On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    316 MEDICAL EDUCATION FOR LADIES.

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    I Hate Read With Ditlcii Pleasure A Pape...

    . groove in the bones , tlie points of origin and insertion of nmscles , tlie course , branchings , and connections of the blood-vessels and

    nerves , and the like of all parts of the body . Secondly , lie must learn the intimate structure , as revealed hy the _microscojDe , of the

    several parts and tissues . And thirdly , lie must be acquainted with the structure of all the various classes and Muds of animals . Now in fact all this has as little to do with the treatment of ninety-nine

    out of every hundred cases of sickness as astronomy , or navigation * Do not let me be misunderstood in this or any other subsequent remarks . I mean no disparagement of any kind of science , all

    knowledge is good and its possession desirable . My purpose is only to remove an imaginary obstacle to the end before us . Is it a fact , or is it not , that the advance of anatomy to its

    present eminent success has Yery little or no connection with , has yielded no assistance to , the cure of diseases ? If any one should say it has , we ask is there one physician in twentywho , after

    , fifteen years of active practice , retains enough knowledge of these subjects to undergo an examination , without re-studying them

    in the elementary books he read in his youth and has since abandoned as _Liseless to his daily occupations ? What ! it may be said , then you advocate the practice of medicine

    by persons unacquainted with the structure of the human body ? Certainly not , but we may , without fear of contradiction from any candid and well-informed physicianassert that the amount of

    , anatomical _knowledge necessary for the successful practice of the art of healing , may be learned by anybody of ordinary capacity in

    three months , and , from the admirable models now produced by our artists , without any shock to the most fastidious feelings , and quite independently of the practice of dissection and without

    looking at a dead body . The study of the structure of the human body is one of the most

    enlightening and ennobling exercises of the human mind ; the master-piece of the Divine Artificer , no work of art ever has or ever can approach , it . I wish all educated persons would direct

    their attention to it . The models of which 1 speak embrace the particular organs the structure of which few medical men learn without this aid .

    The brain , eye , ear , throat , heart , etc ., exhibit in us most exquisite mechanical beauty and inimitable skill . Why should this

    knowledge be interdicted to women ? Similar remarks as to the facility and propriety of its being a

    branch of proposed female education , are applicable to Physiology . In cases precisely parallel , all mankind agree in drawing a marked line between the deep scientific insight of a professorand the

    , amount of information needful for practical purposes . Thus , in intrusting * tho guidance of ships to the mariner , do we

    of require the s cienc him e so poss much ess ? knowled By no ge means of as , tronomy but we deman s the p d rof just essors so

    316 Medical Education For Ladies.

    316 MEDICAL EDUCATION FOR LADIES .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), July 1, 1860, page 316, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01071860/page/28/