The Directors would, however, take this first public occasion to

express their sense of the value of Dr. Storer’s professional services

and of the aid which he has rendered to the Treasury of the Hospital.

Cheerfully bearing witness to his talent and active zeal in his

profession, they offer him their best wishes for his future success.

Dr. Storer’s letter containing his resignation was remarkable for its

expressions of misunderstanding of the resolutions quoted above and for

its misrepresentation of the general charitable policy of the Hospital.

But it was chiefly remarkable for the needlessly offensive manner in

which the writer revealed his personal disapproval of the study of

medicine by women. Yet he condescended on second thought to qualify the

latter statement, by adding:

For certain of the professional ladies whom I have met, I have

personally the highest respect and esteem. Miss Zakrzewska, the

beauty and purity of whose life as already published to the world I

have long seen verified, may well challenge comparison in practice

with a certain percentage of my own sex. Miss Tyng, now for two

years my assistant in private practice, has such natural tastes and

inclinations as fit her, more than I should have supposed any woman

could have become fitted, for the anxieties, the nervous strain and

the shocks of the practice of surgery. And there are others not now

officially connected with the Hospital whose names I would mention in

terms of similar commendation.

Such are, however, at the best, but very exceptional cases, and I am

driven back to my old belief, the same that is entertained by the mass

of mankind, that in claiming this especial work of medicine women have

mistaken their calling.

An interesting by-action of the writer was his concurrent sending of

this extraordinary letter of resignation to the _Boston Medical and

Surgical Journal_ for publication. This journal has already been

quoted as being opposed to the entrance of women into the medical

profession, and at this time and for many subsequent years, it still

continued its attitude of opposition.

It is of a certain interest to note here that Dr. Storer once more

emerged in public to express his sex-peculiar views regarding women

physicians. This was in San Francisco in 1871, when, at the annual

meeting of the American Medical Association, the question of women

as delegates and members was brought into the debate upon a related

subject. In the discussion, Dr. Storer spoke in opposition, saying:

... We will grant that some exceptional women are as interested in

our science as ourselves; that some of them have those peculiar

qualities, that especial temperament, that gives them not merely a

taste for anatomy and surgery but courage to face the greatest dangers

and anxiety in surgery; and that there are some women who are able

to go out in inclement weather and brave the storm. We may grant

that women, some of them, may have had peculiar means or favorable

opportunities which allow them to get this same education that men

have. We may grant, and grant it freely, that in some matters, women

intellectually, are as completely mistresses of their subject as we

are masters of ours.

But, beyond this there is a point that is fundamental to the whole

matter ... and that is, this inherent quality in their sex, that

uncertain equilibrium, that varying from month to month according to

the time of the month in each woman that unfits her for taking these

responsibilities of judgment which are to control the question often

of life and death ... women from month to month and week to week vary

up and down; they are not the same one time that they are another.

To this, Dr. Gibbons of San Francisco replied:

If we are to judge of this proposition by the arguments of my friend

from Boston, I think it would prove conclusively the weakness of his

side of the question.... Is it not a fact that a large majority of

male practitioners fluctuate in their judgment, not once a month with

the moon, but every day with the movement of the sun....

Thus are some of the humorous pages of history made.

However, this seems to have been the last time that the subject of

women as members was discussed in that Association. In 1876, the

first woman delegate (Dr. Sarah Hackett Stevenson, from the Illinois

State Medical Society) was seated amid cheers. And in 1877, Dr. Henry

I. Bowditch of Boston, in his presidential address, congratulated the

Association that women physicians had been invited to assist in the

deliberations.

CHAPTER XXX

_New England Hospital students granted the privilege of visiting

Massachusetts General Hospital--Letter from University of Zurich

stating women are admitted on equal terms with men--Extracts from

letter by Dr. Zakrzewska to Dr. Sewall on vacation in Europe--Sophia

Jex-Blake collects endowment for four free beds--Dr. Samuel Cabot

resumes his position of consulting surgeon--Dr. Zakrzewska resigns

from service at the Dispensary, being succeeded by Dr. Helen

Morton--Dr. Zakrzewska shares her service at the Hospital with Dr.

Sewall who is appointed second attending physician--Land bought in

Roxbury for new Hospital buildings. (1866-1871.)_

Returning to our chronicle of 1866, the immediate consequence of the

foregoing tempest was that the Hospital remained for the rest of the

year without either attending or consulting surgeon, the surgical

cases being treated by the assistant surgeon, with the aid of Dr.

Samuel Cabot (acting unofficially), and by the attending and resident

physicians--Dr. Zakrzewska and Dr. Sewall.

The annual report of this year notes the receipt of the first annual

report of the Chicago Hospital for Women and Children, founded by Dr.

Mary Harris Thompson.[12] This institution may be called the oldest

hospital daughter of Dr. Zakrzewska, a previous attempt by Dr. C.

Annette Buckel[13] to open a woman’s hospital being obliged to yield in

its infancy to the greater interests excited by the outbreak of the

Civil War, Dr. Buckel giving her services to the Sanitary Commission.

An important event of the year 1866-1867 was the granting to the

New England Hospital students of the privilege of visiting the

Massachusetts General Hospital under certain restrictions.

The house at 14 Warren Street (changed to Warrenton Street the

following year) was now used for the medical and surgical wards and

for the offices of the assistant physician and the matron. Of the

Pleasant Street houses, No. 13 was the house of the resident physician,

No. 15 contained the Lying-in Wards, and No. 17 was given over to the

Dispensary.

Once more the course of the Hospital becomes the uneventful one of

quiet, continuous growth, and Dr. Zakrzewska as attending physician

concludes her report for 1867-1868, as follows:

The Hospital and Dispensary are established; many physicians who a few

years ago were opposed to female practitioners have not only become

convinced of their professional capability, but several have been

willing to give instruction and aid in any way possible.

The Massachusetts General Hospital has been admitting the few students

whom we consider under our guidance and instruction. We have good

reason to hope that this friendly relation will continue. Harvard

College is still closed against us for theoretical instruction, but

I do not think that free, liberal America will remain long behind

another republic across the ocean--I mean Switzerland.

One of our students who made application to the University of Zurich,

received the following reply:

_Zurich, May 6, 1868._

DEAR MADAM:

I reply to your letter of March 17 which has just come to hand. I have

the honor to inform you that there exists in this University no lawful

impediment to the matriculation of female students, and that female

students enjoy equal advantages with male students.

_There is here full liberty_, and every one may attend the

lectures as long as he may desire. The majority of the students need

from five to five and a half years’ course before taking their degree.

In answer to other questions of yours, I send you some printed

regulations of the University.

I am, with great esteem,

Yours,

BIERMER,

Professor and Dean of Medical Faculty.

The University of Zurich is known as one where only men of the highest

standing in the profession are employed to instruct the students.

Such names as Moleschott, Griesinger, Breslau, von Graefe, Horner,

Mayer, and Billroth are familiar as authorities in the medical world,

and these men have been, and still are, the most influential teachers

there.

In Paris, also, women can have the same advantages as men. And in

America the time is rapidly approaching when through the deeds and

words of women the profession at large will be convinced of the wisdom

of following the same course.

A breath of encouragement was at this time wafted from New York in

a speech by Dr. Willard Parker, this noted physician saying at the

opening of the Woman’s College of the New York Infirmary, which took

place on November 2, 1868:

Woman has always been a helpmeet to man and to a great extent is a

co-worker with him, and as such in medicine, I bid her Godspeed. If

it is charged that women who study medicine are sometimes unfit for

practice, I would answer--so are many men. A doctor is born, not made,

and is, naturally, found in both sexes.

In the summer of 1868, Dr. Lucy E. Sewall, who was continuing as

resident physician, took a vacation of three months in England and

France for recreation and study. In a letter to her, dated July 16, Dr.

Zakrzewska writing from her new address, No. 1041 Washington Street,

says:

I have hardly anything to report except that we have had intensely hot

weather since you left, such as I have not experienced since the first

year of my arrival in America. The thermometer stood at ninety-six

degrees in our parlor in Roxbury, and we felt that we were cooling

ourselves when we entered there. Yesterday, it was one hundred and

three in the shade out of doors.... I envied you very much when I read

how cool you were in Halifax and thereabouts. I am sure I would have

been very glad to play the lady with you. You will now understand how

pleasant it is to be away from business for a while.

Dr. Buckel will write you all about the Hospital. You need not worry

in the least as all is going on well. At our last Hospital meeting

Mrs. Cheney reported, “I feared very much for the Hospital when I saw

how heartbroken the patients were after Dr. Sewall’s departure. But a

day after they sang the praises of Dr. Buckel as loudly as if they had

never known Dr. Sewall.”

To this report I added, “It is the old story although a very

unsatisfactory one. Our places are filled just as soon as we leave

them. And we all have to learn that lesson and feel comforted by it

because it is thus that the world does not get off its hinges.”

The day before yesterday, we had our housewarming--I missed you very

much.... The heat has prevented me from going to Melrose [Dr. Sewall’s

home] so far; all we can do is to live and to fan....

Within the two years just closing, the financial pressure began to be

relieved and four free beds were established in the medical wards.

About the same time, it was decided to charge at the Dispensary a

fee of twenty-five cents to such of the patients as were able to pay

this amount. The results exceeded all expectations. The patients

acknowledged the fairness of the rule and yet the really poor were not

shut out.

Nevertheless, it was at the close of this year, as already noted, that

the Hospital was obliged to borrow money to meet its outstanding debts.

This was truly the darkest hour and it was followed by the dawn of

which the proverb speaks. As the sunshine of help from the community

grew stronger, it was possible steadily to extend the ministrations of

the Hospital to the more dependent, so the report of 1898-1899 was able

to state:

Nearly (if not quite) two thirds of all our work is given in charity

... though we are slow to give charity indiscriminately but would

have each one make some return, however small, for benefits received,

thereby aiding her to keep her self-respect.

