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    140 OPEN COUNCIL.

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    _ 4. . To The ^Editors Of Tjie English W...

    fem delib ales eration to become before ph entering ysicians , upon to the any second active point undertaking that should to receive promote our full the training of female doctors : Is there a proper field for the employment and

    support of female physicians ? Supposing you could sow your field and cause to spring up in full intellectual panoply a crowd of Doctors Mary Anne , Jane , Louisaor Elizabethwho would employ them ? Would they go out to

    anybody who , sent for them , , or would they not be scrupulously particular to ascertain first men who women it was and that children required or their would services th ? ick Woul out the d they class attend of cases equall that y upon ey p

    they could , attend , , while they would , refer the remainder to the men doctors ? Clearly the men would not send for them . * Would the women ? Would you

    —pardon the personal appeal—would you yourselves ? Since I have been requested to devote a special consideration to the subject , I have asked nearly every lady that I have come into contact with : Would youif you

    had the opportunity , consult a female doctor ? The uniform answer has , been they in the could negative not , feel upon confidence the ground in — the mind decision , the of ladies a woman are speakin . The female g , not I doctor —that ,

    I am told , would not have the energy and firmness necessary to inspire confidence . I would add that the sympathy and tenderness , the care for the the personal part of comfort nurse and would feelings in a measure of an invalid interfere , which with so that admirabl prompt y discharge fit them for of

    their purely medical , functions , without which success is impossible . You know , and the readers of this Journal know , the female heart "better than I can . Honestly and candidly consider whether there are not qualities

    inherent in the female character which would prevent anything approaching . to a general employment of female doctors in family practice . I am unable to conceive any satisfactory relation of the doctor to a family where the

    true and unreserved communication between the physician and the head of petency p the latform famil , ; y has is and to impossible be a question settled ; where before , distinct the confidence from two the necessaril can main be y one insured stand of professional . upon a different

    comcreation Or is it , and only merel a question y a development of midwifery of ? existing If so , th resources ere is no becomes need for requisite a new . But and not I maintain the one th contemp at this lated is putting besides the whole it is subject on a to very initiate limited an basis - ,

    riment here , _Jfbr it has been goin ; g on ever since unnecessary the world began ; and expe what refinement has been the ; the result purer ? Wh the y moral , that the and older relig the ious worl atmosp d has here grown of the a n greater ation , the the

    more has the assistance of man been called into request in woman's hour of need . It is doubtless true that to guide a natural function assistance is often unnecessary , but only those can determine the necessity and propriety

    of of the interference event . To or of reserve medical a class appliances of physician who are s simp familiar ly for with great all emergencies the phases , ¦ who shall have no opportunities of gaining and maintaining experience in the

    daily routine of practice , would be like appointing men to guide armies to military great battles duty who and life shall . be unacquainted " with drill , or the minor events of

    during I further and after have childbed good ground , are much for maintaining larger in those that countries the lists in of which mortality the where custom the prevails man-midwife extensivel is y the of habitual employing attendant female obstetrician in confinements s , than . in those

    readers ments amp All lification the th . at But remarks bear , and I cannot upon willing that I conclude the l have y would subject ventured without I , dwell were to adverting still there offer longer are not to capable upon danger one more the of of various much point tiring further which argu your

    of properl Female y belongs Physicians to the . first head under which I have considered the question

    * We believe this has never been contemplated . —Eds .

    140 Open Council.

    140 OPEN COUNCIL .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), April 1, 1862, page 140, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01041862/page/68/