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Medical Women : a Thesis and a History

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Medical Women : a Thesis and a History I MMM mmi/nt MEDICAL WOMEN. > i TO Dr. Lucy Sewall, FROM WHOSE DAILY LIFE I FIRST LEARNED WHAT INCALCULABLE BLESSINGS MAY BE CONFERRED ON THE SICK AND SUFFERING OF HER OWN SEX BY A NOBLB AND PURE*MINDED WOMAN WHO IS ALSO A THOROUGHLY SCIENTIFIC PHYSICIAN. PREFACE TO THE SECOJ^I) EDITION. 0 for The first edition of this book has now been out of print some years, and repeated applications have been made to me by booksellers and others for a second edition. It was, how- ever, manifestly impossible to issue this without bringing the history of events down to the present time, and more pressing- duties have repeatedly obliged me to delay the execution of this project. Even now the work has been accomplished only with considerable difficulty, in the intervals available in the course professional life and I trust that tliis circumstance of a busy ; will be remembered by critics, who can, no doubt, only too easily find defects that might have been avoided if a greater measure of “ learned leisure ” had been at my disposal. I have made it my single object in this volume to give as complete and comprehensive a view as brevity would allow of the whole question of medical practice by women, and of the liistory of the movement in this country. It may be thought by some that I have dwelt at dispropor- tionate length on the details of the struggle in Edinburgh, and in particular have spared too much room in the Notes to 'piotations from the opinions and literature of the hour. I have, however, done so deliberately, not only because I believe the events recorded to be of the class that truly “ make history,” but because I am very anxious to .submit to the public as full a narrative as possible, and am content to abide by their judgment whether or no the so-called “ failure in Edinburgh ” was due in whole or in part (as some have endeavoured to maintain) eitlier : to the errors, or to the “ Idchcs," of those who carried on the warfare. My own opinion is that, properly speaking, there was “ HO failure ” I it sown in tears in ; believe that w'as the seed Edinburgh that was reaped in joy elsewhere. It is my firm ’ conviction, that in view of the then prevalent attitude of the profession, and the undeveloped state of public opinion at lar«e, ; i it was absolutely requisite that the battle should he fought/, - out somewhere, and that no more passive policy would have .. secured (at any rate for many years) the results that have now been won. On this and other points, however, the judgment of the next generation may perhaps be more conclusive than our own, for the smoke of battle may well obscure to some extent the vision of the combatants. I have taken a very considerable amount of additional trouble in order to give reference and authority, as far as possible, for all statements that may by any possibility be disputed, and I trust that I have so far succeeded in doing this that any reader having access to the newspapers, pam- phlets, and other papers and books referred to, might, without reading a line of my book, reconstruct for himself a story almost identical with that which I have told. To ensure even more fully the absolute accuracy of the history relating to the “ Battle in Edinburgh,” I have submitted it in proof to no less than seven persons,—four women and three men,—who were all on the spot at the time of the struggle, and not only had intimate knowledge of its details from day to day, but to a very con-siderable extent them- selves “ quorum magna pars fmrunt!' It is a matter of great satisfaction to myself, and may perhaps be so to my the slightest ) readers, that no one of them has found even error in my statement, though I am bound to confess that one of them (a very eminent medical man) expressed his opinion that I had in some respects “ considerably softened the either facts.” I am glad to believe that, if guilty of error on side, it has not been on the side of exaggeration. Sophia Jex-Blake, ^f.D. 2Qth April 1886, Bruntsfield Lodge, Edinburgh. I. glcbittnc m n Iprofcssbii far M0mciT* REPBIN'TF.D, WITH ALTERATIONS AND LARGE ADDITIONS, FROM “ woman's work AND WOMAN’S CULTURE." 0 “ We deny the right of any portion of the species to decide for another portion, or any individual for another individual, what is and what is not their “proper sphere.” The proper sphere for all human beings is the largest and highest which they are able to attain to. What this i.s cannot be ascertained without complete liberty of choice.” —Mrs. J. S. Mill. “ You misconceive the question like a man, Who sees a woman as the complement Of his sex merely. You forget too much That every creature, female as the male, Stands single in responsible act and thought, As also in birth and death. 1 would rather take my part With God’s Dead, who aflbrd to walk in white. Yet spread His glory, than keep quiet here And gather up my feet from even a step For fear to soil my gown in so much dust. I choose to walk at all risks.” —Aurora Lc'ujh. A V. MEDICINE AS A PROFESSION FOR WOMEN. “ The universe shall henceforth speak for you And witness, She who did this thing, was born in her work. To do it ; claims her licence And so with more works. Whoso cures the plague, Though twice a woman, shall be called a leech.” —Aurora Leigh. It is a very comfortable faith to hold that “ whatever is, is best,” not only in the dispensations of Providence, faith but in the social order of daily life ; but it is a which is perhaps best preserved by careful avoidance of too much enquiry into facts. The theory, if applied to past as well as to present times, would involve us in some startling contradictions, for there is hardly any act, habit, or custom which has not been held meri- torious and commendable in one state of society, and detestable and evil in some other. If we believe that there are eternal principles of right and wrong, wisdom and equity, far above and greater than the “ jiublic opinion ” of any one age or country, we must acknow- ledge the absolute obligation of enquiring, whenever matters of importance are at stake, on what grounds the popular opinions rest, and how far they arc the result of habit, custom, and prejudice, or the real out- growth of deep convictions and beliefs inherent in the 4 Medicine as a Profession for lVome7i. most sacred recesses of human nature. While the latter command ever our deepest reverence, as tint true “ vox populi, vox Dei,” nothing can he more superficial, frivolous, and fallacious than the former. In a country where precedent has so much weight as in England, it doubly behoves us to make the distinction, and, while gratefully accepting the safeguard offered against inconsiderate and precipitate change, to beware that old custom is not suffered permanently to hide from our eyes any truth which may be struggling into the light. I suppose that no thinking man will pretend that the world has now reached the zenith of truth and knowledge, and that no further upward progress is possible ; on the contrary, we must surely believe that each year will bring with it its new lesson fresh lights ; will constantly be dawning above the horizon, and perhaps still oftener discoveries will be re-discovered, truths once acknowledged but gradually obscured or forgotten will emerge again into day, and a constantly recurring duty wdl lie before every one who believes in life as a responsible time of action, and not as a period of mere vegetative existence, to “ 2:>rove all things, and hold fast that which is good.” The above considerations arise naturally in connexion with the subject of this paper, which is too often set aside by the general public, who, perhaps, hardlj- appreciate its scope, and are not yet fully aroused to the importance of the questions involved in the general issue. We are told so often that nature and custom Testimony of Nature and Daily Life. 5 have alike decided against the admission of women to the medical profession, and that there is in such admission something repugnant to the right order of things, that when we see growing evidences of a different opinion, among a minority perhaps, but a minority which already includes many of our most daily, it I earnest thinkers of both sexes, and increases a duty for all who do not, in the quaint surely becomes . language of Sharpe, “ have their thinking, like their • washing, done out,” to test these statements by the above principles, and to see how far their truth is • supported by evidence. In the first j)lace, let us take the testimony of ; Nature in the matter. If we go back to primeval ' times, and try to imagine the first sickness or the first injury suffered by humanity, does one instinctively feel • that it must have been the 'nmn’s business to seek means of healing, to try the virtues of various herbs, or to apply such rude remedies as might occur to one unused : to the strange spectacle of human suffering ? I think that few would maintain that such ministration would come most naturally to the man, and be instinctively avoided by the woman indeed, I pre- ; fancy that the sumption would be rather in the other direction.
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