The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1890-09-19

hood revealed itself. the new calling was
found to be inconsistent therewith-to
demand an amount of sacrifice of what
in all ages, has made woman loyable,
that few had strength to keep itup.
Besides, and here lay the sting, 1t was
soon found that their sisters, other
women, persistently declined to employ
their services. These. not unnaturally,
clurg to the idea that men, by virtue of
that tenderness implanted in the bosom
of all true men for women, would be
certain to do better for them than one
of their own sex. and would. to g great
er degree, refrain from talking about
them outside the sick room Knowing
their own physical inferiority, as well
as the vast demand for physical strength
that the medical profession enforces,
they preferred doctor on whose reserve
force they could rely in case of need.
So the women doctors lost ground in
that direction, and failed to gain it in
others, until they gave it up as losing
game, and went their ways into more
congenial pursuits. 4,8t@
To-day it is a fact that there are not
score of medical women who are making
decent living in New England, and
these, one-half at least, are either nom
graduates, or from irregular schools.
A few swallows do not make sum-
mer, and because the decade has turned
out four or five such exeeptionable wom-
en- as Mary Putnam jacob. it is no
reason that all women are fit to study
medicine, with ordinary chances for sue
cess in making living by it's practice.
And this is what we are all aiming at,
sentimentalism to the contrary not
withstanding.
What we assert is that this matter OF
female physicians has been given fair
trial and has been found wanting,
and that the future will prove the same
in its own convincing manner of leaving
them out when the shekels are passed
around.
A statement so surprisingly contrary
to we'll known facts could not fail to
call out dissent We have received
number of communications from differ
ent parts of the country, from women
we'll qualified to speak on the subject,
either by their own medical experience
or their high position and ability 10th
or lines. They have demolished this
obscure physicians misstatement and,
metaphorically speaking, have de-
stroyed him root and branch. Why
load our guns to the muzzle to shoot
mosquito? The growing number of
medical colleges open to women, the
growing size Of their classes and the in
creasing number of women's names in
the medical directories of all our large
cities, are a sufficient refutation. In
1S49, Elizabeth Blackwell took her med
ical diploma under the weight of gener-
al public disapprobation. To-day the
richest and most conservative women of
the country are forming themselves
into committees and raising great sums
of money to secure the opening of the
Johns Hopkins Medical SchoolEtoy wom-
en-, Mrs. Cleveland serves on the conn
mittee in New York; Mrs. Harrison
makes single exception to her rule to
accept no outside office while she is lady
of the White House, and has become
member of the committee in Washing.
ton. The battle of the women physi-
clans has been fought and won. As the
practice of women physicians lies chief.
ly among women, the handsome incomes
made by many of them show that all
women certainly do not refuse to employ
women observation-disclosures Journal