Читать книгу The Employments of Women: A Cyclopædia of Woman's Work - Virginia Penny - Страница 26

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It is only within the last few years that women have received any preparation for the practice of medicine in our country. But it is now advancing in a way that is very gratifying to the friends of the cause, and is beginning to be appreciated by the people. Many of the most learned and talented men in the profession approve of women devoting themselves to the practice of medicine on their own sex and children. The mildness and amiability of woman, her modesty, her delicacy and refinement, all tend to make her acceptable at the bedside. Her quick insight into the ailments of others and her promptness in offering a remedy enhance her value. Some think the modesty and delicacy that should characterize a physician are lost to a lady in acquiring a knowledge of the profession. We would think not any more than by a gentleman. Why should the result be different? And surely a woman wants in her physician, whether male or female, a person of pure thoughts and feelings. Some say women have not firmness and nerve enough to perform surgical operations—that if they have, it is only animal force. What is it but animal force that gives the superiority to men (if they are superior)? Some say that such a profession may call woman among an objectionable class of people. "The fact that the practice of medicine draws its support from the miseries and sufferings of the world is no objection to its respectability. What profession is there that does not draw its support from some suffering, necessity, or disability?—unless it be that of the mountebank." Another objection urged is, that women lose their delicacy by the study and practice of anatomy under a male physician. This offensive feature is removed in the Female Medical College of Philadelphia, where that post has been filled by a woman for six or seven years. It is filled, writes one of the professors, to the full satisfaction, I believe, alike of the class and the faculty. In 1758, Anna Manzolini was professor of anatomy in Bologna. We believe, if a lady acquires a knowledge of medicine, it should be a thorough one. Undoubtedly too much strong medicine has been used in the United States, and that will account to some extent for the bad health of American women. Night practice and the inclemencies of the weather are the greatest difficulties a woman must contend with in the practice of medicine. If a lady has means, she can command a conveyance of her own. As to practising at night, she can have some one to accompany her, if in the city. If in a town, village, or the country, she will be likely to know who the people are, and have a conveyance sent for her. If a woman acquires a thorough knowledge of medicine, she can better promote the well-being and preserve the health of herself and children. No lady should undertake the practice of medicine unless she feels competent in every way to do so. If she does, let her enter with her soul into it, and keep constantly in view her object to relieve the suffering and bring health to the diseased. The practice of medicine is more renumerative than teaching. Mrs. Hale, who strongly advocates the practice of medicine by ladies, says: "Teachers grow out of fashion as they grow old; physicians, on the contrary, gain credit and reputation from length of practice." There is one department of medicine that we think belongs to women, and women alone. It is midwifery. In the feudal times many ladies of rank and wealth prescribed and measured out medicines for their tenants, and many women practised midwifery. It is proved by Dr. Saul Gregory, of Boston, founder of the New England Female Medical College, that the practice of male physicians in the department of midwifery is not only injurious, but destructive of human life. He writes: "I have within the past six months made an effort to ascertain the number of lady graduates, having written to the different schools where they have graduated. From the number certainly ascertained, with the addition of a probable number of others, I should say that there are at least two hundred graduated female physicians in the United States. The number from this (the New England Female Medical College) is thirty-four. The field is broad enough, of course, for many thousands; and to women of good natural abilities and suitable acquirements there is a prospect of success in all of the cities and large villages of the country. They will more readily find professional employment now and henceforward than they have during the past ten years, inasmuch as the idea of female medical practice has become more familiar to the public mind, and the custom is becoming gradually established. The tuition in medical colleges generally is from $60 to $80 a term. Board is from $2 to $4, according to circumstances. About $30 worth of medical books are needed. This college has a scholarship fund, affording free tuition to a large number of students from any part of the world." Dr. Gregory expresses our views in regard to more unoccupied women entering the profession of medicine, so much better than we could do, that we will transcribe what he says on the subject: "Man, the lord of creation, has the world before him, and can choose his profession or pursuit—war, politics, agriculture, commerce, mechanic arts, mercantile affairs (not excepting ribbon and tape), and a thousand vocations and diversions. There are said to be 40,000 physicians in the United States. 