With reference to the attendance of this lady, Dr Hamilton, Medical Secretary of Steevens’ Hospital, writes—
“So far as we have gone, we find the education of mixed classes in one hospital to work very well.”
[NOTE I], [p. 93].
The following are a few only out of very many expressions of public indignation at this episode:—
“One of the most singular of University ‘scandals’ comes to us from decorous Edinburgh. True, it is the very antithesis of cases—such as are only too familiar on this side the Border—of debauchery at night, and a scene in court next morning, but it is not a whit the less discreditable. The transgressor, however, is not a college student, but a college professor. The case admits of, we might say demands, historic treatment. Some years ago, Dr Hope, then Professor of Chemistry in the University, gave a course of lectures to ladies—at that time quite an experiment—and was so much gratified, we are told, at their popularity, that he devoted the proceeds, amounting to about a thousand pounds, to found what have since been termed Hope Scholarships. We now get to a very modern period indeed. The Chemistry class during last winter numbered no less than 236 students, of whom six were ladies, who had been admitted to study in the medical classes, ‘in accordance with the decision of the University authorities at the beginning of the session.’ A few days ago the results of the examination were made known, when it appeared that one lady, Miss Mary Edith Pechey, was in the proud position of third in the list of honours, and another lady, Miss Sophia Jex-Blake, tenth. Miss Pechey’s success is the more gratifying, inasmuch as she is a fresh student, while the two gentlemen who stood above her on the list have attended a previous course of lectures. Dr Crum Brown, the Professor of Chemistry, in announcing the results, took upon himself to say that he should pass over Miss Pechey and award one of the Hope Scholarships to the next male on the list. This is directly in the teeth of the regulations made and provided for his guidance; according to which these scholarships are to be awarded to ‘the four students whose names stand highest in the chemistry class for the session.’ We understand that Professor Crum Brown justifies his action on the ignoble plea ‘that the women now studying in the University class do not form part of the University class, on account of their meeting at a different hour.’ Great indignation has very naturally been excited in Edinburgh by this incident, and the question has been referred to the Senate of the University, who, though a corporate body, will, we hope, act as honourable men.”
Manchester Examiner and Times, April 6, 1870.
“The inferior sex has always been a nuisance and a bore. A wise old Sultan of Turkey used to ask, whenever anything went wrong, ‘Who was she?’ One day while the Sultan was making an addition to his palace (as is the habit of Sultans), a labourer fell from the scaffold and was killed. ‘Who was she?’ said the Sultan at once. The inferior sex is always plaguing the superior sex in one way or another, and now it seems that the inferior sex are winning our scholarships over our most sacred heads. This is a matter which must be looked to. We will stand a great deal, but this is going a little too far; we must agitate; members must pledge themselves on the hustings to a bill providing that any one of the inferior sex who gains a scholarship must not have it at any price whatever, or we shall all be undone. We must have an Act for the repression of women; we are very sorry to say such terrible words, but the thing must be done: it had better be done at once while the nation is in a mood for repression. Particular cases thrust themselves prominently on the national mind, and cause legislation: the Coercion Bill for Ireland was thrust on to an unwilling Government by a very few of the later agrarian outrages: the last ounce breaks the camel’s back. If Miss Edith Pechey chooses to come in facile princeps at the head of the Chemistry Class of her year, we of the superior sex must really look to ourselves. We have the power of legislation still left in our hands, and we warn such ladies as Miss Edith Pechey and Miss Jex-Blake that we shall use it. We must have a bill for the protection of the superior sex.
“We feel sure that the ladies will forgive joking about a very absurd matter. Ladies should surely understand the power of ridicule. We think that the ‘reductio ad absurdum’ in this matter is the proper line of argument. The facts of the case seem to be simply these:—After protracted delays and much discussion, the University authorities last autumn vouchsafed to ladies the permission to enter the College as matriculated medical students, with the single restriction that their instruction should be conducted in separate classes. On referring to the minutes of the University Court, we find the following definition of the position to be taken by the new students:—‘All women attending such classes shall be subject to all the regulations now, or at any future time, in force in the University as to the matriculation of students, their attendance on classes, examination, or otherwise.’ We turn to the Calendar to see what are the ‘regulations in force in the University’ as to examination in chemistry, and we find at page 84 the following:—‘The class honours are determined by means of written examinations held during the session. The four students who have received the highest marks are entitled to have the Hope Scholarships to the laboratory of the University.’ The ladies accepted in good faith the regulations of the University, and, fired by a laudable ambition to prove themselves worthy of the privileges now accorded for the first time to women, worked with an assiduity that may be guessed when it is found that one of them, Miss Pechey, actually gained the highest number of marks awarded during the session to any student attending chemistry for the first time, though she was excelled (by one and two marks respectively) by two gentlemen who had gone through a previous course of lectures. But when the day arrived which was to reward all this work, the Professor announced, without, as it seemed to us, a shadow of justification, that the four scholarships would be given, not according to the University regulations to the four students ‘entitled to them,’ but to the three gentlemen who had won the first, second, and fourth places, and to the one who stood fifth on the list, this last having earned a most honourable place by his talents and industry, but not the Hope Scholarship, though now he has, of course, the right to claim free admission to the laboratory as it has been promised to him. This, then, is a University episode. Six students are admitted on the distinct understanding that, with one exception (dictated, as we think, by a whimsical propriety), they are to be ‘subject to the regulations of the University;’ no hint is given to them that this statement is analogous to the one which pithily describes women’s political condition in England—‘He means she when it’s a question of hanging; he doesn’t mean she when it’s a question of voting.’ The ladies are encouraged to exert their utmost power for work; when the rewards are to come, and it is found that one of them has earned one of the highest honours attainable by the class, she is calmly informed that that honour has been given to somebody else! A neater instance of generosity with other people’s property it has never been our lot to witness, and we don’t care how long it is before we repeat the experience.
