAN.”

_Manchester Examiner and Times_, November 30, 1870.

“Mention is rarely made of the many women who are waiting longingly for the time when it will be possible for them to consult doctors of their own sex--when they will no longer be forced, at the risk of their health, and perhaps life, to consult men in circumstances under which their natural feelings of delicacy revolt; but I am sure that the number of these is not small, and long suffering as they have hitherto been, their voice in time will make itself heard, if all other monitions are disregarded. I am, &c., A WOMAN WHO DESIRES A WOMAN DOCTOR.”

_Daily Review_, Dec. 22, 1870.

“We often hear of the possible dislike of male patients to the presence of lady students, but let us also give the weaker sex a little credit for these same much-talked-of feelings of modesty and decency. Many a time have I stood by the bedside of poor girls who seemed ready to sink under the shame of being exposed before a number of young men--a feeling which could not be overcome even by the agony of the operations.... A MEDICAL STUDENT.”

_Scotsman_, Dec. 26, 1870.

EDINBURGH, Dec. 28, 1870.

“SIR,--In the present controversy regarding the extension to women of facilities for obtaining a complete medical education, it is reiterated on one side that there is a no demand among women themselves for doctors of their own sex. In visiting a district of nine families in a poor quarter of the Old Town, inhabited principally by Irish, I found four women seriously out of health; not so seriously, however, but that they might have been cured by timely medical advice. I urged each of them more than once to go to the Dispensary, but all persistently refused, each of them saying in different words that, if ladies were doctors, as they had heard they were in some places, they would have had medical advice long before. The feelings of these poor women were so strong on the subject that I found it was useless to urge them further. It seems only just and reasonable that qualified female medical attendants should be within the reach of those who either have a strong preference for it, or who will not avail themselves of any other.--I am, &c., A DISTRICT VISITOR.”

_Scotsman_, Dec. 29, 1870.

“As one who, for a short time, was a patient under a late very eminent doctor of Edinburgh, I say that I believe nothing would again induce me to do what I then did, in ignorance of what was before me. The anguish of mind suffered silently by women in such circumstances is not to be described, and is likely seriously to influence the effect of the medical treatment. It is surely time for men to cease to speak of what _women feel_ in this matter. It is impossible for them to know what women will never tell them--the unwillingness, the delay, often _too long_, which precedes their stammered request for advice. What women need is, that some of their own sex should have the power of qualifying themselves to act as their advisers. Who has a right to say they shall not, when the voice of their countrywomen calls on them to do it?--I am, &c., AN ENGLISHWOMAN.”

_Scotsman_, June 6, 1872.

NOTE B, p. 37.

In answer to the sufficiently arrogant enquiry from Dr Henry Bennet,--“What right have women to claim mental equality with men?”--I addressed the following letter to the _Lancet_, and as it seems to me to sum up our position fairly enough, I here reprint it.

EDINBURGH, June 21st, 1870.

“SIR,--I see in your columns of June 18th a letter on ‘Women as Practitioners of Midwifery,’ and appeal to your sense of fairness to allow me a fourth part of the space it occupied, for a few words in reply.

“It is hardly worth while to discuss the early part of the letter, as the second paragraph sufficiently disposes of the first. After saying that women are ‘sexually, constitutionally, and mentally unfitted for hard and incessant toil,’ Dr Bennet goes on to propose to make over to them, as their sole share of the medical profession, what he himself well describes as its ‘most arduous, most wearing, and most unremunerative duties.’ In the last adjective seems really to lie the whole suitability of the division of labour, according to the writer’s view. He evidently thinks that women’s capabilities are nicely graduated to fit ‘_half-guinea_ or _guinea_ midwifery cases,’ and that all patients paying a larger sum, of necessity need the superior powers of the ‘_male_ mind of the Caucasian race.’ Let whatever is well paid be left to the man, then chivalrously abandon the ‘badly remunerated’ work to the woman. This is the genuine view of a true trades-unionist. It is well for once to hear it candidly stated. As I trust the majority of medical men would be ashamed of avowing such a principle, and as I am sure it would be indignantly disavowed by the general public, I do not care to say more on this point.

“But when Dr Bennet proceeds to dogmatise about what he calls our claim to ‘mental equality,’ he comes to a different and much more important question. I, for one, do not care in the least either to claim or disown such equality, nor do I see that it is at all essential to the real question at issue. Allow me to state in a few words the position that I, and, as I believe, most of my fellow students take. We say to the authorities of the medical profession, ‘State clearly what attainments you consider necessary for a medical practitioner; fix your standard where you please, but define it plainly; put no obstacles in our way; either afford us access to the ordinary means of medical education, or do not exact that we shall use your special methods; in either case subject us ultimately to exactly the ordinary examinations and tests, and, if we fail to acquit ourselves as well as your average students, reject us; if, on the contrary, in spite of all difficulties, we reach your standard, and fulfil all your requirements, the question of ‘mental equality’ is practically settled, so far as it concerns our case; give us then the ordinary medical license or diploma, and leave the question of our ultimate success or failure in practice to be decided by ourselves and the public.’ This is our position, and I appeal, not to the chivalry, but to the justice, of the medical profession, to show us that it is untenable, or else to concede it at once.--I am, Sir, your obedient servant, SOPHIA JEX-BLAKE.”

_Lancet_, July 9, 1870.

NOTE C, p. 46.

