New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-12-04
UO.UEV DOCTORS,

| The prospects Of medical education for
women nrc frightening. The medical faculty
| of Moscow, it is stated, have not only decided
| that the privilege of acquiring thorough
medical knowledge would be of utility to
women, but have "rcsolvcd TO admit them to
| "thc educational courses and lectures of the
university, and to the privilege Of following
"all the labors of the MedicO-C hrirurgical
Academy. The Emperor has also issued an
"ordcr that women shall hc instructed in mid
"wifcry, and authorized them to act as sur
"gcons to vaccinatc, and be employed as
"cheInists.n In contrast to this is the course
| of the professors i'm Edinburgh, who have just
gained their point in the University Court for
the present, and stopped the progress of the
ladies who have successfully passed their first
examination. This action of the doctors is an
odd example CT Scotch Obstinacy; the University,
in 1862 passed resolutions admitting women to
the full rights and privileges of the medical
| instruction, "prOvded tho classes were kept
"scparatc from those of the male students"
Several women paid their matriculation fees,
but have been ball,cd by the simple logged
refusal of the individual professors to lecture
| to them. Whether the Edinburgh ladics have
| followed the most effective or polite course
| is certainly great room to question. In one
or two instances their behavior has been
neither wise nor womanly; but Scotch women,
as Scotch men, arc apt to trample down any
small gentlenesscs or cOurtcsies that blossom
on their way when they are on the trail of
an abstract bit of justice The bubble of in
dividual right to choose their pupils urged by
+. the professors, by which the women are de-
prived of their legal right to instruction, will
not however, avail very long. John Bulls
strong love of fair play and weaker, sense of
chivalry are both reused, and Mr.. Gladstone
but uttered the popular feeling when he ex-
pressed, in his late speech at Greenwich, his
willingness to aid Gin removing the serious
"sOcia inequalities under which women labor,
$50 far as it could be done without tampcring
with the fundamental laws which prOvidcn-
"tially determine their place in the world"
The slow progress made by women who
sincerely desire to educate themselves
thoroughly for this profession is the more
singular in view of the fact that since the days
of PharaOh's midwives, women have been anna
teur doctors all over the world. The fair
mistresses of tho Crusaders could not read or
write, very probably, but they had no incon
blucTaDo skill III pilih 0uU C'cH sur-
gerry; and in the East women have, of ncccs-
sty, the medical care Of their own sex. Yet
DR.. Bcddoes, in 1890, was the first physician
who delivered lectures to ladies and urged
their proper training for the work. We know
Of no reason for this tardy advance apart
from the strenuous opposition of regular ply
sicians The higher the rank a practitioner
holds in his profession. the more apt he is to
protect its bounds by strict class etiquette and
conservatism, and to guard against quackery
with an over-s sensitive jealousy. Women, az
they know, either as scholars or workers. are
not unjustly held to be open to the foregone
suspicion of shallowness, haste, and lack of
thOroughness or precision The female student
Of medicine therefore enterj'<he fold with the
stigma Of her sex cnngink to her, and 1t is by
no vituperation or coup dc force such as Miss
Jex Blake attempted in Edinburgh that sho
will insure success but rather by tho thorough
ness and patience o. schGlArs which have
marked some Of the American women when