sick-room without sharing his fees. Never- to come. But even with the door thus actheless so it was; whether derived from cidentally left open before her, it was only long experience, or natural gift, or from through trials which would have baffled a both of these, woman has manifested a less persevering person that she was able special inclination and ability for the study to enter it. She had limited and uncerand practice of medicine. At various times tain pecuniary resources- though the rewithin the past two centuries there had ap- verse was generally supposed to be the peared women who gained eminence in case-and yet, in order to obtain medical special departments of medical knowledge; instruction, she was compelled virtually to and when seen in the lecture-rooms of Ger- establish a college of which she was to be many, Italy, or France, through the mists the only pupil. That she was enabled to of intervening generations, they seemed not do this reflects great credit on her instrucformidable, but somewhat imposing figures, tors, Drs. Aldis and Fraser. Since obtaineven to the eye of medical conservatism. ing her diploma, she has been engaged in Even Mr. Hosea Biglow, though a defender establishing a Dispensary for Women and of slavery in America, had a strong sympa- Children, which we hear has a fair prospect thy with liberty in other lands.

"I du believe in Freedum's cause, Ez fur away ez Paris is;

I love tu see her stick her claws

In them infarnal Pharisees."

He concludes, however, that Liberty's "a kind o' thing that don't agree with niggers." There are also many eyes which can recognise the heroes and heroines of the sixteenth century, but cannot perceive those of the nineteenth, though they meet them daily. Nothing can be more certain than that Hypatia and Olympia Morata are to-day struggling against every discouragement and prejudice to give their contribution to the welfare of mankind, and that some who find them romantic in the past sneer at them now as strong-minded.”

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of success.

Another step towards opening the medical profession in England to women was the establishment in 1864 of the "Female Medical Society," of which the Marquis of Townshend was President, and to which Drs. Edmunds, Aldis, Murphy, and Drysdale, have devoted their ability and energy. Immediately upon the opening of the institution established by this society; fourteen women presented themselves for instruction, and the number has steadily increased. The institution has, however, no charter, and its students can only work on in the hope that their cause will prevail, and with the certainty that the knowledge they gain cannot be taken away from them. It is the unanimous testimony of the medical gentlemen connected with this institution that the In this country Miss Elizabeth Garrett ladies in it are studious, earnest, and enwas the first to obtain a diploma from one tirely capable of comprehending the subof our recognised institutions Apothe-jects comprised in the departments of medcaries' Hall. As we had no medical college icine to which they devote themselves, viz., for women, and the medical colleges for obstetrics, and the diseases of children. men did not favour the idea of being in- France and Germany have thus far given strumental in qualifying women to compete us only schools for midwives proper, who, with them in scholarship and practice, Miss though acting independently as accoucheurs Garrett's privileges were of a very limited in all normal cases of confinement, are not character, and she could only obtain in- allowed to write any prescription or to instruction in a very arduous and unsatisfac- terfere surgically. They are really adjuncts tory way. Hospital advantages were ham- of the physicians, who gladly avail thempered with so many annoyances, that she selves of the services of the sage-femme sought the London Dispensary, Spitalfields, when the work is heavy and the pay light, as a dernier ressort for obtaining practical but set them aside when the hardship is instruction. She was particularly fortunate nearly passed and the happy consummation in securing for this end the aid of two phy- of a fee near at hand. And yet the trainsicians connected with the establishment. ing at the Maternity Hospital in Paris proAfter many unsuccessful efforts, she was at duces such excellent physicians as Mesdames last permitted to come before the examining Boivin and Lachapelle! Last year a French board of Apothecaries' Hall, and passed woman having passed the Baccalaureate, creditably. Her success in coming before requested permission to study medicine as the board was due to some technical infor- a whole in France. The faculty at Montmality in its constitution, which has been pellier refused. She then forwarded her since "doctored," so that she is the only request to the Minister of the Interior at female licensed apothecary likely to be Paris. He acceded on condition that she made by that institution for some time would only practise in Algeria, whence she

in which the ladies see practice daily under supervision of the female professors.

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have not yet received such contributions to the medical world as we desire from the inThe Philadelphian institution was estab- stitutions we have named. This may be to lished about two years later than that of a considerable extent due to outward oppoBoston, having received its charter in 1850. sition, and to internal divisions between Dr. Joseph Langshore was its projector. schools" of medicine; but we cannot afThe opposition to this college has been ex- fect a doubt that it is in a yet larger meastremely bitter, the Pennsylvanian Medical ure due to the separation of women from Society having passed a resolution declaring the colleges and studies of men. The pubtheir hostility to medical women, and their lic will naturally apprehend that this sepadetermination not to consult with them un-ration implies some expurgation of the der any circumstances, or retain as mem- usual studies; and where life and death are bers those who should do so. Since this, involved, while appreciating the modesty however, the American Medical Association has passed resolutions recognising "welleducated female physicians by the same laws that govern its own members;" and it is very doubtful if the State Society will be able to maintain its resolution in the face of that of the National Association.* The Philadelphian college has educated many women, and, although not quite so flourish ing as some others, is steadily growing in the public confidence.

of the women, it will continue to employ the men. The condition of medical knowledge is not so satisfactory that any of it can be spared; and even if it were possible to build up a new set of schools, equal in arrangements for study to those already existing, it must be a slow work, and it must be a long time before such institutions or their graduates can receive the same amount of confidence as the old ones.

