FOOTNOTES:
[182] Quoted in Medical Women, p. 11, by Sophia Jex-Blake, M. D., Edinburgh, 1886. Cf. Hyginus, Fabularum Liber, No. 274.
[183] Charles Daremberg, who, at the time of his death in 1872, was professor of the history of medicine in the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, had the intention of publishing this work Περι των γυναιων ταζων.—On the Diseases of Women—but his premature death prevented him from executing his project. It is to be hoped that some one else, interested in woman's medical work, may at an early date give this production to the public with an appropriate commentary.
[184] Cf. Hertzen et Rossi Inscriptiones Urbis Romæ Latinæ, p. 1245, No. 9478, Berlin, 1882.
[185] "Non mihi si linguæ centum, oraque centum, ferrea vox ... omnia morborum percurrere nomina possim quæ Fabiola in tanta miserorum refregeria commutavit ut multi pauperum sani languentibus inviderent." Epistola ad Oceanum.
[186] Hæc inter timidam revocat clamore puellam Alpharides, veniens quæ saucia quæque ligavit.
—Ekkehardi Primi Waltharius, Berlin, 1873.
[187] That the Germans, at the time under discussion, regarded learning as having an effeminating effect on men is well illustrated by the following characteristic anecdote: "when Amasvintha, a very learned woman who was a daughter of the Ostrogoth King, Theodoric, selected three masters for the instruction of her son, the people became indignant. 'Theodoric,' they exclaimed, 'never sent the children of the Goths to school, learning making a woman of a man and rendering him timorous. The saber and the lance are sufficient for him.'" Procopius, De Bello Gothico, I, 2, Leipsic, 1905.
If we may judge by a letter from Pace to Dean Colet, the noted classical scholar and founder of St. Paul's school in London, such views found acceptance in England as late as the time of More and Erasmus. For we are told of a British parent who expressed his opinion on the education of men in these words: "I swear by God's body I'd rather that my son should hang than study letters. The study of letters should be left to rustics."
[188] This work was for a long time regarded as lost, but a manuscript copy was recently found in Copenhagen, and it has since been published by Teubner of Leipsic, under the title of Hildegard's Causæ et Curæ.
[189] Archiv für Pathologische Anatomie und Physiologie und für Klinische Medicin, Band 18, p. 286, Berlin.
[190] S. Hildegardis Opera Omnia, Ed. Migne, p. 1122, Paris, 1882.
[191] "In the municipal and state institutions of this period the beautiful gardens, roomy halls and springs of water of the old cloistral hospital of the Middle Ages were not heard of, still less the comforts of their friendly interiors." A History of Nursing, Vol. I, p. 500, M. Adelaide Nutting and Lavinia L. Dock, New York, 1907.
The mortality in some of the state hospitals from the latter part of the seventeenth to the middle of the nineteenth century was appalling, often as high as fifty and sixty per cent. This was due not only to shockingly unsanitary conditions, but also to inordinate overcrowding. A large proportion of the beds, incredible as it may seem, were purposely made for four patients, and six were frequently crowded into them. "The extraordinary spectacle was then to be seen of two or three small-pox cases, or several surgical cases, lying on one bed." John Howard, in his Prisons and Hospitals, pp. 176-177. Warrington, 1874, tells us of two hospitals that were so crowded that he had "often seen five or six patients in one bed, and some of them dying."
It is gratifying to learn that the chief agents in changing this revolting condition, due to faulty construction and management of hospitals, were women. Prominent among these benefactors of humanity were Mme. Necker, Florence Nightingale, and the wise and alert superiors of the various nursing sisterhoods.
[192] How like Chaucer's prioress who
"Was so charitable and so piteous,
And al was conscience and tender herte."
[193] Cf. Lib. de Virtutibus et Laudibus, by Ægidius, head physician to Philip Augustus of France, in which occur the following verses:
Urbs Phœbo sacrata, Minervæ sedula nutrix,
Fons physicæ, pugil eucrasiæ, cultrix medicinæ,
Assecla Naturæ, vitæ paranympha, salutis
Promula fida; magis Lachesis soror, Atropos hostis.
Morbi pernicies, gravis adversaria mortis.
quoted in the appendix, p. xxxii, to S. de Renzi's, Storia Documentata della Scuola Medica di Salerno, Naples, 1857.
[194] Cf. The introduction to the English translation of the Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum, p. 28, by J. Ordronaux, Philadelphia, 1870.
"Immortal praise adorns Salerno's name
To seek whose shrine the world once came."
