The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1908-11-11
WOMAN IN MEDICINE.
ThE RESPONSIBLE POSITIONS
SHE NOW HOLDS.

FTOOi VI ~ ncIT ndTIty-i lc HuNdiiCc
In England-lndla Absorbs Hun
dreds of Women.
The last report of the United States
Commissioner of Education gave the
number of women studying medicine
in this country as 1,219. The number
seems Insignificant compared with the
25,53S men medical students reported,
and in consideration of the growing
regard in which women doctors are
held. 1t may be said that the last
remnant of prejudice against them
has vanished in the United States, and,
with occasional exceptions, in Eng
land. The case of DR.. Ethel Vernon
occupied a good deal of space in the
London papers recently, showing the
rareness of prejudice there. DR.. Yer
non was appointed to fill a vacancy in
the staff of the Western Dispensary,
Westminster, but her appointment was
cancelled at the end of six weeks be-
cause the honorary consulting surgeon,
a man of high standing in the pro-
fession, resigned rather than serve
with woman. 1t was frankly adj
mitted that Dr.. Vernon's qualifications
were higher than the mans whose
name had been proposed for the APP
pointment, that she was very popular
with the rest of the staff and with
the patients, and the Board Of Govern
ors came in for considerable criticism
from medical men. The consulting
surgeons triumph was voted an alto
gether unenviable one.
In an article written by DR.. Helen
McMurchy -, Toronto, Canada, in
American Medicine, tribute is paid
to the courtesy shown By many men
doctors from the beginning. ~'lt is not
to be forgotten that if women have
learned the art of healing, man have
taught it to them, in the first in
stance, at least Many medical men
did this willingly and cheerfully, some
did it con amore, with q generous en-
thusasm." A notable instance given
is the founding of the London School
of Medicine for Women. In 1869 five
women applied for admission to the
medical college Of the University OF
Edinboro, and regulations were passed
permitting them to enter. The Sen
atus Academicus, however, refused to
arrange for the instruction of the wo-
men, asserting that the University
Court had exceeded its legal power in
admitting them. The five women
brought action against the university,
but lost on appeal. They then went
to London, where they found friend
in one of the prominent physicians
then in practice, DR.. Anstie. He was
not only a distinguished practitioner
and writer, but possessed great per-
sonal influence. In his house was
held a private meeting, at which was
founded the first medical school for
women in Great Britain. Dr.. Anstie
had drawn so many eminent men and
women to the meeting that the sue
cess of the movement was assured,
and within a few weeks the school
was started, with twenty-three stu
dents and remarkable staff OF in
structors. Before the first class had
finished its course hospital instruction
in the Royal Free Hospital was Sc
cured for women, and the University
of London decided to admit to its
medical examinations and degrees.
The school has now 200 students,
and its graduates have taken thir
share of honors both in England and
abroad. India absorbs the majority
of English women doctors. The Lady
Dufferin fund enables thousands OF
poor women to avail themselves OF
medical aid, and many women doctors
are needed in this practice alone. Sew
eral native rulers, as for instance the
enlightened Nizam of Hyderabad, have
established hospitals for women In
their states, and are glad to get Eng
lish women doctors to serve in Them
There are in all 247 hospitals, dispen-
saries, ETC., in India, entirely under the
charge of women. A woman doctor,
Mrs. Stewart-Deacon,h has recently been
appointed Government officer of health
for the Gold Coast Colony, Africa, q
position which involves the inspection
of a number of towns. Assistant med
ical officers in the Quarantine Depart
ments at Port Said and Suez are wo-
men. In plague duty in India and at
the South African concentration camps
women doctors are employed, and one
of these. DR.. Alice Cathorn, who had
charge of the General Plague Hospital
at Poona, has recently been given the
Kaiser-i-Hind medal for public service.
At least three English women physi-
clans have been thus honored. 1T
should be remembered" writes DR..
MacMurchy, that much of the distinc-
ton and success of English women
physicians is due to the fact that they
and their friends founded the New
Hospital, ofiicered entirely by women,
and that the work done by the doctors
there in advanced surgery, medicine,
clinical teaching, and the various de-
partments of specialists work showed
that these higher walks of medicine
were not beyond them"
In Great Britain, as in America, wo-
men physicians serve as medical Off