Part 8

And yet our most learned physicians complain of the deficient education given to medical students, and their negligent practice in comparison with European methods. I have before me the Richmond and Louisville Medical Journal of 1869, which claims to be the largest medical monthly in this nation. In it I find a letter from Dr. W. O. Baldwin, late President of the National Congress of physicians, asking from Dr. Wm. Neftel, of New York, late physician of the Russian Imperial Guard, an account of the course of medical study in Europe, and remarking that Dr. Neftel "beautifully illustrates by his example and by his valuable contributions to science, the wisdom of the system in which he was educated."

In reply, Dr. Neftel states that the first requisition in Europe for medical license, is a course of general study equal to that demanded in our colleges, and in addition, a thorough knowledge of physics. Next follows four summer and four winter sessions in the medical department. The first two years are devoted to anatomy, histology, physiology, chemistry, pathological anatomy, general and special pathology and therapeutics, the principles of operative surgery and obstetrics, working at the same time in the chemical, physiological and pathological laboratories. In the last sessions only the student attends the different clinics—medical, surgical, obstetrical, opthalmological, dermatological, and psychological. Then, under a professor some special branch of medical science is pursued.

Dr. Neftel states as one cause of the advance of medical science in Germany and Russia, is the institution of free teachers or _privat docents_. These are students distinguished by original genius or great research, who in connexion with the faculty, become teachers, and have full access to laboratories, museums, and libraries. Many young physicians of talents thus rise to high positions, and from this class have risen the greatest men of science. Thus it is, also, that the German Universities secure the best professors who devote their lives to science and instruction, with most admirable results.

Another advantage to medical science in Germany, is the close connexion of the medical departments in the Universities with the other faculties of philosophy, law, and theology. In consequence of this, we find the greatest chemists and natural philosophers to be medical men, and a number of physiologists are great mathematicians.

Dr. Neftel, after completing this course, was connected with medical departments in the Universities of London, Paris, and Germany for four years. After this the adoption of republican opinions prevented his return to Russia, and led him to this country.

It is by frequent intercourse with Dr. Neftel, and by observing his methods of detecting the _causes_ of disease, that I have been deeply impressed with the imperfect modes pursued by inexperienced practitioners, and even by some who stand high in the profession. For example, I took a friend to him who had been examined by several physicians of high standing. One of them decided that the disease was of the heart, another that it was of the liver, and a third that it was of the kidneys. But by the microscope and by chemical tests, it was proved that neither of these organs were diseased, and that all the symptoms were caused by miasmatic fungi in the blood.

In the case of another lady I witnessed investigations to detect the _cause_ of the frequent re-appearance of carbuncles, which had not been sought for by other medical advisers; they only prescribing modes of hastening and diminishing the crisis. To look at the tongue, feel the pulse, and hear a statement of the symptoms, is the common method, and then prescriptions are given of powerful chemical agents, which, if not suited to the case are injurious.

Thus it comes to pass that the most learned and careful physicians are demanding an increase of medical educational advantages in our country.

Thus also it has come to pass that health establishments abound, in which the natural agencies of water, light, pure air, exercise, and simple diet are the chief medical agents employed. And in most cases the patients are those who have vainly tried the regular medical treatment.

The great defect in all these institutions, so far as I have observed, is confinement to one special method, and a neglect of enforcing obedience to _all_ the laws of health. For in not even one such institution have I ever known proper arrangements for securing pure air both night and day; while in some the diet is at war with healthful digestion. To these evils add the ignorance of the patients in over-doing, and the want of skill, or care of the physician, and the result has been more mischief than benefit in many cases. For there is as much need of science and care in the physician in the use of these natural agents as in the more common methods.

Recently some of the most efficacious methods employed in Water Cure Establishments have received the sanction and approval of the highest medical practitioners in Europe.

For in the _Medical Record_, the leading periodical of N. York physicians, I find a paper read before the New York Academy of Medicine, in October, 1868, by Dr. Neftel, in which he states that the most distinguished writers and practitioners in Europe now employ cold water for reducing fevers, just as for twenty years or more has been practiced in Water Cures.

In this paper he says: "My first acquaintance with the use of water in diseases, was during the Crimean war, when a murderous epidemic of typhus fever prevailed, _resisting every known method of treatment_. Following the instincts of patients and watching the effects of cold water, I commenced treating with cold sponging and effusions and the result surpassed my hopes, and was _far better than that obtained by any other method_. I myself was attacked by the disease and was saved from death only by my own mode of treatment. But still my treatment was purely empyrical and symptomatic. Soon after, this method was confirmed in the large hospitals of Russia, with excellent results."

