The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1873-04-12
WOMEN AS DOCTORS.

WOMEN AS DOCTORS.
Somebody has said that q girl is worth a thou
sand dollars, and q boy fifteen hundred. 1t is an
old adage, and while it is really a depreciation of
value, its author, We may suspect, was probably
an old bachelor who had no consideration for the
weaker sex and whose dictum IN cheapening the
girls is fast being reversed by the verdict Of the
age We live in. The world over, the unerring
rule by which human civilization and enlighten-
ment is gagged is the estimation in which woman
is held. Modern progress would be nothing to
boast Of if it did not include the absolute convic-
ton of the necessity of a fitting education for
women. Upon their mental culture as well as
physical condition depend even more than upon
that of men the Improvement of mankind Civil
zntion will always remain incomplete until that is
attained. Some of us of the present generation
will remember the prevalence of q popular i'm
preston in the land of our nativity, still existing
in not n few Christian countries, that it was
enough to teach a girl little beyond reading and
saying her prayers. 1t was limited that the more
learned she became the less virtuous she would
likely be. She was taught to read letters but
not to answer them. But now those nations the
most restless in the pursuit of knowledge seem
in danger of carrying matters TO the other ex-
IRENE to make women pedants instead of help
meets.
Canon Kingsley, Zone Of the lights of the Eng
lish Church) in an address in Birmingham re-
Gently, on the subject of popular education and
public health, presents the question in a rather
convincing point of view. I'VE have to-day
he says, = great advantage over our grandfathers
in the means of obtaining knowledge relating to
the best means of preserving our own health, as
well as that of our families. To the want of
this kind of knowledge as we now know, is to be
attributed the violence and frequency of epidemic
diseases which sweep off thousands to untimely
graves" And he tells us he has been thinking
Of the necessity of a supply of " lady doctors -
for the last twenty years. To women, as in
dividuals, it is now admitted, it is necessary to
teach physical science, so that by knowing on
what conditions their own health and that of
their offspring depend, they will carry home the
seeds of that reform SO much needed in all coun-
tries. To effect all this it is not necessary that
they should all become 50 lady Doctors" There
is no doubt that woman should be more or less a
50 doctor - in her own family, and the better
fitted for 1T she will be by adding the necessary
amount of the knowledge of the structure and
functions of the human body and system to her
other accomplishments. For some time to come
however, it is probable that the title of : : lady
doctor will deter many women from undertake
ing to acquire the amount of knowledge required
by them as /" tie help-meet given by God to
man. by fear of ridicule as well as from mod
esty. But thar we are benceforth to have lady
doctors is a settled question. We have not only
nothing to say against it, but much IN it's favor.
Where practicable, we would much rather be
cured by a lady doctor than by a man doctor;
and what n blessing they would be to their own
sex. Canon Kingsley, after Illuminating on the
possibility of such a phase in society, has now
the satisfaction of " seeing the common sense of
England, and indeed of every civilized nation,
coming round to his way of thinking
And now cannot our teachers of youth, and
our Board of Education-which we believe is
earnest and enlightened in it's views of popular
Observation-Disclosures herefrom matter for consider
alton? Not so much for the purpose of raising
up a supply Of - lady DOCTORS" as for diffusing
in the minds of female youth an elementary
knowledge of the laws that govern health and
disease, in order that they may come to be as
proud of possessing robust and healthy children
as of the number of costly dresses which fortune
shall enable them to parade.