Of course the efficacy of this measure ceases the moment that any regular medical school fairly opens its doors to women; but till that day comes, it presents a formidable, if not insuperable, difficulty. Commenting on this proceeding, the Daily News remarks:—“We recommend these facts to the good people who think that coercion, restriction, and the tyranny of combination, are peculiar to any one class of society. It will be a great day in England when the right of every individual to make the most of the ability which God has given him, free from interested interference, is recognised, and to that goal we are surely advancing; but our progress is slow, and it is very clear that it is not only in the lower ranks of the community that the obstructive trades-union spirit is energetically operating.”
While such is the state of affairs in England, other European nations have taken a very different position. We have already seen that the Italian Universities were, in fact, never closed to women, and that at Bologna no less than three women held Professors’ chairs in the Medical Faculty.[57] We have several instances of degrees granted to women in the Middle Ages by the Universities of Bologna, Padua, Milan, Pavia, and others; the earliest instance that I have found being that of Betisia Gozzadini,[58] who was made Doctor of Laws by the University of Bologna in 1209. In Germany also several such instances have occurred. At Paris no less than seven degrees in Arts and Sciences have been granted to women by the University of France within the last ten years, and a number of women are now studying in the Medical School there. In answer to my enquiries in 1868, the Secretary to the Minister of Public Instruction made the following communication:—
“Paris, le 18 Août 1868,
“Ministère de l’Instruction Publique.“Mademoiselle,—En réponse à la lettre que vous me faites l’honneur de m’adresser, en vous recommendant du nom de Lord Lyons, qui a écrit pour vous à Mons. le Ministre, je m’empresse de vous faire savoir que le Ministre est disposé à vous autoriser, aussi que les autres dames Anglaises qui se destineraient à la médecine, à faire vos études à la Faculté de Paris, et a y subir des examens.
“Il est bien entendu que vous devez être munie, par voie d’équivalence on autrement, des diplômes exigés pour l’inscription à la faculté de médecine.
“Agreez, Mademoiselle l’assurance de mon respect,
(Signed) “Danton.”
Since this Essay was first published, two women have obtained the degree of M.D. in Paris, after passing brilliant examinations in each case. The first graduate was our distinguished countrywoman, Miss Garrett, who, after passing the five examinations required, received her degree in June 1870. The Lancet records that “her friends must have been highly gratified to hear how her judges congratulated her on her success, and to see what sympathy and respect was shown to her by all present.”[59]
The next lady who graduated was Miss Mary C. Putnam of New York, who, after quietly pursuing her studies (combined with original researches), like a second Archimedes, during both the sieges of Paris in 1870–71, took her degree with great honour in August 1871. The Lancet[60] remarked—“Miss Putnam has just been undergoing the very strict examinations for the doctor’s degree in Paris, and has passed very creditably. This is the second case in the Paris faculty, the innovation being made quietly, whilst elsewhere angry discussions intervene.”
At Lyons, also, two women have obtained degrees in Arts, in 1861 and 1869 respectively. At Montpellier a degree in Arts was also conferred on a woman in 1865, and another lady has passed the first two examinations in the Ecole de Pharmacie Supérieure in that city.
For several years past the University of Zurich has been thrown open to women as freely as to men; a Russian woman, named Nadejda Suslowa, being the first to obtain a degree in Medicine, in 1867. Several more have since then graduated, and others are at present pursuing their studies there in the ordinary classes.[61]
In March 1870 it was announced, on the authority of the Lancet, that the University of Vienna had formally decided to admit women as students, and to confer on them the ordinary medical degrees.[62]
A month or two later the Swedish newspapers published in their official columns a royal decree, granting to Swedish women the right to study and practise medicine, and ordaining that the professors of the Universities should make arrangements for teaching and examining them in the usual way.[63]
Even Russia seems in advance of England in this matter. In 1869, “the Medico-Chirurgical Academy of St Petersburg conferred the degree of M.D. upon Madame Kaschewarow, the first female candidate for this honour. When her name was mentioned by the Dean, it was received with an immense storm of applause, which lasted for several minutes. The ceremony of investing her with the insignia of her dignity being over, her fellow-students and colleagues lifted her upon a chair, and carried her with triumphant shouts through the hall.”[64]