Nor can we regard the feeling which reAn energetic woman, Dr. Lozin, under-quires these separate medical colleges as took to promote a Female Medical College otherwise than mistaken. Truth knows no in New York, and in 1861 the Legislature sex. There may for some time be in the granted the charter for a Medical College, Hospital, and Dispensary for Women and Children. This college has been much injured by a struggle between Allopathy and Homœopathy for its control, and has not yet perhaps fulfilled the expectations of its friends; but its students have great advantages in the New York hospitals, and its ultimate success is unquestionable.

Drs. Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell are, however, not satisfied with the standard of education in these colleges, and have procured a charter for another college, in which four years of preparation and actual residence in a hospital will be required. From the three institutions we have mentioned more than three hundred graduates have issued, and nearly as many women practitioners perhaps have been graduated from the colleges that admit both men and women. Of the colleges which do this the great majority are those representing the various Reformed and Eclectic Schools of Medicine in America.

medical as in other professions, persons unworthy of them, who can annoy women in their efforts to obtain the knowledge and training necessary to combat disease and death; but among all whose opinion is of importance, the solemn importance of the work will be enough to suppress all petty conventionalities. What would have been thought of one who had suggested any impropriety in the labours of Florence Nightin gale, or of the women who devoted themselves to the American hospitals during the late civil war? But the physician, male or female, is similarly devoted to the work of saving and healing sufferers in the perpetual conflict of man with disease and death; and they who in the presence of pain and anxiety can obtrude such considerations as those to which we have adverted, are not likely to be of a class whom women need consider in adjusting their standards of education or duty.

For similar reasons we must condemn the principle which has led the female colleges Among the graduates and instructors of to impose limitation upon their range of the regular medical schools for women, a study, and that of the practice of their few -as the sisters Blackwell, Drs. Dens-graduates. With the utmost respect for more, Zakrewska, Lozin, Langshore, Scar- the able physicians connected with those inlett, Preston, Cooke, Sewall, Mortonstitutions both here and in America, and have gained some practice and more reputation as instructors, even among the sceptical; and yet it must be admitted that we

The American Institute of Homœopathy has de

cided to admit well-educated medical women to its membership.

while rejoicing in their merited degree of success, we cannot believe that the want which has created those schools is to be satisfied by narrowing women to one class of studies, however important, or by confinTing their practice to patients of their own

sex, and to children. If a woman has gifts in this country since the recent action of which justly lead her to study medicine, Apothecaries' Hall. "The principle," it there is no sex or age that should have the justly maintains, "which we conceive no exclusive benefit of those gifts. The pa- arguments either of benevolence or conventient has a right to the best treatment that ience should induce the leaders of the party can be obtained. We must even more to abandon, is that of professional equality strongly condemn the grounds on which -a common standing-ground, be it high some of these institutions have sought to or low, for men and women." We must, bring to their aid some of the lowest con- however, join issue with the practical methventional prejudices. Whatever may be od suggested in the same article, that wothe temporary advantages of disseminating men desiring to become physicians should the idea that there is indelicacy in the be content to go to the universities in employment of male physicians by women, America or to that of Zurich, where women its general acceptance would more than are admitted. The only advantage offered counterbalance any good that the female by this course, that of obtaining registration colleges can hope to achieve. Women in England, is not, in our judgment, of have peculiar need of every aid that sufficient importance to compensate for the science or intelligence can furnish, and inconvenience and expense which must in though the time may come when many female physicians may be as able to serve them as men, it can never be expected that every community will have its finest medical skill represented by a woman. Is the female sufferer, then, to be encouraged to think that modesty requires her to forego the help she requires? The suggestion is not only intrinsically base, but it is unwarranted by anything in the long history of the relation of the physician to his female patient. It is, we believe, far more likely, in an advanced state of social enlightenment, to be proved that each sex is peculiarly adapted to heal the other, than that each is to attend its own; but however that may be, no permanent interest such as that which the female physicians have at heart can be served by appeals to false sentiment, nor can genuine progress worthily enlist prejudices which true refinement and culture must continually remove further into the past. It is well known that the sisters Blackwell in New York, and Miss Garrett in London, owe much of their acknowledged advantages over their sisters of the same profession to the fact that their studies were not confined to any one branch, and that they were educated by the regular instructors of men. The fact is significant, and plainly means that women who would successfully claim the right they feel to any profession hitherto monopolised by men, must fulfil the conditions which men have fulfilled, and not ask to have the standard lowered in order that they may reach it.

