My stay in that congenial family, the Severances, was meant to be only temporary, until a suitable boarding house could be obtained. Alas, nobody wanted to take a “female medical student!” For several weeks, Mrs. Severance hunted for such a place until she found a New England woman, Mrs. Shepard, who was willing to brave the criticism of neighborhood and church connections and take me and another female medical student who was in the same dilemma to board for the winter, the Association mentioned making themselves responsible for the expense.[3]
Being now well-housed, we trotted unconcernedly by neighbors staring from behind half-shut blinds, twice a day, to and from our college. And there being four women among a couple of hundred young men, we had our box seat to ourselves, unmolested by the tobacco-chewing and spitting Æsculapians in embryo. My three companions were Mrs. Chadwick who was my roommate, Miss Cordelia A. Greene, now practicing in her own institution in Castile, N. Y., and Miss Elizabeth Grissell, now a practicing physician in Salem, Ohio.[4]
In the college, we had nothing of which we could complain; the young men did not like our presence; some of the professors acted as if we did not exist, while others favored us in many ways; and one, the most eminent, Dr. Delamater, offered to be my preceptor and gave me good practical advantages.
On the whole, life was made quite pleasant in the college, although we were told that a strong petition was circulated by the male students to exclude women after that winter’s term. The faculty refused to consent to this request because they had given the four women the promise of an opportunity to graduate. However, the assurance was given to the men that the college would not again admit women, especially as the faculty considered that the little Pennsylvania Medical College for Women was prospering and giving fully as good an education as the Western Reserve Medical College.
We did not see a copy of the petition of the men students, but as there was never any variety in the objections made to the study of medicine by women, it was undoubtedly similar to the one which the medical students at Harvard College presented against the admission of Dr. Harriot K. Hunt, in 1850, and which she published in Glances and Glimpses.
As it is interesting because showing the weakness of the forces which everywhere opposed us, I will cite it here.
After quoting a communication which approved of her conduct and disapproved of that of the men students, and which appeared in the Boston Evening Transcript, July 5, 1851, Dr. Hunt adds: “This article brought out the resolutions of the students which I had endeavored to obtain in vain.”
The Female Medical Pupil.—Mr. Editor: As an article, in some respects imaginative, appeared in the Transcript on Wednesday evening over the signature of E. D. L., who professes to be “well informed” respecting the application of a female to the Medical Lectures, and the “insubordination” with which the intelligence was received by the students, allow me to correct any erroneous impression by claiming space for an insertion of the following series of resolutions passed at a meeting of the medical class with but one dissenting vote, and afterwards respectfully presented to the Faculty of the Medical College.
Whereas, it has been ascertained that permission has been granted to a female to attend the Medical Lectures of the present winter, therefore,
Resolved, That we deem it proper both to testify our disapprobation of said measure, and to take such action thereon as may be necessary to preserve the dignity of the school, and our own self-respect.
Resolved, That no woman of true delicacy would be willing in the presence of men to listen to the discussion of the subjects that necessarily come under the consideration of the student of medicine.
Resolved, That we object to having the company of any female forced upon us, who is disposed to unsex herself, and to sacrifice her modesty, by appearing with men in the medical lecture room.
Resolved, That we are not opposed to allowing woman her rights, but do protest against her appearing in places where her presence is calculated to destroy our respect for the modesty and delicacy of her sex.
Resolved, That the medical professors be, and hereby are, respectfully entreated to do away forthwith with an innovation expressly at variance with the spirit of the introductory lecture, with our own feelings, and detrimental to the prosperity, if not to the very existence of the school.
Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be presented to the Medical Faculty.
Scalpel.
We women in Cleveland were fortunate that we had to contend only with ostracism and petitions, for in Philadelphia and in Edinburgh, women medical students suffered grievously at the hands of the male medical students, as well as from other groups in the community.
For instance, at the commencement exercises of the Pennsylvania Female Medical College, prayer was offered by a layman because no minister in Philadelphia could be found who would take part in the services.[5]