The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-04-15
THE GIRLDOCTOR'SS STORY
nv THE SURGEONS TABLE AND
IN DISSECTING ROOM.

TOO Young.
Copyright 1897
NEW YORK, April 10" Yes, l can point
vou to the very hour when the though5
came TO me that would be Doctor"
There is hardly need of thu quotation
marks. for the dot of girl, barely feet
high. with sober blue eyes and yellow curly
hair told her story to the end without in
terrnptiou. Listen as if she were telling it
to you.
IF l SHUT my eyes [ can see it now, the
laboratory of the Boston Natural History
society. There is the skeleton in the cor
ner the skulls of anthropoid apes grinning
from glass cases, the broad tables from I'M
dar the windows where microscopes were
standlng and queer things swan in glass
h,rtles. the desks in even rows where two or
three dozen Hub schoolma'ams were sitting
handing with eager interest over the anat-
ony of the fresh water sponge-a nice la iy-
like subject for gation-Prof. AL
nbeus Hyatt on the platform, the m ost
Genial and kind hearted of all American
Scientists, an odor of ether and carbolic
acid in the air, and myself in long print
apron stationed beside an enormous iron
nan in the background.
"Prof. HYATT had honored me with conf
dence. There was srcret in my keeping.
"'TelI them it came from an OK ii they
ask YOU what you are dissecting.'
1T referred to the subject of the conf
dence. 1T was specimen to be cleaned
and made ready for preser Vation i'll alcohol.
It was large and so heavy that | could not
turn it with my forceps, and | shrank with
an odd flutter at my heart from touching it
with my fingers. 1t was something had
never before seen nor expected to see. 1t
curled about in the pan like a snake and
appeared to be some large animals stom-
ach and intestines. It, [ was privately in
formed came from hospital III made
nv face like white paper, till the teachers
turned and looked at me and one of them
pushed up a window and another started to
support me to the air. 1T fascinated
while 1t repealed me, and when | had con-
clusively proved myself a coward then |
was already querrying in my mind when
the next term opened at the medical school
"No, | cannot tell you the whole story
The exact recital of a girls experiences in
the days, often weary days, sometimes try
ing and terrible days when she is working
for a diploma in medicine might make in
teresting reading, but it might brighten out
OF studying the profession many a woman
who would make good physician. 1t has
left me convinced that no woman ought to
enter a medical school before she is 25 years
old, and not then unless she can draw on
large bank reserve of health and courage. |
10 when l enrolled myself, and | shall
get into practice no sooner than if | had
waited until more matronly looking face
inspired patients with confidence.
Those first days in the dissectng room
There were about ten or twelve other stu
dents. Two or three were as Young as l.
a mother and daughter were studying to-
gether, and one was old enough almost be a
grandmother. They wore rubber apr ms
that came close about the throat reached
almost to the floor and buttoned behind
They had their hair put back very snugly
and they looked so wide-ayed and absorbed.
The subject was a girl as young as the
youngest of us there. She had heavy chest
nut hair that dragged on the floor and long
eyelaShes and fingers, oh, SO white and
waxen. felt like asking her pardon for
standing over her and looking at her, and
when the demonstration lifted one hand and
began to pinch the different muscles with
her forceps and pull them to show which
one would make which finger wiggle could
have screamed. l suppose did scream for
they all looked at me, then back at the body
again as if they were too eager to notice
anything which was still living. Then the
demonstration gave me pair of pincers and
a scalpel and told me to lay bare the extern
sor Of the right thumb. Next me was a
student who was bending over the abdo-
men. She was tall, and dark haired, and
wore a bla"k dress with crimson ribbon
on her shoulder.
There's no use, she said, in trying to
work this out from a womans body.
Women corset themselves till they haven't
such thing to bless themselves with as an
abdominal muscle. Why can't they get
us a man.
She was as inpatient as if foiled in
search for diamonds. | grasped the thumb
Which had been assigned me gingerly with
the pincers, and began to cut away the skin
with the scalpel. In a day or two there
was nothing left that had not been sIashed
and minced but the face, and IL started
with asst nlshment when | caught a glimpse
o. my own face in little glass hanging on
the side wall; it was staring at a long
strlngy muscle ripped up and held by the
torceps while the knife scraped the fibers
clean, with eyes set and glowing as the rest
of them.
II never had much trouble in the dissect-
ing room afterward. | got over the awful
1eeLng that once the subject had been
awe Indeed that is where the younger
women often find the work easier than the
oiuer ones. There was a woman of so who
JOINED the class after me who persevered
Tor three months before she could remain
ABOVE ten minutes in the dissecting room
without fainting.
10 look ON quietly at surgical operations
was something that came still harder. The
Students at the womens college are allowed
on certain days to attend the New York
hospital. % one of my first visits there
was an operation TO be performed on a
painter who had fallen from a scaffolding
ana oroken his leg. Complications had SET
~ ara Tue limb was to be removed above
Cne Knee. The patient had been etherized
anu iay as II dead, but when the knife
.ouInet Vhe nrst artery the blood spurted
~ ~ streams, There were eight students
trooAInB on, TOUR girls and four young men
I iI1 tne College Of Physicians aud Sur
seonS Inc room was very warm and the
sl Oh anAsthetics in the air was sicken-
~. saw the girl next me reel when a
SIpurt OF something crimson dashed against
no! luce, but she clenched her hands till the
nai@ entered the palm, recovered herself
e at oent forward not to lose a motion of |
sno surgeons hand. Two of the youths in |
from IoNt oil us looked shaky, and when another |
iinclS'oh set up second fountain and a red |
IIIop splashed on the hand of one II them |
90 ueNer gasped a word, but fell in a dead |
rant on the floor. I've seen as many men |
Is s "onleA IN proportion lose heart when the |
knife gets bloody.
Ill. ~ Ihe last year Of study student is sent |
ayaiue sometimes to attend charity cases |
w. u e supervision. or course it is desired |
~ give us as much practice in obstetrics, |
We ,ro.l, ePairtmentin which large part Of our
~. VIII always come, as possible. shall |
bad hLorget one ofmy earliest experiences.