A temperate and timely article in Macmillan's Magazine for September, in dealing with the practical difficulties in the way of women in England who desire to become physicians, wisely animadverts on the partial course of study and practice which alone are attainable through any institutions

many cases attend such exile into foreign lands, or the suspicions that would be urged, however unjustly, as to the thoroughness of the studies and examinations in unknown institutions. Registration is in itself but a relic of that State interference with the natural development of medical science, the evil effects of which have been fully exposed in this Review.* If because of the non-registration of a diploma, the certificate or evidence of a physician may be objected to in a court of justice, it may be so much the worse for the State; but if the diploma itself were signed by duly qualified and eminent examiners, the professional competency of the person holding it could not be thereby lessened. Moreover, it is not in the rear but in the van of the medical profession that women who desire to enter it as equals must look for their allies. The medical reform in which women are now interesting themselves is, in principle, essentially the same as that for which nearly five thousand English medical men laboured together under the name of "The National Institute of Medicine, Surgery, and Midwifery," more than twenty years ago. They wanted to abolish the baneful monopolies and exclusive privileges of the London College of Surgeons, and to obtain for each of its members a voice in its government. But regarding the reform of that college as hopeless, they entertained the idea of organizing a board of Examiners for themselves, and sought legal power to confer diplomas on candidates for membership of their body. The judgment which, ten years ago, we pronounced on their attempt and failure is, mutatis mutandis, strictly applicable to the aims and efforts of the different parties who are now en

* See Articles --"Medical Despotism," April, 1856; Medical Reform," April, 1858; Medical Education," July, 1858.

tried way. And this, together with the decimation of men by constant wars, enor mously increased the number of women, who consequently became cheap; a man could have as many wives as he pleased; and there was a competition which should become his favourite by being most his slave.

the women behind when starting on his un- | When men had migrated to more fruitful lands their struggle for existence was not so hard; and as Nature became less cruel man became less so. Warlike he was, but not so warlike. When the cultivation of the earth began, it was discovered that soldiering was not the only important occupation; animal courage was no longer the only kind of courage; and it was found that woman might have her uses.

woman.

But it is certain that, with every step of man's migration westward, the position of There are some indications (derived from woman was improved. For this there were Tacitus and other writers) that, in the early two causes. The chief was that the emi- planting of Europe, woman rose under grants, having left their women behind these influences to a higher relative position them, found few in the countries to which than she now occupies. If so, she sank they went to take their places. Women from it through a repetition in Europe of were not cheap in Europe, but rare and valuable. Many men wished to marry each The ancient chronicle of the Picts relates that they were originally six brothers who left Thrace with their adherents, because the king insisted on marrying their sister. They came to France, bringing the lady with them, and built the city of Poictiers. But the king of France also pressed his suit for the sister, which led them to put to sea again. But before they landed on this island she died. When they came to Cornwall, or thereabout, they had reason to appreciate the feelings of the kings to whom they had refused their sister's hand; for the people they found here, whoever they were, absolutely refused to allow these Picts to take any wives among them. They then petitioned the king of Ireland for wives, and he consented, on certain conditions. The chronicle says

"Three hundred women were given

To them, they were agreeable, But they were most cunning, Each woman with her brother. There were oaths imposed on them By the stars and by the Earth, That from the nobility of the mother Should always be the right of sovereignty." So they left Ireland with their wives and established their kingdom in Scotland. This tradition, whether mythical or not, is significant. The scarcity of women in these western lands had certainly raised their position, and affected the primitive governmental arrangements of this country. But there was a second cause why, in the west, the estimation of woman should be higher.

some of those conditions by which she had been degraded in Asia. That is, Europe also became crowded; men emigrated and left a superfluity of women; warlike ages came to the West, and the comparative unimportance and bodily weakness of woman told against her. She was not reduced to be a domestic slave, but she was a domestic drudge. It must, however, be said that the decline of the influence of woman in Western Europe was in great part due to her own inadequacy to turn to good account the position to which circumstances had raised her. Ages of degradation had left her without education, and the re-action from a servile condition turned her head. Her ambition was directed toward merely glittering in society. To be the idols of knights, to be the toys of the Court, was enough for those who had been held in contempt. Instead of being able to secure such educational and other permanent advantages as would have enabled her to maintain for ever the position gained, she frittered away in frivolity the opportunity that must close with the growth of Europe. The door was finally shut, and these fooush virgins left out. From that time she has been, not, as Blackstone says, "the i vourite of the English law," but its favourite victim.

But with the early settlement of America those influences which had led to the im proved position of women in Europe were again set to work. Those who first em grated to America took but few women The Puritan pilgrims took twenty-eight: other English colonists took fewer;