Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1868-11-26


Under this title the last number of the
Westminster Review discussesthe question
Of wop<n's work, wages and opportunities.
We sopy few passages;
Miss Mitchell is as good an as
sonomer as any in Americas and the pro-
fessor of mathematics at Antioch, woman,
taught without book the most abstruse por-
tions Of her science with clearness which
the best male professors acknowledged could
not be surpassed. The writer has often been
In the recitation rooms, and can testify that
the girls in nowise were inferior, in their
performances, to the young men and at the
Commencement the public essays read by
the female graduates dealt with subjects of
general interest quite as ably as the orations
OF the male graduates. Indeed the uniform
testimony Of these co-educational colleges
confirms that of the examiners at Cambridge,
England, that ii there has been any differ
ence between the examinations of the young
men and young women, it has been in favor
of the latter.
The undeniable facts reported from Cam
bridge have compelled the opponents of all
such steps to shift their ground. Forced to
admit that women can pursue, with equal
success, the same studies with men, they
now say Eyes, but they are not proper
studies for woman they do not fit her for
her true sphere; and consequently they un-
sex her" Now it must be admitted that it
would be strange anomaly in nature If this
were true. Women daily sit at the same ia
BILE with men, and partake of the same food
nature has not provided one kind Of beef
and mutton for women, and another kind
for men and yet the same meat and bread
are converted by one sex into woman
by the other into man. The two are
not unsexed by breathing the same air, or
by the same sunshine; there is not a female
and male air or sunshine and yet one
frame converts these to long tresses, the
other 10 long boards. 1t would be strange
indeed, if, by the same mental diet, the
same intellectual sun and atmosphere, wo-
men should be made too masculine or men
etfeminafa 1lhe nct Is, this Is absolutely a
phantom. Ii ought to be at this date need
less TO affirm TO English people that the
broad culture and profound psychological
penetration tf George Eliot the severe
scholarship Of Elizabeth Browning, the po-
liiic insigh; Of Harriet Maltineau, and the
science Of Mana Mitchell, coexist with the
utmost wGnanly feeling aud refinement.
Weare not, however, disposed to evade,
but rather Ia rejoice in the fact, upon which is
based much Of the opposition to the educa-
ton Of women in directions hitherto
reserved for men-namely, that it must
tend to extend their occupations to employ
men,s hitherto monopolized by men. That
there are occupations for which men and
women are respectively end wed we have
no doubt; as little do we doubt that nature
has in such cases set barriers which, though
they may he oyerleaped by peculiar natures
10 long intervals, neither sex can destroy
Fortunately, however, we are not without
the means Of knowing the directions in
which the larger education which some wo-
men have managed TO secure has tended TO
widen their sphere Of employment. The age
~ which W. live has prevailed against our
hereditary theories. and many women have
gained strength 10 contend successfully with
The preju1ces aud sentimentalsms which
still impfison the majority of their sex. 1t
Is remarkable how little of reactionary def
anec has attended the movement of those
who have thus been liberated. They have
rot only not sought to become sea captains
OF military generals, but have not even tried
to ecome lawyers or ambassadors. Politi-
cally they have been content TO demand the
franchise: while the only profession before
monopolized by men which they have in
yaded is that of medicine.
The ''iema.e physician" in our Judgment,
represents so well the healthiness and the
safety OF the ''woman's right movement.
that We propose to devote some portion OF
our present article to reviewing the present
relation OF that sex to the medical profession,
and the more recent steps by which it has
been reached. Before the female physician
had made her appearance it was a conserva-
tive platiude that womans place was in the
sick room. Conservatism, however, means
that she should be there in the capacity of
Mrs. Gram, and had no idea that Dr. Eliz
abeth Blackwell was disguised in the nurse
who relieved the physician Of the more dsa-
greeable duties Of the sick room, without
sharing his fees. Nevertheless, so II was:
whether derived from long experieAe, or
natural gift, or from both of tbeaan nan
has manifested special inclinat IND abil-
IL various Jus iiaa eXs W.T. wpYalnnr aos SIT ws5besiaA
turtles there had appeared women who gain
cd emlpence in special departments of med
ieflknowledge; and when seenin the lecture
rooms of Germany, Itaty,or France, through
the mist of intervening generations, they
seemed not formidable, but somewhat i'm
posing figures, even to the eye of medical
conservatism.