Part 49

The matter had apparently first been brought forward in 1868, at a meeting held at Washington, D. C., by a resolution offered by Dr. Bowditch of Boston.—_N. Y. Med. Record_, 1868.

Footnote 104:

_New York Medical Record_, June 10, 1876.

Footnote 105:

“History of Proceedings to procure the Recognition of Women Physicians by the Medical Profession of the State.” By Dr. Hiram Corson. Philadelphia, 1888.

Footnote 106:

“It must be acknowledged that the strictly regular instruction imparted in the principal medical schools for women has excited respect, and greatly tended to overcome former prejudices. The admission of women is now a fixed fact.”—_Phil. Med. Times_, 1883.

Footnote 107:

This society no longer exists; but it can hardly be said to have died from the admission of women, as it never had but three female members.

Footnote 108:

Mary Putnam, who was in fact the first woman to be admitted to the Paris School, though Miss Garrett of London was the first to graduate from it. The paper read before the New York Society was on Septicæmia, and seems to have been the first read by a woman physician in the United States, before a medical society.

Footnote 109:

Miss Putnam’s graduating thesis had moreover secured a bronze medal, the second prize awarded.

Footnote 110:

Drs. Cushier, McNutt, Withington, Dixon Jones.

Footnote 111:

Drs. Peckham, Fiske-Bryson.

Footnote 112:

Dr. McNutt.

Footnote 113:

Drs. Peckham, Cushier.

Footnote 114:

Dr. Cushier.

Footnote 115:

In 1876, the Boylston Prize, conferred every two years by Harvard University for a medical essay, was won by Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi. The prizes were awarded in ignorance of the names of the writers, and consequently of their sex; but this was the first occasion on which a woman had competed. The subject was, “The Question of Rest for Women during Menstruation.”

Dr. Boylston, the founder of the prize, had been the first colonial physician to practice inoculation, after this had been suggested by Cotton Mather.

Footnote 116:

The committee consisted of Prof. Alexander Agassiz chairman, Dr. Morrill Wyman, President Eliot, Mr. J. Elliott Cabot, Dr. Le Baron Russell.

Footnote 117:

_Boston Medical and Surgical Journal_, May 22, 1879. The editor expresses surprise at “so frank a confession of inferiority.” Although it was only a few years since women physicians were ostracised on the ostensible ground of the necessary inferiority of their means of education, the Boston editor now, in order to confute the claim of necessity for the Harvard education, passes in most flattering review the existing schools for women at New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago, and insists that these offer all the advantages any reasonable woman can want. Thus (this in 1879):

Philadelphia, 29th year, class 90 students.

New York, 10th year, class 47 students.

Chicago, 9th year, class 32 students.

“Answers to letters of inquiry show that these schools for women are looked on with great favor.”

Footnote 118:

Chadwick, “Admission of Women to the Massachusetts Medical Society,” _Boston Medical and Surgical Journal_, 1881.

Footnote 119:

The editor of the _Boston Medical and Surgical Journal_ announced this decision with great regret. The writer declared it “to be impossible that women can frequent our public meetings or lecture-rooms when certain topics are discussed, without breaking through barriers which decency has built up, and which it is for the interest of every lady and gentleman to preserve.... The moral tone of the society will soon be perceptibly lowered.”—(_Loc. cit._, October, 1879.)

The success of the movement was due to the chivalrous energy of a group of younger members, especially Drs. James and Charles Putnam, Dr. Chadwick, Dr. Cabot, and Dr. Derby.

Footnote 120:

It will be remembered that it was the experience gained in the rude hospitals of the Revolutionary War, which, by affording American physicians for collective observation of the sick on a large scale, first breathed some scientific spirit into the profession. Similar experience was afterwards gained in the epidemics of yellow fever and of spotted fever, that at different times ravaged the country. An analogous influence was exercised by the Civil War, which influence is becoming most distinct a quarter of a century after its close.

