Woman in Science Part 25

In due time Miss Blackwell finished her course in medicine and surgery, and graduated at the head of her cla.s.s. The orator of the day, who was a member of the faculty, naturally referred to the new departure that had been made--the admission of a woman for the first time to a complete medical education--and among other things declared that the experiment, of which every member of the faculty was proud, "had proved that the strongest intellect and nerve and the most untiring perseverance were compatible with the softest attributes of feminine delicacy and grace."[211]

The awarding of the degree of M.D. for the first time to a woman in America excited general comment and widespread interest, not only in the United States, but in Europe as well. The public press was not unfavorable in its opinion of the new departure, and even _Punch_ could not resist writing some verses, sympathetic, albeit humorous, in honor of the fair M.D.[212]

After spending some time abroad studying in the great hospitals of Europe, Miss Blackwell started the practice of medicine in New York City. At first, as she declares in her autobiographical sketches, it was "very difficult, though steady, uphill work. I had," she tells us, "no medical companionship, the profession stood aloof, and society was distrustful of the innovation."

The aloofness of the profession arose from a dread of successful rivalry, and the men did not wish to encourage "the invasion by women of their own preserves." "You cannot expect us," one of them frankly admitted to her, "to furnish you with a stick to break our heads with."

But, undeterred by opposition, Miss Blackwell continued her work, daily making converts to the new movement and receiving substantial aid, as well as sympathetic cooperation, from many people, both men and women, prominent in society and public life. In 1854 she started a free dispensary for poor women. Three years later she founded a hospital for women and children, where young women physicians as well as patients could be received. These were the humble beginnings of the present flourishing inst.i.tutions known as the New York Infirmary and the College for Women. And in less than ten years after her graduation, Miss Blackwell saw the new departure in medical practice successfully established, not only in New York, but also in other large cities of the United States. In 1869 the early pioneer medical work by women in America was completed.

"During the twenty years which followed the graduation of the first woman physician, the public recognition of the justice and advantage of such a measure had steadily grown. Throughout the northern states the free and equal entrance of women into the profession of medicine was secured. In Boston, New York and Philadelphia special medical schools for women were sanctioned by the legislatures, and in some long-established colleges women were received as students in the ordinary cla.s.ses."[213]

Meanwhile, the women in Europe were not idle nor heedless of the example set by their brave sisters in America. The University of Zurich threw open its portals to women, and was soon followed by those of Bern and Geneva. The first woman to obtain a degree in medicine in Zurich--it was in 1867--was Nadejda Suslowa, a Russian. She was soon followed by scores of others from Europe and America, who found greater advantages and more sympathy in Swiss universities than elsewhere.

In 1869 the Medico-Chirurgical Academy of St. Petersburg conferred the degree of M.D. upon Madame Kaschewarow, the first female candidate for this honor. When her name was mentioned by the dean it was received with an immense storm of applause which lasted several minutes. The ceremony of investing her with the insignia of her dignity being over, her fellow students and colleagues lifted her on a chair and carried her with triumphant shouts throughout the halls.

The first woman graduate from the University of France was Miss Elizabeth Garrett, of England. She received her degree in medicine in 1870, and the following year the same inst.i.tution conferred the doctor's degree on Miss Mary C. Putnam, of New York.

After these precedents had been established, the universities of the various countries on the continent, following the examples set by those in the United States and Switzerland, opened one after the other their doors to women, and in most of them accorded them all the privileges of _cives academici_ enjoyed by the men.

Great Britain held out against the new movement long after most of the continental countries had fallen into line, nor did she surrender until after a protracted and bitter fight, during which the men leading the opposition exhibited evidences of selfishness and obscurantism that now seem incredible.

The leader in Great Britain of pioneer medical work for women was Miss Sophia Jex-Blake, whose academic pathway was beset with difficulties far sterner than had in the United States confronted her friend and colleague, Miss Blackwell.

Hearing much of the tolerance and liberality of the University of London, she applied to it for admission as a student, but was informed at once that the charter of the inst.i.tution "had purposely been so worded as to exclude the possibility of examining women for medical degrees."

