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

great foreign university without some female
student of high reputation. There were such
women at Vienna and Petersburg; many
such at Zurich. At Montpelier Mademoi-
selle Doumergue was carrying all before her,
and Miss Garrett and Miss Mary Pullman at
Paris, though they were weighted in the race
by foreign language. Let the male Eng
llsh physician pass stiff examination in sci
entific French before he brayed so loud. He
had never done it yet. This, he said, is not
an age of chimeras; il is a wise and wary
age, which has established in all branches of
learning a sure test of ability in man or
woman-publlc report. These public exam
nations are all conducted by males, and
women are passing them triumphantly all
over Europe and America, and graduate as
doctors in every civilized country, and even
in halfcivilized Russia.
HE then went into our own little prelimi-
nary examination, and gave the statistics: In
Latin were examined fifty five men and three
women; ten men were rejected, but no
woman; seven men were respectable, seven
optinai, or first-rate, one woman bona, and
one 0ptanad In mathematics were examined
sixty seven men and four women, of whom
one woman was 0ptinlG and one bona: ten
men were 0ptlnl, and twenty-five boni; the
rest failed. In German two men were exam
lled, and one woman; one man was good
aud one woman. In logic twenty-eight men
were examined and one woman; the woman
came out fifth ia rank, and she had only been
at it month. In moral philosophy sixteen
men were examined and one woman; the
woman came out third. In arithmetic fifty
one men aud three women; two men were
optimt and one woman Optimd; several men
failed, and not one woman. In mechanics
eighty-one men and one woman; the woman
passed with fair credit, as did thirteen men,
the rest failing. In French were examined
fittv-eight M and four women; three men
and one woman were respectable; eight men
and one woman passed; two women attained
the highest excellence, Optimg, and not one
man. In English, siXty-three men and three
women; three men were good and one wom-
an but two women were Optimoe aud only
one man."
'Fancy you remembering figures like
that" said Wizard.
SIT is all training and habit" said she,
simply.
"As to the study and practice of medicine
degrading women, he asked if it degraded
men. No; it elevated them. They could
not contradict him on that point. He de-
clined to believe, without particle of evil
dence. that any science could elevate the
higher sex and degrade the lower. What
evidence we had ran against it. Nurses are
uOt, dS d Cioocs uulCtululut, yGG dill ludG IS
most appalling, disgusting, horrible, and I'M
sexing in the art OF healing is monopolized by
them. Women see worse things than doc
tors. Women nurse all the patients of both
sexes, often under horrible and sickening
conditions, and lay out all the corpses. No
doctor objects to this on sentimental grounds /;
and why? because the nurses get only a
guinea a week, and not guinea a flying
visit; to women the loathsome part of med-
cine; to man the lucrative! The noble nurses
OF the Crimea went to attend males only, yet
were not charged with indecacy, They
worked gratis. The would-be doctresses look
mainly to attending women; but then they
want to be paid for it; there was the rub. 1t
was mere money question, and all the at
tempts of the union to hide this and play the
sentimental shop-man were transparent
hypocrisy and humbug.
"a doctor justly revered in Edinburgh
answered him, but said nothing new nor
effective, and, to our great joy, the majority
| went with US.
THUS encouraged, the University Court
settled the matter. We were admitted TO
matrlculate and study medicine under GER
tain conditions, to which beg your atten-
ton.
''The instruction Of women for the profess
sion of medicine was to be conducted in sep
crate classes confined entirely to women.
The professors of the Faculty of Medicine
should, for this purpose, be permitted to have
separate classes for women.
"All these regulations were approved by
the Chancellor, and are to this dav a part of
the law of that University.
We ladies, five in number, but afterward
seven, were matriculated aad registered pro-
fessional students OF medicine, and passed six
delightful months we now look back upon as
if it was happy dream.
We were picked women, all in earnest; we
deserved respect, and we met with it. The
teachers were kind and respectful; the stu
dents were courteous, and we were affable to
the n, but discreet. Whatever seven young
women could do to earn esteem and reconcile
even our opponents to the experiment, we
did. There was not an anti student or down
right flirt among US; and indeed, have OBJ
served that an earnest love of study and sci
ence controls the amorous frivolity of women
even more than mems. Perhaps our heads
are really smaller than mems, and we haven't
room in them to be like Solomon-extremely
wise and arrant fools,
This went on until the first professional
examination; but after the examination, the
war to our CONSERVATION, recommended.
Am l then, bad-hearted for thinking there
must have been something in that examna-
ton which reused the sleeping spirit oftrades-
unionism? %
ut seems probable"
Then view that probability by the light o,
fact.
In physiology the male students were 127.
In chemistry, 226.
Twenty-fi five obtained honors in physiology.
Thirty one in chemistry.
In physiology and chemistry there were
five womenr one obtained honors in physolo-
gy alone; fovr obtained honors in physiology
and chemistry.
So, you the female students beat the
male students In physiology at the rate Of
five to one, land in chemistry seven and three
quarters to one.
''But, horrible to relate, one of the ladies
eclipsed Twenty-Five out of the thirty one
gentlemen who took honors in chemistry.
In capacity she surpassed them all; for the
two who were above her obtained only two
year longer at the study. This entitled her
to Hope scholarship tor that year.
Would you believe it ? the scholarship was
refused her-in utter defiance of the founder
conditions-on the idle preteXt that she had
studied at a different hour from the male stu
dents, and therefore was not member of
the chemistry class"
"Thcn why admit her to the competition p
said Wizard.
why because the q pf2OTI reaSOnefS look
for granted she would be defeated. Then the
cry would have been, you had your chance
we let you try for the Hope Scholarship, but
you could not win it, Having WOE it she was
to be cheated out of it somehow or anyhow.
The separate class system was not that lady's
fault; she would have preferred to pay the
University lecturer lighter fees, aud attend a
better lecture with the male students. The
separate class was an untavorable condition of
study, which the University imposed upon us
as the condition OF admitting us to the pro-
fessional study of medicine. Surely, then, to
cheat that lady out OF her Hope Scholarship,
when she had earned it under conditions OF
study enforced and unfavorable, was perfidi-
Gus and dishonest. Il was even little I'M
grateful to the injured sex; for the money
which founded these scholarships was wo-
mems money, every penny OF it. The good
Professor Hope had lectured to ladies fifty
years ago; had taken their fees, and founded
his scholarships with their money; and it
would have done his heart good to see lady
win and wear that prize, which, but for his
female pupils, would never have existed. But
it is easy to trample on dead man; as easy
as on living woman.
The perfidy was followed by ruthless tyr
amy. Thep refused to admit the fair crimi-
mol m ho Ia snlSo cold fhau tsba,l1