[196] See Storia Documentata della Scuola Medica di Salerno, ut. sup., p. 474 et seq., and p. lxxvi et seq. of Appendix; also Ordronaux, ut sup., p. 16.
[197] Probably her most noted work is the one which bears the title De Morbis Mulierum et Eorum Cura—The Diseases of Women and Their Cure.
[198] "Physicæ quoque scientiam tam copiose habuit ut in urbe Psaleritana, ubi maxime medicorum scholæ ab antiquo tempore habentur, neminem in medicinali arte, præter quandam sapientem matronam, sibi parem inveniret." Migne, Patrologiæ Latinæ, Tom. 188, Col. 260.
[199] As this decree is of singular interest and importance, a copy of the original is here given in full:
"Karolus, etc., Universis per Justitieratum Principatus citra Serras Montorii constitutis presentes litteras inspecturis fidelibus paternis et suis salutem, etc. In actionibus nostris utilitati puplice libenter oportune perspicimus et honestatem morum in quantum suadet modestia conservamus. Sane Francisca uxor Mathei de Romana de Salerno in Regia Curia presens exposuit quod ipsa circa principale exercitium cirurgie sufficiens circumspecto in talibus judicio reputatur. Propter quod excellentie nostre supplicavit attentius ut licentiam sibi dignaremus concedere in arte hujusmodi practicandi. Quia igitur per scriptum puplicum universitatis terre Salerni presentatum eidem Regie Curie, inventum est lucide quod Francisca prefata fidelis est et genere orta fidelium ac examinata per medicos Regios paternos nostrosque cirurgicos, in eadem arte cirurgie tamquam ydiota sufficiens est inventa, licet alienum sit feminis conventibus interrese virorum, ne in matronalis pudoris contumelia irruant et primum culpam vetite transgressionis incurrant. Quia tamen de juris indicto medicine officium mulieribus est concessum expedienter attento quod ad mulieres curandas egrotas de honestate morum viris sunt femine aptiores, not recepto prius ab eadem Francisca solito fidelitatis et quod iuxta tradiciones ipsius artis curabit fideliter corporaliter Juramento, licentiam curandi et practicandi sibi in eadem arte per Justitieratum jam dictum auctoritate presentium impartimus. Quare fidelitati vestre precipimus quatenus eandem Franciscam curare et practicari in prefata arte per Justitieratum predictum ad honorem et fidelitatem paternam et nostram ac utilitatem fidelium presentium earumdam libere permittatis, nullum sibi in hoc impedimentum vel obstaculum interentes. Datum Neapoli per dominum Bartholomeum de Capua, etc., Anno domini mcccxxi, die x Septembris v, indictionis Regnorum dicti domini patris nostri anno xiii."
Collectio Salernitana, Tom. III, p. 338, by G. Henschel, C. Daremberg, and S. de Renzi, Naples, 1852-59.
[200] Universities in the Middle Ages, Vol. II, Part II, p. 712, by H. Rashdall, Oxford, 1895. The most exhaustive work on the University of Salerno and its famous doctors, men and women, is a joint work in five volumes entitled Collectio Salernitana; ossia Documenti Inediti e Trattati di Medicina appartenenti alla scuola Salernitana, raccolti e illustrati, by G. Henschel, C. Daremberg e S. Renzi, Naples, 1852-59. Cf. also, Storia Documentata della Scuola Medica di Salerno, by S. de Renzi, Naples, 1857; L'École de Salerne, by C. Meaux, with introduction by C. Daremberg, Paris, 1880, and Piero Giacosa's Magistri Salernitani Nondum Editi, Turin, 1891.
[201] Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis, Tom. II, p. 150, and pp. 255 and 267, by Denifle and Chatelain, Paris, 1889-1891.
[202] "Mulier antea permitteret se mori, quam secreta infirmitatis sui homini revelare propter honestatem sexus muliebris et propter verecundiam quam revelando pateretur." Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis, Tom. II, p. 264, Paris, 1891.
[203] It may interest the reader to know that the first two women to get the doctorate in the Paris School of Medicine were Miss Elizabeth Garret, an English woman, and Miss Mary Putnam, an American. The first woman permitted to practice in the Paris hospitals was likewise an American, Miss Augusta Klumpke, of San Francisco.
[204] "Possunt et vir et fœmina medici esse." Cf. Chiappelli, Medicina negli Ultimi Tre Secoli del Medio Evo, Milan, 1885.
