The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-01-13

and the public would have risen against if a
single grown-up man had been its victim,
instead of four million adult women. Now
YOU are straightforward man; what do you
think of thai p'
.Humphp' said Wizard. 81 do not alto
gether approve if. The strong should not
use the arts of the weak in fighting the weak
But in spite of your eloquence mean to for
give them anything. Shakespeare has pro
vidcd them with an excuse that fits all Time:
Our poverty, but not our will. consents"
'Poverty! the poverty of a company in the
city of London! Allons done. Well, Sir,
for years after this all Europe, even Russia,
advanced in civilization and opened their
medical schools to women: so did the United
States; only the pg-headed Briton stood
stock-still, and goried in his minority of one
as if Ole small island is likely TO be right in
its monomania, and all civilized nations
wrong.
"But while was studying in France, one
lion hearted Englishwoman was moving our
native isle. First she tiled the University of
London, and that sets up for liberal founda-
tion. Answer: "Our charter is expressly
framed to exclude women from medical in
struction.
Then she sat down to beseige Edinburgh.
Now Edinburgh is very remarkable place.
1t has only hall the houses but ten times the
intellect of Liverpool or Manchester. Aud
the University has two advantages as home
of science over the Englsh Universities; it is
far behind them in Greek, which is the Ian
guage of Error and Nescience, and before
them in English, and that is a tongue good
deal of knowledge is printed in. Edinburgh
is the only centre OF British literature except
London.
One medical professor received the pioneer
with concise severity, and declined to hear
Mead H.
most brdtally. He sail, mo respectable wo-
man would apply to him to study Medicine
Now respectable women were studying it all
over Europe"
"'Well, but perhaps his soul lived in an
island"
THAT is so. However applicants must ex-
pect rub or two; and most of the professors
| in and out of medicine treated her with kind
ness and courtesy.
''Still she found even the friendly profess
ors alarmed at the idea of woman malricu-
| lating, and becoming Civis Edinensis; SO she
made moderate application to the Senate.
| viz, for leave to attend medical lectures.
This request was endorsed by majority of
| the medical professors and granted. But on
| the appeal of few medical professors against
| IL, the Senate suspended its resolution on
| the ground that there was only one appli-
| cant.
This got wind and other ladies came into
| the field directly, your humble servant
| among them. Then the Senate felt bound
to recommend the University Court to ad-
NIT such female students to matriculate as
| could pass the preliminary examination; this
is in history, logic, languages and other
branches; and we prepared for it in good
faith. 1t was happy time; after good
days work used to go up the Cation Hill
| or Arthur's Seat, and view the sea and the
Pr@us and the violet hills and the romantic
fluctuations of the city itself, and my heart
| glowed with love of knowledge and with hon.
| oraoe ambition. ran over the names of
worthy women who had studied medicine at
sundry times and in divers places, and re-
| solved to deserve as great name as any in
| history. Refreshed by my walk-I generally
walked eight miles, and practiced gymnastics
| to keep my muscles hard-I used to return to
| my little lodgings; and they were too sweet to
| me, for l was learning a new science
Logic!'
"That was nut to crack
II have met few easier or sweeter. One
| non-observer had told me it was sham
science and mere pedantry; another. that it
| pretended to show men way to truth with
out observing. 1 found, on the contrary,
that it was very pretty little science, which
| does not affect to discover phenomena, but
| simply to guard men against rash generaliza-
| ton and false deductions from true data. 1t
| taught me the unframed world is brimful of
| tallacies and verbal equivoques that ought
| not to puzzle a child, but whenever they
| creep into an argument, do actually confound
the learned and the simple alike and all for
| want of a months logic.
Yes, was happy on the hill and happy by
the hearth; and so things went on till the
preliminary examination came. 1t was not
severe; we ladies all passed with credit, though
| many of the male asprants failed"
"How do you account for that?" asked
Wizard.
"Wih my eyes. I observe that the aver
age male is very superior in intellect to the
average female; and l observe that the picked
female is UNNECESSARILY more superior to the
average male than the average male is to the
average female"
SIS it so simple as that?''
"Ah; why not? What! are you one of
those who believe that Truth is obscure,
hides herself and lies in well? 1 tell you,
| Sir, Truth lies in no well. The place Truth
lies in is-the middle of the turnpike-road.
But one old fogy puts on his green specta-
Giles to look for her, and another his red, and
another his blue; and so they all miss her,
because she is a colorless diamond. Those
spectacles are preconceived notions, priori
reasoning, cant, prejudice, the depth Of Mr..
Shadows inner conclousness, etc., etc. Then
comes the observer, opens the eyes that God
tacles, and finds Truth as surely as the spec
| tacled theorists miss her. Say that the intel
lect of the average male is to the average
female as ten to six, it is to the intellect OF
the picked female as ten to a hundred and
| fifty, or even less. Now the intellect of the
male Edinburgh student was much above
| that Of the average male, but still it fell far
below that Of the picked female. All the ex-
aminations at Edinburgh showed this to all
nd, aIa1n I, L. -,
eyes,"
These remarks hit Wizard hard. They ac-
| corded with his own good sense and method
OF arguing; but perhaps my more carful read
ers may have already observed this. He nod
ded hearty approval for once, and she went
on:
"We had now right to matriculate and
enter on our medical course. But, to our
dsmay, the right was suspended. The
proofs of our general proficiency, which we
hoped would reconcile the professors to us as
students of Medicine, alarmed the people,
and raised us INSCRIPTIONS enemies in some
who were justly respected, and others who
had influence, though they hardly deserved
it.
A general council of the university was
called to reconsider the pledge the Senate had
given us. and overawe the University Court
by the weight of Academic opinion. The
Court itself was fluctuatlng and ready to turn
either way. A large number of male stu
dents co-operated against us, with petition.
They, too, were little vexed at our respect
able figure in the preliminary examination.
The assembly met, and the union orator
got up; he was pr, acher of the Gospel, and
carried the weight OF that Office. Christianity,
as well as science, seemed to rise against us n
his person. He made long and eloquent
speech, based on the intelligent surmises and
popular prejudices that were diffused in
hundred leading articles, and in letters to the
editor by men and women to whom history
was dead letter in modern controversies; for
the Press battled this matter for two years.
and furnished each party with an artillery of
reasons pro and con.
He said: 'Woman's sphere is the hearth
and the home: to impair her delicacy is to
take the bloom from the peach she could not
qualify for Medicine without mastering anat-
omy and surgery branches that must unsex
her. Providence. intending her to be mans
helpmate, not his rival, had given her body
unfit for war or hard labor, and brain four
ounces lighter than mans, and unable to
cope with long study and practical science.
10 short. she was too good and too stupid for