WOMEN IN MEDICINE AND SURGERY
As woman was the first nurse, so was she also the first practitioner of
the healing art. Among savages the world over it is the women, in the
great majority of cases, who have the care of the sick and wounded, and
who, by reason of their superior knowledge of simples for the cure of
diseases, occupy the position of doctors. In certain parts of the
uncivilized world there are, it is true, shamans or medicine men; but
these are conjurers or exorcists, who profess to expel disease, or
rather the evil spirits causing the disease, by sorcery or incantation,
rather than physicians who essay to cure ailments or relieve suffering
by the use of substances which experience has showed to possess remedial
properties. In a word, the shaman is a kind of a religious functionary
who imposes on the ignorance of his tribe and who holds his position by
the fear he excites, and not by any knowledge he possesses of the
healing art. It was the same, we may believe, in the early history of
our race--women, and not men, were the first physicians; and they were
also most probably the first surgeons.
According to Greek mythology, the god of the medical art was Aesculapius,
a male; but his six daughters, as antiquity beautifully expressed it,
were not only goddesses but were also medical mistresses--_artifices
medici_--of suffering humanity. Of these Hygiea was specially
distinguished as the goddess of health, or, rather, as the conserver of
good health, while Panacea was invoked as the restorer of health after
it had been impaired or lost.
One of the most beautiful pictures in the Iliad is that representing the
daughter of Augea, King of the Epei, caring for the wounded and
suffering Greeks on the plain before Troy. She was:
"His eldest born, hight Agamede, with golden hair,
A leech was she, and well she knew all herbs on ground that grew."
Nothing deterred by the din of battle around her, she provided cordial
potions for the disabled warrior and prepared
"The gentle bath and washed their gory wounds."
What a beautiful prototype of another ministering angel in the same land
nearly thirty centuries later, amid similar scenes of suffering--of one
who, though unsung by immortal bard, the world will never let die--the
courageous, the self-sacrificing Florence Nightingale.
That there were in Greece from the earliest times numerous women
possessed of a high degree of medical skill is evidenced by many of the
ancient writers. They were what we would call medical herbalists, and
not a few of them exhibited a natural genius for determining the
curative virtues of rare plants and a remarkable sagacity in preparing
from them juices, infusions and soothing anodynes. Others there were
who, in addition to evincing the cunning of leechcraft in the
therapeutic art, were distinguished for nimble hands in treating painful
lesions and festering sores, and who, when occasion required, were
experts in "quickly drawing the barb from the flesh and healing the
wound of the soldier."
In the Odyssey special mention is made of the surpassing expertness of
the Egyptian female leech, Polydamna, whose name signifies the subduer
of many diseases. The land of the Nile, the poet tells us, "teems with
drugs," and
"There ev'ry man in skill medicinal
Excels, for these are sons of Paeon all."
In this favored cradle of civilization, to which Greece owed so much of
its knowledge and culture, there were many women who, like Polydamna,
achieved distinction in the healing art, and many, too, we have reason
to think, who communicated their knowledge to their sisters in the fair
land of Hellas.
But not only were there in Greece women physicians like Agamede, who
were noted for their general medicinal knowledge and practice, but there
were also others who made a specialty of treating ailments peculiar to
their own sex. This we learn from a passage in the _Hippolytus_ of
Euripides, wherein the nurse of Phaedra addressed the suffering queen in
the following words:
"If under pains
Thou labor, such as may not be revealed,
To succor thee thy female friends are here.
But if the other sex may know thy sufferings
Let the physician try his healing art."
More positive information, however, is afforded us by the ancient Roman
author Hyginus, who, in writing of the Greek maiden, Agnodice, tells us
how the medical profession was legalized for all the free-born women of
Athens. Instead of a literal translation of Hyginus, the version of his
story is given in the quaint language of one Mrs. Celleor, a noted
midwife in the reign of James II.
"Among the subtile Athenians," writes Mrs. Celleor, "a law at one time
forbade women to study or practice medicine or physick on pain of death,
which law continued some time, during which many women perished, both in
child-bearing and by private diseases, their modesty not permitting them
to admit of men either to deliver or cure them. But God finally stirred
up the spirit of Agnodice, a noble maid, to pity the miserable condition
of her own sex, and hazard her life to help them; which, to enable
herself to do, she apparelled her like a man and became the scholar of
Hierophilos, the most learned physician of the time; and, having learnt
the art, she found out a woman that had long languished under private
diseases, and made proffer of her service to cure her, which the sick
person refused, thinking her to be a man; but, when Agnodice discovered
that she was a maid, the woman committed herself into her hands, who
cured her perfectly; and after her many others, with the like skill and
industry, so that in a short time she became the successful and beloved
physician of the whole sex."
When it became known that Agnodice was a woman "she was like to be
condemned to death for transgressing the law--which, coming to the ears
of the noble women, they ran before the Areopagites, and, the house
being encompassed by most women of the city, the ladies entered before
the judges and told them they would no longer account them for husbands
and friends, but for cruel enemies, that condemned her to death who
restored to them their health, protesting they would all die with her if
she were put to death. This caused the magistrates to disannul the law
and make another, which gave gentlewomen leave to study and practice all
parts of physick to their own sex, giving large stipends to those that
did it well and carefully. And there were many noble women who studied
that practice and taught it publicly in their schools as long as Athens
flourished in learning."[182]
After the time of Agnodice many Greek women won distinction in medicine,
some as practitioners in the healing art, others as writers on medical
subjects. Nor were their activities confined to the land of Hellas. They
were also found succoring the infirm and instructing the poor and
ignorant in Italy, Egypt and Asia Minor. Among these was Theano, the
wife of Pythagoras, who, after her husband's death, assumed charge of
his school of philosophy, and who, like her husband and teacher, was
distinguished for her attainments in medicine. The names of many others
occur in the pages of Hippocrates, Galen and Pliny; and frequent
references are made to the works and prescriptions of women doctors who
enjoyed more than ordinary celebrity during their time. Of these female
practitioners many confined their practice to the diseases of women and
children, while others excelled in surgery and pharmacy, as well as in
general medical practice.
Among the medical women whom antiquity especially honored, particularly
during the Greco-Roman period, were Origenia, Aspasia--not the famous
wife of Pericles--and Cleopatra, who was not, however, as is often
asserted, the ill-fated queen of Egypt. Likewise deserving of special
mention was Metradora, of whom there is still preserved in Florence a
manuscript work on the diseases of women,[183] and Antiochis, to whom
her admiring countrymen erected a statue bearing the following
inscription: "Antiochis, daughter of Diodotos of Tlos; the council and
the commune of the city of Tlos, in appreciation of her medical ability,
erected at their own expense this statue in her honor."
Pliny, the naturalist, felicitates the Romans on having been for nearly
six hundred years free from the brood of doctors. These he does not
hesitate to berate roundly. His statement regarding the non-existence of
physicians, it must be observed, is somewhat exaggerated. It is true
that during the first five centuries there were no professional doctors
who lived entirely on their practice. There were, however, many men who
had by long experience gained an extensive knowledge of drugs and
simples, and who were able to dress wounds and treat diseases with
considerable success.