[205] Quoted in Woman's Work and Woman's Culture, p. 87, Josephine E. Butler, London, 1869. Dom Gasquet in his English Monastic Life, p. 175, tells us that in the Wiltshire convents "the young maids learned needlework, the art of confectionery, surgery—for anciently there were no apothecaries or surgeons; the gentlewomen did cure their poor neighbors—physic, drawing, etc."
[206] The first woman to receive the doctorate of medicine in Germany was Frau Dorothea Christin Erxleben. Hers, however, was a wholly exceptional case, and required the intervention of no less a personage than Frederick the Great. In 1754, Frau Erxleben, who had made a thorough course of humanities under her father, presented herself before the faculty of the University of Halle, where she passed an oral examination in Latin which lasted two hours. So impressed were the examiners by her knowledge and eloquence that they did not hesitate to adjudge her worthy of the coveted degree, which was accorded her by virtue of a royal edict.
Her reception of the doctorate was made the occasion of a most enthusiastic demonstration in her honor. Felicitations poured in upon her from all quarters in both prose and verse. One of them, in lapidary style, runs as follows:
"Stupete nova litteraria,
In Italia nonnumquam,
In Germania nunquam
Visa vel audita
At quo rarius eo carius."
This, freely translated, adverts to the fact that an event, which before had been witnessed only in Italy, was then being celebrated in Germany for the first time, and was, for that very reason, specially deserving of commemoration.
[207] "Nemo masculus aut fœmina, seu Christianus vel Judæus, nisi Magister vel Licentiatus in Medicina foret, auderet humano corpori mederi in physica vel in chyrurgia." Marini, Archiatri Pontifici, Tom. I, p. 199, Roma, 1784.
[208] Thomas Aquinas, the Angel of the Schools, who had taught in Salerno, and was well acquainted with the leading universities of Europe, was wont to say "Quattuor sunt urbes cæteris præeminentes, Parisius in Scientiis, Salernum in Medicinis, Bononia in legibus, Aurelianis in actoribus—" there are four preëminent cities: Paris, in the sciences; Salerno, in medicine; Bologna, in law; Orleans, in actors. Op. 17. De Virtutibus et Vitiis, Cap. ult.
The mediæval poet, Galfrido, expressed the same idea in verse when he wrote:
"In morbis sanat medici virtute Salernum
Ægros: in causis Bononia legibus armat
Nudos: Parisius dispensat in artibus illos
Panes, unde cibat robustos: Aurelianis
Educat in cunis actorum lacte tenellos."
[209] It may be remarked that it was a woman, Lady Mary Montagu, who introduced inoculation with small-pox virus into Western Europe, and that it was also a woman—a simple English milkmaid—who communicated to Jenner the information which led to his discovery of a prophylactic against small-pox. But of far greater importance was the introduction into Europe of that priceless febrifuge and antiperiodic—chinchona bark. This was due to the Countess of Chinchon, vicereine of Peru. Having been cured by its virtues of an aggravated case of tertian fever in 1638, while living in Lima, she lost no time, on her return to Spain, in making known to the world the marvelous curative properties of the precious quinine-producing bark. The powder made from the bark was most appropriately called Pulvis Comitessæ—the countess's powder—and by this name it was long known to druggists and in commerce. Thanks to Linnæus, the memory of the gracious lady will always be kept green, because her name is now borne by nearly eight score species of the beautiful trees which constitute the great and incomparable genus Chinchona. See A Memoir of the Lady Ana de Osorio, Countess of Chinchon, and Vice-Queen of Peru, by Clements R. Markham, London, 1874.
[210] Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women, p. 70, by Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, London, 1895.
[211] Ibid., p. 91.
"Young ladies all, of every clime,
Especially of Britain
Who wholly occupy your time
In novels or in knitting,
Whose highest skill is but to play,
Sing, dance or French to clack well,
Reflect on the example, pray,
Of excellent Miss Blackwell.
...*...*...*...*
"For Doctrix Blackwell, that's the way
To dub in rightful gender—
In her profession, ever may
Prosperity attend her.
Punch a gold-headed parasol
Suggests for presentation
To one so well deserving all
Esteem and Admiration."
[213] Op. cit., p. 241.
[214] For an interesting account of the long campaign for the admission of women to medical schools and practice, see Medical Women—A Thesis and a History, by Dr. Sophia Jex-Blake, Edinburgh, 1886.
For a more elaborate work on women in medicine, the reader may consult with profit, Histoire des Femmes Médecins, by Mlle. Melanie Lepinska, Paris, 1900.