The National tribune., 1910-06-23

might, perhaps, if her life was consd-
cred of sufficient importance, be per-
mitted to see her tongue thru a slit in
the heavy vail that covered her face or
feel her pulse from behind a curtain,
but that was considered the very limit
to which his examination could go.
Generally the i'll one was left to the
incantations of priest or the remedies
of old, ignorant. SuperstitouS women,
who held unlimited sway and in whom
there was far more faith than in the
medical profession. One of the first
things done by the missionaries sent out
to these distant lands has been to at
tempt to remove the feeling of terror,
mixed with excessive modesty, from the
minds of women with regard to seeking
help and advice from physicians. In
our own little island of Guam. which
the war with Spain threw into our
hands, it took years of effort on the
part of the American doctors attached
to the naval colony there to awaken a
feeling of confidence. The native wo-
men and the men, too, would resort to
any artifice to keep out of the doctors
hands, apparently certain they would
not emerge alive if they once did so
Now the hospitals which we have there,
one, the Susanna, established thru the
efforts of Mrs. Dyer, the wife of one of
Guams Governors, are generally pa
troniZed, and the doctor is welcome
visitor at the humble little matched
rooted home, as well as at the more
nretentious blue and white Spanish
Chamorro dwellings. In all the coun-
tries of the Orient this feeling has been
the same. Louis Recke, in his South
Sea Island stories, tells us how the poor
little native women would suffer the
agoniZing pains of maternity without
any medical help whatever, frequently
dying on account of the lack of it, but
a % N ffnt h
the presence of the foreign man. Now
all this seems to be rapidly changing,
and these women, when i'll, voluntarily
call on medical man, submit to his
examinations and take his remedies in
the same grateful and meek spirit that
characterizes the women of the Western
world under similar circumstances
Most of us can recall with little diff
Guilty the prejudice against women doc
tors which prevailed when the pioneers
in this movement first put out their
shingles. Even in this day, when near
y every city and town in the country
has its women physicians, a good deal
of this feeling still remains, which shows
how conventional we really are in many
respects. The first woman to venture
into this domain heretofore supposed
TO be sacred to man was Elizabeth
oidcEWeli, VINO mas recently died in
England at the age of SO. Dr. Black
well acquired her medical knowledge
under the greatest difficulties No col
iege would admit her to it's classes, and
when after numerous applications a
Philadelphia college offered to take her
IT was only with the stipulation that
she would disguise herself as a man.
This she decidedly refused to do, and
when nearly discouraged was success
full in inducing what is now Hobart
College to open its doors to her, from
which she graduated in 1S49 at the
head Of her class. Miss Blackwell then
went abroad, and after studying in
Paris and London returned to New
York City, where she took up her pro-
fessional life. For a long time after
she put out her shingle she sat in her
little office patiently waiting and read
ing her medical books At last she had
call, and her practice worked I'D as
confidence in her ability increased. She
was one of the founders of the New
york ln1rmary for Women and Chill |
dren, and later occupied the chair of |
hygiene at the Womans Medical Col |
lege connected with this infirmary. DR.. |
Blackwell was native of England, |
and when increasing years made it i'm |
possible for her to continue her work
here she returned to her native land. |
there to pass her last days.