The first Greek freeman to practice medicine in Rome was one Archagatos,
about two centuries B.C. He was soon followed by one of his countrymen
named Asclepiades. These two soon built up a great reputation as
successful practitioners, and were held in the highest esteem by the
people of Rome. In consequence of this and of the favorable conditions
offered foreigners for the practice of the healing art, there was soon a
large influx of physicians and surgeons from Greece, not only into Rome
but also into other parts of Italy.
Not long after the arrival of Greek doctors in the capital of the Roman
world we learn of certain women physicians in Rome who were held in high
repute. Among these were Victoria and Leoparda, both mentioned by the
medical writer, Theodorus Priscianus. To Victoria, Priscianus dedicates
the third book of his _Rerum Medicarum_, and in the preface to this book
he refers to her as one who has not only an accurate knowledge of
medicine, but also as one who is a keen observer and experienced
practitioner.
The word _medica_, which occurs in Latin authors of the classical
period, testifies to the existence of the woman doctor as early as the
age of Augustus.
But the most important documents bearing on women physicians, not only
in the city of Rome but also in Italy, Gaul and the Iberian peninsula,
are the large body of epigraphic monuments which have recently been
brought to light, and which prove beyond all doubt that women were not
only obstetricians, but that they were successful practitioners in the
entire field of medical art. Thus a funeral tablet found in Portugal
tells of a woman who was a most excellent physician--_medica
optima_--while another describes the deceased not only as a woman
incomparable for her virtues, but also as a mistress of medical
science, _antistes disciplinae in medicina fuit_.
The Greek word for _medica_--_iatromaia_--occasionally found in some of
the inscriptions, seems to refer specially to women of Greek origin or
birth. This is particularly true of a monument erected to one Valiae, who
is designated as _Kalista iatromaia_--the best doctor.[184]
Among the many women who became converts to Christianity during the
early ages of the church a goodly number were physicians. Unfortunately,
our information respecting these votaries of the healing art is not as
complete as we could wish. One of the most noted of them is St.
Theodosia, whose name is given in the Roman martyrology for the
twenty-ninth of May. She was the mother of the martyr, St. Procopius,
and was distinguished for her knowledge of medicine and surgery, both of
which she practiced in Rome with the most signal success. She died a
heroic death by the sword during the persecution of Diocletian.
Another woman who was as eminent for her knowledge of medicine as for
her holiness of life was St. Nicerata, who lived in Constantinople
during the reign of the emperor Arcadius. She is said to have cured St.
John Chrysostom of an affection of the stomach from which he was a
sufferer.
To the Roman lady Fabiola, remarkable as the daughter of one of the most
illustrious patrician families of Rome, but more remarkable for her
sanctity and her boundless charity toward the poor, was due the erection
of the first hospital--a noble structure which she founded in Ostia, at
the mouth of the Tiber, which was then the port of entry to the capital
of the Roman empire. Here the noble matron received the poor and
suffering from all parts, and did everything in her power to afford
them succor in their wants and infirmities.
It is difficult for us now, when hospitals and charitable institutions
of all kinds are so common, to understand what an innovation Fabiola's
unheard-of institution was considered by her contemporaries. For her
method of treating the needy and the suffering was as different from
that which had hitherto obtained as were the debasing lessons of
heathendom from the elevating precepts of the Gospels.
No wonder that the news of this godlike work was soon wafted to the
uttermost bounds of the earth; that, in the words of St. Jerome, "summer
should announce in Britain what Egypt and Parthia had learned in the
spring." No wonder that the same eloquent hermit of Bethlehem should
proclaim the foundress of this home of the indigent and the afflicted to
be "the glory of the church, the astonishment of the Gentiles, the
mother of the poor and the consolation of the saints." No wonder that,
in contemplating her countless acts of charity, he should ignore the
fact that Fabiola was a daughter of the Fabii and a descendant of the
renowned Quintus Maximus, who, by his sage counsel, had saved his
country from her enemies, and that, recalling the words of Virgil, he
should declare: "If I had a hundred tongues and a hundred mouths and
iron lungs, I should not be able to enumerate all the maladies to which
Fabiola gave the most prodigal care and tenderness--to the extent even
of making the poor who were in health envy the good fortune of those who
were sick."[185] No wonder that Fabiola's funeral, which brought
together the whole of Rome, was more like an apotheosis than the
transfer of the remains of the deceased to their last resting-place, and
that Jerome should declare, "the glory of Furius and Papirius and
Scipio and Pompey, when they triumphed over the Gauls, the Sammites,
Numantia and Pontus" was less than that which was spontaneously accorded
to Fabiola, the solace of the sick and the comforter of the distressed.
For she had in her hospital at Ostia established a type of institution
that was to effect more for ameliorating the condition of suffering
humanity than anything that had before been dreamed of; something that
was to contribute immensely to the efforts of physicians and surgeons in
minimizing the sad ravages of wounds and disease; something whose
beneficent effects were to be felt through the centuries and in every
part of the world down to the wards of the military hospital at Scutari,
guarded by the watchful eyes of Florence Nightingale, and to the
leper-tenanted lazarettos, blessed by the ministrations of Father Damien
and the Sisters of Charity, on the desolate shores of plague-stricken
Molokai.
After the fall of the Roman empire and through the long period of the
Middle Ages, when the monasteries and convents were almost the only
centers of learning and culture for the greater part of Europe, the
practice of medicine was to a great extent in the hands of monks and
nuns. For every religious house was then a hospital as well as a school,
a place where drugs and ointments were compounded and distributed, as
well as a place where manuscripts were transcribed and illuminated. At a
time when there were but few professional physicians and when these few
were widely separated from one another, the only places where the poor
could always be sure to find free medical treatment as well as abundant
alms were those sanctuaries of knowledge and charity where the love of
one's neighbor was never lost sight of in the love of science and
literature. And during this time, too, the care of the sick was regarded
as a duty incumbent on everyone, but particularly on those devoted to
the service of God in religion. It was considered, above all, as a duty
devolving on women, especially on the lady in the castle and on the nun
in the convent.
The old romance of _Sir Isumbras_ gives us a charming picture of the
nuns of long ago receiving the wounded knight and ministering unto him
until he was made whole and strong, as witness the following verses:
"The nonnes of him they were full fayne,
For that he had the Saracenes slayne
And those haythene houndes.
And of his paynnes sare ganne them rewe.
Ilke a day they made salves new
And laid them till his woundes;
They gave him metis and drynkis lythe,
And heled the knyghte wunder swythe."
So universally during mediaeval times was the healing art considered as
pertaining to woman's calling that it became a part of the curriculum in
convent schools; and no girl's education was considered complete unless
she had an elementary knowledge of medicine and of that part of surgery
which deals with the treatment of wounds. For during those troublous
times a woman was liable to be called upon at any time to nurse the sick
wayfarer or dress the wounds of those who had been maimed in battle or
in the tourney.