20,000 of these ought to give place to this number of women, and turn their attention to pursuits better adapted to their strong muscles and strong minds. In addition to providing for the self support of 20,000 or more women, this change would relieve that number of men, and secure to the country the benefit of their mental and manual industry—quite an item in our political economy and national wealth. Of course, this very desirable change cannot be brought about so suddenly as to create any great disturbance in the established order of things, even if the enterprise is carried forward with all possible vigor; so that physicians now in the field need not be greatly alarmed in prospect of female competition." We think, all diseases peculiar to women, or surgical operations on women requiring any exposure of person, should be treated and performed by women alone. Many a woman suffers for months, or years, and often a lifetime, because of that instinctive delicacy that makes her rather suffer than be treated by a male physician. Those that prepare themselves as physicians should be ladies of honor, education, and refinement. In most families, after the minister of the gospel, the physician holds the next highest place in the esteem of the members. Other subjects than those of medicine are often discussed, and the advice of a physician sought on matters of vital importance to those interested. The free, unembarrassed entrance of a physician into the sanctum of home, gives an opportunity of learning much that should be sacredly preserved in their own hearts. A lady physician needs firmness and dignity in the maintenance of her rights and opinions. When a woman is weak both in body and mind, timid and fearful, how much better can one of her own sex soothe her! It may be the nurse has not time, in a charitable, or even in a pay institution. But if her physician is a woman, well acquainted with her profession, and possessing discernment, sympathy, and some knowledge of the human heart, how readily may she read the inner as well as the outer wants of her patient! She will treat her gently and tenderly; and if the patient be a mother, the physician will see her family now and then, to relieve her patient's anxiety. If she is poor, she will speak to some of her rich patients, or acquaintances, to see that she is furnished with suitable employment when she is well. And so she will interest herself about those matters most male physicians would never think of, or, if they did, would consider beneath their attention. "In Paris, for a long period, women have studied medicine with the best physicians, who used them as supplements, to attend the poor and do some of the hospital practice." Two lady physicians became quite distinguished in Paris, and a hospital was in the entire charge of one. The statistics and professional reports of these ladies are now accepted by the best physicians in all countries. Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell has lately established a hospital in New York city, where ladies studying medicine can have the benefits arising from the observation and experience acquired in a hospital. This has long been considered almost essential in the education of male students. In the same city is a preparatory school of medicine conducted by professors connected with the medical schools of the city. They give separate instruction to a class of ladies, who are admitted to the clinical teachings of two of the largest dispensaries in the city. These dispensaries furnish upwards of 60,000 cases of disease annually. In 1850, a charter was granted to the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania. A college was commenced in Boston about the same time. Both of these schools are for females exclusively, and each has graduated about fifty pupils. In the Pennsylvania Medical University both sexes are received. In some branches the presence of mixed classes is embarrassing to both professors and pupils, and that free communication desirable for acquiring and imparting information is partially checked. This difficulty is done away in some female colleges by employing competent lady professors. In Europe, women are not permitted to receive instruction with the male students, but in hospital practice they have excellent opportunities of gaining information as nurses and physicians. I know of no pursuit that offers a more inviting field for educated women than the practice of medicine. The ability of woman to study and practice medicine has been satisfactorily demonstrated. Some ladies have graduated at both the allopathic and homœopathic schools in Cleveland. The allopathic school in that place was the first to admit ladies. Different motives actuate ladies in the study of medicine. The wives of some manufacturers, planters, and others, who reside where medical advice is not easily obtained, study medicine that they may prescribe for their husbands' employées. Some study medicine that they may have something to rely upon in case other resources should fail them. Some teachers have studied that they may instruct their pupils in the laws of hygiene and remedies for disease. Quite a number of lady physicians are employed in female boarding schools. The benefit resulting from having the advice of a physician at any hour of the day or night is very great, and must relieve the superintendents of schools and absent parents from much anxiety. Some ladies prefer giving advice