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6 FEMALE PHYSICIANS.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
* Sympa Women Thy Always With Suffering ...
tifie Oinion operators s of Tristram " and Shand their " Gent improvements . / 7 in which , " the in worth " The y Dr Life . Slop and is y
consecrated p to immortality . , In fact , the transfer of this vocation from women to men hasfrom its inception to the present moment
, , encountered earnest remonstrance , and steady opposition , arising irom the general sentiment that it was unnatural and wrong . The
argument of superior qualifications of male physicians , and the consequent greater safety in employing
themhashoweveroverborne the weighty considerations on the other , side , , and temporaril , y installed men in an office which obviously belongs to the other sex .
The question now to be solved is , whether women can be so qualified by education and training as to render the practice in
their hands as safe and successful as in the hands of men—all other considerationsof coursebeing in favor of female practitioners .
It is believed that , women , can be so qualified as not only to equal men , but that , with the advantages of sex and natural aptitude ,
they will greatly excel them in the exercise of this vocation . But to secure this endwomen must have a complete and thorough
medical education . , The plan of giving them a narrow and partial trainingas being sufficient for the ordinary routine of the art
keeps them , in an inferior professional position , and diminishes the , confidence of the public in their abilities . These specially trained
midwives should , however , be encouraged till female physicians can be provided . In fact , even with their limited professional
education they can , with rare exceptions , manage these matters with greater safety and success than medical men , however extensive
their scientific attainments . Abundant statistics of hospital and private practice miht be presented in proof of this statement . It
is a well-known fact g that the attendance of male practitioners has often a very embarrassingdisturbing effectcausing disastrous and
not infrequent fatalities to , mothers or infants , , when there was not the least necessary occasion for such a result .
But it sometimes happens that complications and difficulties arise , and the doctor must be called ; or medical advice and
_treatment are needed , before , at the time , or subsequently ; and this ¦ will be an ever-ready andto . the minds of manyan unanswerable
argument in favor of dispensing , entirely with the , female subordinateand employing the doctor throughout . And hence the need
of full , y educated female physicians for this , as for other departments .. of female practice .
It is objected that > as woman ' s sphere is home and its duties , she cannot , like man , devote herself uninterruptedly to the
profession , and therefore must be unsuccessful . To make the objection as strong as possible , let us suppose that every woman is to be
married and become the mistress of a home . According to the census of Great Britain for 1851 the average number of children
, to a family was two , minus a fraction of five one-hundredths . As
a medical education would be a most valuable qualification for the
6 Female Physicians.
6 _FEMALE PHYSICIANS .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), March 1, 1862, page 6, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01031862/page/6/
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