Illustrations of these facts are found in many of the romances and
fabliaux of the Middle Ages. Thus, when a sick or wounded man was given
hospitality in a chateau or castle it was not the seigneur, but his wife
and daughters, as being better versed in medicine and surgery, who acted
as nurses and doctors and took entire charge of the patient until his
recovery.
In the exquisite little story of _Aucassin et Nicolette_, the heroine is
pictured as setting the dislocated shoulder of her lover in the
following simple but touching language:
"Nicolette searched his hurt, and perceived that his shoulder was out of
joint. She handled it so deftly with her white hands, and used such
skillful surgery that, by the grace of God, who loveth all true lovers,
the shoulder came back to its place. Then she plucked flowers and fresh
grasses and green leafage, and bound them tightly about the setting with
the hem torn from her shift, and he was altogether healed."
And in the mediaeval Latin poem, _Waltharius_, written by a German monk,
Ekkehard, reference is made to a sanguinary contest in which one of the
combatants falls to the earth seriously wounded. Seeing this,
Alpharides, in a loud voice, summons a young girl, who timidly comes
forward and dresses the unfortunate man's wound.[186]
Still more to our purpose is a passage from the famous epic poem,
_Tristan and Isolde_, written by _Godfrey of Strasburg_, in which
Isolde, accompanied by her mother and cousin, is represented as
administering restoratives to Tristan, who had fallen exhausted after
his combat with the dragon. It shows that women, in accompanying an army
to the field of battle, always went provided with bandages and
medicaments for dressing wounds and fractured limbs. Similarly Angelica,
in _Orlando Furioso_, and Ermina, in _Jerusalem Delivered_, are
portrayed as surgeons with deftness of hand and leeches with rare
knowledge and skill.
The frequent introduction of women doctors into the poems and romances
of the Middle Ages would of itself, if other evidence were wanting,
suffice to show what an important role women played in medicine and
surgery at a time when, in many parts of Europe, women were far better
educated and far more cultured than men--"when the knights and barons of
France and Germany were inclined to look upon reading and writing as
unmanly and almost degrading accomplishments, fit only for priests or
monks, and especially for priests or monks not too well born."[187]
In the instances just quoted, as well as those mentioned by Homer and
Euripides, the writers do no more than faithfully reflect conditions
which then obtained, and truthfully report what were the occupations of
women when their status was so different from what it is to-day. But,
fortunately, we do not have to rely on works of the imagination for our
knowledge respecting the women practitioners of the healing art, either
during the Homeric period or during that which intervened between the
downfall of Rome and the dawn of the Renaissance. For the history of
medicine during mediaeval times affords too many examples of women who
became famous for their knowledge of medicine, as well as for their
success in surgical and medical practice, to leave any doubt about the
matter. Besides this, we have still the writings of many of these women,
and are thus able to judge of their competency in those branches of
knowledge on which they shed so great luster.
One of the most noted of them was the Benedictine abbess, St. Hildegard,
of Bingen on the Rhine, who was eminent not only as a theologian but
also as a writer whose treatises on various branches of science are
justly regarded as the most important productions of the kind during the
Middle Ages prior to the time of Albertus Magnus. Besides this, she not
only wrote many books on _materia medica_, on pathology, physiology and
therapeutics, but, as a practitioner, she gloriously sustained the best
traditions of her sex in both theoretical and practical medicine.
Her work entitled _Liber Simplicis Medicinae_, which deals with what in
the Saint's time was called "simples"--for the belief was then current
that each plant or herb was or provided a specific for some
disease--contains accounts of many plants used in _materia medica_, as
well as statements of their importance in therapeutics. Her descriptions
often indicate an observer of exceptionally keen perception and one
whose knowledge of science was far in advance of her epoch. The same
observations may be made respecting Hildegard 's work, _Liber Compositae
Medicinae_, in which she treats of the causes, signs and treatment of
diseases.[188]
Still more remarkable, in many respects, is a treatise in nine books,
entitled _Physica_ or _Liber Subtilitatum Diversarum Naturarum
Creaturarum_, which, among other things, treats of the various elements,
of plants, trees, minerals, fish, birds, quadrupeds, and of the manner
in which they may be of service to man. Of so great importance was this
book considered that several editions of it were printed as early as the
sixteenth century. No less an authority than the late Rudolph Virchow,
the founder of cellular pathology, characterizes it as an early _materia
medica_, curiously complete, considering the age to which it
belongs.[189] And Haeser, in his history of medicine, directs attention
to the historical value of the book, declaring it to be "an independent
German treatise, based chiefly on popular experience."
Dr. F. A. Reuss, of the University of Wuertzburg, at the conclusion of
his _Prolegomena_ to the _Physica_ published in Migne's _Patrologia_,
expresses himself as follows regarding the writings and medical
knowledge of the illustrious abbess of Bingen: "Among all the saintly
_religieuses_ who, during the Middle Ages, practiced medicine or wrote
treatises on it, the first, without contradiction, is Hildegard.
According to the monk Theodoric, who was an eye witness, she had to so
high a degree the gift of healing that no sick person had recourse to
her without being restored to health. There is among the books of this
prophetic virgin a work which treats of physics and medicine. Its title
is _De Natura Nominis Elementorum Diversarumque Creaturarum_, and it
embodies, as the same Theodoric fully explains, the secrets of nature
which were revealed to the saint by the prophetic spirit. All who wish
to write the history of the medical and natural sciences should read
this book, in which the holy virgin, initiated into all the secrets of
nature which were then known, and having received special assistance
from above, thoroughly examines and scrutinizes all that which was,
until then, buried in darkness and concealed from the eyes of mortals.
It is certain that Hildegard was acquainted with many things of which
the doctors of the Middle Ages were ignorant, and which the
investigators of our own age, after rediscovering them, have announced
as something entirely new."[190]
The life and works of St. Hildegard throw a flood of light on many
subjects that have long been veiled in mystery. It explains why the
convents of the later Middle Ages were so famed as curative centers and
why the sick flocked to them for relief from far and near. It reveals
the real agencies employed in effecting the extraordinary cures that
were reported in so many religious houses--cures so extraordinary that
they were usually regarded by the multitude as miraculous--and discloses
the secret of the success of so many nuns in the alleviation of physical
and mental sufferings. It was not because they were thaumaturges, but
because they were good nurses, and because of their thorough knowledge
of the healing art, that they were able to diagnose and prescribe for
diseases of all kinds with a success which, in the estimation of the
multitude, savored of the supernatural.
There was also another reason for the fame of convents as sanctuaries of
health. They were usually situated in healthy locations where there was
an abundance of pure water, fresh air and cheerful sunshine. Then there
were likewise a wholesome diet, good sanitary conditions, and, above
all, regularity of life.
The same can be said of the hospitals connected with the convents. They
were not like some of the public hospitals of the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries in many of the large cities of Europe--repulsive,
prison-like structures, with narrow windows and devoid of light and air
and the most necessary hygienic appliances--institutions that were
hospitals in name, but which were in reality too frequently breeding
places of disease and death.[191]
Unlike these, the hospitals presided over by nuns of the type of
Hildegard were splendid roomy structures with large windows and
abundance of light, pure air, with special provisions for the privacy of
the patients, and with sanitary arrangements that not only precluded the
dissemination of disease but which contributed materially to those
marvelous cures which the good people of the time attributed to
supernatural agencies rather than to the medical knowledge and skill of
the devoted nuns,[192] who were the real conquerors of disease and
death.