at their residences. A lady that devotes herself to a speciality should endeavor to keep posted in all the branches of her profession, so far as she can without neglecting to acquire all the information possible in her speciality. "In the United States there are 40,564 physicians, 191 surgeons, 5,132 apothecaries, 456 chemists, 923 dentists, 59 oculists, 59 patent medicine makers. There are 35 medical colleges, 230 professors, and about 5,000 students." Dr. Ann Preston, of the Pennsylvania Female Medical College, writes me: "Of those in practice who graduated with us, quite a number have found it very remunerative, and the prospect for others to secure practice is most encouraging, if they only possess the requisite qualifications. The desire to employ ladies as physicians is constantly extending, and my faith in the triumphant and extensive vindication of the movement deepens from year to year. There are openings in perhaps nearly all the cities and villages of our land—certainly in Eastern Pennsylvania; but in choosing a physician, people must have confidence in the sound judgment, good character, and professional ability of those they employ. A woman settling among strangers is more liable to suspicion than a man; and in such a case it takes time, and a long continuance in well doing, to become established in a lucrative practice. It also requires means; and unless these are abundant, it is much better for the lady physician to settle where she is already known and respected, and where, among her friends, she can live at small expense. Still, in one or two cases, our students have gone successfully among strangers, earning enough to bear their expenses during the first two years. The cost of fitting a lady of moderate abilities for the practice of medicine varies. The whole cost of two or more courses of lectures and graduation is $175. Board here is from $3 to $5 a week for students, everything included. The needful text books would cost from $20 to $25; then travelling expenses, clothes, &c. I have known ladies commence with only one or two hundred dollars in advance, teach school during the summers, and graduate in three or four years. Sometimes these have come as beneficiaries. Still it is much more comfortable to have six or seven hundred to depend upon during the course of study. The time also varies, but we think no person should graduate who has not studied two years and upward. A large proportion of our graduates have studied medicine three years, and several have spent the next year in the hospital in New York. We are about opening a hospital here, which, in case of some, will obviate this necessity. I believe ladies in practice here generally make the charges common among men physicians; and several of them realize a handsome competence, and are gladdened by seeing, year by year, that prejudice is passing away, and that medicine is proving a fitting and glorious sphere for the exercise of woman's best powers." There are several regularly educated female physicians engaged in the practice of medicine in Philadelphia, some in New York, and some in Boston, with a few in other cities of the North, South, and West, and here and there scattered through towns, villages, and the country. There is an opening for one or two well-qualified physicians in New Orleans that can speak the Italian and Spanish languages. Many physicians find it an advantage to have a knowledge of the French and German languages, on account of the large foreign population in our country. Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell writes: "It is very difficult by letter to answer your question about medical education. It is almost impossible for a lady to get a good medical education without going to Europe. Philadelphia or Boston would give a woman the legal right to practise medicine, and that is the chief value of what is given, for the exclusively theoretical instruction of those colleges could be as well obtained by reading and private tuition. New York can furnish much valuable practical instruction, but not the legal right. Between the two places, a student who will spend four years may become a respectable young physician, without going to Europe; but fully that period of time is necessary to pick up scattered knowledge, &c. A lady should be able to command $2,000 during the four years. She is otherwise very much crippled in her studies. There is a real necessity for women physicians; therefore, in course of time they will be created; but the imperfect efforts and most inadequate preparation of those who now study, rather retard the movement, and the creation of practice is a very slow thing." I called on Mrs. ——, M. D. She goes out at night when called—sometimes alone, sometimes takes her female student. She thinks there must be openings South and West, and that the prospect for lady physicians is very good. She supposes the cost of a medical education would be about $1,500. I called on Mrs. ——, M. D., who practises medicine, and often lectures on diseases and their remedies. She walks to see her patients, or rides in stages, but the majority come to her dwelling in office hours. She never goes out at night except where she is acquainted. She has a small number of students. She has a speciality, but does not confine herself to it. She attends several families by the year, charging, I think, $200 a year. She thinks many intelligent ladies might, if they would qualify themselves thoroughly, succeed in establishing themselves as physicians.