Woman's Work in America

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1891 edition. Excerpt: ... VII. WOMAN IN MEDICINE. BY MARY PUTNAM JACOBI, M.D. "Fifty years hence, it will be difficult to gain credit for the assertion that American women acquiesced throughout the former half of the 19th century, in the complete monopoly of the medical profession by men, even including midwifery, and Ihe diseases peculiar to women. The current usage in this respect is monstrous."--New York Tribune, Editorial, 1853. The history of the movement for introducing women into the full practice of the medical profession is one of the most interesting of modern times. This movement has already achieved much, and far more than is often supposed. Yet the interest lies even less in what has been so far achieved, than in the opposition which has been encountered: in the nature of this opposition; in the pretexts on which it has been sustained, and in the reasonings, more or less disingenuous, by which it has claimed its justification. The history, therefore, is a record not more of fact, than of opinion. And the opinions expressed have often been so grave and solid in appearance, yet proved so frivolous and empty in view of the subsequent event, that their history is not unworthy careful consideration among that of other solemn follies of mankind. In Europe, the admission of women to the profession of medicine has been widely opposed because of disbelief in their intellectual capacity. In America it is less often permitted to doubt--out loud--the intellectual capacity of women. The controversy has therefore been shifted to the entirely different ground of decorum. At the very outset, however, two rival decorums confronted each other. The same centuries of tradition which had, officially, reserved the practice of medicine for men, had assigned to women the...