The treasurer’s report for the year of 1868 notes the receipt of one

thousand dollars which was collected by Miss Sophia Jex-Blake for

supporting four free beds. Sophia Jex-Blake came to this country as a

student of Dr. Sewall and was a resident student at the Hospital. She

went later to the newly opened Woman’s Medical College of the New York

Infirmary, and still later she returned to Great Britain and became the

leader in the struggle which attended the attempt to open to women the

medical course at the University of Edinburgh--reference to which has

been made by Dr. Zakrzewska in a previous chapter. The attempt failed

and she went to Switzerland where the men students at the University

of Berne seemed to find no difficulty in permitting women to study

medicine with them.[14]

The year of 1869 was especially noteworthy for the burden which was

lifted from Dr. Zakrzewska’s mind by the official return of Dr. Samuel

Cabot to the consulting staff of the Hospital, though ever since his

formal resignation in June, 1866, he had continued to advise the women

who, against almost insurmountable obstacles, were struggling to

give the surgical help called for by the increasing numbers of their

patients.

If one requires expert teaching and constant practice to learn to

diagnosticate and prescribe for medical ailments, it is much more

difficult for one to learn to diagnosticate and prescribe for surgical

ailments, since a surgical prescription demands trained skill of the

hands as well as of the brain. And opportunities for acquiring this

trained skill of the hands are at the best very limited in number and

very expensive in detail, while they also require a very exacting

environment and an entourage trained to the highest degree. And they

are, further, beset on all sides by dangers which are momentous and

immediate as well as more remote.

It is a fine index of the essential quality of these earlier women that

they were not daunted by the difficulties of the situation, and that

the conservative spirit of the sex was not too much affrighted by the

dangers which on every hand confronted them and their patients.

Under the necessities of the situation, a friendly surgeon of the

eminence of Dr. Samuel Cabot was a veritable tower of strength.

Well might Dr. Zakrzewska, with gratitude that failed of words to

express itself, say year after year in her annual report as attending

physician, “To Dr. Samuel Cabot, we are again indebted for advice and

instruction in all the important surgical cases which have occurred

during the year.”

Dr. Anita E. Tyng who had spent her apprenticeship as assistant surgeon

to the Hospital, had been obliged to resign her position there, but Dr.

Zakrzewska and Dr. Sewall were ably assisted in this branch of practice

by Dr. C. Annette Buckel who had been assistant physician for the past

three years and who, having particular ability for surgery, desired

to specialize in that direction. They were now aided also by Dr. Helen

Morton[15] who had returned from Paris and had become connected with

the Dispensary.

With the arrival of such capable assistants among the younger

women who had all been her students, Dr. Zakrzewska felt justified

in relinquishing some of her arduous duties. And now her leading

assistant, Dr. Lucy E. Sewall, resigned as resident physician (a

position which she had held since 1863) and was appointed second

attending physician. She thus divided the Hospital service with Dr.

Zakrzewska, each being on duty every alternate three months.

[Illustration: MARIE E. ZAKRZEWSKA, M.D. (About 1870)]

Dr. Zakrzewska continued to serve on the board of directors as she had

done since the beginning of the Hospital, but the added freedom gained

by being released from work at the Dispensary and in being able to

share her Hospital duties, gave her greater opportunity to elaborate

and press forward her plans for building a hospital which should be

more suitable for its purposes than any altered dwelling houses could

possibly be. Writing of the successes achieved by the Hospital and of

the satisfactions derived from its possession of the four houses in

Warrenton and Pleasant streets, she continues:

But after a few years, we found that even these accommodations were

becoming too small. Also, the character of the neighborhood was

changing from private residences to retail trading stores, and it was

easy to foresee that the time was coming when this location would be

entirely unsuitable for the sick.

As it was neither my intention nor that of the Directors to carry

on simply a charity, but rather to make this charity at the same

time a school for educating women physicians on the European plan

before mentioned and for the training of nurses for the benefit of

the community, we felt that confidence in the value and need of our

work had now been sufficiently established to warrant our erecting

a building which would serve all these purposes and which in its

arrangement might become a model hospital among the charitable

institutions of the country.

About this time an especially interesting bequest of two thousand

dollars was received by the Hospital from the estate of Mrs. Robert G.

Shaw, the language of the bequest stating that the money was “to be

used by Dr. Zakrzewska in aid of any Hospital or Infirmary for the poor

and sick which may be under her superintendence in the City of Boston

at the time of my decease.”

The accumulating demand for a children’s ward in the Hospital was

so strongly felt this year that one of the physicians took into her

own household for care and treatment a child patient whose case was

particularly urgent.

This pressure for a children’s ward was an additional factor in making

Dr. Zakrzewska and her associates begin a still more definite campaign

for the erection of new hospital buildings which should be especially

suitable for the varied demands made upon them. Alterations in the

streets and increase of business in that part of the city had enhanced

the pecuniary value of land in that vicinity, so it was hoped that the

sale of the present property would supply the money needed for building

the new structure. It was planned to hold a Fair in December in order

to raise the money needed for the purchase of the new land.

And one may judge of the courage required to attempt to carry such

ambitions into execution when it is noted that the institution had just

held its own financially, the year closing with the same amount of debt

as that with which it began.

The Fair in December, 1870, justified the ardent hopes which breathed

through every detail of its preparation and completion, and over twelve

thousand dollars was realized.

A committee was immediately appointed to select a site, and after much

investigation this committee recommended the purchase of an estate in

Boston Highlands (now Roxbury), on Codman Avenue (now Dimock Street),

between Shawmut Avenue (now Washington Street) and Amory Street (now

Columbus Avenue).

With the formation of a building committee (which included all the

medical officers) the new venture was definitely launched. The skies

were lifting, favoring breezes prevailed, and the year closed with

all running expenses met, all debts paid, and only the new building

expenses to confront the treasurer--but it must be admitted that these

were formidable enough, since they were on such an expanded scale.

The report of the resident physician, Dr. Buckel, for the year of

1870-1871 reflects so clearly her association with Dr. Zakrzewska

and contains such interesting pictures of some phases of the social

life of the period that a few paragraphs may be quoted, especially as

some of them bear upon variations of a question which to-day is still

perplexing our community, and which has at last reached legislators all

over the United States in a concrete and radical form.[16]

CHAPTER XXXI

_New Hospital buildings completed--Description of buildings and

interior arrangements--Children’s Department established--First

general Training School for Nurses in America definitely organized

under the direction of Dr. Susan Dimock; one of the graduates of

its first class (Miss Linda A. Richards) later helping to organize

the training schools of the Bellevue Hospital of New York, the

Massachusetts General Hospital and the Boston City Hospital--New

England Hospital medical women invited to attend some of the Clinics

at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary--Though delayed by the

epizoötic epidemic and the great Boston Fire, the new Hospital

buildings are finally formally dedicated--First Hospital Social

Service in America organized in connection with the Maternity.

(1871-1872.)_

Architects, contractors, builders and workmen, all took a personal

interest in the plans of the new Hospital buildings, and all made

larger or smaller contributions to the enterprise. With such a spirit

the structure grew apace, and even early in the spring of 1872 a few

patients were moved in--some who especially needed the advantages of

the good air, sunlight and almost country quiet. But all the patients

were transferred before the end of September.

[Illustration: FIRST BUILDINGS OF THE NEW ENGLAND HOSPITAL FOR

WOMEN AND CHILDREN, ERECTED 1872.

The main building was later named in honor of Dr. Marie E. Zakrzewska.]

Dr. Zakrzewska writes:

At last we were able definitely to inaugurate the work for which we

had been preparing during the previous ten years, namely, to dedicate

our own building to our threefold object--a clinical school for women

physicians and students; a training school for nurses; and a charity,

especially for lying-in patients.

For this latter purpose a cottage, the “Maternity,” was expressly

built, while the medical and surgical patients occupied the main

building. Some rooms were reserved for private patients, who paid

fully for all they received. This latter department is very desirable

in all hospitals, not only for the accommodation of travelers who

may be taken ill while sojourning in a strange city, but also for

those who when boarding cannot have the comforts of a home; while it

likewise gives to our nurses a fair chance to be trained in attendance

upon the sick of all classes and conditions of life.

Thus we had arrived nearly at the point at which we aimed, only that

the means needed to carry on the work were not yet secured. We had no

endowed wards and we had only a few endowed beds in the Maternity;

therefore, we had no _Funds_ but must depend upon the daily

interest of the public to sustain the institution.

We now offered to the public not only the idea of reform, as we

comprehended it, but also the visible embodiment of it in brick and

mortar. Our vision had become materialized, and the work done within

its walls spread the tidings of its success among the suffering and

the needy.

The Drs. Blackwell, Ann Preston and myself stood no longer alone as

the bearers of an idea--hundreds of young women had joined us. The

path had been broken, and the profession had been obliged to yield,

and to acknowledge the capacity of women as physicians. The argument

that we few were exceptions to our sex has ceased; medical societies

in different parts of the country admit women as members; hospitals

begin to open their doors to women; men physicians endeavor to be

polite towards their women colleagues; and their women colleagues

certainly stand on a level with the men as regards good education.

And last but not least, society admits that it is highly respectable

for a woman to become legally a physician, and offices and houses are

now rented to medical women without fear of injury to the reputation

of the neighborhood.

Thus, the world does move! But I am sorry to be forced to say that it

is not the Republic of America which has given the proof that “science

has no sex,” only in so far as that it has furnished the largest

number of women students. But it is the Republic of Switzerland which

has verified this maxim. Our best women physicians have been educated

there as well as in Germany and in France--for even these two latter

countries have received women into their schools more on an equality

with men than has America. And not less than six of our pupils from

Boston are at present receiving the benefits which the opportunities

for medical study and research offer in Vienna.