But the inmates of the cloister were not the only women who, during the
Middle Ages, achieved distinction by their writings on medical subjects
and by their signal success in the practice of the healing art. In
various parts of Europe, but especially in Italy and France, there were
at this time among women, outside as well as inside convent walls, many
daughters of Aesculapius and sisters of Hygeia who stood in such high
repute among their contemporaries that they received the same honors and
emoluments as were accorded to their masculine colleagues.
This was particularly the case in Salerno, which was the venerated
mother of all Christian medical schools, and which, for nine centuries,
was universally regarded as "the unquestioned fountain and archetype of
orthodox medicine." Situated on the Gulf of Salerno, and laved by the
cerulean waters of the Tyrrhenian sea, the _Civitas Hippocratica_, as it
was called on its medals, rejoiced in a salubrious climate, and was
celebrated throughout the world as the "City sacred to Phoebus, the
sedulous nurse of Minerva, the fountain of physic, the votary of
medicine, the handmaid of Nature, the destroyer of disease and the
strong adversary of death."[193] For to this favored city flocked from
all quarters the lame and the halt and those afflicted with the tortures
of disease and the disabilities of advancing years. The noble and the
simple, crowned heads as well as the poorest of the poor, were found
there, all of them in quest of life's most precious boon--health and
strength.
Never did the far-famed sanctuary of the god of medicine in Epidaurus
witness such an influx of invalids as gathered in the hospitals of
Salerno and pressed through the streets of the Hippocratic city, seeking
the aid of those doctors whose marvelous cures had given them a
world-wide reputation. Small wonder, then, that the _Regimen Santatis
Salernitanum_--that famous code of health of the school of Salerno--has
been translated into almost all the languages of modern Europe, and that
since 1480 no fewer than two hundred and fifty editions of it have been
published. "Not to have been familiar with it from beginning to end, not
to have been able to quote it orally as occasion might require, would,
during the Middle Ages, have cast serious suspicion upon the
professional culture of any physician."[194] But the noblest claims of
the Hippocratic city to the gratitude of humanity yet remain to be told.
A German traveler in the thirteenth century wrote:
"Laudibus aeternum nullum negat esse Salernum
Illuc pro morbis totus circumfluit orbis."[195]
This was because Salerno was universally recognized as the "day star"
and "morning glory" of the best culture in the healing art, and, still
more, because of the thorough instruction she gave in her schools of
medicine and the preeminence she so long held in every department of
medical lore.
The course of study in medicine was long and thorough, and the candidate
applying for a degree had to pass a rigid examination and give proof not
only of his proficiency in every branch of the healing art, but also of
perfect acquaintance with the various branches of science and letters as
well. At the time of Frederick II, who organized all the different
schools of Salerno into a single university, a three years' course in
philosophy and literature was required before one could present himself
for entrance into the school of medicine. The courses in medicine lasted
five years, at least, after which a year of practice with an old
physician was required. In addition to this, if the candidate wished to
practice surgery he was obliged to devote one year to the study of human
anatomy and to the dissection of human bodies. Considering the progress
of knowledge since the time of Frederick II, it must be admitted that
the legal requirements enforced by the faculty of Salerno compare
favorably with those of the best of our medical schools of to-day.
Still more to the credit of Salerno, long known as the Athens of the
two Sicilies, was her boundless liberality toward scholarship and
culture regardless of sex. For, with a chivalrous admiration for
intellect, wherever found, and with a sense of intellectual justice that
has put to shame all medical schools outside of Italy, until less than
fifty years ago, the school of Salerno was the first to throw open its
portals to women as well as men, and give to an admiring world a number
of women--those celebrated _mulieres Salernitanae_--who were eminent not
only as physicians, but also as professors of the theory and practice of
medicine. For this reason, if for no other, it can be truly affirmed
that "No school of medicine in any age or country, if only for this, can
ever over-peer her in renown; and, even as formerly in the universities
of Europe, at the bare mention of the name of the learned Cujacius,
every scholar instinctively uncovered himself, so at the very name of
Salernum, the fount and nurse of rational medicine, every physician
should recall her memory 'with mute thanks and secret ecstasy' as among
the most spotless and venerated chapters in the history of his
art."[196]
The most noted professor and successful practitioner among the women of
Salerno was Trotula, wife of the distinguished physician, John
Platearius, and a member of the old noble family of the Ruggiero. She
flourished during the eleventh century and enjoyed a reputation as a
physician that was not inferior to that of the most noted doctors of her
time. Besides occupying a chair in the school of medicine and having an
extensive practice, she was the author of many works on medicine which
had a great vogue among her contemporaries. Some of them, especially
those relating to diseases of her own sex,[197] were published several
times after the invention of printing, and many manuscript copies of her
works are still found in various libraries of Europe. But she did not
confine her practice to the diseases of women. She was also well versed
in general medicine and exhibited, besides, as her works testify, marked
skill as a surgeon in many cases that would even now be considered as
peculiarly difficult of treatment.
One of her books was entitled _De Compositione Medicamentorum_--the
Compounding of Medicaments--and it was this work, doubtless, that gave
her much of the fame she enjoyed beyond the confines of Italy.
Ruteboeuf, a noted French trouvere of the thirteenth century, gives us
a quaint picture of a scene frequently witnessed in his day. Crowds were
frequently attracted by herbalists--venders of simples--who, stationed
at street corners or in other public places, near tables covered with a
cloth of flaring colors, were wont to descant, somewhat after the style
of certain of our patent-medicine hawkers and quack-salvers, upon the
extraordinary curative properties of the various drugs and panaceas
which they had for sale.
"Good people," one of these traveling herb doctors would begin, "I am
not one of those poor preachers, nor one of those poor herbalists who
carry boxes and sachets and spread them out on a carpet. No, I am a
disciple of a great lady named Madame Trotte of Salerno, who performs
such marvels of every kind. And know ye that she is the wisest woman in
the four quarters of the world."
Ordericus Vitalis, an English Benedictine monk, in his _Historia
Ecclesiastica_, tells us of the impression made by Trotula on Rudolfo
Malacorona, one of those famous itinerant scholars of the Middle Ages,
who spent their lives in wandering from one university to another in
pursuit of knowledge. He had been a student from his youth and was a man
of remarkable attainments in every department of learning. After
visiting and conferring with the learned men of the most celebrated
universities of France and Italy, he finally arrived at Salerno, where,
he informs us, he found no one who could cope with him in disputation
except _quandam sapientem matronam_--a certain very learned woman.[198]
This was Trotula, who, by reason of the extraordinary cures she
effected, was known among her contemporaries as _magistra operis_--a
consummate practitioner. When, however, we consider the thorough course
of study that every one aspiring to a degree in medicine was obliged to
complete, women as well as men, it is not so surprising that Trotula
should be regarded both as a learned woman and as a successful
physician.