After this rebuff she made application to the University of Edinburgh, which, like the other Scotch universities, had always boasted of its broad-mindedness and freedom from educational trammels. She was received provisionally, and was, after a while, joined by six other women who had in view the same object as herself. For a time, notwithstanding opposition from certain quarters, everything was quiet and apparently satisfactory. But the gathering storm soon broke, and the seven young women, as they were one day entering the university gates, were actually mobbed by a ruffianly band of students who had all along been opposed to the presence of women in the cla.s.s and lecture rooms. They pelted the helpless females with street mud and hurled at them all the vile epithets and heaped upon them all the abuse that their foul tongues could command. These outrageous proceedings on the part of the rabble of rowdies were allowed to continue for several days, and, had it not been for a brave band of chivalrous young Irishmen among the students, who formed themselves into a bodyguard for the protection of their fair cla.s.smates, and were, in consequence, known as "The Irish Brigade," the hapless women students would not have escaped bodily harm. What a marked contrast between the conduct toward Miss Blackwell of the gallant students of the modest little American town and that of the cowardly ruffians of the vaunted "Athens of the North!"

But this was not all. The seven young women in question had matriculated as students of the university with the understanding that they were to have all the rights and privileges of the male students. But after the disgraceful conduct of the mob just referred to, they discovered that the authorities of the university were prepared to break faith with them, and prevent them from getting their coveted degrees, and thus debar them from all chance of medical practice.

The reason why the university was induced to annul its contract, after the women on their part had fully complied with all its stipulations, soon became apparent. It was purely and simply to make it impossible for women to secure a license as medical pract.i.tioners. Both in and outside of Edinburgh the conviction daily grew stronger that women doctors were a menace to the monopoly so long enjoyed by the medical fraternity, and that the movement in their favor should be crushed by fair means or foul before it got beyond control. The _Spectator_ made this clear by stating at the time of the controversy that "every profession in this country"--England--"is more or less of a trades union," and yet the members of these professions "would shake their heads and prate about the necessity of stamping out trades unionism among workmen." "Women,"

whined one of the doctors, "would s.n.a.t.c.h the bread from the mouths of poor pract.i.tioners." Another doctor who had championed the cause of women physicians, when commenting on the hypocritical objection that it was unbecoming for women to practice medicine or surgery, expressed the same idea in other words. "It appears," he declared, "that it is most becoming and proper for a woman to discharge all the duties which are incidental to our profession for thirty shillings a week; but, if she is to have three or four guineas a day for discharging the same duties, then they are immoral and immodest and unsuited to the soft nature that should characterize a lady."

After Miss Jex-Blake and her companions learned that the university was determined to refuse them the degrees to which they were ent.i.tled, they brought suit against it for breach of contract. But, after a long and expensive trial, the judge rendered a decision against them. They then appealed to Parliament, and, after a protracted and strenuous campaign on the part of friends whom they had enlisted in their cause, they saw their opponents not only dragged at the chariot wheels of progress but forced to help to turn them; for, in 1878, after nearly ten years of a persistent, continuous struggle such as had rarely been witnessed in woman's long battle for things of the mind--a struggle in which the intrepid, dauntless Miss Jex-Blake "made the greatest of all the contributions to the end attained"--the women of Great Britain had the supreme satisfaction of winning what was probably the most glorious victory which their s.e.x had ever won.[214] The war was over and henceforward they were free--as were their sisters in other parts of the world--as the women in Italy had been for a thousand years--to devote themselves at will to the study and practice of the healing art without let or hindrance.

What a wonderful change has taken place in the medical world almost within the s.p.a.ce of a single generation! The tiny grain of mustard that was sown by two lone women, the Misses Blackwell and Jex-Blake, in their chosen field of effort has grown and "waxed a great tree." Women doctors are now found in all parts of the civilized world and are numbered by thousands. And so great has been their professional success, so widespread is the desire to secure their services, especially in countries like America and England, where opposition was in the beginning especially bitter, that the proportion of women pract.i.tioners in medicine and surgery is now regarded as the best index of a nation's enlightenment.

