Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1879-11-13
For the Herald
WOmRn's Medical Rights.

universally denied to woman. She
must rely on the scientific spsculations
and experiments of the masculine. In
the sacred process Of parturition--in
adding to her wifehood the holy office
of a mother-she looks to man for help
and health. Her education exhibits in
this particular the trace of an omni-
present neglect. She knows compara-
lively nothing Of pathological physi-
ology-nothing Of the beautiful and
harmonious processes of CESSATION and
child-bearing. She suffers because she
has left unstudied her own nature, and
because man, not being organically the
same as she, cannot prescribe for her
with certainty. 1t is now customary
for the most enlightened women to pur-
chase and read, as it were by stealth,
works on physiology, OF listen to lee
lures on the subject with closed doors.
Prior to marriage she obtains from her
female acquaintance a few incoherent
physiological data, unaccOmpanied, in
most cases, by single explanation ac-
cording to the laws of nature; and
thus, without compass or rrudder-with-
out any well-ascertained laws of indi-
Yidual governments wife and mother
she embarks, in high glee, upon the
Lake Erie Of Commonplace cOnjugal
experience. The beginning of her voy-
aua caa puicr~e Yaorb nc v-if1 oil IoTs
soul. The silver light Of the honey
moon gilds her dreams of continued
happiness. Her hopes and aspirations,
bespangled and fascinating, seem to her
like threads of gold seen through en-
brOidery. One might say, its folly to
be wise," because ignorance Of her
sublime mission as a wife and as a
mother-ignorance of the experience
she is certain to have-is the source of
her doubtful bliss. Slowly and surely
does she feel the cares (Which should be
Joys of the hOuse-life plOwing great
furroWs into the soil of her nature.
Deep channels are cut, in which her
tears flow from their fountain. Dis
ease creeps on as child after child is
born, and she sees no emancipation, ex-
cept in the sterile Indifference of old
age or in the rest of tomb.
What | mean to say is this: That W6-
man, as now educated Tor as not edu-
Cated), is unfortunately exposed, in the
reproductive system, to the assaults of
disease, and not less to the atrociOus
familiarities and affected post-mortem
examinations of masculine physicians.
She is ignorant of her nature; hence
the Disgusting consequences to which
she is subjected. 1t is not for me to
express the adherence of a delicate
woman nature. 1t is deemed sufficient
to call attention to the facts.
Male physicians, because authorized
by custom and tolerated by woman's
ignorance of herself, occupy the posi-
tIon in parturition which is only ap-
propriate to the educated woman. Wo-
men must become physicians and mem-
bers of college classes. Woman should
familiarize her very teachable mind
with the laws and developments of hui
man nature by means Of reading, re-
Election, hearing lectures and expert
mentation. Especially should she sup-
plant man in all the medical depart.
ments of obstetrics. She should hence
forth take her rights in the marriage
relation, and honor them by the ex-
quisite skill and earnest devotion of
which, by organization, she is SO pre-
eminently capable. Then, and only
then, shall we behold the normal resur-
rection of our race, both man and wo-
man, through healthyand more nobly-
born offspring.
In the practice of nledieine-itself
an evil cOncocted to neutralize the eff
fects of human transgression-I know
of no office which a well-educated w0-
man can not better better perform to
her own sex than man. Each woman
has a mission from the interior-that is
to say, that each is the messiah of some
medical good to mankind. She has in
tuitively, or may be cultured to per-
ceive, better and more just estimate
of her own natuTe--a clearer unaer-
standing of its physical and spiritual
Wants-than man can theoretically ac-
ouire; better, even, than he can learn
from association with her or from any
corrective principle Of life whereby his
existence is indissolubly interlinked
with the woman nature. Let us de-
mand woman physicians In disease
there is no emergency to which she has
not already, only by intuition and ex-
perience, demonstrated her superiority.
1t will ere long be seen, think, that
purity and perfection are unattainable
to woman, and therefore impossible to
man, except through the absolute pos
session and exercise by woman of her
rights and liberties. What we aim at
is the right of woman to work in any
field which she finds cOngenial to her
nature, uncompelled and Unrestricted
by any powers, save the Well-detined
laws of her body and soul,
1t is plain to demonstration that fe-
male midwives are necessity. The
majority of married women are suffer-
ing from the misfortunes Of mal-prac-
tice during confinement. Many sensi-
tive natures can not become reeeneiled
to the universal custom of masculine
assistance, Heaven grant that all wo-
men will very soon openly remonstrate
against the shocking Intervention.
Beautiful souls always shrink from the
wretched system of "doctoFingN
child into existence. What are your
intelligent wives or daughters doingf
Able physicians should have wives or
daughters, or agreeable female asso-
ciates, who comprehend the facts OF