Footnote 121:

It was also ruled that “any cases deemed improper for a mixed audience should be reserved for the end of the lecture, and that the surgeon before proceeding with them may require the withdrawal of all male or female students as the case may be”; further, “No female patient shall be taken into the amphitheatre without the attendance of a female nurse: and no operation upon a female patient requiring special exposure shall be performed in the presence of male visiting students.”

In this simple and even-handed manner were adjudged the vexed questions that had been declared so insoluble.

Footnote 122:

_New York Medical Record_, Jan. 1, 1870.

Footnote 123:

These inadequacies might be rectified, without necessarily introducing into clinical practice the brutalities that so often disfigure the European treatment of hospital patients.

Footnote 124:

Including Dr. Jacobi, Dr. Emil Krackowizer, Dr. Guhleke. The two former were German radicals of 1848, and in this action remained consistent with philosophic principles of their youth.

Footnote 125:

It has been said that if any woman was admitted on the staff of internes, all the patients would demand her for the personal services now rendered by young men, and which are now accepted, though under protest, for the sake of the special skill of the distinguished visiting surgeons of the institution.

Footnote 126:

Elizabeth Blackwell in 1848.

Footnote 127:

Dr. Mary P. Root.

Footnote 128:

Dr. Marie Mergler, _loc. cit._

Footnote 129:

Dr. Mary H. Stinson, of Norristown, Pa.

Footnote 130:

Dr. Hiram Corson, Dr. A. Nebinger, Dr. R. L. Sibbett.

Footnote 131:

It was signed first by Dr. Kirkbride, superintendent of the Pennsylvania Insane Asylum, and then by the surgeons and physicians, the consultants and the assistants, the indoor and out-door staff of thirteen colleges and hospitals, of which only one received insane patients, the Blockley. In addition were the names of nineteen physicians unconnected with any institution.

Footnote 132:

Dr. Bennett’s nomination was indorsed by eminent physicians from Philadelphia, Drs. Joseph Leidy, Wm. Pepper, S. Weir Mitchell, H. C. Wood, W. W. Keen, S. D. Gross. The latter venerable surgeon had formerly been bitterly opposed to women physicians.

Footnote 133:

“The only regret and wonder are that a provision so humane and natural and consoling for these unfortunate wards of the State, has not yet been made law.”—_Harper’s Weekly_, 1890.

Footnote 134:

_Woman’s Journal_, April 26, 1890.

Footnote 135:

Rhoda Wilkins, in 1885, a graduate of the New York Infirmary School.

Footnote 136:

The following is a partial list of the women now or recently holding such positions, in addition to those already named: Helen Bissell, Kalamazoo, Michigan; Alice M. Farnham, Hart’s Island, New York City; Alice Wakeman and Augusta Steadman, Blackwell’s Island, New York; Jane Garver, Harrisburg, Pa.; Amelia Gilman, Blockley Insane Hospital, Philadelphia; Laura Hulme, Worcester, Mass.; Martha Morgan, Harrisburg, Pa.; F. McQuaide, Norristown, Pa.; Martha Perry, Taunton, Mass.; Alice Rogers, Taunton, Mass.; Julia K. Cary, Danvers, Mass.; and others in Maine, Minnesota, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and California.

Footnote 137:

“It was a great step for Virginia, thus taken by the trustees, and required considerable effort on the part of some members of the board.... Massachusetts is the only State where it is absolutely required by law that every such hospital shall employ one woman assistant physician.”—_Springfield Republican._

Footnote 138:

The Directors of the Woman’s Educational and Industrial Union of Buffalo wrote to the superintendents of insane asylums in 38 States, asking their opinion on the law pending in the New York Legislature during its session of 1889–1890. Forty-six answers were received from 32 States, of which 33 favored the law, 5 were opposed, 5 non-committal, and 3 not prejudiced.

Footnote 139:

“The Practice of Medicine by Women in the United States.” Paper read before Social Science Association, by Emily H. Pope, M.D., Sept. 7, 1881; and “The College Story,”—address at Woman’s Medical College of Philadelphia, by Dean Rachel Bodley, March 17, 1881.

