Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1874-08-19
VOL. XXI.
Women as Medical Practitioners.

1t is remarkable that in the somewhat /
warm discussions of the last few years as
to the fitness, claims and propriety of the /
special education of women for the various
offices of medical ministration, at least to /
their own sex, so 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 any
thing worthy of being called medical
education, anything better than merely |
tentative and empirical initiation into the /
blind :nd superficial methods OF establish /
ed practitioners, was offered to students
even of the male sex. no claim has recent
ly been advanced in behalf OF female |
physicians, which would demand more OF
actual professional service for them than |
has been in their unchallenged possession |
at many periods in our present civilization,
and in some of the most advanced regions, |
relatively, of Christendom. The fullest
admission of the rights and functions now
urged for women would be only recur-
renee to the uSages of the past
Anv one who should take the pains curl
ouslv to investigate the teachings of his
tory and of social customs in this respect
might readily trace an unbroken series OF
female physicians in high repute. and
| follow the ministrations Of thousands OF
cannv and skilful women. whose names
have not got into the public annals but
who served their generations in every rn-
raj hamlet of Chrisendom.
This research would begin and would he
most richly rewarded in the local CLEAN
ings from Egyptian, Roman and Greclan
history. True, more emphasis OF evil
fame has been laid upon the names and
deeds of women in classic times whose
skill Law in the cOncoction Of poisons and
love Dhilters, and who began the dark do
ings which monopolized the application of
the word witch to the female sex. But
il might he successfully established that
in classic times full two thirds of all med
! ical service rendered, direct or indirect.
was performed by women-tor the most
part too, from their own wits and eXpe-
rience.
/ But chiefly would minute search into
the histories of the old hamlets and seclud-
ed villages of Germany, Scotland, Eng
land and Ireland expose the almost
exclusive dependence of the simple popu-
lation. in their straits and diseases. upon
the skill and care of those two nightly
called " old women" Many have been
the places and occasions in which a wise
gentle and conscientious woman hts been
the ministering and healing blessing of a
wide neighborhood. in the prevalence of
infantile, climatic or epidemic disease. as
well as specially in the needs of maternity.
Every intelligent country physician will
tel us. in broad contrast with the expert
ence of cities in this respect, that the
f difficulty and expense of Obtaining the
aid of professional doctors develops in
many women, in their remote homt 5, a self
dependence helped by a knowledge OF
simples and the traditional female lore
= which supplies the place of his presence
and the resources of the apothecary shop
The famous Mrs. Ann HutchlngSon
whose religious notions and teach 'ngS
, caused such cOnsternltion and excitement
/ in the infant settlement of Massachusetts
e in 1888, became first known, trusted ano
4 warmly loved here because OF her freely
rendered offices of care and skill to the
: sick Of her own sex.
q In the western corner of the old buria
: ground in Charlestown is a solid and well
h wrought slate monument, erected moro
: than a century and a half ago, to the
. memory of notable woman 'who was
# ordained and commissioned by the Lore
n Bishop of London to act as midwife IN III
: Maiestv's Province of Massachusetts Bay.
If The original inscription probably credite'
: her with 1900 babes as the trophies o
:. her skill; but some rOguish hand hld II
a the grass has interpolated two clphers Il
o the broad spread characters of the inscrir
? ton so that it reads " 10000 children.
i Boston Transcript.