Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1891-03-19
In W0MAN'S BEHALF.
THE WOMAN PHYSICIAN.

from Diseases, Eithef thyhlcai' mental
or Moral.
DR.. 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 ]. Bow
ditch, who, speaking from an expert
ence of more than forty years profess
sional life said of her, Il found her one
of the most accomplished physicians !
have met" DIR. Samuel Cabot, for
years one of the leading surgeons of
Boston, was also one of the pall-bearers.
"In 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-commandin 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, "lf | We're
Obliged, in my practice, to do without
sympathy or medicine, | should say do
without medicine;" and to a class in the
training-school 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 O'cn 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
womanliness of educated women that is
based the strongest argument in favor
of placing under their care women who
are suffering from disease, physical OF
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 to- woman. Even the
superficial sympathy with physical suf
| fering which arises from like expert
ence is rendered impossible by theil
different organizations; man does moi
know what woman is feeling, be
cause he never has felt and never car
feel the same. This, where women arc
simply i'll, is sufficient to make tn,
attendance of woman physician o.
value; but to women who are suffering
from disease, mental or moral, womer
who are torn from their natural rela
tions and places in life and shut away
in the insane asylum, prisons, or re
formatories, for their own cure and tn,
safety of others, the ministration o
educated, high-minded, womanly
women are almost necessity.
To have men as physicians in prison
for women, or in an insane asylum il
charge of women, is simply to throw
away the strongest influence for goot
which can possible be available for TIL,
reformation and cure of either prison
ers or patients.
To an insane patient, peace and quie
of mind, sense of safety and repose
are essential, and to many such rest ant
freedom from anxiety are not possible
if under the charge of man. Their
is sensitive shrinking and dread o
men, often amounting to positive fear
in nervous women which may becom
so intensified in insane patients as t,
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 o
woman physician is of far NOR
searching and intimate character thai
that of man can possibly be, and it j
sad that the unhappy patients shoul
lose the comfort and advantage whic
the care of educated women would al
ford them. A woman can know won
an a man can not.
But to the vicious woman or girl u,
blessing of the presence of woma
physician seems to be almost create
than to any other. To such one, a,
customed to regard men and wome
from point of view incomprehensibl
to other women, the entrance into her lii
of an absolutely pure-minded woman
who is also strong, intelligent and kin
is a revelation. She stands self-col
demned in her presence, her life for til
first time presents itself to her as r,
voting; for the first time she sees he
self as she is, defiled, degraded and ca
out; and when such woman stoops
perform for her the most revoltin
offices, shows that she loves her. tn;
she is full of tender pity for her, I'll
elevating influence is wonderful. To
depraved woman no man dares to sho
tenderness or pity; he must feel al
show to her only the moral requisite
which her degradation arouses in hir
Should he long to help her, to lift al
succor her, he is powerless, and he ca
not show her even the common pity
one human being for another who
suffering; she will not understand
and she will pervert it in her mind, al
it can do her no good, but only harI
J The contact of pure men with su,
, women can only be hardening and i
: furious to both, but the pure WON,
! may give free vent to all the overpo'
, ering pity of her heart, and it serv
! only to soften and chasten the heart
| the miserable outcast
To one more class of the unfortuna
the woman physician may come as a
vior. The young girl beginning lii
| hayward, ignorant, unbalanced, nee
> ing help and guidance, will often CO
ceive for high-minded, steady-mind
{ won.an such devotion as will serve
keep her from wrong through life; a.
= where is such girl beating her ang
| heart out against the walls of reforl
| atory, so likely to find her ideal as