The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1889-01-12

Female Physicians I'm Every Branch o.
Medical Practice.

FEMALE Physlo1ans I'm Every Branch Of
Medical Practice.
''lt Is only within the last twenty.
i've years that women have been per-
mitted to enter medical colleges" said
graduate OF the Woman's Medical
College of Chicago. 1.-The schools Of
America were the first to admit
women" continued DR.. Dickinson,
land England was forced into conces-
sion. Thirty years ago Mrs. Frances
Elizabeth Hogan was obliged to leave
England and attend school in Zurich
to get medical education. A short
time afterward Mrs. Garrett Anderson,
now one of the most noted of female
physicians, as well as Mrs. Agnes Me-
Laren, had to leave Edinburgh to get
their education in Paris. 1t seems
strange that a city like Edinburgh,
boosting of the most perfect school
system in the world, had no place
where a woman might study medicine
II she were so inclined.
There are now four medical col
leges in the United States, situated
at New York. Philadelphia Balti-
more and Chicago. There are, per-
haps. one hundred and fifty fe-
male physicians now practicing medi-
cine in this city and many of them
are graduates OF our own college.
Since its existence the college has sent
out two hundred graduates to follow
their profession and they are scattered
all over the world. Some are in Call
fornia, others are in the East, and a
number are in Africa and India Those
who have gone abroad and acting as
missionaries. It has been the custom
OF foreign missionary societies to pay
for the education of young women.
providing they will pledge themselves
so act as missionaries for the space OF
five years. Many intelligent girls
have taken advantage of this oppor-
tunity to get an education, and after
serving their time will be independent.
''Do women who become doctors in
cline to any particular branch of med
ical practice?''
That depends on where they are To-
Gated. II they settle in a large city.
where specialists can do well. many Of
them choose some particular branch.
In Chicago some have taken up nerv-
Gus diseases and others the diseases
peculiar to women. while l chose to be
an oculist. There are also some who
are in general practice, and have no
doubt there are women in every special
branch of medicine. Now, l want to
tell you something you don't know.
There Is no school in the world that
teaches students how to fit the frames
of spectacles, although this is fully as
important as that the frames should
have glasses In them. Unless the frame
is adjusted SO that the center of the
lens is directly before the pupil of the
eye the spectacles never give satisfac-
ton, and injure the vision by wearing.
Opticians have become very expert
In fitting spectacles because they study
the subject. They have to be respon-
sible for the mistakes of oculists, and
have learned to place no dependence
on the opinion of the average doctor.
Physicians In the country have no pos
sible means of ordering spectacles that
will suit the eyes of their patients.
They may describe the strength of the
lens that they need, but unless the
frame is properly adjusted they might
as we'll not order the spectacles. Is it
not strange that this simple part o
every doctors education has been neg
lected and that no college teaches itp"