The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-07-17
CARRIE CARELESS
Describes the Extraordinary Career OF
Lady Physician in Egypt.
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NEW YORK, July 16.-Although no one
assuredly is more firmly convinced than
myself of the immeasurable superiority Of
our sex to the masculine element, yet
must confess that there are certain profess
sions for which we appear to be fitted
neither In a moral nor a physical sense.
And inasmuch as we can never hope to OBJ
tain pre-eminence therein, | always de-
plore their adoption by women, since the
failure of the latter to shine with the same
degree of brillianey as men, is invariably
invoked by our male detractors as an illus-
tration of their preposterous doctrines re-
gsrding the alleged inferiority of our sex.
am led to make these remarks by the
cutlery which is being raised at the present
moment in France against the government
for having issued licenses as druggists and
as pharmaceutical chemists to a number of
young women who had passed satisfactorily
the examination 70 which male candidates
for licenses are subjected. The authorities
are severely taken TO task by both press and
platform, and the liberal views which they
have manifested in the matter are denounced
in the strongest fashion. All sorts of argu-
ments are put forward against any fur
Their issue of such licenses to women; and,
while there are many which merit only our
silent contempt, there is one In particular
which deserves to be treated with attention
dDu WuICu Is uOb WiluOub al SloluGAlb Va
truth. Ii is alleged that we do not possess
the sense Of the Importance of exactitude in
a sufficient degree to admit OF our being
licensed to mix and dispense dangerous
drugs. There is some foundation for this
assertion. Exactitude is not precisely the
quality of which we can tie most vaunt
ourselves. Indeed, as its possession usually
involves the absence Of that tinge of ro-
nance, as well as of those poetic and ar
tistiO inEfinHta which RnUnEad
our most attractive charms, we are
perhaps just as we'll without
it. The virtue of exsctitude necessl-
tates a constant superiority OF the head to
the heart; and with US it is generally the
latter which predominates the former. We
need, therefore, take no undue otfense when
men tell III that we are the REORGANIZATION
of inexactitude Of what the French call the
"a peu pies" Gust about. They would find
us less charming if we we're exact.
Curiously enough this spirit ofinexactitude
appears TO pervade all our belongings. Does
one OF US. for instance possess a bona fide
"lady's watch" that keeps time2 Such an
article has never been heard OF. Then, too,
we have but little head for figures, and, as
l have stated before, still less for logic.
1t frequently happens that our heart is
more occupied than our head, and 1t is of
this OF which the French opponents of the
system Of granting pharmaceutical licenses
TO woman stan1 most in dread. How is it
possible they ask, to hold a woman respon-
sible for her chemical mixtures when she
happens b be in love2 They know by ex~
perence that when \ COOK is in love her
sauces and her soups suffer, and that she
loses, temporarily at any rate, ell notion as
to the exact and correct quantity of ingre-
dents required to produce satisfactory re-
suits. They fear that 1t will be the same
with the female druggist, with this differ
ence, that whereas al ''affaire de coeur"
(heart affair OF the cook involves merely a
spoiled dinner, or at most an attack of dys-
pepsia. death might follow q similar love
episode on the part OF the female chemist
l have only met one lady pharmaceutist
during the course of my life, and her career
WAS sufficiently extraordinary to render q
brief sketch thereof int esting to the read
srs of these letters. She began as waitress
in q little shop Of tie Quarter Latin at
Paris, passed through the usual experiences
OF a Partisan grisette, and became &C.
quainted with a medical student who fire.
Quented the saloon. Her instinct was irre~
slstible. No sooner did she come into con-
tact with his books and instruments than
she fell upon them and literally deVoured
the knowledge which they contained. She
availed herself of his teaching, too, and
drew. from him everything that he learned,
80 that by the time she had reached the age
of % she presented herself for examination
as a doctor Of medicine, and passed the Or
deal brilliantly and triumphautly. Finding,
however, that there was no means OF earn
ing a livelihood in France as a physician,
shs migrated to Egypt, aud, in accordance
with advice rendered, established q very
elaborate pharmaceutical establishment
and surgery combined on one of the princi-
pal streets of Cairo
There is no such gossipy place In the
world as the Egyptian metropolis, and it
was not long before 1t was known not only
at all the hotels, but also in all the native
herems, that there was a beautiful lady
physician established in the Esbekieh quar-
ter, in a shop where all the European arti-
Giles, detoileste drugs and ointments could
be obtained. 1t was there that
saw her. Within a very short time
she had become quite the fashion.
Everybody flocked to her pharmacy
for drugs, while she speedily secured large
practice in the harems, in which male sur
geons are not ordinarily admitted, and
where the woman suffer remarkable tor
ments for want Of proper attendance.
Unfortunately the habits OF dissipation
which she had formed in early life, aud
which had been temporarily forced into
the background by her devotion to her
profession, were now once more revived by
the degraded moral atmosphere which
reigns at Cairo, and by the temptations
of every kind with which her beauty caused
her to be surrounded. The history Of her
life there would not be admitted even 10
the pages of chronique scandaleuse. Her
career of vice ended in her financial ruin
and in the loss of her lucrative practice.
Her beautiful little white siIk-upholstered
brougham and dainty villa was sold, aud
she finally wound up In an Egyptian mad
house. After a year of confinement she
recovered her mind, and realizing that her
career In Egypt was over, hastened TO take
her departure from the banks Of the Nile
When next l heard OF her she was In
Cochin China. There her talents and her
beauty, which. despite the life she had led
in Egyps and her sufferings in the mad
house, had remained unimpaired, won her
instant recognition, and she was in great
demand among the women. The old Queen
Mother of Altman had been blind for years,
and hailed with delight the prospect of re-
lief held out to her by the French
lady physician. Nine. Ribart, for that was
her name, died suddenly few hours before
the operation on the queen WAS to be per-
formed, the result, it is believed, of the
strain upon her health which her Egyptian
experiences had entailed. Probably no Eu-
ropean woman ever knew 80 much of the
inner life 8 the oriental harsm and OF its
dark side as did this ex-grisette.
CARRIE CARELESS.
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