The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-02-24
Facets of the study of Medicine.


To the Editor of the Indianapolis Journal:
If the experience of a woman who has
spent more than five years among ply
sicians and the sick is of any value. should
like to say a. few words in contradiction OF
the impression which is conveyed by short
editorial in your columns. relative to xie-
basing effects of the study of medicine"
and later by an article by j. W. Rucker, NJ.
d.. who seems to have been an unfortunate
student at some one of the worst medical
colleges.
Rachel L. Bodley, now deceased, for many
years dean Of the womans Medical College
of Philadelphia, a most lovable woman of
high attachments, has assured me that deli
cately reared women-who entered the
school with no intention of continuing when
the point was reached demanding practical
work-became so enthusiastic when they
saw the beauty OF the body revealed to the
mind by an understanding of its wonderful
mechanism, that they completed the whole
course almost invariably. 1 have seen DIR.
Parvin, formerly of your city, at the bed
side of the sufferer. administering with the
most gentle proficiency; also, s. Weir Mitch
ell. Dr. Da Costa, Albert III. Wilson, Anna
Broomall, Anita Tying, Mary Branson and
many others of lesser note, and have yet to
record one instance of brutality on the part
Of any physician with whom / came in con-
tact during my two years as nurse pupil and
Arbor Medical School / found large class
of women, who seemed always to be treated
simply as students By both professors and
fellow-students. IL was my pleasure to lis
ten to Corydon l. Ford i'm anatomy OF
whom Oliver Wendell Holmes said, .'It is
worth crossing the Atlantic ocean to hear
him lecture once" Each instructor at Ann
ArbOr, so far as / was able to Judge, gave
no evidence OF depravity. nor did they show
legations of their profession. The medical
students at Ann Arbor were preferred as
roomers to the law students at that time
ten years ago; since being much harder
carousing in their rooms; indeed, / have
known medical students to leave a house
where they were annoyed by the noise of
law students.
These personal experiences lead me to con-
clude that the moral instinct, the sense
that leads men and women to desire and as
and lovely, is more a matter of heredity
than education. My chronicle, perhaps, will
be more complete If mention two partial
exceptions which came under my observa-
ton. One nurse, Quaker girl. was ex-
PEELED from the training school because of
an incura able propensity she showed for
az the bedside of the patients. to the neg
lect of the physicians orders One ply
patients, where + was detailed as .charity
nurse" declined coming into the house for
fear of contagion. and it was a matter of
qualification to me-but should not have
been-that he suffered more distress from
vaccination than i did from light vista
ton of the disease. Perhaps one reason for
this evidence of depravity in myself was
that ! always objected strenuously to vac
cination.
l say all honor to the grand men and
women who are following the study or prac-
tice of medicine nobly. What is needed as
an educational factor in the elevation of
the moral instinct. Ia: First. a press censor.
that such imaginative details as May Hol-
lingsworth's may never meet the eyes OF the
young; secondly, a truer instinct on the
part of fathers and mothers as to the value
of human life, even that OF the unborn;
thirdly. a higher intelligence as TO the es-
sentials of a good physician, and, fourthly
higher requirements for matriculation at
our medical schools. NURSE.
New Castle, Ind, Feb. %