Among other women doctors who did honor to Salerno and whose names have
come down to us were three who are known in history as Abella, Rebeca de
Guarna and Mercuriade. All of them achieved a great reputation by their
writings on medical subjects, especially Mercuriade, who distinguished
herself in surgery as well as in medicine. Still another woman deserving
special mention is Francesca, wife of Matteo de Romana, of Salerno.
After passing a very severe examination before a board composed of
physicians and surgeons, she was accorded the doctorate in surgery. An
official document of the time referring to this event reads as follows:
"Whereas the laws permit women to practice medicine, and whereas, from
the viewpoint of good morals, women are best adapted to the treatment of
their own sex, we, after having received the oath of fidelity, permit
the said Francesca to practice the said art of healing," etc.[199]
In view of the facts above mentioned regarding the University of
Salerno--the excellence of its work, its liberality and breadth of view,
its attitude toward the higher education of women, and its preeminence
for so many centuries as a school of medicine--is it surprising that it
was, until comparatively recent times, considered "the _mater et caput_
of medical authority in ethical matters," and that, so late as 1748, the
Medical Faculty of Paris should address an official letter to the
faculty of Salerno requesting its judgment regarding the rights of
precedence as between physicians and surgeons? But what is surprising,
and what, too, passes all understanding, is that the University of
London, after being empowered by royal charter to do all things that
could be done by any university, was legally advised that it could not
grant degrees to women without a fresh charter, because no university
had ever granted such degrees.[200]
While women were winning such laurels in Salerno in every department of
the healing art, their sisters north of the Alps were not idle. As early
as 1292 there were in Paris no less than eight women doctors--called
_miresses_ or _mediciennes_--whose names have come down to us, not to
speak of those who practiced in other parts of France. There was also a
certain number of women who devoted themselves to surgery and called by
the old Latin authors of the time _cyrurgiae_.
In Paris, however, conditions for studying and practicing medicine and
surgery were far from being as favorable to women as they were in
Salerno. As there were no schools open to them for the study of these
branches, they had to depend entirely for such knowledge as they were
able to acquire on the aid they could get from practicing doctors, the
reading of medical books and their own experience. The consequence was
that they were not at all so well equipped for their work as were the
women who enjoyed all the exceptional advantages offered the students at
Salerno. None of them was noted for scholarship, none of them was a
writer of books, and only one of them--Jacobe Felicie, about whom more
presently--rose above mediocrity.
The reason for the great difference between the conditions of the women
doctors of Paris and those of Salerno is not far to seek. The Faculty of
Medicine in Paris was, from the beginning of its existence, unalterably
opposed to female medical practitioners. As early as 1220 it promulgated
an edict prohibiting the practice of medicine by any one who did not
belong to the faculty, and, according to its constitutions and by-laws,
only unmarried men were eligible to membership.
For a long time the edict remained a dead letter. But eventually, as the
faculty grew in power and influence, it was able to enforce the
observance of its decrees. One of its first victims was Jacobe Felicie,
just mentioned, who was hailed before court for practicing medicine in
contravention of its edict issued many years before.
Jacobe Felicie was a woman of noble birth, and had won distinction by
her success in the healing art. As the testimony at her trial revealed,
she never treated the sick for the sake of gain. In nearly all cases the
sick who had addressed themselves to her had been abandoned by their own
physicians. All the witnesses who had been called testified that they
had been cured by Jacobe Felicie, and all expressed their deepest
gratitude to her for her care and devotion. But, in spite of all these
facts, and in spite of the brilliant defence that this worthy woman
made, she was condemned to pay a heavy fine--condemned because, as the
indictment read, she had presumed to put her sickle into the harvest of
others-_falcem in messem mittere alienam_--and this was a crime.[201]
The faculty was a close corporation and insisted that its members should
have a monopoly of all the honors and emoluments that were to accrue
from the treatment of the sick and suffering. What a curious
adumbration of similar proceedings within the memory of many still
living!
The prosecution of Jacobe Felicie recalls that of Agnodice in Greece
long ages before. And the plea urged for the necessity of a female
physician--that many a woman would rather die than reveal the secrets of
her infirmity to a man[202]--was the same as that offered by the women
of Athens before the council of the Areopagus. It was the same agonizing
cry that had been heard thousands of times before and which has been
heard thousands of times since. Isabella of Castile was not the first of
the long list of victims who, for lack of a doctor of their own sex,
have been sacrificed through womanly modesty, and, more's the pity, she
will not be the last.
Unfortunately for the women of France, the result of the prosecution of
Mme. Felicie was the very reverse of that instituted against Agnodice;
for the latter came off victorious, while the former was condemned and
punished. So crushing was the blow dealt to women practitioners, outside
of obstetrics, that they did not recover from its effects for more than
five hundred years. For it was not until 1868 that the Ecole de Medicine
of Paris opened its doors to women, and it was not until nearly twenty
years later that female physicians were able to enter the hospitals of
the French capital as _internes_.[203]
Until quite recent years there is very little to be said of women
physicians in England and Germany. Their practice, outside of that of
certain herb doctors, was confined chiefly to midwifery. There was no
provision made in either of these countries for the education of women
in medicine and surgery, and such a thing as a college where they could
receive instruction in the healing art was unknown. It is true that an
ecclesiastical law of Edgar, King of England, permitted women as well as
men to practice medicine, but this law was subsequently abolished by
Henry V.[204]
During the reign of Henry VIII a law was again enacted in favor of women
physicians; for at that time an act was passed for the relief and
protection of "Divers honest psones, as well men as women, whom God
hathe endued with the knowledge of the nature, kind and operacon of
certeyne herbes, rotes and waters, and the using and ministering them to
suche as be payned with customable diseases, for neighbourhode and
Goddes sake and of pitie and charitie, because _that_ 'The Companie and
Fellowship of Surgeons of London, _mynding only their owne lucres and
nothing the profit or case of the diseased or patient_, have sued, vexed
and troubled' the aforesaid 'honest psones,' who were henceforth to be
allowed 'to practyse, use and mynistre in and to any outwarde sore,
swelling or disease, any herbes, oyntments, bathes, pultes
or emplasters, according to their cooning, experience and
knowledge--without sute, vexation, penaltie or loss of their
goods.'"[205]
The italicized words in this quotation prove that the women doctors of
England had the same difficulties as their sisters in France, and that
the real reason of the opposition of the male practitioners was that
they wished to monopolize the practice of medicine. They, like the
medical faculty of Paris, strenuously objected to women "putting the
sickle into their harvest," and they, accordingly, left nothing undone
to circumvent the intrusion of those whom they always regarded as
undesirable competitors.
It was argued by the men that women, to begin with, lacked the strength
and capacity necessary for medical practice. It was also urged that it
was indelicate and unwomanly for the gentler sex to engage in the
healing art, and that, for their own good, they should be excluded from
it at all costs. Those who were willing to waive these objections
contended that women had not the knowledge necessary for the profession
of medicine and should be excluded on the score of ignorance. When women
sought to qualify themselves for medical practice by seeking instruction
under licenced practitioners or in medical schools, they found a deaf
ear turned to their requests. The doctors declined to teach them and the
medical schools, one and all, closed their doors against them.
