The Sun.
London, England, 1870-04-23 00:00:00

WOMEN STUDYING MEDICINE.

Some smart speechifying. took place over Professor
Masson's motion in favour of admitting women to the
medical, classes of Edinburgh. University on the same
terms as men, "except in cases where the court may see
special reasons why the instruction should be separate."
Professor Masson was very indignant at the refusal to
allow Miss Pechey to enjoy the scholarship she had won.
It was, he said, a bad thing for the University that it was
driven to the vast unseemliness of doing an act intrin-
sically ugly and justly most unpopular—that it was
driven by the existing arrangement to deprive Miss
Pechey of the place to which she stood entitled. He
was ashamed, as an atom of the University,
of having it reported, perhaps without knowledge
of the facts, in the south—in the Times, and else-
where—that the University of Edinburgh had done this
glaringly ugly and detestable thing. On the whole, he
thought the University was bound to set the matter
right. Was there any objection intrinsically to
the proposal of mixed classes He saw really none.
Did not men and women go to church together ? Did
not men and women attend lectures on various subjects
together? Did they not in Edinburgh attend together
the lectures at the Philosophical Institution ? Were
they not there lectured to by medical professors on
scientific subjects ? And was there anything in the nature
of botany, or chemistry, or various other subjects—(A voice,
" Anatomy")—that would make it improper for men
and women to study them together? They found that
various European Universities did what he proposed to
do. The great University of Paris did it. They might
have seen accounts in the newspapers of the classes there
where the ladies sat in front, immediately opposite the
Professor. In the University of Vienna the same thing
was done, as also in the University of Zurich. In Stock-
holm it was the same. Nay, in the South Kensington
Museum, under the auspices of the Government, there
were courses of lectures on physiography, physics,chemis-
try, botany, human physiology, andanatomy in relation to
art, the lecturers being Professors Huxley, Oliver,Guthrie,
and Marshall of University College. He had been informed
that ladies went there as part of the general audience, the
arrangement' eing that they sat in front, and there was
no difficulty about the matter. Among the ladies under
whose general assistance these lectures were given were
the Duchess of St. Albans, the Marchioness of Salisbury,
the Countess of Tankerville, Countess de Grey, Countess
Granville, Countess Cowley, Baroness Mayer de Roths-
child and Lady Elcho—names which might be taken as a
guarantee that the thing was correct in a social point of
view. To come still nearer home, the Watt Institution,
in Edinburgh, in consequence mainly of the action of the
University, had opened its classes, and seventy-six ladies
had during the past winter been distributed through the
various classes, including natural philosophy and chemis-
try, the thing having beenmanaged without any trouble at
all.—Professor Laycock was equally strong on the other
side, urging that he would be compelled, if ladies were
admitted to his class, to leave out much that he would
otherwise having thought it needful to say. Professor
Laycock, as has been already announced, carried the day
by '5B to 47.