The healing art of Greece and Rome has broadened out into the n.o.ble sciences of medicine and surgery of to-day. For, based as they now are on the sciences of chemistry, botany, biology, hygiene, physiology, anatomy and bacteriology, which have all witnessed such extraordinary developments during the last half century, they both deserve a preeminent place in the history of the sciences. And the success which has crowned woman's efforts in surgery and medicine is not only a conclusive indication of her capacity, so long denied by her self-interested opponents, but also the most convincing indication that she is at last properly occupied in a field of activity from which she was too long excluded. Her contributions as writer and investigator toward the progress of both sciences, even during the short time in which she has been able to give proof of her ability, have been notable and augur well for the share she will have in their future advancement.

But more important still is the refining influence she has already exerted on both professions, and the relief she has been able to afford to countless thousands of her own s.e.x who would otherwise have been the voluntary victims of untold misery. Women doctors are, indeed, not only worthy representatives of aesculapia Victrix and of the two sciences which they have so elevated and so enn.o.bled, but are also ministering angels to poor, suffering humanity comparable only with the heroic Sisters of Charity and the devoted nurses of the Red Cross.

FOOTNOTES:

[182] Quoted in _Medical Women_, p. 11, by Sophia Jex-Blake, M. D., Edinburgh, 1886. Cf. Hyginus, _Fabularum Liber_, No. 274.

[183] Charles Daremberg, who, at the time of his death in 1872, was professor of the history of medicine in the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, had the intention of publishing this work [Greek: Peri ton gynaichaion tazon].--On the Diseases of Women--but his premature death prevented him from executing his project. It is to be hoped that some one else, interested in woman's medical work, may at an early date give this production to the public with an appropriate commentary.

[184] Cf. Hertzen et Rossi _Inscriptiones Urbis Romae Latinae_, p. 1245, No. 9478, Berlin, 1882.

[185] "Non mihi si linguae centum, oraque centum, ferrea vox ... omnia morborum percurrere nomina possim quae Fabiola in tanta miserorum refregeria commutavit ut multi pauperum sani languentibus inviderent."

_Epistola ad Oceanum._

[186] Haec inter timidam revocat clamore puellam Alpharides, veniens quae saucia quaeque ligavit.

--Ekkehardi Primi _Waltharius_, Berlin, 1873.

[187] That the Germans, at the time under discussion, regarded learning as having an effeminating effect on men is well ill.u.s.trated by the following characteristic anecdote: "when Amasvintha, a very learned woman who was a daughter of the Ostrogoth King, Theodoric, selected three masters for the instruction of her son, the people became indignant. 'Theodoric,' they exclaimed, 'never sent the children of the Goths to school, learning making a woman of a man and rendering him timorous. The saber and the lance are sufficient for him.'" Procopius, _De Bello Gothico_, I, 2, Leipsic, 1905.

If we may judge by a letter from Pace to Dean Colet, the noted cla.s.sical scholar and founder of St. Paul's school in London, such views found acceptance in England as late as the time of More and Erasmus. For we are told of a British parent who expressed his opinion on the education of men in these words: "I swear by G.o.d's body I'd rather that my son should hang than study letters. The study of letters should be left to rustics."

[188] This work was for a long time regarded as lost, but a ma.n.u.script copy was recently found in Copenhagen, and it has since been published by Teubner of Leipsic, under the t.i.tle of _Hildegard's Causae et Curae_.

[189] _Archiv fur Pathologische Anatomie und Physiologie und fur Klinische Medicin_, Band 18, p. 286, Berlin.

[190] _S. Hildegardis Opera Omnia_, Ed. Migne, p. 1122, Paris, 1882.

[191] "In the munic.i.p.al and state inst.i.tutions of this period the beautiful gardens, roomy halls and springs of water of the old cloistral hospital of the Middle Ages were not heard of, still less the comforts of their friendly interiors." _A History of Nursing_, Vol. I, p. 500, M.

Adelaide Nutting and Lavinia L. Dock, New York, 1907.

The mortality in some of the state hospitals from the latter part of the seventeenth to the middle of the nineteenth century was appalling, often as high as fifty and sixty per cent. This was due not only to shockingly unsanitary conditions, but also to inordinate overcrowding. A large proportion of the beds, incredible as it may seem, were purposely made for four patients, and six were frequently crowded into them. "The extraordinary spectacle was then to be seen of two or three small-pox cases, or several surgical cases, lying on one bed." John Howard, in his _Prisons and Hospitals_, pp. 176-177. Warrington, 1874, tells us of two hospitals that were so crowded that he had "often seen five or six patients in one bed, and some of them dying."

