Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1895-09-13
FRIDAY MORNING, SEPT. 10. 1895
THE BINDING EFFECTS Or
PREJUDICE.

THE BINDING EFFECTS or
PREJUDICE.
,rhe election of woman physician 10
membership in the Virginia State Medical
Society at Wytheville last week. created
temnest in a teapot at Richmond. On tax
ing off the lid we find there are only -Four
Doctors inside the teapot, and they are
raising the tempest, one OF them gong SO
far as to threaten the formation OF sepa
rate State Society. In the long flgh1 the
V1ND1cAToR has made for the right OF Wo
men to practice medicine and surgery when
properly qualified for the work, and especl-
ally for their right to minister TO insane
women in the State hospitals. it has always
commended that there was no general oppo
sitlon to them in the ranks OF the male doc
tors. We based this contention on The
ground that man to successfully practice
medicine in the present rapid advance OF
that science, must be free from prejudice,
always welcoming every new idea as wor-
thy of calm and fair investigation, and al
WAYS sound on the theory that the field OF
science is open to all. Were it otherwise,
we would find the Virginia doctors OF today
practicing on the lines they learned When
they graduated years ago, never reading
new book, never examining new theory.
cycling with suspicion every new lnstru-
ment, and basing all they did on methods
long since covered with mould. The fact
that doctor has large clientage is yer!
far from guaranteeing that he is gooo
physician; it only guarantees the tact-H
he is practising on old and abandoned lines
that he has larger field for disaster thai
his less fortunate fellows.
The INDICATOR contention has prov
ed true: the Virginia Medical Society has.
without negative vote, elected woman
member. 1t did not by that act, however
open eyes blinded by prejudice. We SET
that one of the Four Doctors in the Rich
mond teapot gravely offers as an argument
against admitting women TO practice medi
cine. the fact that "the highest court in the
land. referring to the Virginia Court OF
Appeals, had refused to permit her to prac
tice there. He should have remembered
that the other ''highest court in the land,
the court that preceded this one, gave wo
man that privilege, and that the United
States Supreme Court, which stands higher
in the land than either of them, long since
admitted women to practice at its bar
What, however, the propriety of a woman
practicing law has to do with a woman's
practicing medicine, is something that we
must leave to the Four Richmond Doctors
in the teapot to solve.
The fact of the matter is that there was
nothing else for the Virginia Medical So
ciety to do but just what it did. Dr.. Cath
arine Chinault Runyon, who was admitted.
is Kentucky woman, OF high standing
socially and professionally: her father, ais.
physician, was long the Superintendent
of the Kentucky insane asylum; she ha(
been invited to Richmond by physicians O.
the city; she had passed the examination
before the State Medical Examining Board
she had been invited by prominent Rich
mond doctor to send in her application tt
the State Society for membership, and hi
had endorsed it, What was there to do il
such case? The Society could not stul-
tify itself and become an object of >ridicult
by rejecting her and giving as a reason, an'
the only reason, that she was woman, ant
send this reason out to tie world. NJ
medical body that expects its opinions OF
any subject to have weight with the world
OIL its profession, would ever venture OF
such folly as that. Even the Judge of til.
'shighest court in the land did not involv,
himself in that ridiculous plight-he simpl
said he could not find any authority in th,
laws of Virginia to admit woman to the
bar.
We see that one Of the -Four Doctors o.
Tooley Street threatens to save his effort
for the legislature. What he imagines tn,
legislature can or will do in the matter il
one of those mysteries that remain hidde
in the teapot. If he expects any legislature
hereafter elected in Virginia to MAKE laws
placing at disadvantage any qualified wo
man who seeks to make her living in tn.
practice Of medicine, he is sadly mistaken
The tide of public and professional senti
ment has set in too strong for justice t.
women in this respect. for it ever to be
stemmed by men who will neither advance
themselves nor let others advance. Every
qualified woman has as good moral right
to enter every profession. as qualified MAJ
that iS tho unUrittan law narUadipo tht
minds of the people of Virginia, and they
will see that it becomes written law and is
executed with fairness and justice.