Footnote 140:

Dr. Bodley sent circulars only to the graduates of the Philadelphia school, of whom, in 1881, there had been 276. Of these, 189 answered the circular. Dr. Pope sent circulars to 470 graduates of all schools, and received 390 answers, many, however, duplicating those of the Philadelphia circular of March.

Footnote 141:

$2907.30 exactly.

Footnote 142:

The writer knows personally of two women physicians, one in large general practice including much surgery, the other at the head of a Sanitarium, who have each brought up and educated twelve children. One of these ladies was a widow, with one child, when she began to study medicine; the other was never married. A very large number of childless women adopt children, or contribute to the education of the children of brothers or sisters.

Footnote 143:

A distinguished surgeon recently wrote to a woman physician, when he had confirmed her diagnosis in a serious case, where the family then requested the presence of the consultant at the operation the woman physician was to perform: “I shall be out of town for a week; you had better not wait for me—go ahead and operate yourself.” Which she did successfully.

Footnote 144:

The above form of consultation has greatly extended the facilities of medical treatment for unmarried women and young girls.

Footnote 145:

“I believe that the department of medicine in which the great and beneficent influence of women may be especially exerted, is that of the family physician. Not as specialists, but as the trusted guides and wise counselors in all that concerns the physical welfare of the family, they will find their most congenial field of labor.” Elizabeth Blackwell, “The Influence of Women in the Profession of Medicine.” Address before London Medical School for Women, 1889.

Footnote 146:

See Tenon’s report on the Hôtel Dieu of Paris, made to the National Assembly in 1789. He describes the usage of the time, which eight centuries of hospital existence had not taught how to improve.

Footnote 147:

Dr. Sims, in his treatise on Uterine Surgery, declared that the local treatment of uterine diseases was, almost always, surgical.

Footnote 148:

During this year Dr. Broomall has gone to Asia, to make a tour of the different missionary stations where there are women physicians, and there perform capital operations on the cases which have been accumulating. This is an expedition unique of its kind in history.

Footnote 149:

At the meeting of the Philadelphia Alumnæ Association, held in March, 1889, six successful cases of capital operations in abdominal surgery were reported by members, including two Cæsarean sections and one hysterectomy. Sixteen laparotomies were further reported from the Woman’s Hospital, but these have been included in the statistical table.

Footnote 150:

See APPENDIX D.

Footnote 151:

Centenary of American Methodism.

Footnote 152:

Centenary American Methodism.

Footnote 153:

Rev. Annie H. Shaw.

Footnote 154:

Christian Womanhood, W. C. Black, D.D.

Footnote 155:

Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, the first woman ordained in this country.

Mrs. Blackwell writes: “At the time of my ordination I was pastor of the church of ‘South Butler and Savannah,’ New York State. The church called a council to ordain me and install me as the regular minister. It was an orthodox society in good and regular standing among other Congregational churches, and the ordination was quite according to precedent; though doubtless the Congregational body as a whole never would have ordained a woman either then, thirty-seven years ago, nor yet to-day.”—ED. note.

Footnote 156:

Rev. Louise S. Baker, pastor of the Orthodox Congregational Church, in Nantucket, Mass., was ordained by the deacons of that church in 1884, two of the four deacons being women.

Footnote 157:

Report of the Dedication of the Mary J. Drexel Home and Mother-house of Deaconesses, December 6, 1888. In 1887 Mrs. Lucy Rider Meyer, M.D., connected with the Chicago Training School, with a few women to assist, gave the first impulse to the Deaconess movement in the Methodist Episcopal Church, which has resulted in the establishment of Mother-houses in Chicago, New York, Boston and other large cities. The church, seeing the measureless opportunities offered by such an institution, has wisely been prompt to adopt it, and this will doubtless encourage the adoption of the order by other denominations.

Footnote 158:

The Grace House Training School for Deaconesses was opened for the admission of candidates October (1890), in New York, adjoining Grace Church. The General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in October, 1889, provided that every candidate for the office of Deaconess, before she is set apart, shall have had “an adequate preparation for her work, both technical and religious, which preparation shall cover the period of two years.” The Grace House Training School is provided to furnish this preparation.—ED.

Footnote 159:

Rev. Olympia Brown Willis.

