The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-08-17
WOMEN PHYSICIANS.
The French are Making an Cutlery against
Them in Egypt.
fcopYR1eHr, 1892, BY JAMES ". JoHNsoN.

firmly convinced than myself Of the i'm
measurable superiority of our sex to the
masculine element, yet I must confess
that there are certain professions TO,
which we appear to be fitted neither in a
moral or physical sense. And, inasmuch
as we can never hope to obtain pre-emi-
hence therein, / always deplore their
adoption by women, since the failure OF
the latter to shine With the same degree
of brilliancy as men, is invariably invoked
by our male detractors as an illustration
of their preposterous doctrines regarding
the alleged inferiority of our sex.
I am led to make these remarks by the
outcry which is being raised at the present
moment in France against the Govern
mentsfor having ISSUED licenses as drug.
gists and as pharmaceutical chemists to q
number of young women who had passed
satisfactorily the examination to which
male candidates for licenses are subjected.
The authorities are severely taken to task
by both press and platform, and the lib
eral views which they have manifested in
the matter are denounced in the strongest
fashion Ali sorts Of arguments are put
forward against any further issue of such
licenses to women; and, while there are
many which merit only our silent con-
tempt, there is one in particular which
deserves to be treated with attention and
which is not without an element of truth.
It is alleged that we do not possess the
sense of the Importance of exacti-
tude in sufficient degree to adj
NIT of our being licensed to mix
and dispense dangerous drugs. There is
some foundation for this assertion. Elk
actitude is not precisely the quality 81
which we can the most vaunt ourselves
Indeed, as its possession usually involvei
the absence of that tinge of romance, "a
we'll as of those poetic and artistic in
stincts which are counted among our most
attractive charms, we are perhaps just az
well without it. The virtue Of exactitude
necessitates a constant superiority of the
head to the heart; and with US it is gener-
ally the latter that predominates the
former. We need, therefore, take no I'M
due offense when men tell us that we are
the impersonification of inexactitude-oi
what the French call the "a peu pies"
fjust about. They would find us less
charming if we were exact. Curiously
enough, this spirit OF inexactitude appears
to pervade all our belongings. Does ons
of US, for instance, possess bona fide
Gladys watch" that keeps times Sucb
an article has never been heard of. Then.
too, we have but little head for figures.
and, as have stated before, still less 70,
logic.
It frequently happens that our heart is
more occupied than our head, and it is Of
this of which the French opponents Of the
system of granting pharmaceutical license,
to women stand most in dread. How il
it possible, they ask, to hold female
druggist responsible for her chemical
mixtures when she happens to be in love
They know by experience that when 9
cook is in love her sauces and soups suffer,
and that she loses, temporarily at any
rate, all notion as to the exact and correct
quantity of ingredients required to pro
duce satisfactory results. They fear that
it will be the same with the female drug
gist, with this difference, that whereas an
"affaire de occur" (heart affair." of the
cook involves merely spoiled dinner, or
at most an attack of dyspepsia, death
might follow similar love episode on the
part of the female chemist.
/ have only met one lady pharmaceutist
during the course of my life, and he1
career was sufficiently extraordinary to
render brief sketch thereof interesting
to the readers of these letters. She began
as waitress in a little shop in the Quar-
tier Latin at Paris, passed through the
usual experiences of a Partisan grisette,
and became acquainted with medical
student who frequented the saloon. Her
instinct was irresistible. No sooner did
she come into contact 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 every
thing that he learned, so that by the time
she had reached the age of 26 she present.
ed herself for examination as doctor Of
medicine and passed the ordeal brilliantly
and triumphantly. Finding, however,
that there was no means of earning a
livelihood in France as a physician, she
to Egypt, and in accordance
with advice rendered established a very
elaborate pharmaceutical establishments
and surgery combined on one of the prin-
cdpal streets of Cairo.
There is no such gossipy place In the
world as the Egyptian metropolis, and it
was not long before it was known not only
at the hotels but also in all the native
harems that there was a beautiful lady
physician established in the Esbekieh
Quarter, in a shop where all European
articles, detoilette drugs and ointments
could be obtained, It was there that
saw her. Within vary short
time she had become quite the fash.
ion. Everybody focked to her pharmacy
for drugs, while she speedily secured
large prctice TO the harems, in which mall
surgeons are not ordinarily admitted and
were the women suffer unspeakable tor
ments for want Of proper attendance.
Unfortunately the habis of dissipation
which she had formed in early life, and
which had been temporarily forced into
the hack ground NV her devotion to her