Thus it was that in England, France and Germany the practice of medicine
and surgery was always practically in the hands of men until only a
generation ago. Even the English midwives gradually "fell from their
high estate," and were left far behind the female obstetricians of
Germany and France. For these two countries can point to a number of
midwives who, by their knowledge, successful practice, and the books
they wrote, achieved a celebrity that still endures.
Chief among these in Germany were Regina Joseph von Siebold, her
daughter Carlotta, and Frau Teresa Frei, all of whom, in the early part
of the last century, enjoyed an enviable reputation in the Fatherland.
The first named, after following a course of lectures on physiology and
the diseases of women and children, and passing a brilliant examination
in the medical college of Darmstadt, devoted herself to the practice of
obstetrics, and with so great success that the University of Giessen in
1819 conferred on her the degree of doctor of obstetrics. Her daughter,
Carlotta, after studying obstetrics under her mother, went to the
University of Goettingen, where she devoted herself to physiology,
anatomy and pathology. After passing an examination and successfully
defending a number of theses in the University of Giessen, she was also
proclaimed a doctor of obstetrics. At a later date Frau Frei received a
similar degree.[206]
More noted as _accoucheuses_ and gynecologists than the three
distinguished women just mentioned were Mme. Marie Louise La Chapelle
and Mme. Marie Bovin, who, shortly after the French Revolution, entered
upon those wonderful careers in their chosen specialties which have
given them so unique a place in the annals of medicine.
Mme. La Chapelle was particularly celebrated for the numerous
improvements she effected in lying-in hospitals, for the large number of
skilled midwives whom she furnished, not only to France, but also to the
whole of Europe, and, above all, for the excellent treatises which she
wrote on obstetrics, which gave her a reputation second to none among
her contemporaries, men or women. Her _Pratique des Accouchements_, in
three volumes, based on the immense number of fifty thousand cases at
which she presided, reveals an operator of rarest skill and genius. This
production was long regarded as a standard work on the topics discussed,
and for years exerted an immense influence in the medical world.
Less skillful as an operator, but of greater ability as a doctor than
Mme. La Chapelle, was her illustrious contemporary, Mme. Bovin.
Possessing extraordinary insight as an investigator and marvelous
sagacity as a diagnostician, Mme. Bovin achieved the distinction of
being the first really great woman doctor of modern times. Her marvelous
success as a practitioner--Dupuytren said she had an eye at the tip of
her finger--her extended knowledge of the entire range of gynecology,
but above all her numerous treatises on the subject matter of her life
work, gave her a prestige that none of her sex had ever before enjoyed,
and commanded the admiration of the doctors of the world. Her _Memorial
de l'Art des Accouchements_ passed through many editions and was
translated into several European languages. And so highly were her
scientific attainments valued in Germany that the University of Marburg
recognized them by conferring on her--_honoris causa_--the degree of
doctor of medicine and, had its rules permitted the admission of women,
the Royal Academy of Medicine would have honored her with a place among
its members. She was also the recipient of many other honors, besides
being a member of several learned societies. But the greatest monument
to her genius is a large illustrated treatise in two volumes, in which
she exhibits a wonderful knowledge of anatomy, physiology, surgery,
pathology and therapeutics. It gave her a large following in Germany as
well as in France, and there were not wanting distinguished German
_accoucheurs_ who followed Mme. Bovin's teachings to the letter.
The remarkable German and French women just named were all practically
self-made women. They won fame as they had acquired knowledge--chiefly
by courage, in spite of the countless obstacles that beset their paths.
They owed nothing to schools or universities, nothing to government
patronage or assistance, nothing to the medical fraternity as a whole.
Universities would not admit them to their lecture rooms or
laboratories, and the various medical faculties opposed them as
intruders into their jealously guarded domain, and as competitors whose
aspirations were to be frustrated, whatever the means employed. It is
true that, when some of the women mentioned had won world-wide renown by
their achievements, they were made the recipients of belated honors by
certain universities and learned societies; but these societies and
universities were then honoring themselves as much as the women who
received their degrees and diplomas of membership.
How different it was in Italy, which, since the fall of the Roman
Empire, has ever been in the van of civilization, and which has always
continued the best traditions of Graeco-Roman learning and
culture--Italy, which has been the home of such supreme masters of
literature, science, art as Dante, Petrarch, Galileo, Leonardo da Vinci,
Raphael, Michaelangelo, Brunelleschi--Italy, the mother of universities,
the birthplace of the Renaissance, and the recognized leader of
intellectual progress among the nations of the world. Here in the
favored land of the Muses and the Graces, women enjoyed all the rights
and privileges accorded to men; here the doors of schools and
universities were open to all regardless of sex; and art, science,
literature, law, medicine, jurisprudence counted its votaries among
women as well as among men; here, far from encountering jealousy and
opposition in the pursuit of knowledge or in the practice of the
professions, women never found aught but generous emulation and
sympathetic cooperation.
For a thousand years women were welcomed into the arena of learning and
culture on the same footing as men. In Salerno, Bologna, Padua, Pavia,
they competed for the same honors and were contestants for the same
prizes that stimulated the exertions of the sterner sex. Position and
emolument were the guerdons of merit and ability, and the victor,
whether man or woman, was equally acclaimed and showered with equal
honor. Women asked for no favors in the intellectual arena and expected
none. All they desired were the same opportunities and the same
privileges as were granted the men, and these were never denied them.
From the time when Trotula taught in Salerno to the present, when
Giuseppina Catani is professor of general pathology in the medical
faculty of Bologna, the women of Italy always had access to the
universities and were at liberty to follow any course of study they
might elect. We thus find them achieving distinction in civil and canon
law, in medicine, in theology even, as well as in art, science,
literature, philosophy and linguistics. No department of knowledge had
any terrors for them, and there was none in which some of them did not
win undying fame. They held chairs of language, jurisprudence,
philosophy, physics, mathematics, medicine and anatomy, and filled these
positions with such marked ability that they commanded the admiration
and applause of all who heard them.
This is not the place to tell of the triumphs of the women professors in
the Italian universities, or to recount the achievements of those who
were honored with degrees within their classic walls. Let it suffice to
recall the names of a few of those who won renown in medicine and
surgery and whose names are still in their own land pronounced with
respect and veneration.
One of the most noted practitioners in Southern Italy, after the death
of Trotula and her compeers, was one Margarita, who had studied medicine
in Salerno. One of her patients was no less a personage than Ladislaus,
King of Naples. Among those that had diplomas for the practice of
surgery were Maria Incarnata, of Naples, and Thomasia de Matteo, of
Castro Isiae.
