XXIX.
1.—“... woman shall her own redemption gain.”
In the greatest depth of their meaning remain true the words of Olive Schreiner: “He who stands by the side of woman cannot help her; she must help herself.”
Id.... “Nothing is clearer than that woman must lead her own revolution; not alone because it is hers, and that no other being can therefore have her interest in its achievement, but because it is for a life whose highest needs and rights—those to be redressed in its success—lie above the level of man’s experiences or comprehension. Only woman is sufficient to state woman’s claims and vindicate them.”—Eliza W. Farnham (“Woman,” Vol. I., p. 308).
(See also Notes to XLVI. 7 and LVIII. 1.)
2.—“Instructed by the sting of bootless pain.”
“Toutes les fonctions du corps humain, sauf l’enfantement, sont autant de plaisirs. Dès que la douleur surgit, la nature est violée. La douleur est d’origine humaine. Un corps malade ou a violé les lois de la nature, ou bien souffre de la violation de la loi d’un de ses semblables. La douleur par elle-même est donc le meilleur diagnostic pour le médecin.... Entre la loi de la nature et la violation de cette loi, il n’y a que désordres, douleurs et ruines.... La maladie ne vient pas de la nature, elle n’y est même pas. Elle n’est que la violation d’une des lois de la nature. Dès qu’une de ces lois est violée, la douleur arrive et vous dit qu’une loi vient d’être enfreinte. S’il est temps encore, le mal peut être amoindri, expulsé, chassé.... La maladie n’est donc que le résultat de la violation d’une loi naturelle.... La science et la mécanique du corps humain, c’est l’art de vivre d’après les lois de la nature, c’est la certitude que pas un médecin ne possède contre la violation d’une de ces lois un remède autre que d’y rentrer le plus tôt possible.... Chaque fois que l’homme s’efforcera de suivre la loi de la nature, il chassera devant soi une centaine de maladies.”—Dr. Alexandre Weill (“Lois et Mystères de l’Amour,” pp. 41, 91, 24, 85, 83).
3, 4.—“With Nature ever helpful to retrieve
The injury we heedlessly achieve.”
“Thus, if we could, by preaching our pet ideal, or in any other way induce one generation of women to turn to a new pursuit, we should have accomplished a step towards bending all future womanhood in the same direction.”—Frances Power Cobbe (Essay: “The Final Cause of Woman”).
See also Note XXIII., 4.
6.—“Already guerdon rich in hope is shown.”
“He (Mr. Frederic Harrison) says—‘All women, with few exceptions, are subject to functional interruption absolutely incompatible with the highest forms of continuous pressure.’ This assertion I venture most emphatically to deny. The actual period of child-birth apart, the ordinarily healthy woman is as fit for work every day of her life as the ordinarily healthy man. Fresh air, exercise, suitable clothing and nourishing food, added to the habitual temperance of women in eating and drinking, have brought about a marvellously good result in improving their average health.”—Mrs. Fawcett (Fortnightly Review, Nov. 1891).
(See also Note LX., 8.)
8.—“The sage physician, she ...”
Not only “sage” physician, but “brave” physician; for brave indeed has been the part she has had to bear against male professional prejudice and jealousy, opposition from masculine vested interests, virulent abuse and even personal violence. So recently as 1888, Dr. Sophia Jex-Blake has to report concerning the medical education of women, that:—
“The first difficulty lies in some remaining jealousy and ill-will towards medical women on the part of a section (constantly diminishing, as I believe) of the medical profession itself. Some twenty years ago the professional prejudice was so deep and so widely spread that it constituted a very formidable obstacle, but it has been steadily melting away before the logic of facts; and now is, with a few exceptions, rarely to be found among the leaders of the profession, nor indeed among the great majority of the rank and file, as far as can be judged by the personal experience of medical women themselves. Unfortunately, it seems strongest just where it has least justification, viz., among the practitioners who devote themselves chiefly to midwifery, and to the special diseases of women. The Obstetrical Society is, so far as I know, still of the same mind as when, in 1874, they excluded Dr. Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, a distinguished M.D. of Paris, from their membership; and the Soho Square Hospital for Women has never revoked its curt refusal to allow me to enter its doors, when, in 1878, I proposed to take advantage of the invitation issued in its report to all practitioners who were specially interested in the cases for which the hospital is reserved. Sometimes this jealousy takes a sufficiently comic form. For instance, I received for two successive years a lithographed circular inviting me by name to send to the Lancet the reports of interesting cases that might occur in my dispensary practice, but when I wrote in response to this supposed offer of professional fellowship, I received by next post a hurried assurance from the editor that it was all a mistake, and that, in fact, the Lancet could not stoop to record medical experiences, however interesting, if they occurred in the practice of the inferior sex! Probably it will not require many more years to make this sort of thing ridiculous, even in the eyes of those who are now capable of such puerilities.
“The second obstacle lies in the continued exclusion of women from the majority of our Universities, and from the English Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons. Here also the matter may be left to the growth of public opinion as regards those existing bodies which do not depend upon the public purse; but it is time that Parliament should refuse supplies to those bodies whose sense of justice cannot be otherwise awakened, and it is certainly the duty of Government to see that no new charter is granted without absolute security for equal justice to students of both sexes.”—Sophia Jex-Blake, M.D. (Nineteenth Century, Nov., 1887).
See also Note LVII., 1, and LVIII, 1.
Id.... Progress is indeed being made, surely, yet slowly, for Mrs. Fawcett has still necessity to reiterate, four years afterwards:—
“Make her a doctor, put her through the mental discipline and the physical toil of the profession; charge her, as doctors are so often charged, with the health of mind and body of scores of patients, she remains womanly to her finger tips, and a good doctor in proportion as the truly womanly qualities in her are strongly developed. Poor women are very quick to find this out as patients. Not only from the immediate neighbourhood of the New Hospital for Women, where all the staff are women doctors, but also from the far East of London do they come, because ‘the ladies,’ as they call them, are ladies, and show their poor patients womanly sympathy, gentleness, and patience, womanly insight and thoughtfulness in little things, and consideration for their home troubles and necessities. It is not too much to say that a woman can never hope to be a good doctor unless she is truly and really a womanly woman. And much the same thing may be said with regard to fields of activity not yet open to women.”—Mrs. Fawcett (Fortnightly Review, Nov., 1891).
Id.—“... saviour of her sex.”
Bebel says:—“Women doctors would be the greatest blessing to their own sex. The fact that women must place themselves in the hands of men in cases of illness or of the physical disturbances connected with their sexual functions frequently prevents their seeking medical help in time. This gives rise to numerous evils, not only for women, but also for men. Every doctor complains of this reserve on the part of women, which sometimes becomes almost criminal, and of their dislike to speak freely of their ailments, even after they have made up their minds to consult a doctor. This is perfectly natural, the only irrational thing about it is the refusal of men, and especially of doctors, to recognise how legitimate the study of medicine is for women.” (“Woman,” Walther’s translation, p. 131.)
Id.... “As I am alluding to my own experience in this matter, I may perhaps be allowed to say how often in the same place I have been struck with the contingent advantages attendant on the medical care by women of women; how often I have seen cases connected with stories of shame or sorrow to which a woman’s hand could far more fittingly minister, and where sisterly help and counsel could give far more appropriate succour than could be expected from the average young medical man, however good his intentions. Perhaps we shall find the solution of some of our saddest social problems, when educated and pure-minded women are brought more constantly in contact with their sinning and suffering sisters, in other relations as well as those of missionary effort.”—Dr. Sophia Jex-Blake (Essay: “Medicine as a Profession for Women”).