New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-06-13
DOWN WITH THE WOMEN- DOCTORS

DOWN WITH THE WOMEN- DOCTORS.
There is a point where forbearance ceases to
be virtuOus. We have reached it If there be
any ancient spell to lay malicious spirit left
in this work-day world, we demand that 1t be
brought to light and the Irrepressble Woman
exercised. Wherever men have found COM
Portable Judgment, place or power, from Par
lament or the wool-sack to jury-boxes in
Wyoming there this unquiet, ubiquitous ghost
thrusts up her hungry visage nowadays TO
push them from their seats. Most men have
wit or courage enough to either wrestle with
this greedy adversary or to find discretion the
true valor and yield at once. But Others are
weaker. The last appearance of this Female
apparitiOn (Which is, we confess, but the ghost
ly caricature of the woman we used to know
was made in Philadelphia on Thursday last, in
the midst of the Pennsylvania State Medical
Society, there in solemn cOnclave assembled. No
sooner had these grave and reverend Doctors
comfortably seated themselves according to i'm
memorial usage, to felicitate each other on the
blessings of vaccination and to grOan over the
successes of quack practitioners, than the specter
appeared among them
A certain DR.. Alice Saul among his breth
rem, summoned her, demanding full recognition
for her as q member of the profession, and ad-
mission to all its rights and privileges. We
are not told in what questionable shape she
came ; whether fully chignoned and panniered
cap-d-pie, or draped in the severe trousers of
our Florence sisters; but none the less did she
strike terror and CONSERVATION to the souls OF
the good doctors. The young and holder men,
bers vainly tried to rally them and persuade
them at least to parley with the enemy. They
fluttered together in wild confusion, like
frightened hens as though hawk instead of
a dove had entered the poultry-hOuse. Day
after day has passed without restoring equa-
nimity to their dismayed spirits. Vaccination,
quacks, patent medicines, all are forgotten in
this imminent peril. 1t is sad, indeed, to wit
ness the discontinue of such grave and pom
derous dignity by so trivial cause and to
listen to their wild cries of alarm and prOphe-
cies of disaster. Unable to cope with the fe-
male doctor even in this shadowy presentation,
they attacked with virulence those misguided
men who had consulted with her, demanding
that they should be thrust without the camp.
" He that hath touched the unclean thing, let
him be accursed." In what college was she
graduated ~ cries one feebly. "In what kind
d" of Latin does she write her prescriptions 7"
" Can you purr7n said the hen to Andersen's
Ugly Duck. "Can you lay eggsq Then of
"what use are you in the wOrldf For these hens
always said I'VE and the world knowing
"that they were half the world, and by far
the better half" One old gentleman,
his hair on end with nervousness, gives us
a picture of the female doctor and the disas-
tiers that lie in her Juggernaut progress, which
is indeed lamentable enough to make angels
weep. At one end Of her road is patient
dying of cholera while awaiting her coming !;
at the other, her hOuseful of infant babes max
ing night hideOus for the maternal nutriment,
said nutriment turning to poison in her breast
while she lodges from corner to corner Cos
siping with others of her sex. The assembly
shuddered in concert at this picture of coming
horrors
But our alarm is more immediate. What
shall be done to restore these grave and
spectacle gentlemen to calm and cOmposure
If the mere shadow of the Coming Woman
rendered them thus unfit to transact needful
business when strengthened in cOnclave, what
will they do when left to fight singly the
usurper who would thrust them from their
buggies and VIGOROUSLY mount their saddle
bagsY How can Doctors Bell and Hamilton
clear their eyes to vaccinate Smiths child, or
write prescription in pure Latin for Mrs.
JOnes's "nerves," when this specter in petit
coats climbs the crupper or nails her tin sign
across the way, prophetic handwriting dread
full upon the wall as that which said to Belshaz-
Ear, "Thy kingdom is taken from thee" We
have not leisure to share with Dr. Bell his
alarm for the families and patients of female
doctors. They will share the fate, we sup
pose, of the women in India, or those of other
nations who for centuries were tended by their
own sex. 1t ia for ourselves we tremble,
whose faith is given to the doctor himself and
his panic-stricken brethren. These gentlemen
carry our lives in their pill-boxes and at the
end of their lancets. Their courage and stead
iness must be restored. Perish the whole race
of women, but save the doctors! The mascu-
line half of the nation must take heart o.
grace at last, and march upon this encroach-
ing woman. She has brought chignOns instead
of cigars into the judges bench, and we have
submitted; she has substituted fiippancy and
flash for dull reason in the lecturc-roOm. aud