The United States still hesitate to allow to their women that

education which they offer to their men. The result will be that

talented women will go abroad and seek for the better medical

education which Europe offers them and, returning with a higher

standard of scientific learning, the men here will not only be obliged

to acknowledge such women as their equals but they will be compelled

to raise their own professional standards.

So far as my knowledge extends, this will be the first instance in

history where through injustice to women, men themselves will be

benefited.

The plan was to have one large brick building which should contain all

the administrative offices of the Hospital as well as a small number

of medical and surgical wards, the intention being to add later a wing

entirely devoted to wards. But the Lying-in Department was to be housed

in an entirely separate structure.[17]

Quite as essential and desired a policy of expansion, but one which had

waited on the new building, was that of the training of nurses.

We have seen the importance which Dr. Zakrzewska attached to this

question ever since her first hospital control, back in the days when

she organized the practical details of the New York Infirmary. And we

have noticed the recurring references to the difficulties which delayed

the full development of her plans. But she continued to exercise her

choice of individuals as best she might, and she endeavored to give

the most thorough training for as long periods as she could make

practicable.

Thus, writing of the opening of the New York Infirmary on May 1, 1857,

she says:

We kept true to our promise to begin at once a system for training

nurses although the time specified for that purpose was only six

months.

She began with two nurses, one of whom remained for several years,

becoming invaluable as head nurse. But she was evidently not satisfied

with the success of this first system for, eight months later, she

says:

We now began to make more positive plans for the education and

training of nurses. The first two who presented herself and who after

four months’ superior women, one a German, the other an American, but

neither was willing to give a longer time than four months. During

this time they received no compensation except their keeping and one

weekly lesson from me on the different branches of nursing.

After these left, it was again a German woman who presented herself

and who after four months’ training remained for several years. The

second pupil nurse was sometimes of American, sometimes of Irish,

descent and nothing remarkable.

When she removed to Boston and opened the hospital (Clinical

Department) in connection with the New England Female Medical College,

she there also attempted to carry into execution her conviction of the

necessity for training nurses. But in Boston as in New York, women

who wished to be nurses were unwilling to give time for training, and

applications were few. Nevertheless, she succeeded in training six

nurses.

When she founded the New England Hospital, the act of incorporation

expressly stated that the training of nurses was one of the fundamental

purposes of the new institution. And the first annual report says:

We offer peculiar advantages for training nurses for their important

duties, under the superintendence of a physician.

In 1865, the term of six months is again emphasized. In 1868, it is

stated that the Hospital offers to candidates board, washing and

low wages after the first month of probation but it insists on an

attendance of six months. And it adds that few women are willing to

give the requisite time.

But now, at last, she found the desired opportunities opening before

her. Aside from the influence of European experience, and especially

that of Florence Nightingale and of the subsequent writings and

utterances of the latter, undoubtedly the agitation which demonstrated

the necessity for practical hospital training for the medical

profession, had its effect in preparing the minds of both men and women

for the realization of the fact that the same necessity existed for the

training of members of the sister profession of nursing.

And the lectures to the New England Hospital nurses (which, under

certain conditions, were open to women from outside) were steadily

attracting women who were better and better prepared to study a

profession rather than merely to practice an art.

But Dr. Zakrzewska had still found herself hampered by the narrow

quarters which restricted her plans for nurses as well as for doctors,

students and patients. She had been still further limited by the human

impossibility of even her vigorous strength and endurance being equal

to the superhuman demands developed by the successful materialization

of her vision. And the training of assistants and colleagues required

primarily a sacrifice of the time and energy already imperatively

mortgaged.

Now, not only was the material building ready for the Hospital, but

also there was there incarnated the spirit of a common purpose, a

spirit into the creation of which she had so literally incorporated her

own self.

Hence, as the executive Head, she now had at her command not only a

commodious structure but also director associates; a corps of younger

physicians, trained theoretically and practically in both medicine

and surgery; a supply of patients, always beyond the possibilities of

accommodation; and a promising reservoir of aspiring women accepting

and demanding training in nursing.

Immediately then, upon the opening of the new building, steps were

taken for the expansion of the New England Hospital Training School for

Nurses, and for its establishment as the “first general training school

for nurses in America,” organized and equipped to give general training

along the then most modern practical lines, with a full corps of

instructors in all branches, and with a hospital service that included

medicine, surgery and obstetrics. This change was described in the

annual reports of the year of 1871-1872, by Dr. Sewall in the medical

report and by Mrs. Ednah D. Cheney as secretary of the corporation.

In addition to performing her duties at the Hospital and attending

to her continually expanding private practice, Dr. Zakrzewska served

on both the building committee and the furnishing committee for the

new hospital. But while, among the staff of medical instructors, she

delivered the greatest number of lectures, the details of organizing

the new Training School for Nurses were delegated to Dr. Susan

Dimock,[18] who became resident physician in August when Dr. Buckel

received leave of absence to go to Europe for rest and study.

During the first year of the new Training School for Nurses ten

applicants were accepted after probation, two of these completing

the year and being graduated. One of these first graduates was Miss

Linda A. Richards who later helped to organize the Bellevue Hospital

(New York) Training School, and still later that of the Massachusetts

General Hospital and that of the Boston City Hospital.

During this eventful year, two important financial losses shadowed the

high light thrown upon the foregoing successful working out of the

far-reaching plans which Dr. Zakrzewska had for so long labored to

develop. These were the loss of the annual donations of one thousand

dollars each from the Legislature of Massachusetts and from the Boston

Lying-in Hospital Corporation--the former having voted against any

appropriation to private charities, and the latter having decided to

reopen a hospital under its own control, in the overcrowded part of the

city. Hence, it was again considered expedient to plan for a December

Fair. But many days of doubt and hesitancy were to precede the opening

of this Fair.

It had been planned to have the formal dedication of the new building

take place at the time of the annual meeting of the board of directors.

As this day approached it was found that it would be impossible for the

friends of the enterprise to reach the new location of the Hospital.

The great epizootic epidemic was prevailing; horses were everywhere

succumbing to its virulence, and all the activities of the city which

depended upon these necessary animals were almost paralyzed.

A fortnight later traffic was more controllable, but in the meantime

every one had passed through the calamity of the great “Boston Fire,”

and Mrs. Cheney spoke the language of restraint when she said, “It was

not easy to go to men whose warehouses and offices were in ashes, or to

women who had lost their investments in insurance, and ask them to give

us the money that we needed to complete our building and to carry on

our work.”

Under such circumstances it redounded to the credit of both the

hospital workers and the community of Boston that the formal opening of

the Hospital was not longer delayed, that the Fair was held in December

as planned, and that it resulted in a sum exceeding five thousand

dollars.

It is important to note that it was also during this year that the

first Hospital Social Service work in America was begun. This was

organized in connection with the Maternity--Dr. Dimock, Miss Lilian

Freeman Clarke, Miss Elizabeth Greene and Miss Mary Parkman coöperating.

And this year was further marked by the opening to the New England

Hospital medical women of some of the clinics of the Massachusetts Eye

and Ear Infirmary.

CHAPTER XXXII

_Dr. Zakrzewska goes to Europe for her first vacation in fifteen

years--Letter to Dr. Sewall from Switzerland--Dr. Helen Morton is

appointed third attending physician to the Hospital (in charge of

the Maternity)--Tragic death of Dr. Dimock--For the first time the

Hospital has a woman on the staff as attending surgeon, Dr. C. Annette

Buckel being thus appointed--The Hospital is represented by exhibits

at the Centennial International Exhibition, the plans and elevations

of the new buildings receiving an award--Mrs. Cheney writes from

Europe of the interest taken over there in the Hospital, and the

looking toward it from England, Scotland and Germany for encouragement

and help. (1872-1877.)_

The addition of a third attending physician at the Hospital (Dr. Helen

Morton who took charge of the Maternity) and the continued increase in

the number of younger doctors still further relieved Dr. Zakrzewska and

enabled her in the summer of 1874 to go to Europe for a long-deferred

but much-needed vacation. The constantly growing demands in both

Hospital and private practice upon her professional skill, and in the

community at large upon the many gifts of her broad personality, became

at last a breaking strain upon the vitality so grievously depleted by

the pioneer work of these first fifteen years in Boston.

Midway in this resting time (August 19, 1874) she writes to Dr. Sewall:

My vacation is half over, and just now I am enjoying a short stay in

the queerest little old town and ditto hotel between the Bernese and

Wallis Alps. Such a rest from work and care I have never had in all

my life! My head is getting steady once more and, although I am not

yet as quiet in my upper regions as I ought to be if I want again to

work hard, I am certainly very, very much better than I was at the

time I started from Boston. I have had only slight headaches, never

sufficient to lie down, and I am much less confused, in spite of the

three languages around me.

We travel in a very leisurely way, different from tourists, for we

stop and sojourn wherever the fancy happens to take us. In this way,

we have seen a great deal of Switzerland, and have enjoyed the usual

places of interest as well as the out-of-the-way places such as where

we are now.

I have so often thought of you and of what you are doing and have

followed you in your summer’s work. I suppose just now you are away on

your vacation. What I am most curious about is whether you succeeded

in selling your present house, and whether you bought that nice one on

Boylston Street. It would be such a beautiful situation that I wish I

could find you settled there on my return.

... However beautiful all around me is here, I long for home and my

friends. My home in Roxbury is, after all, the most desirable spot for

me, and the few but true and kind friends I have made in America are

far dearer to me than all I could possibly find here in Europe.

