The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-01-20
and female-exist, had, of course no great
xroinl,t Ii, tbo uninn CONTROVERSY.

calmly down and fling dirt upon every wo-
man who shall aspire TO medicine in an island
though she can do so on a neighboring conti-
nent with honor, and choose their time when
the dirt can only fall on seven known women
since the female students in that island are
only seven-the pretended generality becomes
a cowardly personality, aud wounds as such,
and excites less coldhearted and more hot.
headed blackguards to outrage. 1t was SO at
Philadelphia, and it was so at Edinburgh.
Our extramural teacher in anatomy was
about to give a competitive examination.
Now on those occasions we were particularly
obnoxious. Often and clearly as ii had been
proved by pri0Yi reasoning, that we must
| be infinitely inferior to the average male, we
we persisted in proving by hard fact, that we
were infinitely his superior; and every exam
| ination gave US an opportunity of crushing
| solid reasons under hollow fact.
A band of medical students determined
| that for once a priori reasoning should have
| fair play, and not be crushed by thing so
| illusory as fact. Accordingly they got the
| gates closed, and collected around them. We
came up, one after another, and were re-
ceived with Kisses, groans and abusive cpl
| thets.
This mode of reasoning must have be en- ad
| mirably adapted to my weak understanding;
| for it convinced me at once had no bust
ness there; and was for private study di-
| rectly.
| But, Sir, you know the ancients said,
| Better is an army of stays with lion for
their leader, than an army of lions with a
stag for their leader Now it SO happened
that we had loness for our leader. She
pushed manfully through the crowd, and
hammered at the door; then we crept quak-
| ing after. She ordered those inside to open
| the gates and some student took shame and
did. In marched our lioness, crcpt after by
| ber-by her"
'Her cubs"
ga thousand thanks, good Sir. Her does.
| On second thoughts, her hinds.' Doe is the
| female of buck. Now l said stays. Well,
| the ruffians who had undertaken to teach us
modesty swarmed in too. They dragged a
sheep into the lecture-room, lighted pipes,
produced bottles, drank, smoked and abused
| us ladies to our faces, and interrupted the
lecturer at intervals with their bowls and
ribaldry; that was intended to show the
professor he should not be listened to any
| more ifhe admitted the female students.
The affair got wind, and other students, not
| connected with medicine, came pouring in,
with no worse motive, probably than to see
the lark. Some of these, however, thought
the introduction eff The sheep unfair to SO re-
spected lecturer. and proceeded to remove
her; the professor put up his hand and said !:
l III, uOa lCIAOfC fCC1 ohC 10 oupCiiOA III III
tellect to many persons here present.
cat the end of the lecture, thinking us in
actual danger from these ruffians, he offered
to let US out by side door; but our lioness
| stood up, and said, in a voice that rings in
my ears even now, 'Thank you. Sir: no.
There are gentlemen enough here to escort us
safely
"The magic of great word from great
| heart at certain moments when minds are
l fad hot Cir fho foil
from hundred eyes; manhood awoke with
start-ay, and chivalry too; fifty manly fell
lows were round in moment, with glowing
cheeks and eyes, and they carried us all home
to our several lodgings in triumph; the
cowardly caitiffs of the trades-union howled
outside, and managed to throw little dirt
upon our gowns, and also hurled epithets,
most of which were new to me; but it has
since been stated, by persons more versed in
the language of the canaille, that no fouler
terms are known to the dregs of mankind.
"Thus did the immodest sex, in the person
of the medical student, outrage seven fair
samples of the modest seX-tO teach them
modesty.
ssNext morning the police magistrates dealt
with few of our teachers, inflicted severe
rebukes on them, and feeble fines.
"The craftier elders disowned the riot in
public, but approved it in private, and con-
tinued to act in concert with it, only with
cunning, not violence. 1t caused no honest
revulsion of feeling, except in the disguised
public, and they had no power to help us.
"The next incident was stormy debate by
the subscribers to the infrmary; and here
we had a little feminine revenge, which, out
ragged as We had been, hope you will not
grudge us.
"Our lioness subscribed SIS, and became
| entitled to vote and speech. As the foulest
epithets had been hurled at her by the union,
and a certain professor had told her. to her
face, no respectable woman would come to
him and propose to study medicine, she said,
publicly, that she had come to his opinion,
| and respectable women would avoid him
which caused laugh.
"She also gave venerable old physician,
our bitter opponent slap that was not quite
so fair. His attendant had been concerned
| in that outrage, and she assumed-in which
| she was not justified that the old doctor
approved. sTo be sure,' said she, they say
he was intoxicated, and that is the only pos
| sible excuse
s'The old doctor had only to say that he did
| not control his assistants in the street, and
his own mode of conducting the opposition
| and his long life of honor were there to cor
rect this young woman's unworthy surmises
l and she would have had to apologize for
going too far on mere surmise. But, instead
of that, he was so injudicious as to accuse
her of foul language, and say, MY attendant
is perfect gentleman; he would not be my
attendant if he were not
sour lioness had him directly. 'Oh,' said
| she, sf Doctor So-and-so prefers to say that
his attendant committed that outrage on
decency when in his sober senses, I am quite
| content
"This was described as violent invective by
| people with weak memories, who had forgot
ten the nature of the outrage our lioness was
commenting on; but in truth it was only
superior skill in debate, with truth to back
| it,
"For my part, kept the police report at
the time, and have compared it with her
| speech; the judicial comments on those riot
| ers are far more severe than hers. The truth
| is, it was her facts that hit too hard, not her
expressions.
swell, Sir, she obtained majority: and
those managers of the infirmary who objected
to female students were dismissed, and others
elected. At the same meeting the Court Of
Contributors passed statute making 1t the
law of the infirmary that students should be
admitted without regard to sex.
"But as to the mere election of managers.
the other party demanded scrutiny of the
votes, and instructive figures came out.
There voted with us twenty-eight firms,
thirty-one ladies, seven doctors.
There voted with the union fourteen
firms, two ladies, thirty-seven doctors, and
three druggists.
"TheIeupon the trades-union, as declared
by the figures, alleged that firms ought not to
vote. Nota bene, they always had voted un*
challenged, till they voted for fair play to
women.
''The union served the Provost with an
interdict not to declare the new managers
elected.
"We applied for our tickets under the new
statute, but were impudently refused, under
the plea that the managers must first be con-
suited; so did the servants of the infrmary
defy the masters, in order to exclude us.
''By this time the great desire of women to
practice medicine had begun to show itself.
Numbers came in, and matriculated; and the
pressure on the authorities to keep faith, and
relax the dead lock they had put us in, was
great.
'Thereupon the authorities, instead of say.
ing, we have pledged ourselves to great
number of persons, and p,cketed their fees,'
took fright, and cast about for juggles. They
affected to discover all OF sudden that they
had acted illegally in matriculating female
students. They would, therefore, not give
back their fees, and pay them two hundred