“The only excuse that we can with the utmost stretch of charity imagine in this case would be that Dr Crum Brown thought some difficulty might arise respecting Miss Pechey’s use of the scholarship (which gives free admittance to the laboratory), under the restrictions now imposed on women by the University Court—for we will not suppose for a moment that the Professor could himself wish to impede the further progress of a student of such merit. But if such difficulty occurred it might be an excellent reason for relaxing those restrictions, when they are seen to deprive a student of the full reward of her past work, and at the same time to prevent her prosecuting further the study in which she has so distinguished herself; but we are quite at a loss to see how any legitimate argument can be drawn thence to justify Dr Brown in laying violent hands on a scholarship which has been fairly earned by one person for the purpose of presenting it to another. It is possible that A’s circumstances may prevent his deriving full benefit from some of his possessions, but the law would hardly consider this fact a valid reason for B’s ‘annexing’ the said possession for the benefit of C. If Dr Brown chooses to admit a fifth student to the laboratory he can of course do so, but unless we are greatly mistaken he will probably be informed by the Law Faculty (whom he might previously have consulted with advantage) that neither he nor any other person can alter the fact that Miss Pechey and no one else is third Hope Scholar.”
Daily Review, April 1, 1870.
“A very odd and very gross injustice appears to have been attempted in the University of Edinburgh. In that University the lady medical students are taught in a separate class,—not from any wish of their own, but through the delicacy of the professors. In the chemical class, Miss Edith Pechey gained the third place, and was first of the first year’s students, the two men who surpassed her having attended the class before. The four students who get the highest marks receive four Hope Scholarships,—scholarships founded by Dr Hope some years ago out of the proceeds of a very popular ladies’ class of chemistry, with the success of which he had been much gratified. Yet Miss Edith Pechey was held by the professor not to be entitled to the third scholarship, and omitting her name, he included two men whom she had beaten, and who stood fourth and fifth in the examination, his excuse being that the women are not part of the University class, because they are separately taught. Yet Dr Crum Brown awards Miss Pechey a bronze medal, to which only members of the University class are said to be entitled! It is quite clear that such a decision cannot stand. To make women attend a separate class, for which they have to pay, we believe, much higher fees than usual, and then argue that they are out of the pale of competition because they do so, is, indeed, too like the captious schoolmaster who first sent a boy into the corner and then whipped him for not being in his seat.”
Spectator, April 9, 1870.
“The letter Miss Pechey addressed to us the other day was written in an admirable spirit, and must insure her the hearty sympathy of all, whatever their opinions upon the points in question. She has done her sex a service, not only by vindicating their intellectual ability in an open competition with men, but still more by the temper and courtesy with which she meets her disappointments. Under any view of the main question, her case is a hard one, for it is clear both she and the other lady students were led to attend the classes under the misapprehension of the privileges to which they were admissable. If the University intended to exclude ladies from the pecuniary advantages usually attached to successful study, the intention should have been clearly announced. Miss Pechey, in the spirit of a true student, says she is abundantly repaid for her exertions by the knowledge she has acquired; but it is none the less hard that, having been encouraged to labour for a coveted reward, and having fairly won it, she should be disqualified by a restriction of which no warning had been given her.”
Times, April 25, 1870.
“There are probably few persons who did not learn with regret the decision of the Edinburgh Senatus in respect of the Hope Scholarships. It is not pleasant that such a story of, at least, seeming injustice should circulate through foreign universities, to the discredit of our own, for there cannot be much doubt as to the view that will be taken of the case by those nations—now forming the majority in Europe—who have admitted women to their medical colleges on terms of exact fairness and equality with their other students.... A medical contemporary argues that this affair proves how unwise it was to admit women to the University of Edinburgh—such admission being, as is asserted, the natural source of ‘constant squabbles.’ But most unprejudiced people, judging the case at first sight, would surely rather see here the evil of a partial, restricted, and permissive legislation. If women have a claim to medical education at all, they have exactly the same claim as men; if they are to be received as students at all, they must certainly be treated with even-handed justice, and not as social or rather academical pariahs, to whom the bare crumbs of instruction are vouchsafed as a grace and bounty; while all the honours and rewards are to be reserved to their male competitors. Looking at the thing for a moment, merely in the interests of the young men, and as a question of expediency, we cannot imagine anything much worse for their moral guidance than to find that women are indeed to compete with them, but so shackled that they can never win; or rather that, if they do win, the prizes will be snatched from their grasp and given to men whom they have beaten. We have heard that, in both classes where the ladies have this year studied, a very unusual access of zeal and energy has been noticed among the gentlemen in the other section of the class—a happy effect of such competition, which has often been observed in the mixed colleges of America, and which surely need not be neutralised here by the providence of the Senatus.”
Scotsman, April 15, 1870.
“The Senatus has, by a small majority, confirmed Professor Crum Brown’s decision with regard to Miss Pechey and the Hope Scholarship, on the grounds previously presumed by us. But these grounds, if so they may be called, are in our opinion insufficient to deprive Miss Pechey of the Scholarship. Whatever may be our views regarding the advisability of ladies studying medicine, the University of Edinburgh professed to open its gates to them on equal terms with the other students; and unless some better excuse be forthcoming in explanation of the decision of the Senatus, we cannot help thinking that the University has done no less an injustice to itself than to one of its most distinguished students.”
British Medical Journal, April 16, 1870.
[NOTE J], [p. 96].
For the credit of the profession, I append also the following indignant protest from the chief medical paper:—