That women enjoyed in Rome the same privileges in the practice of
medicine and surgery as their sisters in the southern part of the
peninsula is manifest from an edict issued by Pope Sixtus IV in
confirmation of a law promulgated by the Medical Faculty of Rome, which
reads as follows: "No man or woman, whether Christian or Jew, unless he
be a master or a licentiate in medicine, shall presume to treat the
human body either as a physician or as a surgeon."[207]
In central and northern Italy--in Florence, Turin, Padua, Venice--as
well as in the southern part, we find constantly recurring instances of
women practicing medicine and surgery and winning for themselves an
enviable reputation as successful practitioners.
But after the decline of Salerno, consequent on the establishment by
Frederick II of a school of medicine in Naples, the great center of
medicine and surgery, as of civil and canon law, was Bologna.[208] So
renowned did it become as a teaching and intellectual center that it
was, as Sarti informs us, known throughout Europe as _Civitas
Docta_--the learned city--and _Mater Studiorum_--the mother of studies.
On its coins were stamped the words _Bononia Docet_--Bologna
teaches--and on the city seal, which is still used for certain public
documents, were the words _Legum Bononia Mater_--Bologna, the Mother of
Laws.
Here, more than in Salerno, more than in any other city in the world,
was, for long centuries, witnessed a blooming of female genius that has,
since the time of Gratian and Irnerius, given the University of Bologna
preeminence in the estimation of all friends of woman's education and
woman's culture. For here, within the walls of what was for centuries
the most celebrated university in Christendom, women had, for the first
time, an opportunity of devoting themselves at will to the study of any
and all branches of knowledge. And it can be truthfully affirmed that no
seat of learning can point to such a long list of eminent scholars and
teachers among the gentler sex as is to be found on the register of
Bologna's famous university. For here, to name only a few, achieved
distinction, either as students or as professors, such noted women as
Bitisia Gozzadina, Bettina and Novella Calendrini, Dorotea Bocchi,
Giovanna and Maddalena Bianchetti, Virginia Malvezzi, Maria Vittoria
Dosi, Elisabetta Sirani, Ippolita Grassi, Properzia de Rossi, Maria
Mastellagri, Laura Bassi, Maddelena Noe-Candedi, Clotilda Tambroni and
Anna Manzolini. In this honor list we have a group of savantes that
were famed throughout Europe for their attainments in law, philosophy,
science, ancient and modern languages, medicine, and surgery--the
rivals, and sometimes the superiors, in scholarship of the ablest men
among their distinguished colleagues.
It would be a pleasure to recount the achievements of these justly
celebrated daughters of Italy; but lack of space precludes the mention
of more than one of them. This was Maria dalle Donne, who was born of
poor peasants near Bologna, and who at an early age exhibited
intelligence of a superior order. After pursuing her studies under the
ablest masters, she obtained from the University of Bologna, _maxima cum
laude_, the degree of doctor in philosophy and medicine. On account of
her knowledge of surgery, as well as of medicine, she was soon afterward
put in charge of the city's school for midwives. When Napoleon, in 1802,
passed through Bologna he was so struck by the exceptional ability of
the young _dottoressa_ that, on the recommendation of the savant
Caterzani, he had instituted for her in the university a chair of
obstetrics--a position which she held until the time of her death, in
1842, with the greatest credit to herself and to the institution with
which she was identified.
Maria dalle Donne is a worthy link between that long line of women
doctors, beginning with Trotula, who have so honored their sex in Italy,
and those still more numerous practitioners in the healing art who,
shortly after her death, began to spring up in all parts of the
civilized world.[209]
For it was about this time that the movement which had long been
agitated in behalf of the higher education of women began suddenly to
assume extraordinary vitality, not only throughout Europe but in America
as well. And to no women did this movement appeal so strongly as to
those who had long been looking forward to an opportunity to qualify
themselves for the learned professions, especially medicine. No sooner
did they descry the first flush of dawn on their long-deferred hopes
than they began to consider ways and means for putting their fondly
nurtured projects into execution.
Seven years, almost to the day, after the death of Maria dalle Donne,
Miss Elizabeth Blackwell, a young woman in America, of English birth,
decided to enter college with a view of studying medicine and surgery.
But, at the very outset, she encountered all kinds of unforeseen
difficulties--difficulties that would have caused a less courageous and
determined woman to give up her plans in despair. She was told, in the
first place, that it was highly improper for a woman to study medicine
and that no decent woman would think of becoming a medical practitioner.
As to a lady studying or practicing surgery that, of course, was out of
the question.
But a more serious obstacle than the conventionalities in the case was
the difficulty of finding a medical college that was willing to admit a
woman to its lecture rooms and laboratories. Miss Blackwell applied to
more than a dozen of the leading institutions of America, and received
a positive refusal to her request. Finally, when hope had almost
vanished, she received word from a small college in Geneva, New York,
announcing that her application had been favorably considered and that
she would be admitted as a student whenever she presented herself.
The truth is that the faculty of the college was opposed to the young
woman's admission, but wished to escape the odium incident to a direct
refusal by referring the question to the class with a proviso which, it
was believed, would necessarily exclude her. "But in this it was greatly
surprised and disappointed. For the entire medical class, to the number
of about one hundred and fifty, decided unanimously in favor of the fair
applicant's admission. And they did more than this. They put themselves
on record regarding the equality of educational opportunities for women
and men in a way that must have put their timid professors to shame.
Their resolution, accompanying an invitation to the young woman to
become a member of the student body, was worded as follows:
"'Resolved, That one of the radical principles of a republican
government is the universal education of both sexes; that to every
branch of scientific education the door should be equally open to all;
that the application of Elizabeth Blackwell to become a member of our
class meets our entire approbation, and, in extending our unanimous
invitation, we pledge ourselves that no conduct of ours shall cause her
to regret her attendance at this institution.'"
The students were as good as their word. Their conduct, as Miss
Blackwell wrote years afterward, was always admirable and that of "true
Christian gentlemen." But the women of Geneva were shocked at the female
medical student. They stared at her as a curious animal; and the theory
was fully established that she was "either a bad woman, whose designs
would gradually become evident, or that, being insane, an outbreak of
insanity would soon be apparent."[210]
In due time Miss Blackwell finished her course in medicine and surgery,
and graduated at the head of her class. 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 institutions 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 classes."[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 institution 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 institution "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 class 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
classmates, 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 practitioners. 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 snatch the bread from the mouths of
poor practitioners." 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 entitled, 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 sex 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 space 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 practitioners
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 noble
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 sex 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 ennobled, 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 illustrated 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 classical
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 God'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 manuscript
copy was recently found in Copenhagen, and it has since been published
by Teubner of Leipsic, under the title of _Hildegard's Causae et Curae_.
[189] _Archiv fuer Pathologische Anatomie und Physiologie und fuer
Klinische Medicin_, Band 18, p. 286, Berlin.
[190] _S. Hildegardis Opera Omnia_, Ed. Migne, p. 1122, Paris, 1882.
[191] "In the municipal and state institutions 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,
Assecla Naturae, vitae paranympha, salutis
Promula fida; magis Lachesis soror, Atropos hostis.
