The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1892-02-04
FEMALE ISICIANS FOR THE
INSANE ASYLUMS.

lNchNL no ~ ~ HCs
The following editorial from the
Lawrenceville Gazette so fully expresses
our views on the subject that we pub
lish it in full:
The bill introduced in the House of
Delegates by Mr.. Kioner requiring
that one of the physicians at each of
the insane asylums of the State shall
be a female, who shall have charge of
the women's ward in those institutions,
is one that should commend itself to
the favorable consideration of every
humane being. The bill has already
passed the House by an almost unan-
imous vote, and now goes to the Sen
ate where its opponents have concen-
trated their strength with every pros
pect, as they claim, of comprising its
defeat by that body. This we can
not believe to be true. We can not
think that the Senate of Virginia, COM
posed OF husbands, fathers and broth
ers, will, through any feeling of sickly
sentimentality, deny to the poor I'M
fortunates the benefits and advantages
the bill is intended to confer upon
them. Nothing that we have heard
urged against the measure rises to the
dignity of an argument, but is simply
4 rehash of the vapid and hackneyed
prejudices and sentimentalities of a
past era. The opponents of the bill
admit the peculiar fitness OF women
for the position of nurses; but where it
is proposed to employ those who by
their education are fitted not only for
nurses but for the higher duties of
physicians, they raise their hands in
holy horror and inveigh against the
"damnable innovation" They plead
loudly for the preservation of female
modesty and delicacy, forgetting en-
tirely that the proposed "innovation"
is intended to guard and protect these
very qualities in those whose misfort-
unes constantly subject them to the
rudest shocks. The conduct of the
noble women of the South during the
late war in visiting the hospitals and
ministering as only they can do to the
wants and comforts of our sick and
wounded soldiers, has furnished the
theme for unstinted praise both in
story and in song. There they were
brought in contact with men of all
classes and conditions, witnessing
daily scenes infinitely more calculated
to shock their sense of delicacy and
refinement than it will ever be possible
for them to encounter in the insane
asylums ministering to the relief and
comfort of their own sex, but never a
word of censure or disapproval was
then heard to escape the lips of those
who now would fain constitute them
selves the especial champions Of those
womanly qualities we all SO much ad-
mire. The fact is they were welcomed
as ministering angels SO long as they
occupied the lower plane of amateur
nurses, and nothing was found in the
business to which they then unselfshly
devoted their lives Incompatible with
womanly delicacy and refinement. But
the moment it is proposed to recognize
the propriety of their employment and
their peculiar fitness for higher duty
in kindred sphere, the bare sugges-
ton is sufficient 10 arouse a hurricane
of senseless and selfish opposition. We
see it stated that if one female physi-
clan isappointed at each of the asylums
then q" look out for scandal" This is a
gratuitous fling at female virtue and
at the same time sad common
tary on manly honor, but is in full
keeping with the other arguments, if
they may be dignified by that name,
that have been urged against the
measure. Even were this apprehen
sion or insinuation we'll founded no
scandals that could be conjured up by
the most prurient imagination could
surpass in its sickening and disgusting
uCltliS THAT WHICH Il lCW NCdIS ago
enianated from one of the asylums in
this State. 1t is em'nently meet and
proper that those unfortunate females
whose reason had been dethroned, as
is perhaps the case in a majority of in
stances by some disorder peculiar to
their sex, should have sympathetic
ear into which to pour their plants
and troubles, and surely none could
be found so admirably suited to listen
to their sad tales of woe as one of
their own sex, whose sympathies are
ever with the sick, the sorrowing and
the suffering, aud whose educational
advantages enable them to employ
with intelligence proper remedial
IT Is about as natural for a man in