Medical women; a thesis and a history.

  • Jex-Blake, Sophia, 1840-1912.
Date:
1886
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical women; a thesis and a history. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    do is to widen its character or precipitate its advent. Opponents, when the time has come, are not merely dragged at the chariot wheels of progress -they help to turn them. The strongest force, whichever way it seems to work, does most to aid. The forces of greatest concentration here have been, in my view, on the one hand the Edinburgh University, led by Sir Robert Christison, on the other the women claimants, led by Dr. Sophia Jex-Blake. Defeated at Edinburgh, she carried her appeal to the highest court, that most able to decide and redress, the High Court of Parliament representing the nation itself. The result we see at last. Those who hail it as the answer which they sought have both to thank, in senses and proportions which they may for themselves decide.—James Stansfeld. —Nineteenth Century Review, July 1877 NOTE PP, p. 232. At the last meeting of the London Obstetrical Society, Mrs. Garrett Anderson was pro- posed for election as a Fellow, but it was ruled that no woman could be admitted, although the bye laws expressly declare 'every registered medical practitioner' to be eligible! This decision is the more edifying, as lady students and doctors have hitherto frequently been reproached with not paying sufficient attention to obstetric science, and as this very Society recently sent a deputation to Mr. Stansfeld urging to assist in organizing proper teaching and examination for midwives. The Society seems, however, now to be mainly bent on stamping- out what it calls 'female practitioners,'and apparently trusts that when women learn that the honour and glory of its membership cannot be open to them, they will at once renounce the study of medicine. In the course of the discussion, the Society congratulated itself on the fact that Mrs. Anderson was the 'only qualified female practitioner' (which, by the bye, she is not), and that 'under existing regulations no other lady would be able to get on the Register.' One of the doctors present somewhat suspiciously protested that he had ' no fear of women being brought into the medical profession. The women of England would not go to female practitioners when they could get male practitioners.' Another gallantly remarked that if a woman were elected there would be a ' very large secession of members.' A third suggested that ladies might be admitted ' provided they could have a room to themselves,'—a plan which hardly seemed practical when there was but one lady in the question, but which might suggest to the non-professional mind whether it would not be well to follow out the idea in obstetric practice, by returning to the custom of old days, when the man-midwife, if employed at all, was kept in an outer room, and was summoned only in case of emergency. One only of the members present, Dr. Galton, suggested that, after all, the object of the Society was to advance obstetric medicine, and that it might be a mistake to exclude from it thoroughly educated women, whose observations and whose skill might redound to its credit. This view, however, was promptly negatived, and the Society gave in its formal adhesion to the most advanced principles of medical trade-unionism, by deciding that no woman could ever be allowed, with its sanction, to join in discussions concerning the treatment and relief of those sufferings which women alone have to endure !—Scotsman, March 9, 1874. NOTE QQ, p. 233. Correspondence with the Soho Square Hospital. 1. To the Medical Committee. Gentlemen,—As I see in your Report a special invitation to medical practitioners to avail themselves of the opportunities of study afforded by the Soho Square Hospital for Women, and as I am specially interested in that branch of medicine which exclusively concerns my own sex, I should be greatly obliged by your according me a general permission to visit your wards with the medical officers, and also to attend the practice of your out-patient depart- ment. ''Perhaps you will also kindly inform me of the usual hours for visits, for dispensary practice, and for operations.—I am, Gentlemen, yours obediently, Sophia Jex-Blake, M.D., L. & L.M., K.Q.C.P.I. 32 Bernard Street, W.C., February 21st, 187S.