After this journey, I shall be more positive in my love for my

American home than I ever was before. The very freedom one breathes in

the air there is refreshing and stimulating compared with the air of

servility, destitution and depravity which an observing person sees

everywhere here. How Americans can prefer to live over here is to me

incomprehensible.

... Miss Sprague has hardly yet got over the effects of her

seasickness, and in four and a half weeks we shall undertake the

journey again. We hope to be in Boston by the 2d of October ready for

work. Please tell Dr. Dimock of the very pleasant call I had from

Professor Meyer and that he gave me his picture to bring home to her.

I hope she is doing well and can wait for my help till October.

I have little time for letter writing, as I am too tired to write at

night and, besides, my eyes have given out. For the past few weeks, I

can neither read nor thread a needle by candlelight, and often even by

daylight everything is in a blur.

But tell Dr. Dimock I am thinking a good deal about her and hope

she will not work too hard, so that she can bear the winter’s

responsibility and have her turn here in Europe next summer.

In the spring of 1875 as planned in this letter, Dr. Dimock who was

acting as attending surgeon, in addition to her duties as resident and

attending physician, obtained leave of absence and sailed for Europe

to undertake additional surgical study, but she had the misfortune

to be a passenger on the steamer _Schiller_ which was wrecked

on the Scilly rocks early in May. Her loss was felt keenly, not only

because of the charm of her personality but also because she had been

a representative of the hopes of the Hospital for a woman who would be

broadly fitted and trained to serve as attending surgeon. The name of

Codman Avenue, a street which ran through the hospital grounds, was

later in her memory changed to Dimock Street.

Later in the year, Dr. C. Annette Buckel, newly returned from two years

of study of surgery in Vienna and Paris, was regularly appointed as

attending surgeon. This was an important event for both Dr. Zakrzewska

and the New England Hospital because now for the first time since 1866

an attending surgeon reappears in the annual report as a member of the

staff. And this event was especially noteworthy because for the first

time the name of such staff member was that of a woman.

Although Dr. Buckel did not retain her position beyond that first year

(removing to California on account of ill health), yet her appointment

seemed to end the surgical vicissitudes of the Hospital. Never since

then has there been a time when the position of attending surgeon has

been omitted from the annual report. And never has there been lacking a

qualified woman to carry on this work. Indeed, it soon became necessary

to appoint a second attending surgeon, then a third, and then a fourth.

And to these have been added from time to time one or more assistant

surgeons. And with this conquest of the surgical field was surmounted

the last difficulty in filling staff positions with qualified women.

Dr. Zakrzewska’s vacation in Europe had lasted only a few months,

though it should have been a year or even more. Recuperation from brain

and nerve fatigue is much slower than from muscle fatigue, a lesson we

all learn only by bitter experience. Her wonderful physique once more

drew upon its vital reserves and responded to the spur of her call to

duty, and she returned to work with apparently renewed vigor.

Fortunate it was that she was able to resume the helm at the Hospital

in this eventful year of 1875, following Dr. Dimock’s untimely loss and

the necessity which had arisen for Dr. Sewall’s taking a long vacation.

For eight months it must have seemed to her almost like a reversion to

earlier days. But there was the incomparable difference that Dr. Helen

Morton now took entire charge of the Maternity, having developed at

the Paris Maternité, according to Dr. Zakrzewska, “unusual skill and

special fitness for difficult and surgical obstetric cases.” And later

Dr. Elizabeth C. Keller[19] came from Philadelphia to serve as resident

physician, she succeeding Dr. Buckel the following year as attending

surgeon and occupying this latter position for many years.

Writing of this time to Dr. Sewall in Europe, Dr. Zakrzewska says:

I think we shall all like Dr. Keller. And it is a very good thing to

have a fresh and new element come into Boston, as we tend to renew

ourselves too much from and through ourselves.

In the autumn the return of Dr. Sewall and the arrival of Dr. Keller

once more released Dr. Zakrzewska and permitted her to resume the wide

relations which she held outside the Hospital. She was constantly

called upon to express her views on the questions regarding women,

questions which were more and more appealing to the increasing number

of medical women as well as to the community at large. She responded to

these calls both in speech and in writing.

Realizing how much the interior arrangements of the new buildings were

due to the advice and planning of the medical women, it was a great

satisfaction to her that in the following year (1876) at the Centennial

International Exhibition held in Philadelphia, the plans and elevations

of the new buildings of the Hospital, together with photographic

interior views of the wards, etc., were exhibited in the names of the

architects, Messrs. Cummings and Sears, and received an award for

“well-studied design securing economy of service, good distribution of

various parts for ventilation and cheerful accommodation.”

Also that at the Centennial, a history and description of the Hospital

was displayed in the Massachusetts Exhibit in the Department of

Education and Science, and in the Woman’s Department.

In 1877 Mrs. Cheney writes to her from Europe:

All that I have seen and heard of the work of medical education

for women in Europe has deepened my sense of the importance of our

Hospital work. It is known in every circle that I have entered where

there is any interest in woman’s progress, and in England and Scotland

and Germany they look to us for encouragement and help.

There was a great improvement in the financial condition of the

Hospital during this year (1877); and among other items in the

treasurer’s report occurs the following which speaks for itself as

an interesting commentary on the policy developed by Dr. Zakrzewska

in the Hospital, as we have already seen it developed in her private

practice:

The executors of the late Mr. Augustus Hemenway devoted to us the

liberal sum of fifteen thousand dollars from the sum left by his will

to charities not promoting pauperism.

CHAPTER XXXIII

_Dr. Zakrzewska and the other pioneer medical women find a new foe

in an increasing number of medical women who are poorly educated and

otherwise unfitted--She addresses the New England Women’s Club on the

“Medical Education of Women”--Unsuccessful attempt to persuade the

New York medical colleges for men to accept scholarships for properly

prepared women--Opening of the Woman’s Medical College of the New York

Infirmary--Further movement to open for women one of the great medical

colleges for men--Dr. Zakrzewska’s comment on this proposition,

with special reference to Harvard--The New England Hospital Medical

Society--Action taken by Harvard University in 1879 on the question of

admitting women students of medicine. (1865-1880.)_

The pioneer medical women (Drs. Elizabeth Blackwell, Marie E.

Zakrzewska, Emily Blackwell, and Ann Preston) to whose successful

struggles are due, for the first time in the history of the world, the

real opening of the profession of medicine to women equally with men,

had no sooner begun to take breath after their first stupendous battle,

than they found themselves confronted with a new foe.

This foe was within the ranks of their own sex, and its development

threatened an undermining campaign which seemed almost more

disheartening than the militant one from which they had just emerged.

This new foe was the increasing number of women doctors, poorly

educated and otherwise unfitted, who began to appear all over the

country.

Because the evil was so insidious and was cloaked by the necessity and

the desire for competent medical women which had been demonstrated and

aroused throughout the country, it was most difficult to meet.

The Philadelphia women met it by striving even harder to bring up the

standard of the Woman’s Medical College and to expand the field of the

Woman’s Hospital.

The more eastern women, meaning those of New York and Boston at the

New York Infirmary and the New England Hospital, met it by trying to

establish a standard and by trying to educate both the profession and

the laity to accept nothing lower than such a standard.

To these women, the simplest as well as the wisest procedure seemed

to be an attempt to persuade some of the best of the already existing

medical colleges to accept a number of properly prepared women students.

To this end, it was proposed to inform the community at large of the

situation (the subject being really as vital to the laity as to the

profession, since doctors can practice only through patients), and to

collect a large sum of money which might serve to endow a number of

scholarships for women in some of the leading medical colleges of the

country.

As early as 1865, a fund of fifty thousand dollars had been collected

for this purpose, but all the colleges refused to accept women as

students, even under such auspices. As the situation was particularly

pressing in New York, the Drs. Blackwell were then so urged to take the

next best step (the best having proved to be beyond their power) that

they consented to add a college to their Hospital. And thus, in 1868,

was opened the Woman’s Medical College of the New York Infirmary.

This college set a standard which was never surpassed by any of the

colleges for men. But one small college insisting on a high standard

could not compete numerically with rivals offering apparently equally

desirable advantages and with standards easier of attainment. So the

campaign continued!

In 1877, Dr. Zakrzewska being invited to address a body of leading

nonmedical women (the _New England Women’s Club_), brought this

problem to them for conference. She said in part:

At first the study of medicine appealed only to earnest women who felt

a decided calling in that direction and who really thought to benefit

their sex by acquiring information which would serve others through

their advice. Very few, if any, of these first women combined with

this idea that of vindicating their rights as Women.

It was no easy matter at that time to become a doctor of medicine. The

great obstacle, want of schools, sifted out the weaker elements; and

those who succeeded in obtaining teachers and in being admitted into

the colleges then open to women were, as you will conceive, possessed

of unusual perseverance and firmness of purpose.

But soon there appeared among the candidates for medical honors

another purpose, the desire to gain these honors through simple study

during a prescribed course without any laborious work.

The first suggestion of this came through some men physicians who,

becoming alarmed at the movement and perhaps conscious of their

own mediocrity, felt instinctively that there was danger of their

being overshadowed by women, who are by nature sympathetic and more

caretaking in sickness.

These raised the cry of “competition.” Many women believed the cry

was caused by alarm at a real danger, that of the women making money

of which the men desired to retain a monopoly, and they imagined

that a new field especially adapted to their sex was opened--one in

which, with a short course of technical study, they could more easily

and rapidly than in other vocations open to them acquire a name and

abundant means of support, if not a fortune.

The laity then awoke to this movement, and that portion of them whose

head and heart were interested in the “rights” of women began to

establish schools and colleges for the purpose of educating women

physicians. And in a short time such institutions sprang up in several

cities.

After years of struggle and gradual improvement, the Philadelphia

medical school for women (Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania) has

acquired deserved value when judged by the standard of men’s schools.