The statement in the text was made the subject of a newspaper controversy; and I append the following very valuable evidence which was thus elicited in support of my assertion:--

“SIR,--Permit me to bear my testimony to the state of the facts on this question as far as English convents are concerned. I was for some years medical attendant to a Franciscan convent, and was frequently consulted by the nuns. They were examined and treated like other patients, except where certain maladies were concerned, and then they suffered in silence, or with such relief as could be given by medicines, after a diagnosis founded on questions and general symptoms only. I especially remember two cases.... In neither of these any examination was permitted, or any surgical treatment regarded as a possibility, in spite of all the representations I could make, and although, I believe, I possessed the full confidence of the patients and of the Superior. Whether a female surgeon would have been allowed to examine and operate I cannot say.--I am, Sir, yours, &c., F.R.C.S.”

_Lancet_, May 18, 1872.

“SIR,--Kindly permit me to say a few words with regard to Miss Jex-Blake’s statement, that very many women, and in particular, nuns, would certainly show a preference for the medical and surgical aid of one of their own sex, were any choice possible to them. As being myself a Catholic, and having many near relatives nuns, I can most confidently confirm this assertion. “I have known, for many years, and in the closest intimacy, ladies, members of various religious orders, in this country and in France, and I am quite aware that recourse to male medical advice, in peculiar cases, is looked upon in religious houses as something much more painful than any physical suffering, or even death.

“My father was medical attendant to a convent of English nuns, and I think I may safely say that any advice given to nuns in such cases was entirely at second hand, the doctor’s wife being the favourite resource in these emergencies....

“Then, again, how can any man, medical or not, know what agonies of shame and outraged modesty women can and do undergo, when submitting to male medical and surgical treatment? How many women cannot overcome their repugnance, and die with their special ailments unsuspected, or discovered too late? On the other hand, how many women are at great pains to _conceal_ the shrinking which they feel when exposing their peculiar ailments to even a long-known and valued medical man? Why should we have these added to our other unavoidable sufferings? The reality of these feelings is, I am certain, within the personal knowledge of every one of your female readers. No one wishes to deny modesty to the stronger sex; but let us suppose them _compelled_ to reveal all their physical ills to _women_--how would they feel?--I am, &c., A CATHOLIC WIFE AND MOTHER.”

_Scotsman_, May 27, 1872.

NOTE D, p. 49.

While reviewing the above for the press (May 1872), the following lines came under my notice, and I think them the more suitable to quote as they are from the pen of a woman who has never herself shown the least inclination for the study of medicine, and who, therefore, speaks entirely from the abstract point of view:--

“Nothing will ever make me believe that God meant men to be the ordinary physicians of women and babies. A few masculine experts might be tolerated in special institutions, so that cases of peculiar danger and difficulty might not be left, as they are now, to the necessarily one-sided treatment of a single sex; but, in general, if ever a created being was conspicuously and intolerably out of his natural sphere, it is in my opinion, the male doctor in the apartment of the lying-in woman; and I think our sex is really guilty, in the first place, that it ever allowed man to appear there; and, in the second, that it does not insist upon educating women of character and intelligence and social position for that post.

“Indeed, common delicacy would seem to demand that all the special diseases of women should be treated principally by women; but this aside, and speaking from common sense only, men may be as scientific as they please,--it is plain that thoroughly to know the women’s organism, what is good for it and what evil, and how it can best be cured when it is disordered, one must be one’s self a woman. It only proves how much unworthy passion and prejudice the great doctors allow to intrude into their adoration of ‘pure science’ and boasted love of humanity, that, instead of being eager to enlist the feminine intuitions and investigations in this great cause, as their best chance of arriving at truth, they are actually enacting the ignoble part of churls and misers, if not of quacks. For are they not well enough aware that often their women patients are so utterly beyond them that they do not know what to do with them! The diseases of the age are nervous diseases, and women are growing more nervously high-strung and uncontrollable every day, yet the doctors stand helplessly by and cannot stop it. When, however, there shall be a school of doctresses of high culture and thorough medical education going in and out among the sex with the proper medical authority, they will see, and will be able to prevent, much of the moral and physical neglect and imprudence which, now unchecked in school and home, make such havoc of the vital forces of the present generation.”

“_Co-operative Housekeeping_,” by Mrs C. F. Pierce.

NOTE E, p. 53.

For the edification of the next generation, to whom all this bigotry will probably appear almost incredible, I subjoin the passage alluded to in the text. I am sorry to say it is by no means the worst I might have quoted from the same paper.

“For ourselves, we hold that the admission of women into the ranks of medicine is an egregious blunder, derogatory to the status and character of the female sex, and likely to be injurious, in the highest degree, to the interests and public estimation of the profession which they seek to invade.

“By insisting on the attendance of all students at the public-class delivery of anatomical lectures, and in the public-class dissecting-room, the only possible guarantee of uniformity of teaching will be obtained, and, at the same time, a difficulty will be placed in the way of female intrusion which it will not be easy for women of character, and clearly none else are eligible, to surmount. We hope, however, that the Court of Examiners will not stop with the erection of the barrier we suggest, but that they will distinctly refuse to admit any female candidate to examination unless compelled by a legal decision from the bench; and we also hope that they will be supported in such refusal by the Master and Wardens of the Society, as well as by the profession out of doors.”

_Medical Times and Gazette_, Feb. 27, 1867.

NOTE F, p. 56.

Since the first admission of women to the University of Zurich in 1867, five women have taken degrees there in Medicine, but none at present in any other Faculty. During the present year (1872) there are at Zurich no less than 51 women studying in the Medical Faculty, and 12 in that of Arts.

NOTE G, p. 62.