The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1873-11-13
A Womnn'- View of the Case.

Before the Social Science Congress,
recently in session at Norwich, England,
Miss Jex Blake read paper on the med,
ical education of women. The lady
maintains the affirmative side of the
question whether women should be adj.
mitted TO the profession, and some of her
remarks are interesting TO everybody.
She commenced by saying that it appears
to be the most natural and proper ar
rangement that the medical cure Of each
sex should be confded to members of
that sex should be confded to members
of that sex. She said that there are
reasons to suppose that women have nat
urally more taste for medical work than
men, where neither have had any previ-
Gus training. If by medical work Miss
Blake means attention to the sick as
nurses, she is unquestionably correct
The experience of the world testites TO
! the supreme usefulness of women in the
sick chamber. They certainly are the
physicians best aid in the administration
Of medicine and the general charge OF the
sick-room. Sometimes as much depends
on the nurse as on the DOCTOR Training
! schools for nurses have the unhesitating
endorsement of all physicians, and many
a life is due to the care, watchfulness and
assiduity of the female nurse-the doctor
without that title.
! Miss Blake remarked that "a consid-
cradle demand for the medical services
of women certainly exists" She said
| that probably many women went without
proper medical treatment, and that others
accepted such treatment with much re-
| luctance, because it was necessary to seek
it at the hands Of the opposite sex. Ii
Miss Blake intends, as it would seem,
principally to contend for women as doc
tors for women, and men for men, she
would steer clear of the opposition of
some of the opponents Of the contempla-
ted change, but at the same time she
would fail to meet the views of those who
contend for the equality Of the sexes
Going into the history of the subject
Miss Blake adverted to the fact that the
practice of medicine by women is no limo
walton. 1t seems to have been quite
common even in the time of Homer and
in the subsequent classical times. In the
middle ages medical skill was commonly
found in religious retreats for women,
such as converts and abbeys, where the
healed, and the "wise women" of the
time had at least an equal position with
the apothecaries and barber surgeons.
Miss Blake did not, however, say, as she
might have done, that the medical prac
tice of the middle ages, as conducted by
apOthecaries and barber surgeons, was
not 'Fhigh art" With such male prac-
titioners as the alternative, it is no Won
der that "wise woman" would have not
mere equality, butpreference. Probably
the world found out the superior claims
of women in that day, and the male
practitioners were rendered irate, for i'll
1927 petition was presented to Henry
V, that ''no woman use the practice of
physic under pain of long imprisonment"
In the time of Henry VIII. an act was
passed for the relief of the irregular
practitioners, both men and women,
who had been ''sued, vexed and troubled"
by the Fellowship of Surgeons of Lon
don, who endeavored to obtain a monop-
oily of practice. AS both men and wo-
men were tsued, vexed and troubled,
the objection seems to have been not so
much as to sex as to the incompetence.
Whatever else the organization of the
profession has done, and whatever mere
empires may have suffered in consequence,
one thing is certain, since the practice Of
medicine has been elevated to a science, a
medical degree has become a guarantee
that he who holds it has devoted time
and study to attain the requisite knOwl-
edge for regular and enlightened treat
ment of disease. 1t is to the privilege of
claiming this endorsement that women
now aspire.
Miss Blake cited some other facts
much more to her purpose. Women
formerly studied medicine in consider
able numbers in the Italian Universities.
Seven have held Professorships in the
University of Bologna, three of them
being in the Medical Faculty, viz: Do
rotha Bucca, Professor of Medicine, in
400, Anna Mazzolini, Professor of An
atomy, in 1850, and Maria dele Dome,
Professor of Midwifery, in 1900. But
Miss Blake argued, if no historical prece-
dents existed, few people would question
the right of every intelligent human be-
ing to choose his or her work, at his or
her own risk. ''If women made worse
doctors than men, they would fail In
competition with them. Artificial Oppo-
sition to the admission to their profession
was at once unjust and unnecessary"
After reviewing the present attitude of
the question in Great Britain, Miss Blake,
in conclusion, said: "She only asked that
if women were secluded from all schools
at present existing, they should at least
be allowed, by their own labor, and at
their expense, with such help as might
be voluntarily vouchsafed to them, to or
ganize medical schools of their own, and
that at completion of their studies they
should be admitted to the ordinary ex-
aminations, and thus be enabled to place |
their names on the National Register of
Medical Practitioners. This was all that
is absolutely necessary, and she left it to
the Justice of her countrymen to say
whether this was too much to ask Miss
Blake's plea for medical schools, estab-
lished by women for women, has been
carried into practice in Philadelphia,
where they have their own college and
their own hospital, in the northwestern
part of the city, both of them being meri- |
torious institutions.
Loved and Lost.
From the Louisville Courier-Journal.