Footnote 160:

“Biography of Distinguished Women,” Sarah J. Hale.

Footnote 161:

Dr. Kempin writes: The Law School for women was a private undertaking, but founded with the aim to connect it with an already existing institution after having proven its vitality. With the help of the Women’s Legal Education Society, an incorporated body of women interested in the higher education of their sex, the Law School succeeded in connecting itself with the University of the City of New York. In response to a request of the Women’s Legal Education Society the doors of the Law Department of the University were thrown open to women on the same terms as to men, and a lectureship created to which I was selected as a lecturer on the same footing as other lecturers in the Law Department and especially to instruct classes of non-matriculating students who desire a knowledge of law for practical guidance and general culture.—ED.

Footnote 162:

Harvard chartered 1650; Yale, 1701; Columbia, 1754; William and Mary, 1693.—ED.

Footnote 163:

See chapter on The Work of Antislavery Women.—ED.

Footnote 164:

See chapter on Red Cross.

Footnote 165:

See chapters on Woman in the Ministry, Woman in Law, Woman in Medicine.—ED.

Footnote 166:

See chapter Hospitals and Training Schools managed by Women.—ED.

Footnote 167:

See chapter Woman in Journalism.—ED.

Footnote 168:

See chapter on Woman’s Work in the W. C. T. U.—ED.

Footnote 169:

See APPENDIX E, for Civil Rights of Women.—ED.

Footnote 170:

Wyoming was admitted to statehood, with equal suffrage for men and women incorporated in her constitution, by an Act of Congress, July, 1890.

Footnote 171:

And yet co-education had its birth in Ohio (Oberlin, 1833).—ED.

Footnote 172:

“Women as Inventors.” Mrs. Gage, _North American Review_, 1883, p. 478.

Footnote 173:

“For generations,” writes Johnstone, in his ‘History of Connecticut,’ “merchants and mechanics had been outranked by farmers.”

Footnote 174:

Material for the account of Lowell has been taken from Mrs. H. H. Robinson’s interesting paper on Early Factory Life in New England, Dickens’s American Notes, Lowell Offering, and Appleton’s American Cyclopædia.

Footnote 175:

“Think and Act,” “Men and Women,” “Work and Wages.” Virginia Penny, 1869.

Footnote 176:

See chapter, Aid for the Criminal Classes.—ED.

Footnote 177:

Speech of Mr. Frederic Coudert at the Lenox Lyceum, April 7, 1890.

Footnote 178:

This thought of the greater benefit to be derived from the organizations of labor as opposed to the philanthropic work done by the employing classes for the people who work, has been ably carried out in a paper read by Mrs. Florence Kelley Wischnewtzky before the New York Association of Collegiate Alumni, May 14, 1887, entitled “The Need of Theoretical Preparations for Philanthropic Work.” This essay will appear in an early number of the Boston “Nationalist.”

Footnote 179:

Since the Grangers were first organized, that body has amalgamated its efforts with those of the Farmers Alliances and these again with the Knights of Labor. The Alliances are in many respects more socialistic than the Socialists, inasmuch as the last-named have only proposed, by a transitional and constitutional method, to arrive at the demands now made by the Alliances, and these only after the altruistic and industrial planks in their platform have been gradually conceded by National and State Legislatures. The Farmers Alliances, which number possibly 5,000,000 members, demand the immediate ownership by the people of all the means of transportation and communication, railways, canals, telegraphs, telephones, etc. But more than this, their platform calls upon the nation through Congress and the Treasury department for a system of sub-treasuries, which have to aid directly in the purchase, storage, and distribution of the products of farms and plantations—that is of all grain, tobacco, and cotton.

Footnote 180:

The first one established of any note was that of the Daughters of Crispin, in Massachusetts, an organization of shoemakers, incorporated in 1872.

Footnote 181:

One evil that shirt-makers and seamstresses of all kinds had to contend with was that the work was given out to contractors, families, and institutions, principally to the Roman Catholic Protectory and the House of the Good Shepherd.

Footnote 182:

Ohio Report for 1887. L. McHugh, commissioner.

