Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1891-05-07
WHERE WOMEN STUDY.
THE TRYING LIFE OF HOSPITAL AND
MEDICAL SCHOOLS.


Young Women sueceed-Curious Ac-
tions of the Men at the bellevue Clinics.
The story of the persistent efforts made
by the sisters Elizabeth and Emily Black
well in their search for medical educa-
ton is familiar to all newspaper readers.
Their success and the recognized high
standing of the college which they founded
give TO women in New York opportunity
FOR thorough medical training, although
they are still refused admission to the
mems colleges A woman who recently
applied for permission to study at the Col
lege of Physicians and Surgeons was told
that she might visit the college, but could
not be recognized as student. Thisi is the
attitude of all the mems colleges in the
cities of New York and Brooklyn, except
ing those devoted to post graduate work,
where women already possessed of medi-
cal degree can work alongside men of the
same requirements.
It does not follow because women are
shut out from the mems colleges they have
less thorough professional training. The
woman's college of the New York Infirm.
nry was established in 1868, and has kept
its requirements for admission and gradu
alton on u level with those of the best
mems colleges.
More than seven Thousand women and
children received free treatment in this
dispensary during 1890. This gave the
members of the graduating class fine OPP
portunities for practice, besides being
very practical and beneficient form of
charitable work.
The second floor of the building is de-
voted to the chemical laboratory and
lecture room. 1t would be hard to find in
the whole city buster group of workers
than assemble there Long tables are cov-
cred with the apparatus needed in chemi-
cal experiments, and before each table
stand four young women hard at work-
Above the tables and all around the room
are rows on rows of bottles filled with diff
ferent colored liquids, which make a pc
culiar and effective setting for the heads Of
the absorbed young women.
IN THE NEW YORK INFIRMARY.
In the astrological laboratory, which &C.
cupies the fourth floor of the building, the
students learn first the microscopic appear
ance of the different tissues of the body in
health. One of the first lessons is on the
blood, and the abandon with which the no
vitiates plunge needles into the tips of rosy
fingers to procure the rudy fluid proves
their devotion to the subject. The stain
ing and mounting of the specimens is del
icate work, and the dizziness with which
the young women accomplish it is often
remarkable.
The first year of medical study is largely
devoted to anatomy. The first lessons are
on the skeleton, and for two months it is
almost impossible to find freshman with
out a bone in her pocket or handbag. For
a few days she keeps them carefully rolled
in paper and handles them with gingerly
touch, but soon becomes quite accustomed
to them. When she is able to describe
with a fair degree of accuracy the frame.
work of the body, with the mechanical
principles governing the actions of the
joints, she is promoted to the dissecting
room.
1t at first takes some nerve to work in
that room, but the student soon becomes
SO interested in the wonderful make up of
the subject before her that she forgets
everything but her work. 1t is the popu-
lar belief that no young woman can work
in such place habitually without losing
something of her womanliness To refute
such notion it would only be necessary to
introduce it's holders to Dr. Gertrude B.
Kelley and DIR. Alice Wakefield, who hold
the places Of demonstration and assistant
demonstration in the Woman's college. DR..
Kelley has spent more or less time in the
dissecting room for several years, yet
gentler, more prepossessing young woman
1t would be hard to find.
THE STUDENTS.
There are about ninety students in the
tollege, more than one-third of whom are
in 10 n1o
good many women from foreign countries,
Germany, Russia and Sweden being often
est represented. There are several mission
aries enjoying leave of absence from their
work, and other young women taking the
medical course preparatory to going out to
mission fields. There are married women,
women who are or have been teachers and
young girls. There are college graduates,
high school graduates and trained nurses,
women who have been in the Offices Of
physicians from childhood, and there are
those who on entering school cannot dis
tinguish the clavicle from the femur or
carbolic acid from iodine
The home life of the students is as varied
as their preparations, and has almost as
much influence on their work. The stu
deht who has home in the city or friends
to whom she can go has a great advantage
over the one who has to choose between
the cheapest of boarding houses and a
life divided between a bedroom and O res
taurant A good many students come in
daily from neighboring towns, bringing
their luncheon with them.
There is little time for pleasure in tho
life of the medical student, and it is sur
prising to see how easily she gives up those
to which she has been accustomed, She
likes her holidays immensely, but finds
that she can do very we'll with a linn
tied number of them, and substitutes the
microscope for the piano and the clinic for
the matinee.
There is plenty of excitement, if not
pleasure, in attending clinics at Bellevue
The amphitheatre is large. and at the ton
Of the building. The woman who climbs
to it for the first time has not recovered
her breath before she is saluted by a deaf
ening yell from the two or three hundred
young men who are assembled, professedlv
to study the case which comes before them
There are usually plenty of seats, but The
men have habit of filling those near the
stairs first. If the young woman does NOT
relish the idea of standing she proceeds to
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