And the Drs. Blackwell were later compelled to open a medical school

in connection with the Infirmary (Woman’s Medical College of the New

York Infirmary), in order to stem the flood of inferior physicians

which was pouring forth, especially in New York, from schools which

were far below mediocrity.

Thus to-day, of all the institutions open to women for medical study,

only these two and the University of Michigan even try to reach the

standard of medical education necessary to compare favorably with that

of the men.

I say, _try_ to reach that standard. By this, I do not wish to

imply that the teachers and professors in these schools are always

less capable than those in the male schools. No, the fault is in the

students themselves, and so it will be for some time to come. Here,

allow me to state why this is so and has been so for many years.

As I have said before, in the beginning of this movement women who

persisted in the study needed uncommon perseverance and firmness of

purpose. For the acquisition of these qualities, a certain amount

of educational training and concentration of thought and will were

requisite.

At present, such uncommon perseverance and determination are not so

indispensable. It is now very easy to become a physician. If the

higher and better medical schools will not admit women, the lower and

the less strict are willing to do so. Socially, the woman doctor is

respected and in some circles even lionized and ranked far above the

teacher; therefore, two great obstacles are removed.

All that a young woman needs is the permission of her parents and the

means of support while studying. Both of these are now more easily

attained, since her social position is likely to improve rather than

to decline as it formerly did.

Also, the number of schools and colleges has increased and they

require a certain number of students in order to exist. Hence arises

a rivalry among these institutions, and instead of elevating their

standard to make good women physicians some lower it in order to fill

their classes.

The effect of this sort of education is that the country is rapidly

being swarmed with women physicians of very doubtful ability as

regards either preparatory or medical education.

At the same time, the need for well-educated women physicians becomes

the more pressing, as is manifested by the ready employment they all

find, though there is no chance for discrimination between the real

and the sham article denoted by the sign “Doctor.”

Hence, in many places the movement is beginning to be again viewed

with distrust by communities which have again and again been

disappointed when hoping to find scientific education and practical

talent among the women practitioners who were offering their services

to the public.

In a word, the so hopefully sown good seeds are in danger of being

suffocated by the still more thickly sown weeds.

It is against this danger that I feel I must warn you. And I wish to

call upon every educated woman within my reach to aid in destroying

this evil.

Every individual can assist in this great reform; first, by trying to

get clear ideas on the subject in order to discriminate and to judge;

and then, to assist in every possible way those who are striving to

elevate the educational and moral standards in medicine.

Some highly educated physicians have said to me, “We see no reason

why a woman should not study medicine. If she can become wiser and

her practice better, then we _must_ have her, for our aim is the

_better_; if she cannot do this or cannot even do as well as men,

she will work her own destruction in her endeavors.”

Women should be willing to accept this or any other just test, but

in order that the experiment shall be a fair one, they must have

preparation and education and subsequent opportunity, equal to those

given to the men.

The continued refusal of the larger medical colleges to admit women,

under endowed scholarships or in any other way, led to the development

of a more ambitious plan, this being the idea of purchasing direct

partnership rights for women in one of these colleges.

But this required the raising of a much larger amount of money. In

this direction there was made in 1880, a tentative proposition which

involved the formation of a central organization with State branches,

for the purpose of collecting such large fund and then arranging for

its wise use.

The statement was made:

All sectional jealousy must be laid aside. Neither Boston, nor New

York, nor Philadelphia must insist upon being the seat of the medical

school. If Harvard would accept our conditions, it might possibly

present certain guaranties which would give it a first claim in spite

of the greater clinical advantages of the larger cities. But the

College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, and the University of

Pennsylvania and the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, must

also be considered.

In making the large united effort which seems desirable in order to

take an advance step in the education of American medical women, we

must secure that great impersonal enthusiasm for a cause which shall

be far above purely sectional pride.

When this proposition was submitted to Dr. Zakrzewska for

consideration, she replied as follows:

In order to answer your letter of July 27 carefully, I must dictate it

because an affliction of my eyes prevents me from writing myself. My

health is pretty good, and the very best of oculists declare my eyes

to be good, still the least use of them for reading or writing gives

me so much pain that it prevents sleep and unfits me for thinking

business.

The proposed crusade against the mediocre medical colleges has been

recognized as necessary, not only by myself but by all the physicians

connected with the New England Hospital. Perhaps the fact that we are

working independently of all colleges has given us a more impartial

opinion in regard to these schools. We have, I think, the best chance

to judge of the results which these schools produce because we receive

the young graduates for the practical training.

Perhaps you will remember that I wrote you four or five years ago

how discouraged I felt about the manner in which the different

female medical colleges educated and inspired their students and how

derogatory the result was to the whole movement.

... The proposition to raise one hundred thousand dollars for the

purpose of securing admission into a male college could be carried

out quite easily, comparatively speaking. In Massachusetts alone,

it could be done if Harvard would consent to add a small class of

women to its medical department. The fact is that when a few years

ago the New England Female Medical College here in Boston was broken

up, there came unofficially from some one in authority in Harvard the

proposition to take it, provided the public would endow it with one

hundred thousand dollars.

In such case, the female students would be educated in their own

building which was two miles from the building for men. However, the

examinations of the women students for entrance into the college

were to be the same as those for the men, and the instruction was to

be given by the same professors--in fact, Harvard Medical College

repeated for the benefit of women alone.

I did not favor such an arrangement but actually discouraged it,

because it seemed to me disastrous to the whole spirit of woman’s work

in the profession.

I feared that after trial professors of acknowledged rank might

declare that teaching six or twelve women was not satisfactory,

although it might recompense them financially, and that therefore

they would either give it up entirely or leave the instruction to the

younger teachers.

I could not advocate a school exposed to such a risk because if the

instructors of Harvard Medical College should become more prominent

in the woman’s branch while the professors took the lead in the men’s

branch, it would give both the students and the public the impression

that the women were of secondary importance.

Another attempt to open Harvard to women has been made within a year

or two by a lady who proposed to give ten thousand dollars towards a

fund which would pay for a class of women in the medical department.

Many discussions concerning this proposition came up in the different

meetings which were held in consequence of this offer. The result

was always the same, namely, divided opinions--entirely against the

admission of women at all; against their admission with men; and

against the formation of a small class of women alone.

The only encouraging part of the discussion was that those who were

entirely opposed to women’s studying were a very small minority, while

those against coeducation were less firm in their opposition. Besides,

I am perfectly sure that if the younger men who now hold positions as

instructors at the College could cast their votes and could influence

the Directors’ decisions, there would be more chance for the admission

of women.

The New England Female Medical College was absorbed into the Boston

University Medical Department, an inferior school and a homeopathic

one, which has no other merit than that it admits men and women on

equal terms to all its advantages; therefore, it does not injure the

movement for women any more than it does the profession at large.

Our Hospital does as good a work as any hospital carried on by medical

men. We have now two good women surgeons, and all kinds of operations

are performed as a matter of course, without being considered

extraordinary occurrences, as was formerly the case.

I can safely say that the Hospital work, which we enlarge as fast as

our means will permit, has become a power throughout the country, and

the Hospital in all its appointments is more or less acknowledged as

the most complete of any under the control of women physicians.

This is as good a picture of the situation here in Boston as I am able

to give you. If we had gained admission into the Massachusetts Medical

Society, we would stand on equal footing with the best part of the

profession.

In some of the smaller towns of Massachusetts, young women physicians

have been admitted into the county societies, and these being a part

of the Massachusetts Medical Society have thus opened a discussion

which will eventually lead to the admission of women into the parent

society, which is another step towards getting admission into Harvard

Medical Department.

On October 1, Dr. Smith who was graduated in Zurich will take the

position of resident physician with us, and we shall try to persuade

other educated women to study in Zurich so that we can fill this post

with such graduates and thus overcome little by little the opposition

to coeducation.

Can you not see from these statements that the raising of money alone

will not suffice to bring about the equally good education of women

and men? To be sure, if I had a sum large enough to endow a medical

college, I could bring about coeducation and thorough scientific

study by getting men of the best talent from both Europe and America,

but one hundred thousand dollars would be only a drop in the bucket

towards such an enterprise.

Meanwhile, we have another bright prospect in the admission of women

to the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor. Although the medical

students are not in the same classrooms, yet the lectures and the

opportunities for women are precisely the same as those for men.

The lectures are given in separate lecture rooms, except in chemistry.

The students of both sexes work together in the laboratory and are

present at most of the clinics. The work in the dissecting-rooms is

quite separate, and occasionally the women are not present at some

special operations.

The movement for educating women as physicians has become so

widespread that I think it impossible to work for the elevation of the

standard of their medical education in any other way than by having

the leading women of each state keep in view as their final aim the

opening on the basis of coeducation of the best medical colleges.

The number of persons now interested in the whole movement is so great

and the labor to raise money to maintain the institutions, even such

as they are, has required so much nerve and strength that even to hint

at their abolition or their absorption in male colleges might have a

detrimental effect in dispiriting the public who, taken as a whole,

are not yet settled on the question of coeducation.

The American people, both men and women, have to work out the

different problems of advancing their interests without having them

favored or opposed by a fixed social class whose prerogative it is to

exercise a controlling influence on any standard set up.

The medical education of women must now take its chance for growth

like all the other questions of woman’s rights, yes, even of men’s

rights, politically speaking. We are, with all the rest, passing

through the phase of crystallization, and only the merit or the

capacity of the individual can act to bring about a good and lasting

effect.

We must grow at present by every one of us doing her utmost best from

day to day; and if the principle is a correct one that it is within

women to exercise their faculties according to their inclinations the

same as men do, it cannot be overthrown. I do not want to give you

the impression that I wish to be pessimistically indolent; on the

contrary, I want you to understand that I include in that “utmost

best” criticism as well as denunciation of the imperfect or mediocre

and readiness for any crusade for the better, for the higher, and for

the perfect ideal.

