The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1878-04-19
Women as Ph7sicians.

I - q luclI character aS tU0IcS
| oy ne1lcal surgical operations" Work
/ ing in blood, aud diseased oftan rnfri5
flesh, is not very agreeable TO the aver
/ age woman, or nan either. But how
about the women nurses Of our hospitaIs9
How about our army hospitals. where
women in time Of war are and must ba
employed? Do none of them Vorl- in
/ human blood, diseased flesh. and stiII
more disgusting substances , Are none
of them ladies? What about Florence
Nightingale and many others from the
O-called-higherra ranks of society, who
have cheerfully devoted themselves TO
the alleviatiOn of human suffering
among the sick and wounded ? What
about the Sisters Of Charity - both
Protestant and Catholc-who spend
their lives as nurses, and never hesitate
at the most appalling speetacles of hu-
man misery and suffering. We well re-
member the scenes we witnessed during
the late war, when the most wealthy,
beautiful, and delicate young ladies'
and C.F ones, tOO-did not shrink from
menial, and " hat would, under other
circumstances, been considered disgust
ing services for our poor boys in gray.
We saw on one occasion a beautiful girl
Of eighteen, wealthy and admired, the
belle of her native town, 90 down on
her knees and take off the filthiest socks
we ever saw from the filthier feet of
Confederate soldier, who was lying on
filthy floor and slowly dying, not from
wounds, but from pure exhaustion and
neglect. She bathed his icy cold feet
with her own beautiful hands till some
warmth was restored to them; she gave
him nOurishing wine, and fed him on
nice warm soup made with her own
1-rs
under her life-giving care; in short, she
saved his life, and sent him forth, a new
man, to fight again for the beautiful
Southern land she loved so well. Was
she less ladylike when on her knees,
performing so grandly her labor Of love,
than when arrayed in her gossamer
robes Of beauty, she seemed the undis-
puted queen of the ballroom? No; her
face and form to US seemed giOritied; she
was at that moment one of Gods
blessed angels-for there are angels in
mortal form. Away with such a stupid
reason why women should not enter the
medical ranks, as that offered by the
unprogressive and uuprOgressed Ken
tucky doctor.
On this subject the editor of the Lou
isville Commercial says: "NO male doe
/ tors hold that it unsexes and debases
U "
nurses nurse male patients, and some Of
them see more horrible and disgusting
/ things, encounter more obscenity in
word and deed, than any male doctor
does. If any lOw-minded surgeon in
| the CTimea had said anything derOga-
tory of Florence Nightingale and her
companions, or, on either side of our
late civil war, of noble women who
went 10 nurse in army hospitals, his fell
. lOw-surgeOns would have sent him to
/ Coventry; would have taboOed him for
life, if they hadn't devoted him to par
tial dissection on the spot. We would
not care to be the man who, In a meet
ing Of Louisville physicians, should
make q sweeping assault on the cbarac-
I ter of the good women who do the uCrs-
ing in the charitable and religious in
stitutiOns Of this city. If the man es-
capped alive, or without being crippled
I for life, he would soon find that tie air
of this city had become permanently
unwhOlesOme for him." That editor is
not totally depTaved, or, rather ne is
/ less totally so than some other people.
"WOmen,n - says Mrs. DR.. Gutter truly
and beautifully, "never do harm ny eu-
tering any sphere. In the church and
in the parlOr, in the sick chamber and
in the hospital, they bring geutleness,
refinement, and charity. They have
even carried honesty into Washington
city, and into the Treasury Department,
where they count the money. If they
ruled the world in some things, the
world would be the better for it,"
We are well aware that in advocating
a scientific medical education for wom-
en- We are in a very decided minority.
But even here there is progress, aud
very rapid progress, too. Unfortunately,
women themselves present perhaps the
most formidable barrier to their own
advancement. Educated, as for the
most part they have hitherto been, in
/ the most superficial and unscientific
manner, they are frightened at the new
truths and ideas which are crOwding in
upon them, and still wish TO adhere to
customs which have held them down to
mental slavery and social bondage
customs which, blessed be God, are fast
passing away. Woman is rapidly as
serting her mental aud social independ-
ence, and taking no mean place both in
science and the arts. And the sphere Of
woman, both in art and science, will be
a practical one; for, as science, and es-
pecially physical science, has been en-
gagged in battering down old systems
and undermining false foundations,
woman, the producer, the replenisher Of
the ranks of humanity, will, working
in harmony with man, the positive ele-
ment in human nature, give him effect
ual aid in building up new and beauti-
ful structures which shall endure for
ever. As, without both the positive aud
negative forces i'm nature nothing can be
perfect, so man needs the aid OF gentle
fellOw-workers to smOothe and beautify,
as well as to strengthen all the works of
science or art to which he is devoted.
at is not good for man to be alone. ~
Mrs ShiHdieT, IN Voice Of Truth.