The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1891-03-11
IN. WOMAN''S BEHALF.
THE WOMAN PHYSICIAN.

Why Her Presence SO Positively Neces-
sary in the Care Of Women Suffering
From Diseases, Either Physical, Mental
or Moral. 'at st-s
DIR. Susan Dimock was but twenty
eight years old when her body, rescued
from, the wreck of the Schiller, was
borne to its last resting place by eight
of the physicians of Boston, who had
known her and been in practice with
her for three years before her death.
Among them was DR.. Henry l. Bow
ditch, who, speaking from an expert
ence OF more than forty years profess
sional life, said of her, 81 found her one
of the most accomplished physicians l
have met" DIR. Samuel Cabot for
years one Of the leading surgeons of
Boston, was also one Of, the pall-bearers.
''ln her short life," he said afterward,
''she acquired, in the face of many OBJ
stacles, an amount of medical knowledge
and of surgical skill such as but few pos
sess. Her skill and self-command in oper-
ating no one can appreciate who has
not witnessed it. Her brief and highly
honorable career points surely to the
high position she would have attained
had her life been spared" In lecturing
to her students she said, IF l were
obliged, in my practice, to do without
sympathy or medicine, should say do
without medicine;" and to class in the
Trainings for nurses, 81 wish you,
of all my instructions, especially to re-
member this: when you go to nurse a
patient, imagine that it is your own SIS
ter before you in that bed, and treat her
in every respect as you would wish
your own sister to be treated"
1t was her inherent womanliness
which constituted DR.. Dimock the ideal
woman physician. and it is upon the
based the strongest argument in favor
OF placing under their care women who
are suffering from disease, physical or
mental, and women who have lost their
womanliness.
To the strong, to the well, to the good,
to the happy, sympathy is not an essen
tial-they can live without it; but to the
weak, the suffering, the crushed, and
the wicked, sympathy is the first neces-
sity; they must have it or they can not
be lifted and cured.
Now the sympathy which one woman
can give to another is impossible that a
man should give toa woman. Even the
superficial sympathy with physical suf-
fering which arises from like expert
ence is rendered impossible by their
different organizations; a man does not
know what woman is feeling, be-
cause he never has felt and never can
feel the same. This, where women are
simply ill, is sufficient to make the
attendance of a woman physician OF
value; but to women who are suffering
from disease, mental or moral, women
who are torn from their natural rela-
lions and places in life and shut away
in the insane asylum, prisons, or re-
fornatories, fortheir own cure and the
safety of others, the ministration Of
educated, high-minded, womanly
women are almost necessity.
Tohave men as physicians in prison
charge of women, is simply to throw
away the strongest influence for good
which can possible be available for the
reformation and cure of either prison
ers or patients. r
TO an insane patient, peace and quiet
of mind, sense of safety and repose,
are essential, and to many such rest and
freedom from anxiety are not possible
if under the charge of man. There
is sensitive shrinking and dread Of
men, often amounting to positive fear,
in nervous women which may become
so intensified in insane patients as to
make it impossible for man to ap.
proach them without injury to them.
Apart from such extreme cases, how.
ever, the daily and hourly oversight Of
woman physician is of far more
searching and intimate character than
that of man can possibly be, and it is
sad that the unhappy patients should
lose the comfort and advantage which
the care of educated women would af
ford them. A woman can know WON
an as a man can not.
But to the vicious woman or girl the
blessing of the presence of woman
physician seems TO be almost greater
than to any other. To such one, &C
customed to regard men and womer
from a point of view incomprehensibl,
toother women, the entrance into her Lift,
of an absolutely pure-minded woman
nhp &c o. int md LII
is a revelation. She stands self-con
demned in her presence, her life for thu
first time presents itself to her as re
voting; for the first time she sees her
self as she is, deiiled, degraded and cas-
out; and when such woman stoops t,
offices, shows that she loves her, tina
she is full of tender pity for her, tn
eievating influence is wonderful. To
depraved woman no man dares to SHOW
tenderness or pity; he must feel ant
show to her only the moral repulsiol
which her degradation arouses in him
Should he long to help her, to lift ant
succor her, he is powerless, and he cal
not show her even the common pity o
one human being for another who i
suffering: she will not understand il
and she will pervert it in her mind, an
it can do her no good, but only harm
The contact of pure men with sue
women can only be hardening and in
furious to both, but the pure woman
may give free vent to all the overpow
ering pity of her heart, and it serve
only to soften and chasten the heart o