It is gratifying to learn that the chief agents in changing this revolting condition, due to faulty construction and management of hospitals, were women. Prominent among these benefactors of humanity were Mme. Necker, Florence Nightingale, and the wise and alert superiors of the various nursing sisterhoods.

[192] How like Chaucer's prioress who

"Was so charitable and so piteous, And al was conscience and tender herte."

[193] Cf. _Lib. de Virtutibus et Laudibus_, by aegidius, head physician to Philip Augustus of France, in which occur the following verses:

Urbs Phoebo sacrata, Minervae sedula nutrix, Fons physicae, pugil eucrasiae, cultrix medicinae, a.s.secla Naturae, vitae paranympha, salutis Promula fida; magis Lachesis soror, Atropos hostis.

Morbi pernicies, gravis adversaria mortis.

quoted in the appendix, p. x.x.xii, to S. de Renzi's, _Storia Doc.u.mentata della Scuola Medica di Salerno_, Naples, 1857.

[194] Cf. The introduction to the English translation of the _Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum_, p. 28, by J. Ordronaux, Philadelphia, 1870.

[195]

"Immortal praise adorns Salerno's name To seek whose shrine the world once came."

[196] See _Storia Doc.u.mentata della Scuola Medica di Salerno_, ut. sup., p. 474 et seq., and p. lxxvi et seq. of Appendix; also Ordronaux, ut sup., p. 16.

[197] Probably her most noted work is the one which bears the t.i.tle _De Morbis Mulierum et Eorum Cura_--The Diseases of Women and Their Cure.

[198] "Physicae quoque scientiam tam copiose habuit ut in urbe Psaleritana, ubi maxime medicorum scholae ab antiquo tempore habentur, neminem in medicinali arte, praeter quandam sapientem matronam, sibi parem inveniret." Migne, Patrologiae Latinae, Tom. 188, Col. 260.

[199] As this decree is of singular interest and importance, a copy of the original is here given in full:

"Karolus, etc., Universis per Just.i.tieratum Princ.i.p.atus citra Serras Montorii const.i.tutis presentes litteras inspecturis fidelibus paternis et suis salutem, etc. In actionibus nostris utilitati puplice libenter oportune perspicimus et honestatem morum in quantum suadet modestia conservamus. Sane Francisca uxor Mathei de Romana de Salerno in Regia Curia presens exposuit quod ipsa circa princ.i.p.ale exercitium cirurgie sufficiens circ.u.mspecto in talibus judicio reputatur. Propter quod excellentie nostre supplicavit attentius ut licentiam sibi dignaremus concedere in arte hujusmodi practicandi. Quia igitur per scriptum puplic.u.m universitatis terre Salerni presentatum eidem Regie Curie, inventum est lucide quod Francisca prefata fidelis est et genere orta fidelium ac examinata per medicos Regios paternos nostrosque cirurgicos, in eadem arte cirurgie tamquam ydiota sufficiens est inventa, licet alienum sit feminis conventibus interrese virorum, ne in matronalis pudoris contumelia irruant et primum culpam vet.i.te transgressionis incurrant. Quia tamen de juris indicto medicine officium mulieribus est concessum expedienter attento quod ad mulieres curandas egrotas de honestate morum viris sunt femine aptiores, not recepto prius ab eadem Francisca solito fidelitatis et quod iuxta tradiciones ipsius artis curabit fideliter corporaliter Juramento, licentiam curandi et practicandi sibi in eadem arte per Just.i.tieratum jam dictum auctoritate presentium impartimus. Quare fidelitati vestre precipimus quatenus eandem Franciscam curare et practicari in prefata arte per Just.i.tieratum predictum ad honorem et fidelitatem paternam et nostram ac utilitatem fidelium presentium earumdam libere permittatis, nullum sibi in hoc impedimentum vel obstaculum interentes. Datum Neapoli per dominum Bartholomeum de Capua, etc., Anno domini mcccxxi, die x Septembris v, indictionis Regnorum dicti domini patris nostri anno xiii."