The physicians connected with our Hospital have formed a Society,[20]

and have framed a constitution which admits to membership both men and

women. So far we have only women members, and there are only a very

few in the society who are not connected with the Hospital, because we

mean to be as careful and as stringent as possible.

I wish I could visit you this winter and talk all these matters over,

as I really need a rest of a year, not because I am sick but because

I feel that I may be, as the strain upon my nerve power has been so

intense for thirty years that relaxation is needed if I want to end my

life in usefulness.

For the present, I cannot do anything more than to plan for such a

recreation, but when the moment comes to carry out this plan, I shall

write to you in order to make arrangements for us to meet in a way

which will give us time and comfort.

The ten thousand dollars referred to in the above letter was offered

in 1878 by Miss Marian Hovey toward the new building which Harvard was

about to erect, she making the condition that women should be admitted

as students.

According to Dr. Chadwick, the Corporation referred the communication

to the Board of Overseers who in turn referred it to a committee

consisting of President Eliot, Alexander Agassiz, Dr. Morrill Wyman, J.

Elliot Cabot and Dr. LeBaron Russell. In 1879, majority and minority

reports were presented, the latter by Dr. Russell alone.

The majority report recommended acceptance of the trust offered by Miss

Hovey, and presented an outline of conditions which were thought to be

desirable to govern the admission of women students.

It further stated that of twenty-one members of the Medical Faculty who

expressed their views in writing, six were in favor, with restrictions;

three were in favor of making the experiment but had strong doubts

of its expediency or success; five were opposed, but were willing

to try the experiment under certain conditions; seven were strongly

opposed. Thus, fourteen were at least willing to try the experiment

conditionally, while seven were unconditionally opposed.

The minority report opposed acceptance of the trust and advised that

the medical women should establish their own school, modeling it upon

the Harvard school.

A vote of the Board of Overseers was immediately taken upon the

adoption of the majority report, the vote standing seven to nine. It

was then voted to reconsider the motion two weeks later.

Meantime, a meeting of the Medical Faculty was held and the admission

of women was negatived in _two_ resolutions, one by a vote of

thirteen to five and one of fourteen to four.

Following this action of the Medical Faculty, the Board of Overseers at

their next meeting voted (17 to 7):

That the Board of Overseers find themselves unable to advise the

President and Fellows to accept the generous proposal of Miss Hovey.

It then voted (16 to 10) for the following motion which was proposed by

the President:

That in the opinion of the Board of Overseers it is expedient that,

under suitable restrictions, women be instructed by Harvard University

in its Medical School.

CHAPTER XXXIV

_Opening of the Massachusetts Medical Society to women--Letter on

the subject to Dr. Zakrzewska from Dr. Henry I. Bowditch--She declines

to present herself for examination for admission, having already

twice prepared herself and been refused examination because she was

a woman--Dr. Zakrzewska’s reply to the question “whether to enforce

obedience medicines should be administered to refractory prisoners in

reformatories and prisons.” (1879-1884.)_

It was in this same year of 1879, however, that the cause was heartened

by the beginning of the tardy capitulation of the Massachusetts Medical

Society, the council of which following in the wake of ten or a dozen

of the other State medical societies, finally voted to admit women to

membership on equal terms with men.

This society differs from most of the other State medical societies

in that its membership does not consist, as does theirs, of delegates

from the constituent county societies. Members join the Massachusetts

Medical Society as individuals, and it aims to include all reputable

members of the profession.

It had previously refused to recognize homeopathic and eclectic

physicians, holding these latter as “irregular” practitioners of

medicine, even though their diplomas were legalized by the same

authority as that which had legalized those of its own members.

Its refusal to admit women to membership showed its intention to

classify women also as “irregulars,” even women who had received their

diplomas as regular classmates of men who were acceptable.

The _Boston Medical and Surgical Journal_, of October 9, 1879,

expressed itself characteristically in an editorial:

We regret to be obliged to announce that at a meeting of the

councilors, held on October 1, it was voted to admit women to the

Massachusetts Medical Society.... Enshrouded in her mantle of science,

woman is supposed to be endowed with power to descend from that high

pedestal upon which we men have always placed her, and to mingle with

us unscathed in scenes from which her own modesty and the esteem of

the other sex has hitherto protected her.

The editor seems to have forgotten that women had long mingled in those

“scenes” as patients and as nurses; it was only as physicians that they

were being “protected” from them.

However, the “protectors” were loath to discontinue their gallant

services and, following the protest of the Suffolk District branch of

the State Society, the Council rescinded its vote, thus relegating the

medical women to their pedestals.

But the Society continued in a state of unrest, friends of the

admission of women gaining in strength and their opponents losing

proportionately, though by-issues were also injected. Eventually, the

inevitable was foreseen; the question remained only as to the form

which it would take.

The handwriting on the wall was visible when in 1883 the Pennsylvania

State Medical Society (!) sent a woman (Dr. Alice Bennett) as delegate

to the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Medical Society. She was

accepted officially, and she sat through the proceedings, and nothing

happened.

At the annual meeting of the following year, 1884, the By-Laws were

amended so as to permit of the admission of women on an equality with

men; and then that storm center cleared.

An editorial in the _Boston Medical and Surgical Journal_, June

19, 1884, loyally accepts the action of the Society but it cannot

forbear a little overflow of emotion in the following words:

... We believe that women in this particular community are already

aided and abetted in too many foolish fads and fancies. There is too

much bad piano playing and too little good cooking and sewing taught

them....

[Many years later, the editor of this book met the editor of the

_Boston Medical and Surgical Journal_, and in discussing the

subject of medical women, she is glad to say he admitted that he had

“readjusted” his “point of view.”]

Dr. Henry I. Bowditch viewed the action of the Society in a different

light, as is shown in a letter written to Dr. Zakrzewska after the

details of this advanced step had been arranged and the women were

preparing to take the Society examinations:

_Boston, June 15, 1884._

MY DEAR DOCTOR:

I thank you for the letter received yesterday. The result was entirely

unexpected, and I can only thank God and take courage for the future

days and for opportunities to fight for simple right and justice.

For I assure you that all through these years since I have advocated

the examination of women by the Massachusetts Medical Society, I

have myself stood upon the eternal foundations of justice to every

human being. My old anti-slavery warfare and its principles, with

the experience gained in that fight against prejudice, have been of

immense support to me.

... I have always consulted with honorable, educated women, in spite

of all By-Laws. At first I believe some of the bigots thought I ought

to be punished. But I cared not a farthing for the dark hints of

discipline impending, feeling sure as I did that light would appear

the next day and that with the element of Time and simple justice on

my side, Right would certainly prevail.

But as I now look back upon this final victory, and mark the various

tyrannical rulings of our presidents and the stupid arguments urged

by the opponents and their victories up to the present hour, with

their final and, if not graceful, certainly good-natured and boorish

submission to the fact of being in a hopeless minority themselves--I

marvel, and, as I said above, take courage for any future fight for

the True and Right.

Some of the arguments by our opponents in the council were so weak

that I think they injured their own cause.

For example, Dr. ---- says: “Our fathers never meant that women should

be members, and how absurd it would be for us to admit them! They

are different from men and cannot properly become our associates in

medicine, etc.”

Dr. ----, with becoming pompousness of manner after duly twirling

his gray mustaches, said: “I am not in favor of women being admitted

because they have never done anything original.”

Dr. Wyman suggested that the names of Mrs. Somerville, Mesdames Boivin

and Lachapelle in France and Jacobi in America certainly proved that

women were capable of high intellectual work.

“_I_ do not admit that they are exceptions,” replied Dr. ----.

I was fool enough to forget to ask what original work had ever been

done by members of the Massachusetts Medical Society, and especially

by the speaker himself. That would have floored our antagonist very

effectually.

But let us not think of the past, but prepare ourselves for the future

that is opening so brightly before us.

I am glad that the young students are preparing for the race. As for

yourself, I do not wonder at your decision. You do as I think I should

do.

Your “pioneer” race and energy will always command the respect of the

community and of the professional men who know you and who are not

bigots to a “Code.”

I remain

Very truly yours,

HENRY I. BOWDITCH.

The reference at the end of Dr. Bowditch’s letter is to the course upon

which Dr. Zakrzewska had decided, after mature consideration of the

question of taking the examination for admission to the Massachusetts

Medical Society. She expresses this decision and the reasons for

reaching it, as follows:

The Massachusetts Medical Society has within the last three months

decided to admit women. The perseverance of women in the practice of

medicine and surgery, their professional competency, the increase in

their numbers, and the impossibility of ignoring them any longer,

have led to the result that physicians of this Society acknowledge

women in daily practice and have thus broken the rule which binds them

to friendliness and coöperation with members only. Necessity, not

acknowledgment of the principle of the right of woman to practice, has

finally conquered, and the Massachusetts Medical Society is willing

to allow women to present themselves for examination with the view of

admission.

On the other hand, the regular women practitioners have found it

necessary to protect themselves against being confounded with

charlatans of every description, and have formed themselves into a

society which adopts the name of the Hospital in which their practice

started and now centers.

Besides the physicians living in Boston, a few scattered over the New

England States are members of this society. Thus a union of reliable

women practitioners is begun and promises to be of interest and

usefulness. If a union with the Massachusetts Medical Society can be

effected by them, it would be beneficial to both and, no doubt, to the

profession at large.