"The principal rule observed is never to allow the temperature (ascertained by a thermometer placed under the shoulder) to rise higher than 103 Fahrenheit. The mildest degree of cooling is attained by sponging the whole body with cold water or by keeping the patient continually in a wet sheet. A wet cloth is laid on the head, and if not asleep, every quarter of an hour the patient is offered a little cold water to drink, and every three hours nourishing fluid food. The room is to be kept well ventilated and stimulants avoided."

Dr. Neftel adds, "the effect of this treatment is so wonderful that those familiar with typhoid patients will not recognize them. By keeping the temperature below 103.1 Fahrenheit the exacerbations are avoided and the fever kept in a continuous remission. The patients are never unconscious, never delirious, the tongue always remains moist and clean, the bronchial catarrh is very slight, and so is the diarrhœa, if any at all. There is no tympanites, no hemorrhage, no complication, and we have reason to believe the intestinal ulcerations do not occur at all. Under this treatment the course of typhoid fever is very mild and short, the convalescence very rapid, and the mortality none whatever. A great number of patients treated by myself on this method, have recovered without exception. In this city I had a patient whose morning temperature once reached 106.34° Fahrenheit—_a case absolutely fatal under every other treatment_—and she is now recovering."

"The thermometer indicates with the greatest exactness, the condition of the animal heat, the presence of fever, its degree, intensity and danger. It also traces the laws of the course of different types of disease, indicates transitions from one stage to another, the ameliorations and aggravations, and the return of the normal condition. It enables us to form a correct diagnosis and prognosis, and gives us positive therapeutical indications." In conversation I enquired if all kinds of fevers should be subdued by this method, and was assured that this was the safest and surest mode for all.

A scientific and very successful practitioner who managed a Water Cure Establishment, and was largely employed in the town around, stated that after a year or two of instruction in the use of cold water, he lost all his outside patients, as the mothers and housekeepers had learned to treat by his methods, and no longer needed his attention except in rare cases.

I have stated that it was at the Swedish Movement Cure, under charge of Dr. Geo. H. Taylor, that the cause of my long invalidism and its remedy were ascertained. In addition to this personal benefit, I have learned the cause and the proper remedy of a class of female diseases which have baffled the most skillful practitioners and introduced methods in many ways so unfortunate, that my whole sex will eventually recognize as a great benefactor, the physician who has rendered them needless, and introduced others at once philosophical, modest, and efficacious.

Dr. Taylor's discoveries and methods are presented in his work on the Diseases of Women, published by George Maclean, 47 John Street, N. Y. This work has the approval of the leading physicians of Philadelphia and New York, and other distinguished practitioners whose specialty has been in this department. If this work should find its way into every school and family, it probably would do more for the health of women and of the next generation than any other similar measure that can be urged.

The information I have gained in the modes narrated, has increased my conviction of the importance of giving to every woman a _scientific_ training for her profession as _healthkeeper_ of the family state. Not that the long course needed for general medical practice should be attempted, which in the chief European Universities would demand ten and twelve years of study and training. Instead of this, I would propose a moderate course in physiology and animal chemistry, accompanied with instruction in practical scientific methods of employing water, light, heat, cold, air, exercise, and diet—both to prevent and to remedy diseases—nor should the application of these remedies be left entirely to the judgment and skill of women, even after such training, but be under the guidance of a physician, highly educated, so as to detect by careful investigation the _causes_ of disease, and of such another as Dr. Taylor, who has practised in both the Water and Movement Cures.

I have stated that in one large town a Water Cure physician lost all his outside practice by instructing mothers and housekeepers how to use properly the methods of the Water Cure. If to these were added the practical methods of the Movement Cure, as conducted by Dr. G. H. Taylor, with the enforcement of _all_ the laws of health in a given community, it is probable that all the physicians but those superintending these methods, would lose all their practice.

One of the most judicious and well educated physicians I know, expressed the opinion that if a number of families in a town would unite to provide a salary to a good physician (the same as to a clergyman) who should visit each family to watch over the habits and health, and see all methods employed to keep them well, that in the end, it would prove a great piece of economy in money as well as in health. The sagacious Chinese have learned this, and pay their physicians so long as they are well, and stop paying when they are ill.

