Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1891-03-27

boards. They admit you to the Charity
Ball, Wednesaav. April LIST. Buy them.
"A J4IN EFFORT TO CHECK A
HUMANE REFORM.
The Board of Directors of the w. l..
Asylum will meet Oh April 18th to transact
She business of that State charity and among
other things, to elect its officers for the
ensuing year. This charity has within its
walls three hundred helpless insane women.
Some eighteen months ago the members of
the Board in view of the presence OF these
hundreds Of insane women. appointed q
committee to gather information about,
and inquire into the expediency of adding
to the medical staff Of the Asylum woman
physician. The committee did its work
faithfully and found that in many hospitals
North and South, where insane females
were confined, women physicians had been
added to the staff with the best results. A
little over a year ago the Board, acting on
the results of the investigation by their
committee, elected a woman physician, a
native of South Carolina, who came with
the highest recommendations, both PROBES
sional and personal, and who, after passing
with credit the examination 10y the State
Medical Examining Board at Richmond,
entered upon the discharge OF her duties.
In the extreme conservatism of the Board
IN undertaking an experiment, those duties
I'D &c, aol If rixri n
her full authority over certain patients OF
the female ward, she was made assistant
to al assistant male physician who is in
charge of the female patients. While such
limitation makes the field too circumscrib-
ed to arrive at the full value of a woman
physician among the female insane, yet we
are informed that she has filled it's duties,
such as they were, admirably, and has prov
Ell herself a valuable addition to the staff.
With a larger field she would doubtless have
proved herself yet more valuable.
This humane innovation of a woman ply
stefan in Il Virginia Asylum, it was under
stood at the time, was not received with
unanimous and unreseryed acquiescence
among the opponents of the idea. New
ideas seldom are SO received. But it is a
matter of common rumor now that this
want Of &C lueScence in the action Of the
Board is to take form in all effort to induce
the Board, when her reelection comes up
at its April meeting, to substitute for the
woman physician a male physician, Off
that is too violent wrench to give the
humane sentiment Of the Board-tO induce
it to drop her from the staff without put
ting a woman physician i'll her place.
Assuming that this rumor is correct, and
We should he glad to know that it is not.
we have a few words to say. The re cleo
ton of the woman physician at the Asylum
next month is not the ordinary election
that comes up before the Board OF Direc-
tors at its annual meetings; it is not Wheth-
Ell DR.. Smith OF DR.. Jones Shall get place
OF which Of the two is the best for it if he
should get it, 1t is another and entire
ly different question. 1t is whether a great
reform i'll the interest of the helpless insane
women in the Virginia Asylums-demand
e by all the press who have discussed the
subject: hy the mass of the intelligent
people Of the State; 10y the majority of the
medical profession i'll general practice il
the State-as far as can lie judged from the
opinions Of its members in this locality; by
the successful experience Of some Of the
best ;tsylums in other States; by every die
tate Of humanity-Shall receive a check.
OIL whether it shall he carried out in Vir
ginia fairly, fully, and in way so untrani
meled that its blessings shall be beyond dis
pute To defeat this woman physician fo
reelection without cause-eXcept that sh'
is IL woman-produced before the Board
means all that and nothing less. If sh'
is defeated and another woman physical,
put in her place, we have not u single oh
lection to urge. Changes are made OF THU
sort at various times, and it is a privileg
that a Board often finds necessary to tn
proper discharge of its duty. But tOdefea
her and put man in her place or to abol
ish the place of woman physician from tn
staff, means the retardation of a great lie
form in which not oily the female insan
in the asylums are interested, but in whicl
thousands outside are deeply concerned.
And il this opposition could win success
1t would in the very nature Of things b
only temporary. The thousands of Viz
ginia men and women who have taken a.
interest in and advocated this reform, d
not propose that it shall stop OF be stopped
They will make themselves heard in til
In xubo,.a If will ha aIrau ca1
In less than q year from now there Wi
be a woman physician in every Virgil
Asylum where there are female insane
And not only that, but, we have reason t
believe, several other very excellent re
forms. The next legislature of Virgini
VIII be essentially one of many Reforms
some of them very surprising ones.
Where is the profit to reactionists il
seeking to set back the clock in reform
that must grow? Is not Il quiet stream
better than Il broken dam that sweeps al
before it? In 1891 the people Of Virgini
can no more be convinced that q femal
physician should not find place i'll a femal
insane ward than they can that a nal
physician should not find place in Il nal
ward. This is not 1851 but 1891. Th
observation and understanding of the pee
pie have not stood still that forty years
They know what has been done in asylum
in the other States around them. The
don't intend that the highest good to thei
helpless insane shall be lost to them in com
pliance with any old-time prejudice. The
want to see these State charities ut th
front and not behind in the most enligltel
ed methods, and SO they want women ph J
sicians on the staff where insana Wome