The obstacles to such a union consist chiefly in the fact that any one

wishing to become a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society has to

present himself or herself for examination before a number of censors

chosen by the Society, and at present in the Suffolk District Medical

Society consisting of five of its youngest members, who have to

examine the candidate in Obstetrics, Histology, Anatomy, Physiology,

Pathology, Materia Medica, and Chemistry, that is to say, precisely in

those branches for proficiency in which the candidate has received a

diploma years ago.

It is well known that wisdom and experience acquired in practice push

into the background textbook knowledge, and that most physicians after

ten years of practicing life have gained a great deal of knowledge

which is not in the textbooks and have forgotten a great deal which is.

It is therefore a question whether the amount of benefit gained by

admission into the Massachusetts Medical Society is worth the waste of

time necessary for reading and studying books which we have long laid

aside and simply use occasionally for reference.

To young beginners, I would advise the seeking of this privilege but

as for myself, I feel constrained to make the following statement:

When I came to Boston in 1859, eight years after my graduation in

Berlin as _accoucheuse_ and three years after graduation as

physician from the Western Reserve Medical College of Cleveland, Ohio,

and having been regularly employed in teaching classes and private

pupils in medicine, consequently, in the full life of a student--I

made application for examination to be admitted into this society and

was refused.

Again, five years later, that is, in 1864, I made the same

application, and was not so decidedly refused. Thinking there was a

possibility of my being admitted, I set myself to work reviewing some

of my studies in order to prepare myself to meet the high dignitaries

in the shape of the young men members and censors of that venerable

society; but after several months of discussion, I again received a

refusal.

This last refusal I met with the declaration that “when the time comes

for women to be received into this Society--and I know it will come

before I have passed out of this existence--this venerable Society

cannot have me as a candidate for examination but must give me an

honorary membership if it wants me at all.”

To-day, its condescending proposal for my examination for admission

has been made, and I am only a little more than fifty years old. But

after twenty-six and one-half years of practice (that is, nearly

at the end of my career), my only personal interest in this affair

is that I am happy that the younger women can have the benefit of

an association which is very desirable for all beginners, and most

desirable in assisting women to gain the position for which they

strive.

I have done my part, and I feel satisfied with the results achieved. I

have aided the women of this country by word and deed, by example and

sacrifice, and I am willing to retire, leaving them the field in which

to sow and to reap where I have helped to plow, associated as I have

been with the pioneer women of the medical profession.

It was about this time that, at one of the meetings of the New

England Hospital Society, that body was asked to give an opinion upon

a question which had arisen in reformatories and prisons, that is,

“whether medicines which cause anesthesia, emesis or prostration should

ever be administered to refractory prisoners to enforce obedience

through their action.”

A unanimous “No” expressed the instinctive feeling among all members

present of the absolute wrong in the use of such remedies to compel

obedience. The discussion of this subject was continued to a subsequent

meeting, and Dr. Zakrzewska was requested to prepare a written

statement of her views upon this point. She writes:

I. From the medical standpoint, the administering of a pharmaceutical

preparation for any other purpose than to aid in the restoration of

health is malpractice. An emetic or an opiate might be easily given to

a culprit who is in perfect health but who refuses obedience to the

prison regulations; this could be done by deceiving the offender. But

the administration of ether or chloroform would meet with opposition

for the overcoming of which an application of force would be needed,

which would be as much in the nature of corporal punishment as would

the use of the rod.

No physician could sanction the use of remedies for any other than

their legitimate purpose and must refuse such demand from the prison

superintendent or warden.

II. From the legal standpoint, no prison official has a right to order

for the purpose of enforcing obedience the administration of powerful

medicines to a healthy individual, thus rendering her ill for hours or

days, shocking a system otherwise in harmonious action, and thereby

also possibly producing bodily injuries, internally or externally,

which may after the release of the prisoner easily lead to a

complaint in a court of law, a complaint which could well be sustained.

III. From the moral standpoint, the deception which is necessary

either by disguising the medicine in some usual beverage or by false

statement, pretending a necessity for some medical remedy, such as

hypodermic injection of morphine, would at once awaken distrust of the

whole official management and would thereby destroy the very principle

upon which all prisons should be conducted, that is, the reformation

of those intrusted to their care.

If we once admit that medical remedies can be used by the physician

under the orders of the superintendent in order to enforce obedience

or as punishment, where shall we stop? The physician and the

superintendent can become in time accomplices in such practices as may

lead to even fatal results, for such officials have almost absolute

power in these institutions which are subjected to only occasional

examinations by State committees.

CHAPTER XXXV

_Association for the Advancement of the Medical Education of

Women--Coeducation or segregation--Dr. Zakrzewska leads another

attempt to persuade Harvard to admit women to its Medical School

(1881-1882)--Failure takes from Harvard final opportunity to be first

great medical school to admit women on equal terms with men, this

honor passing to the Johns Hopkins in 1890--Massachusetts Legislature

directs that a woman physician be appointed in each State Hospital for

insane patients--Dr. Zakrzewska takes a vacation in Europe--Letter to

Mrs. Cheney and others--The New England Hospital requires all resident

students to possess the degree of M.D., and changes their status to

that of internes--The Hospital establishes District Nursing in its

out-practice--Letter from Dr. Zakrzewska to Dr. Sewall who is on

vacation in Europe--Dr. Zakrzewska compares earlier and later women

medical students. (1879-1886.)_

As a further move in the campaign for opening the larger colleges

to women, there was formed the Association for the Advancement of

the Medical Education of Women. This association had a membership of

medical and lay men and women from different parts of the country, and

Dr. Mary Putnam-Jacobi was its president for many years.

Mary Putnam, one of the earlier students of the New England Hospital,

and a graduate of the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, was the

first woman to be admitted to the _École de Médicine_ of the

University of Paris, from which she was graduated in 1871. Later, she

married the noted Dr. Abraham Jacobi of New York, becoming herself one

of the most brilliant members of the profession in America. It will be

remembered that in 1876 she was awarded the Boylston Prize of Harvard

University, the identity, and consequently the sex, of the competitors

for this honor remaining unknown to the judges until after the verdict

was rendered.

The above association not only carried on an educational campaign, but

for several years it assisted the Woman’s Medical College of the New

York Infirmary by paying part of the faculty’s salaries and by helping

to enlarge the College and the Hospital.

Although continuing the support of such separate women’s colleges as

maintained their high standards, the leading medical women and the

well-informed men and women of the laity still realized that these were

(and in the nature of things, must be) only the lamps which are kept

trimmed and burning as additional guaranties that the sacred fire shall

never be extinguished.

The main temples and the central fires are found in the large medical

schools which were then monopolized by men, and the struggle must

continue till these temples and fires are acknowledged to be human

possessions, and hence open to women equally with men. Only then will

it be possible to maintain the high standards to which both men and

women physicians should be held, and which are required for the safety

of the communities in which they practice.

Hence the persistence in seeking entrance to the men’s colleges. Not

because they are colleges of men, no, but because this is still so

largely a man’s world, with men so often holding possession of the Best.

And it is the Best in their chosen profession that medical women have

always been seeking--the best teaching; the best laboratories; the best

libraries; the best facilities for training all their faculties; the

best clinical opportunities; the best hospital advantages.

Aside from valid reasons for not segregating women students and

physicians as a separate group, all the conditions enumerated above

have an economic basis. They require money as well as scholarship--and

scholarship itself requires money or it will starve--and no community

can afford to duplicate the expensive plants required for proper

medical education, so as to have twin institutions in which medical men

and medical women shall be separated.

The answer and the advice always given by the men who happen to be

in possession of these legacies of the ages and of the race--for the

great medical schools owe their continued existence to the money and

the help of the women as well as of the men who have gone before--has

always been, “No, we cannot let you enter our colleges. Build your own

colleges!”

It is as though the great universities of the country should decline to

admit any but their local students, telling all others to build their

own universities. Do Harvard and Yale Universities refuse students

outside of Cambridge and New Haven, or even outside of Massachusetts

and Connecticut, saying, “No, you cannot enter here. Build Harvards

and Yales for yourselves!”

Illogical as has been this advice, women have been driven by

desperation to attempt to follow it for both academic and professional

studies. A certain measure of success has been attained in the academic

institutions, owing to the large number of women desiring education

of the kind there given. In the field of medicine, as well as in that

of the other technical professions, the situation is far different.

The number of women desiring such education is small when compared

with the number of those desiring academic education and, as has been

well-established, the expense for properly equipping professional

schools is much greater proportionately as the number of students is

smaller.

So, in 1881, another attempt was made toward persuading Harvard to

admit women to its medical department. The New England Hospital

Medical Society, through a committee of which Dr. Emma L. Call was

chairman, had asked the assistance of the leading medical colleges for

women toward making a combined appeal for the opening to women of the

medical school of Harvard University. And in September, the following

communication was formally presented:

To the President and Overseers of Harvard University:

GENTLEMEN:

Would you accept the sum of fifty thousand dollars for the purpose of

providing such medical education for women as will entitle them to the

degree of Doctor of Medicine from your University?

This sum to be held by you in trust, and the interest of the same to

be added to the principal, until the income of the fund can be used

for such medical education of women.

If such an arrangement cannot be made within ten years, the fund to be

returned to the donors.

This letter was signed by Drs. Zakrzewska, Emily Blackwell, Lucy

E. Sewall, Helen Morton, Mary Putnam-Jacobi, Elizabeth M. Cushier,

Alice Bennett, and Eliza M. Mosher--the Woman’s Medical College of

Pennsylvania feeling unable to join, but writing:

... While we are in hearty sympathy with the object of your efforts,

it seems impracticable at present to offer any active coöperation.

After a delay of several months, the following reply was received from

Harvard University:

Treasurer’s Office, Harvard College,

No. 70 Water Street, Boston, May 2, 1882.

DEAR MADAM:

I have the honor to enclose a copy of a vote recently passed by the

President and Fellows of Harvard College, in relation to the Medical

Education of Women in Harvard University.