But with us it is for the pecuniary interest of physicians to have sickness general in a community, and there is need of a profession whose honor and emolument depend on the _prevention_ of all diseases. For this profession every woman, and especially every school-teacher should be carefully trained.

If all the women teachers of this nation could be trained to be _health-keepers_ under the supervision of the highest class of educated physicians, and then sent forth to lecture in all our school districts teaching mothers and housekeepers the laws of health, and the methods of the Water and Movement Cures, it is probable that health and long life would be doubled all over the nation.

And here I would urge renewed attention to the state of female health in our country as exhibited in statistics published in a work of mine fifteen years ago, and introduced in a chapter placed at the end of this volume. I have never found any reason to doubt the correctness of the impression made by these statements at first, nor to suppose any marked improvement at the present time. For the diminution of domestic labor by school girls of all ages and classes; the increase of mental labor in public schools; the increase of cares to mother and housekeepers in country as well as cities, from increase of the refinements of civilization; the increased use of stoves and furnaces without proper arrangements for ventilation; the increase of unhealthful labor for women in unventilated stores, shops, and mills; the unhealthful fashions of dress, and the fact that at this day women receive more delicate constitutions than those given by mothers of a former generation; all these things indicate an increase rather than a diminution of the causes that undermine the health of women.

This brings me to the main object of this meeting, which is to enlist the interest and influence of the ladies present, in devising and executing plans for the proper education of the daughters of this city—by methods that shall remedy the evils that have been set forth, and which shall serve as a model to other cities and towns through our nation.

In detailing an outline of the plan aimed at, I will first state that it has already received the approval of ladies of good judgment, and of practical experience as mothers and housekeepers; and also is approved by the Trustees of the H. F. Seminary.

I appear at this time as the Secretary and Gen. Agent of the American Woman's Educational Association. This consists of ladies of high character and position in various states which meets annually to receive reports of agents and direct their operations. This Association has established several institutions at the West, the most important being the Milwaukee Female College. The method employed was to take a school already organized as the nucleus, and then offer to the citizens to secure endowments to support teachers, on condition that they provided a suitable building and tuition fees to support a certain number of superior teachers. This was done, and for fifteen years that institution, in its primary, preparatory, and collegiate schools has successfully carried out one portion of the plan of the Association, some teachers being supported by endowments provided by the Association, and others by tuition fees. The chief agent of the Association has had the control and supervision of this institution now numbering nearly 200 pupils from all the Protestant denominations. The chief difficulty has been the fact that the Association is located at the East, and its work done at the West.

It is now proposed to carry out the plans of the Association more completely in an institution at the East, under the immediate charge of an Executive Committee, resident in the same place as the Institution.

It is proposed to organize the H. F. Seminary like that at Milwaukee, with Primary, Preparatory, and Collegiate schools all under the care of the Trustees as at present. These schools to be furnished by the citizens, with building, library, and apparatus equal to those of the High School, and a course of study instituted allowing entrance only at certain periods, and limiting the number of studies each term, as is done in the College and High School. Also to raise endowments to support two of the highest class of teachers, so that they can secure homes and salaries equal to those given to college professors.

This being secured by the citizens, the Association will appoint their Executive Committee from ladies of this city, one from each denomination, and others be added, selected by them, also a certain number of the Trustees of the Seminary to become members. Then the managers will appoint a collecting agent to raise funds to establish a University School with diverse departments, in which pupils of the Seminary and others shall be trained for all the distinctive duties of women, and all who wish it also be trained for some suitable womanly employment or profession by which to earn an honorable independence.

The first organized departments of the University would be the Normal and Health departments. Two highly educated ladies would become the Principals, and Dr. Neftel, and Dr. Taylor have engaged to act as superintending physicians. The Association will aim to provide land and buildings for these departments, and support the two lady principals so that they can receive into their families two classes. During the months of July and August, when most teachers have vacations, the class will consist of enfeebled and exhausted teachers to be restored and trained to teach our system of Calisthenics, and to administer the methods of the Water Cure, and Movement Cure, and also to lecture on the laws of health in the communities to which they will return.

At all other periods of the year, these families will consist of young girls of delicate constitutions or poor health, to be trained to health and vigor, and at the same time to pursue a moderate course of study in the Seminary classes. These lady principals will also take charge of the Seminary classes in Domestic Science, Physiology, Animal Chemistry, Botany, and Calisthenics under direction of the Principals of the Seminary. On this plan two teachers will be supported by endowments provided by the citizens, and two by endowments provided by the Association.

