The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1919-11-14
Why WOMEN ARE SUCH EXCEL.
LENT PHYSICIANS

Of women physicians.
Nearly every civilized country in
the world is represented. And from
their homes they bring ideas which
represent the universal progress
made by women all over the world
who have taken up the study and
practice Of medicine
1t was not so many years ago that
a woman physician proposed to study
medicine and practice. a convention
Of men would pass resolutions con.
Gemning any such aspiration.
Women have always had to fight
the self-conferred superiority OF
men.
The lower the state OF men intelli
gence the more convinced he was that
ne was mentally as we'll as physical
" the nobler being.
1t was only by force of demonstra
ton that woman established the fact
of her good sense and wise judgment.
In the days when all men were
migratory animals she showed the
foolishness and wastefulness OF con-
stantly moving about and established
the value of the home.
And once she had established the
home she began to improve the con
ditions of life both inside and out
of it.
Her first attention was naturally
given to the children.
AS the mother she realized that she
was responsible for the continuance
of the family and the perpetuation of
the race, and for her helpless Off
spring she sought greater safety and
comfort.
Her activities began at the very
birth, or the first sort of helpful at
gave to another the critical time
when a new member of the tribe
came into the world.
In actual preparation and dispens
ing of medicine woman was first,
for as gatherer OF herbs she estaD-
lished the first crude system of rem
edies and directed their application
and use.
80
ton as physicians has been a long
and difficult one. 1t was but few
years ago that every medical school
in the world barred women from a
doctors degree.
There are not half dozen first
class schools in the United States
now that admit them on equal terms
with the male students, although the
most famous American institution,
through the influence of a woman,
gives equal advantages.
France, Switzerland, Italy and Ger
many have been the most liberal in
offering medical education to women,
and it is to the credit of a New York
hospital that it was the first to open
its doors to graduate women physi-
clans on the same terms as men.
There is every reason why a wo-
man should be more successful than
man in the practice of medicine.
She is more painstaking, more
conscientious, more careful. more
sympathetic.
In those institutions where she is
equally favored as a student she al.
most invariably attains a higher av-
erage of standing that her male
classmates.
Her sex is distinct advantage in
her treatment of both children and
women. for she is naturally able to
gain their confidence and establish
their trust more promptly than one
of the opposite sex.
During the war women doctors and
women nurses showed that they
were able to undergo privatiOns and
endure hardships of the most trying
character.
Their work in the hospitals and
camps and even at the stations close
to the front proved them able to per,
form every duty and answer every
demand that was made on them.
Gradually the woman in medicine
is establishing her right to recogni-
ton.
Slowly, as she has gained every
thing. she is making ner way by sheer
pluck and actual proof.
The time will come when she W
be as thoroughly and rightly recog-
nized as she is now in the arts, in
L,