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    MEDICINE AS A PROFESSION I'OR WOMEN. 147

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    -«A» » F In Or Inviting Women, Consider ...

    tends peal great . to cities All "become who , know . are familiar what an with organised . European and life powerful , and the force life it of ever our

    fn like manner , benevolent efforts have little influence in new work countries and , _* fout the in amount Europe of , especiall itwhich y in is Eng done land h , tne women extent , would of such foe y

    incredi , bledid we not see here , in our midst , the commencement of , , a similar state of things .

    Domestic life is not less affected by the growth of the age ; the i _3 osition and duties of the mother of a family call for very

    different qualifications , in the wide and complicated relations of the presentfrom what was needed a century ago .

    Now it , is evident that the performance of all these forms of workextended and organised as they are , is in its practical nature

    a business , requiring distinct knowledge and previous preparation , as much as actual trades and professions . This fact would be more

    eommonly recognised were it not that there is so much moral and which spiritual it is life founde interwoven dand into out woman of which 's work it by as the to relations make it more upon grows

    difficult to separate , this business aspect of her , work from her personal life 3 than is the case with the business life of men ;

    consequently its practical character is too often considered entirely subordinate , or lost sight of . Every -woman , however , who brings

    thought and conscience to the performance of every-day duties , soon realises it in her own experience . The wider the view she

    takes of life , the higher her ideal of her domestic and social relationsthe more keenly she will feel the need of knowledge with

    regard to , this matter of fact basis upon which they rest . The first and most important point in which she will feel the want of

    this previous training will be in her ignorance of physiological and sanitary science , in their application to practical life ; of the laws

    of health and physical and mental development ; of the connection between moral and physical conditionsand the influences which

    , our social and domestic life exert upon us . These and similar questions will meet her at every step , from the com . mencem . ent of

    her maternal life , when the care of young children and of her own health bring to her a thousand subjects of perplexity , to the close

    of her career , when her children , assuming their positions as men and women , look to her as their natural counsellor .

    It may be said , at first sight ; that in these things it is not so much knowledas common sense and earnestness that are wanted ;

    that as health is ge the natural condition , it will be secured by simply using our judgment in not positively disregarding what our natural

    instincts teach us in regard to our lives . This would be true if civilisation were a simple state directed by instinct ; but every

    advance in social progress removes us more and more from the guidance of instinctobliing us' to depend reason for ihe

    , gupon assurance that oux habits are really in accordance with the laws of

    vol . _y . i , 2

    Medicine As A Profession I'Or Women. 147

    MEDICINE AS A PROFESSION I'OR WOMEN . 147

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), May 1, 1860, page 147, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01051860/page/3/