# Sophia Jex-Blake

Sophia Jex-Blake (21 January 1840 – 7 January 1912) was a British physician, feminist, educator, and founder, dean, and first director of Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women.

## Quotes

* The study and practice of medicine seems to me to be divided into two tolerably distinct branches,—Preventive and Curative; and whereas the second of these will, I think, be left by all wise people to those who, by years of study of books and at the bedside, have mastered some at least of its difficulties, the former should, in my opinion, form an integral part of every system of education which has any pretension to completeness.
** "Introduction". The Care of Infants: A Manual for Mothers and Nurses. London: Macmillan & Company. 1884. pp. ix–xii. (quote from pp. x–xi)

### A Visit to Some American Schools and Colleges (1867)

* ... Whatever shortcomings or errors may be recorded against Oberlin, it should ever be remembered in her favour that she took the initiative before all the world in opening a college career to women, and in welcoming, on equal terms, all students, of whatever race or hue. This double glory shall surely be hers in the memories of men when much on which she now prides herself more may be forgotten.
** "Chapter II. Oberlin". A Visit to Some American Schools and Colleges. London: Macmillan & Company. 1867. pp. 8–64. (quote from pp. 46–47)
* ... On Sunday morning the College-chapel is used by the whole Baptist community of Hillsdale, and the students may attend there or elsewhere as they please; but in the afternoon the service is specially designed for them, and their presence is required.
** "Chapter III. Hillsdale". A Visit to Some American Schools and Colleges. 1867. pp. 65–101. (quote from pp. 73–74)
* The third College which gives instruction and academic degrees to both sexes is situated at Yellow Springs, in Ohio, and being founded in 1852 by a sect calling themselves emphatically "Christians," was by the named Antioch College, in allusion to Acts xi. 26. The characteristic feature distinguishing this College from the others already named, is the aim of its founders to establish it on a strictly unsectarian basis.
** "Chapter V. Antioch". A Visit to Some American Schools and Colleges. 1867. pp. 121–151. (quote from p. 121)

### Medical Women: A Thesis and a History (1872)

* It is a very comfortable faith to hold that "whatever is, is best," not only in the dispensations of Providence, but in the social order of daily life; but it is a faith which is perhaps best preserved by careful avoidance of too much inquiry into facts.
** Medical Women: A Thesis and a History. Issue 1417 of Gerritsen collection of women's history (2nd ed.). Edinburgh: Oliphant, Anderson, & Ferrier. 1886. p. 3. (1st edition 1872)
* ... 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 man'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 fancy that the presumption would be rather in the other direction. And what is such ministration but the germ of the future profession of medicine?
** p. 5, 2nd edition, 1886
* It is clear that in Great Britain at an early period women were commonly found among the irregular practitioners of Medicine; and it is equally clear that their male competitors greatly desired to deprive them of the right to practise.
** p. 13, 2nd edition, 1886

## External links

* Sophia Jex-Blake, pioneer of women's medicine. National Archives Beta (beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk).
* Joseph Adelman, "Sophia Jex-Blake". Famous Women: An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages with Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women. John L. Rogers. 1928. p. 246.