Yours very respectfully,

E. W. HOOPER, Secy.

Marie E. Zakrzewska, M.D.

(COPY)

At a meeting of the President and Fellows of Harvard College in

Boston, April 24, 1882.

Upon the question of accepting the proposal contained in the

communication received by this Board on September 26, 1881, from Marie

E. Zakrzewska, M.D., and others, in relation to the medical education

of women in Harvard University.

Voted, that while the President and Fellows of Harvard College

recognize the importance of thorough medical education for women they

do not find themselves able to accept the proposal contained in the

communication above referred to.

A true copy of Record

Attest: E. W. Hooper, Secy.

To Marie E. Zakrzewska, M.D.,

for herself and others.

Thus did Harvard lose its last opportunity to become the leader in

the opening to women of the great medical schools of America, its

misfortune in this respect being due to what appears to have been a

certain indecisiveness.

It showed the perception and the conviction of the justice of the

women’s claim as early as 1850, or even 1847 (away back when Oliver

Wendell Holmes was dean of the medical school), and it seems to have

had, then and afterwards (1879), the desire for performance but it

appears to have failed in resolution, and so it was at the mercy of

minor cross-purposes.

At any rate, the result of its vacillation was that eight years later

the honor was taken by the Johns Hopkins University of Baltimore.

Meantime, Dr. Zakrzewska had in 1881 spent another vacation in Europe,

and this time she particularly inquired into the progress of medical

women in England. On May 28, she writes:

DEAR FRIENDS:

I shall mail this letter eventually to Mrs. Cheney, but I intend it to

be of the same interest to Miss Lucy Goddard and Miss Peabody.

After a very rough passage, we arrived in London on the 17th of May

at 4 A. M. My companions desired to begin sight-seeing at once and

so, as is customary, we proceeded to Westminster Abbey. You all know

how little appreciation I have for Fame; but whenever I go to places

like this Abbey, Fame presents to me another aspect. It is entirely

impersonal--names are of no consequence, but the reasons why these

landmarks of civilization are placed there for the beholder are of

intense interest.

You all know that every shade of greatness is here represented in the

monuments to men. There are some to women also, but only because these

women happened to be queens or wives of royalty, though a few have

been erected to high-stationed philanthropists. In no other capacity

could I discover the name of a woman.

Query: Before long, will there be erected a monument to a woman

physician? We find the names of men physicians here, for no other

reason than that they were eminent in their profession. Will there

ever be a monument to the first woman physician because she was the

leader of the movement; because she had the energy, will and talent,

as well as the education, which would make her worthy of imitation;

and because she is a landmark of the era marked by women’s freeing

themselves from the bondage of prejudice and from the belief that they

are the lower being when compared with men?

These are the speculations which follow me wherever I go and wherever

I find the monumental display to and for talent. I did not find Mrs.

Somerville’s name on even a tablet in the Abbey. Why is it that women

do not start a movement for placing one there and in other significant

places?

We need such landmarks of civilization not because those who died

have lived for fame, no, but because the now-living, as well as

those who will live long afterward, need encouragement for utilizing

their capabilities, and monuments of this sort suggest to them the

possibility of their so doing. The person who is covered by a monument

is of no consequence, but the fact that a “woman” can work and make

an impression upon civilization needs to be made known and to be

remembered.

Apropos, the word “woman” reminds me of the custom of speaking here in

London. I have not heard a single time the word “lady” used as we use

it in America. The Queen is spoken of as “a good woman,” the Princess

Louise as “a sickly woman,” Mrs. Somerville as “an eminent woman,”

the Duchess of Blank as “a fashionable woman.” Nowhere do we hear a

dressed-up cook or chambermaid mentioned in the streets as “that lady

there,” but as “the woman in the velvet gown,” etc. I wish some of our

prominent women in America would make a crusade against the habit of

applying the word “lady” to every woman under every condition.

But now I must speak to you of what interests us most of all, namely,

the work of the medical women in London. There is no doubt but that

the position here of the woman physician is, professionally and

legally, a far better one than with us in the United States. By the

indomitable will and energy of Dr. Sophia Jex-Blake, the women who

study medicine have been placed fundamentally on the same level with

men. The method of study, theoretical and practical, is precisely that

of the men.

And although the Royal Free Hospital has only one hundred and fifty

beds for the medical school of women, while the medical school for men

of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital has six hundred and that of St. Thomas’

Hospital has one thousand, five hundred, that makes no difference

in the mode of study nor in the amount of knowledge which the woman

student can acquire. One reason is that the number of women is only

about forty while at either of the other hospitals, the number of men

runs as high as seven hundred. Besides, I am told that women are more

ready to gain knowledge through dispensary practice, which is entirely

outside of the hospitals.

There is, however, one branch which is very much neglected, both

theoretically and in clinical instruction, Dr. Charles Drysdale being

my authority for the statement that this neglect is just as great in

the men’s course, namely, the instruction in higher midwifery and

obstetrics as taught in France and Germany. He assures me that if

there are English men of eminence in this branch, they have laid the

foundation by going to Germany to study. Alas, these opportunities are

not open as freely to English medical women.

Dr. Drysdale, as well as some of the most prominent women

practitioners here, expressed the wish that Boston or some other large

city in the United States which has a hospital for women would so

develop this particular branch as to induce the educated medical women

of England to go thither in order to perfect themselves therein. The

opinion of those who express such a wish is that money would gladly

be paid to its full value for such opportunity for study.

Such an opening for the English student would react very beneficially

upon our American medical student, for there is no doubt but that the

English medical women and students have in every respect a higher

average education than we have. And the standards of education and

civilization can best be raised through international intercourse.

We now have in Boston decidedly good women surgeons and the beginning

of a good department in surgery. This is of momentous importance for

the reason that surgical work tells best both in the profession and

among the laity. We also have in Boston excellent women obstetricians

who do a great deal of obstetric surgery, but who give instruction to

only the few privileged students of our Hospital.

This branch could easily be enlarged and developed by our Hospital

Staff if through larger means, greater opportunity for practice could

be afforded them, and thus make it worth her while for the attending

physician to give more thorough instruction both to our own students

and to students from abroad. By saying making it worth her while, I

mean allowing her compensation for time and labor.

On the whole, we must begin to think of compensating our staff of

women physicians. Now that the woman physician is an accepted fact

in America, it becomes our duty to compensate those who have spent

time and money in study (and especially those who have gone to the

continent of Europe) for the labor which they expend upon the students

not able to follow such a course.

After introducing the woman into society as a physician, we must

now take the next step, namely, see that those who follow are

well-educated; and, therefore, we must utilize the knowledge of the

former by giving her the chance to spread it among the new disciples.

In other words, every physician with a good education who comes to us

must be well paid, so that her time and strength will belong to our

patients and to the students of the Hospital. And if other students

who are not inmates of the Hospital wish to avail themselves of our

instruction, they must be made to pay for it, whether this instruction

be given by the resident physician or by one of the attending

physicians.

This has been my view for some years, and I am now very much confirmed

in it through talk with the friends of medical education here, where

I see most clearly that work without money value set upon it is not

expected nor is it considered to be of the first class.

The students here pay £80 for the theoretical instruction and £40

for the hospital instruction, besides paying for their board outside

of school and hospital, for they do not reside in either. Our

institutions in the United States would not permit such a rate, nor do

I wish to suggest it, but I wish that the friends of the movement for

the medical education of women would come forward, as have those here

in England, and provide us with means so that we can afford to pay an

ample salary to our physicians, or at least to our resident physician,

and thus secure her services for some years to come for the benefit of

all concerned.

The English generosity in this respect seems marvelous to me. For

instance, the Royal Free Hospital would not connect the medical school

for women with its work, saying that it had not room for them. The

governors of the hospital were asked how much money was needed, and

the enormous sum of £5,000 was set for a limited number of years,

namely, five. At the expiration of this time, a similar sum, or even

more, or perhaps nothing at all, might be needed. In a very short time

the sum was raised, the money being used to build another wing to give

room to the women for study.

Out of the funds of the school, towards which the student contributes

£40 for three years’ study, a large sum is paid to the physician who

gives the instruction in this hospital. The funds of the school are

raised by private subscription, and the fees charged to the students,

although high, do not suffice to pay for the instruction given. In so

far as the fees do not suffice, the situation is similar to that in

our American colleges and schools; it differs in that the instructors

are fully paid for the time and knowledge given to the students.

The result is a higher education in medicine and a higher grade of

individual physician than in the United States.

In the two branches, surgery and the medical treatment of general

diseases, the woman student has now in London ample opportunity.

Plenty of material is provided, not only by the Royal Free Hospital

but also by the New Hospital for Women, as well as by the dispensary

attached to the latter. The latter hospital is carried on precisely

as is our New England Hospital for Women and Children except that it

has no maternity department. It admits patients for as little as four

shillings a week but only a few are entirely free.

The attending physicians are all married women of high social

position, mothers and housekeepers and quite rich. It is thought by

the English women that these prominent women should work in order to

live down the prejudice, which seems to be very strong, that if women

study or do anything they will cease to be willing to become mothers

and housekeepers. This explained why in the medical school the “Mrs.”

was always introduced to me before the “Miss” was spoken of.

I think this is all I have to communicate to you about the work which

lies so near to our hearts, and as my London visit closes to-morrow I

think I shall have nothing more to add, but shall see what the women

in Germany are doing.

But I may tell you that I attended a small, public, woman suffrage

meeting held to consider Mr. Hugh Mason’s proposition in the House

of Commons to give the franchise to women. The meeting was a rather

select one. The audience was admitted only by cards, which, to be

sure, any one could procure beforehand, but which forms more or less

of a hindrance to attendance.