The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1892-02-25

Operation. .Anticipatss Or Jeuner
Enters tn Mission Fiela--And now
Numbers in America Thirty two II Han-
tred Practitioners.
fExtracts from the Inaugural Address OF Mile d.
Chapman, NJ. D., Before the Allegheny County
Peinsylvanla, Home Medical society, Jsuuaiy ls)
Women entered the medical profession
through the department Of mid aifsry.
Not only thr sacred scriptures but ali pro.
fame aud classic authvTittts, Plato and
Aristotle, Plautus nDd Terl nee, attest the
fact that this practice was aucienly aud
originally confined To- tneir hands. In
Egypt aud Arabia. in Cn.ld a and Greece,
in Persia ami Rome, woman
ministered TO woman. Long after the
fall of Rome, woman exercised this
profession there. During the Middle
aGea they alone IrtcysCd it Ia France;
and il was rot until after tho accession of
Henry the " that tnen accepted its priv
iIeues.
More than q doz n names OF women,
practicing midwifery, have come down to
us from the period prec, ding the Christian
Era. At an unpscCrtalnaNlc date the
Areopagus passed a statute fDrbddiug
women and slaves to practice the art in
Athens. Aguodike the young daughter of
Hierophilus entered tho lis's with lhe ply.
SlClhlb OF tue Alllts Il't A&luNF HNSNdtllH'l
and instructed her IL her career. Her
success and Vnpu'nr,iy srUu9ed hatred.
Her accusCrs trigd,"L"t her he uOudemu-
Cd" but the women of Athens, who watch
ed every stage Df the proceedings with alb.
6orbing intCrpst, rushed in "a body 10 tho
assembly, requiring her To be set free. Shc
was r sleGSed, ,aud It law Immediately pass.
ed empowering all free born w1men TO
leavn midwifery,
Four other names will possess q general
interest Aspasla wife OF Lysiciss not the
Aspasie Of Perirles; Artemesit of Kara;
Cleops stria and ElplniHe. Tn success OF
these women like those o, today depend
ed not upon differences Of preparation so
much as on the native difference in tact
and manipulative skill. The accounts OF
Aspasia are clear and satisfactory. Arte-
Tneeia was the queen who assisted Nerxes
go boldly at the battle of SGlamis. Yet
abe was tender and efficient NJ the bedside
OF the sick. Cleopatra of Egypt found
time among her various undertakings to
write several books; one was c treatise on
midwifery.
In Greece, Z pinike, the daughter of
Cfmon and sister of Miltiades, is known
20 have pursued the sume profession. So
sacred was the position at this era that
queens, princesses and printcsses nt the
altar did not hesitate TO perform its func-
tions. And long after, AZ the court of
France, when the purity of Joan Of Arc
was called in ques,ion,it was not College
OF Surgeons but five women of the noblest
bl0od who made the legal deposition con.
sequent npon examination, which wiped
away the asperslon,
ERA IN MEDICAL LITERATURE.
7Trotula Ia the earliest among modern
Emidwives. She was boru at SAleruo in
the Bliddl9 of the thirteel,th century. She
published several works one of which is
said 20 Est1'a produced an era in medical
literature. Ia tho fifteenth century two
women deserve especial notice. The first
Madame Perrette, who was sworn into
office in 140S After "A life of singular use
fuIness the superstition ufthe time caused
her to be imprisoned and condemned 10
death for sorcery. But Perrette had made
herself too valuable. The ladies ofFrancn
dem anded her services and Sue WIS par
doued. The second one was NJ '0ame
q Gaucourt, one of the examiners ofJo OF
90 re, later in tbs century. -Four names
interest us most cf the
WOMEN OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
Eirst. NJ idamo Fraucoise the midwife
of Catherine dc Mgdicis, ihe frs! femsic
lecturer upOu obstetrics of " ON we IND
any record. She leclurad to large asses
of both sexes, an early Example OF co-ed-
ucation without any iuilmltion OF an
unfavorable result, Second, Olym-
pia MJrata, bon l526. she
was highly educated aud aside from her
DrOEeSSlOubl uullPS, DeChlue IFOltsSbE VI
Creek, later married "A physician, whom
she accompanied to his home in Germany.
It Ia stated that she prepared the lectures
he delivered at heidelberg. The letters
of her husband 10 his friend after her
death, prove that she was not the less
tender woman and a dsvo ed wife because
she was also an accomp ished scholar aud
midwife.
MODERN WOMEN OF MEDICINE.
As an example of an educated woman,
who is loving, devoted wife, . willing,
faithful MOI her, l refer TO Phoebe j. b.
Wait, the Dean Of the Woman's MeucAl
College, of New York City. To this may
be added Harriet j. Sprtain OF Philadel.
phiA and Caroline B. Winslow OF Wash
inRton, ID. c., and last, but not least, that
of Myra X. Merrick, of Cleveland, Ohio, Il
woman who graduated ia medicine in 1852
with the honers of her class. Shrinking
from public work or notoriety, she has
performed faithfully the home uuties OF
mother and at the same time accom-
pEshed mountain Of medical work, and
today is martyr 20 the profession. Au-
other ia NJ ldame Psrrouae, who contrib
uted all the obstctricai observations to the
works OF the eminent French surgeon,
DANES Guillemeau. Sull another ia
Louise Buursier Bourgeois, horn 1880,
She studied late in lite and was appointed
to attend the Queen Of France. Sne pub.
lished many valuable works. Among
them wise letter 70 her daughter, whom
she eutreata ITO continue to learn to the
last day Of his life.n A contemporary
poet with the extravaganza of his notion,
says, "That to praise her properly would
require the pen of an angel and the mind
of a God"
A WOMAN DISCOVERS QUININE.
In the seventeenth century three out of
thirty women have claims for remem.
brance because of their literary work upon
medical topics. They are La aarche,
Seigmunder and Bouches. Sebastian
Badus, physician to Cardinal Lugo, in an
essay publishes the fact of the following
memorable service to the preaching physt-
clan:
A Spanish lady, the Countess de Gin
chona, wife OF a vicerOy to Peru, was at
tackled by the fever of the country. She
insisted upon trying the Peruvian bark
Wdich had not then attracted the notice of
huy European, She was speedily cured,
and on her return to Europe in 1882 she
made great exertiOns to spread the knowl-
edge of the new medicine of which she
carried home "a great quantity. She gave
tt 20 Cardinal Lugo. who carried IL TO
Rome in 1919, Its use spread through
Europe under the name of quinquinia.
The Jesuits at the missions induced their
Indians to collect ii and exported il as
'Jesuit's Bark More than q hundred
years after this the great Swedish natur-
aIist Ennaeus published Materia Medlca
aud gave to the genius of plants which
.s.la l. Al.