Morbi pernicies, gravis adversaria mortis.
quoted in the appendix, p. xxxii, to S. de Renzi's, _Storia Documentata
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 Documentata 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 title _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 Justitieratum Principatus citra Serras
Montorii constitutis 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 principale exercitium cirurgie
sufficiens circumspecto in talibus judicio reputatur. Propter quod
excellentie nostre supplicavit attentius ut licentiam sibi dignaremus
concedere in arte hujusmodi practicandi. Quia igitur per scriptum
puplicum 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 vetite 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 Justitieratum jam dictum auctoritate
presentium impartimus. Quare fidelitati vestre precipimus quatenus
eandem Franciscam curare et practicari in prefata arte per Justitieratum
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."
_Collectio Salernitana_, Tom. III, p. 338, by G. Henschel, C. Daremberg,
and S. de Renzi, Naples, 1852-59.
[200] _Universities in the Middle Ages_, Vol. II, Part II, p. 712, by H.
Rashdall, Oxford, 1895. The most exhaustive work on the University of
Salerno and its famous doctors, men and women, is a joint work in five
volumes entitled _Collectio Salernitana; ossia Documenti Inediti e
Trattati di Medicina appartenenti alla scuola Salernitana, raccolti e
illustrati_, by G. Henschel, C. Daremberg e S. Renzi, Naples, 1852-59.
Cf. also, _Storia Documentata della Scuola Medica di Salerno_, by S. de
Renzi, Naples, 1857; _L'Ecole de Salerne_, by C. Meaux, with
introduction by C. Daremberg, Paris, 1880, and Piero Giacosa's _Magistri
Salernitani Nondum Editi_, Turin, 1891.
[201] _Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis_, Tom. II, p. 150, and pp.
255 and 267, by Denifle and Chatelain, Paris, 1889-1891.
[202] "Mulier antea permitteret se mori, quam secreta infirmitatis sui
homini revelare propter honestatem sexus muliebris et propter
verecundiam quam revelando pateretur." _Chartularium Universitatis
Parisiensis_, Tom. II, p. 264, Paris, 1891.
[203] It may interest the reader to know that the first two women to get
the doctorate in the Paris School of Medicine were Miss Elizabeth
Garret, an English woman, and Miss Mary Putnam, an American. The first
woman permitted to practice in the Paris hospitals was likewise an
American, Miss Augusta Klumpke, of San Francisco.
[204] "Possunt et vir et foemina medici esse." Cf. Chiappelli, _Medicina
negli Ultimi Tre Secoli del Medio Evo_, Milan, 1885.
[205] Quoted in _Woman's Work and Woman's Culture_, p. 87, Josephine E.
Butler, London, 1869. Dom Gasquet in his _English Monastic Life_, p.
175, tells us that in the Wiltshire convents "the young maids learned
needlework, the art of confectionery, surgery--for anciently there were
no apothecaries or surgeons; the gentlewomen did cure their poor
neighbors--physic, drawing, etc."
[206] The first woman to receive the doctorate of medicine in Germany
was Frau Dorothea Christin Erxleben. Hers, however, was a wholly
exceptional case, and required the intervention of no less a personage
than Frederick the Great. In 1754, Frau Erxleben, who had made a
thorough course of humanities under her father, presented herself before
the faculty of the University of Halle, where she passed an oral
examination in Latin which lasted two hours. So impressed were the
examiners by her knowledge and eloquence that they did not hesitate to
adjudge her worthy of the coveted degree, which was accorded her by
virtue of a royal edict.
Her reception of the doctorate was made the occasion of a most
enthusiastic demonstration in her honor. Felicitations poured in upon
her from all quarters in both prose and verse. One of them, in lapidary
style, runs as follows:
"Stupete nova litteraria,
In Italia nonnumquam,
In Germania nunquam
Visa vel audita
At quo rarius eo carius."
This, freely translated, adverts to the fact that an event, which before
had been witnessed only in Italy, was then being celebrated in Germany
for the first time, and was, for that very reason, specially deserving
of commemoration.
[207] "Nemo masculus aut foemina, seu Christianus vel Judaeus, nisi
Magister vel Licentiatus in Medicina foret, auderet humano corpori
mederi in physica vel in chyrurgia." Marini, _Archiatri Pontifici_, Tom.
I, p. 199, Roma, 1784.
[208] Thomas Aquinas, the Angel of the Schools, who had taught in
Salerno, and was well acquainted with the leading universities of
Europe, was wont to say "Quattuor sunt urbes caeteris praeeminentes,
Parisius in Scientiis, Salernum in Medicinis, Bononia in legibus,
Aurelianis in actoribus--" there are four preeminent cities: Paris, in
the sciences; Salerno, in medicine; Bologna, in law; Orleans, in actors.
Op. 17. _De Virtutibus et Vitiis_, Cap. ult.
The mediaeval poet, Galfrido, expressed the same idea in verse when he
wrote:
"In morbis sanat medici virtute Salernum
Aegros: in causis Bononia legibus armat
Nudos: Parisius dispensat in artibus illos
Panes, unde cibat robustos: Aurelianis
Educat in cunis actorum lacte tenellos."
[209] It may be remarked that it was a woman, Lady Mary Montagu, who
introduced inoculation with small-pox virus into Western Europe, and
that it was also a woman--a simple English milkmaid--who communicated to
Jenner the information which led to his discovery of a prophylactic
against small-pox. But of far greater importance was the introduction
into Europe of that priceless febrifuge and antiperiodic--chinchona
bark. This was due to the Countess of Chinchon, vicereine of Peru.
Having been cured by its virtues of an aggravated case of tertian fever
in 1638, while living in Lima, she lost no time, on her return to Spain,
in making known to the world the marvelous curative properties of the
precious quinine-producing bark. The powder made from the bark was most
appropriately called _Pulvis Comitessae_--the countess's powder--and by
this name it was long known to druggists and in commerce. Thanks to
Linnaeus, the memory of the gracious lady will always be kept green,
because her name is now borne by nearly eight score species of the
beautiful trees which constitute the great and incomparable genus
Chinchona. See _A Memoir of the Lady Ana de Osorio, Countess of
Chinchon, and Vice-Queen of Peru_, by Clements R. Markham, London, 1874.
[210] _Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women_, p. 70,
by Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, London, 1895.
[211] Ibid., p. 91.
[212]
"Young ladies all, of every clime,
Especially of Britain
Who wholly occupy your time
In novels or in knitting,
Whose highest skill is but to play,
Sing, dance or French to clack well,
Reflect on the example, pray,
Of excellent Miss Blackwell.
...*...*...*...*
"For Doctrix Blackwell, that's the way
To dub in rightful gender--
In her profession, ever may
Prosperity attend her.
Punch a gold-headed parasol
Suggests for presentation
To one so well deserving all
Esteem and Admiration."
[213] Op. cit., p. 241.
[214] For an interesting account of the long campaign for the admission
of women to medical schools and practice, see _Medical Women--A Thesis
and a History_, by Dr. Sophia Jex-Blake, Edinburgh, 1886.
For a more elaborate work on women in medicine, the reader may consult
with profit, _Histoire des Femmes Medecins_, by Mlle. Melanie Lepinska,
Paris, 1900.