The Trustees of the Seminary will control all funds given for the Primary, Preparatory, and Collegiate schools, and the Executive Committee of the Association will control the funds given for the University department. As to the probability of raising endowments, the former agent of the Association testifies that he was cordially welcomed to the pulpits of almost every Protestant denomination and sometimes took larger collections than were given for any other objects.

There is one reason for endowing the H. F. Seminary, little understood. Three female institutions are soon to go into operation in Massachusetts, one endowed with a million and a half, another with half a million, a third very largely provided. These will offer advantages and salaries commanding the best teachers, and the public High Schools will do the same. Thus the boarding and other pay schools not endowed, will soon lose their best teachers and take up only with a humbler class. This, and the multiplication of studies and classes, will make boarding and day schools for the wealthy class, unless endowed, very inferior to the public High schools and endowed institutions.

Many female colleges have attempted a regular course of study demanding few classes for each term, and that all pupils enter at regular periods. But not one that I know of, has raised endowments to support teachers. Not even Vassar, though provided with over half a million, has a single endowment to support a teacher. All has been spent in expensive grounds, buildings, and furniture to draw pupils from parental watch and care.

If this half million had been devoted to providing endowments for this Seminary, some ten or twelve of the highest class of women teachers might have permanent positions and incomes.

In reference to the patronage to be expected for the health department, Dr. Dio Lewis gained very large patronage by taking charge of young girls in delicate health who thronged from every part of the nation.

I will close by giving a specimen of the applications constantly made to me from all quarters for teachers out of health. I think if it were notified in the public prints that help could be given to such applications, they would count more by thousands than by hundreds.

So much and so often have I been pained to turn away from such piteous appeals, that nothing but the hope of some day meeting such a sympathizing and influential body of friends and followers of Christ, has sustained me.

"Dear Miss Beecher:

"Having read of your plans for aiding teachers in regaining health, I address you in behalf of a dear and only child. I myself was a teacher, and by intense interest and labor lost my health. My marriage afterwards was unfortunate, and ever since the birth of this child I have had to struggle alone and with poor health to support her and myself by my needle.

"My child is fond of study, is a graduate of one of the best public schools, and afterward attended an excellent Grammar school in N. York city. The principal told me she was the brightest in her class, and had a depth and clearness of mind unusual in her age. She was much beloved in her classes, especially by her teachers.

"But her studies were too severe, and for a long time she has not been able to study or do much except practice on the piano, for which she had the best of teachers, and would like to teach it when her head gets stronger. I have consulted one of the best physicians, and he says she may recover in time, that too much study is the cause of her trouble, and that she must not study at all.

"Dear Miss Beecher, you cannot imagine how great is my interest in your plans, and how I long to place my daughter under your care. I thought the anxieties of a mother would prove some claim on your kindness, and that you would excuse me for applying to you for advice and help. If my child could go into some christian home near the sea-side and do light work to pay for her board, she would be willing to do so; and perhaps could teach one or two scholars in music. The poor child now feels distressed and discouraged, and I know not what to do. She is a Christian believer and a member of the church, and I hope our Heavenly Father will show us some way of help and comfort in this our low estate."

AN ADDRESS TO THE CHRISTIAN WOMEN OF AMERICA.

MY DEAR AND HONORED COUNTRYWOMEN:

When I wrote the first address in this volume, I had a very imperfect idea of the scope and magnitude of the questions which the women of this nation, who aim to be followers of Jesus Christ, will soon be called to investigate and to decide—questions which are the very foundation principles of both morals and religion—questions which every woman must settle for herself aided by common sense, the Bible, and the Divine aid obtained by prayer.

To us Jesus Christ appears as the only one born into this world who lived to maturity, then died and then returned to life again; first to prove that death does not end our existence, and next to teach what awaits us in the invisible world to which we all are hastening.

Let those who have mused in lonely sorrow by the grave of the dearest friends and asked with infinite longings—where are they? is this the end? are we too to lie down in utter annihilation?—say how we could have these questions answered so as to best secure a comforting belief? Should we not say let our well-known, well-beloved friends, come forth from the tomb and live with us again—walk, talk, eat, sleep, and act, as in past times—and this for days and weeks and not alone with us, but with many others who had known them through life? Can we imagine anything to ask more satisfactory than this, to prove that death does not end our existence?