Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1874-09-09
Miscellany.
Women as Medical PracfifiOn-
cTS.

Ii is remarkable that in the some
what warm discussions of the last few
years aS to the fitness, claims and pro
priety of the special education of wo-
men for the various offices of medical
miniStration, at least to their own sex,
80 little reference has been had to past
uSages and experience in that matter.
Batting the fact, that it Is only within
the last two centuries that anythln z
worthy of being called Il medical edu-
cation. anything better than merely
tentative and empirical initiation into
the blind and superficial methods oi
established practitioners, was offered
to students even of the male sex, no
claim has recently been advanced IN
behalf of female physicians, which
would demand more of actual probes
SiOnal service for them than has been
in their unchallenged possession al
many periods in our present civlliza--
tion, and in some of the most advanced
regions, relatively, of Christendom.
The fullest admission of the rights and
functions now urged for women would
hc only a recurrence to the Usages of
the past.
Anv one who should take the pains
curiouSly to investigate the teachings
of history and of social customs IN this
respect might readily trace an unbroken
series of female physicians IN high re
uutc, and follow the miniStratIons OF
thousands of canny and skilful wo-
men. whose names have not got INTO
the public annals, but who served Their
generations in every rural hamlet OF
ChriStendom.
This research would begin and would
be most richly rewarded IN the local
yleanings from Egyptian, Roman ana
Grecian history. True, more emphasis
of evil fame has been laid upon the
names and deeds of women IN classic
times whose skill lay in the concoctlon
of poiSonS and love phIlters, and VINO
began the dark doings which monopo,-
lied the application of the word witch
to the female sex. But it might be
successfully established that i'll classic
times full two-thirds of all the medical
service rendered, direct and indirect,
was performed by women-for the
most part, too, from their own wits and
experience.
But chiefly would a minute search
into the histories of theOld hamletS and
secluded villages of Germany, Scot
land. England and Ireland expose the
almost exclusive dependence of the
simple population, in their straits and
diseases. upon the skill and care oi
those too lightly called ''old women.
Many have been the places and occa-
SionS in which a wise, gentle and con
scienti0us woman has been the minis
tcring and healing blessing of wide
neighbour Ood, iE the prevalence or IN
fantile. climatic and epidemic disease,
aS well as specially in the needs OF ma
ternity.
Every intelligent country physician
will tell lis, in broad contrast with tLe
experience of cities in this respect, tna'
the difficulty and expense of obtaining
the aid of professional doctors develops
in many women, in their remote homes
a self-dependence, helped by a know
ledge of simples and the traditional fe,,
male lore which supplies the place ot
his presence and the resources oil the
apothecary shop.
The famous Mrs. Ann hutchinson
whose religious notions and teachings
caused such CONSERVATION ana excite
ment in the infant settlement OF MIS-
SachuSettS in 1923, became ilrst KNOWN
trusted and warmly loved here because
of her freely rendered offices OF care
and skill to sick of her own SEX
In the western corner OF the oi1
burial ground in Charlestown Is soud
and well-wrought slate monument
erected more than a century ana nan
ago.to the memory of a notable. woman
"who was ordained and commissioned
10y the Lord Bishop of London to acl t
as midwife in his Majesty,s ProVihcS
of Massachusetts Bay" The original
inscription probably credited her with VT,
1890" babies as the trophies OF hel
skill; but some roguish hand hid in the
grass has interpolated two elphers II
the broad spread characters OF the IN
scription, so that it reads "l3o,Oo child
lraD -