Footnote 183:

Condition of the Working Classes in England in 1844, Frederick Engels. Translated by Florence Kelley Wischnewetzky.

Footnote 184:

In England this outrage on humanity was forbidden, in 1878, by Clause No. 35 of the Factory Bill, which provided that “no young person, or woman, shall be employed in any part of a factory in which the wet spinning of flax, hemp, jute, or tow is carried on, unless sufficient means be employed and continued for protecting the workers from being wetted, and, where hot water is used, for preventing the escape of steam into the room occupied by the workers.”

Footnote 185:

Fall River, Lowell, and Lawrence. Thirteenth Annual Report, Massachusetts Bureau Statistics of Labor.

Footnote 186:

Public attention was first directed to this hideous phase of the child labor question through the discovery of the fact that large numbers of orphan children, varying from eleven to fourteen years of age, were being exported from St. John’s Asylum, Brooklyn, N. Y., to the glass factories of Fostoria and Findlay, O. Other asylums, including the organization known as the Children’s Aid Society, were said to be equally guilty with St. John’s Home in carrying on the business of child trading for a money consideration.

Footnote 187:

New York newspapers November 23–26, 1888; _Brooklyn Citizen_, November 23, 1888; Correspondence of Factory Inspectors, Harry Dorn, Ohio, November, 1888; Correspondence of Factory Inspectors, John Franey, Albany, N. Y., November, 1888.

Footnote 188:

New Jersey, 1883; Ohio, 1884; New York, 1886; Wisconsin, Rhode Island, 1887; Connecticut, 1888; Maine, 1888; State factory inspection in Pennsylvania in 1889; municipal factory ordinance in Chicago, 1889.

Footnote 189:

Massachusetts Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1875, pp. 183–84.

Footnote 190:

Whenever “socialism” is referred to in this essay, by the term should be simply understood the meaning given to the word in recent editions of Webster’s “Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language,” viz.: “A theory of society which advocates a more precise, orderly, and harmonious arrangement of the social relations of mankind than that which has hitherto prevailed.” This necessarily is the very opposite of anarchy, described, in the same authority, as “The state of society where there is no law or supreme power, or where the laws are not efficient and individuals do what they please with impunity.” Socialism is therefore the antithesis of anarchism. The former is constructive and altruistic, the latter destructive, and the absolute sovereignty of the individual, consequently, disregard of others. Nor is by socialism meant communism. Socialism recognizes the right of the individual to the product of his own labor and certainly not the division thereof; whereas communism means that common ownership of property which has only been successfully carried out in the conventual orders of the Roman Catholic Church and in the Buddhistic Lamaseries. This is the position taken in a recently published article from the pen of the well-known social-economist Charles Sotheran, formerly literary editor of the New York _Star_, but better known under his _noms-de-plume_ of “Colmolyn” and “Southernwood.”

Footnote 191:

See chapter, Work for the Criminal Classes.—ED.

Footnote 192:

See chapter on Woman in Industry.—ED.

Footnote 193:

See chapter, Woman in Industry.—ED.

Footnote 194:

See chapter, Woman in Industry.—ED.

Footnote 195:

The Association of Working Girls’ Societies was formed February, 1884, with the following objects:

1. To strengthen, to knit together, and to protect the interests of the several societies.

2. To hold meetings, when reports of the societies shall be presented, and to make more generally known their aims and advantages.

3. To promote the general adoption of the principles upon which the societies have been formed.

4. To secure the services, by co-operation, of good teachers, lady physicians, and lecturers.

5. To keep the several societies informed of such classes and schemes as are proved valuable.

6. To encourage and assist in the establishment of new societies.

In April, 1890, a convention was held under the auspices of the New York, Boston, and Brooklyn Associations of Working Girls’ Societies, and the Philadelphia New Century Working Women’s Guild. Two hundred and twenty-five delegates, representing ninety-six clubs, and from thirty-eight different cities and towns, were present.—ED.

Footnote 196:

The effort above referred to has during the year taken shape as the “College Settlement,” and on September 1, 1890, its first annual report closes with the following words: