The third annual commencement of the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania, located in Philadelphia, was held on the 25th of February last, when the Degree of Doctor of Medicine was conferred by the President, Charles D. Cleveland, on four ladies—Elizabeth H. Bates, New York; Lucinda R. Brown, Texas; Minna Elliger, Germany; and Elizabeth G. Shattuck, Pennsylvania—the latter belonging to the Medical Missionary protégées preparing to go out to China or India, as opportunity may offer. The number of students in this college during the past session was about thirty, and the applications for admittance to the privileges of the institution for the next session, commencing October 2, are already numerous and earnest.
There is only one obstacle, viz., the want of funds. Those young women and widows wishing to enter on this study are, usually, poor. The expenses for board and books are all they can meet. If the college were endowed, so that the tuition fees for all might be reduced to the lowest sum[B] named for beneficiaries, while these last were admitted free of college charges, the school would be crowded. Are there none among the rich of this city and State who will lend a helping hand to this noble work of qualifying women to become physicians for their own sex? Fifty thousand dollars invested, so that the interest could be annually applied for the benefit of the institution, would be sufficient. There would thus be open a way by which those women who have talents for the profession might enter on the study. What a blessing this would be to them and to society! The sufferings which delicacy imposes on the sex, while compelled to submit their complaints to the knowledge of the male physician only, are shocking, and often fatal—because concealment leads to death. Such a state of ignorance in regard to all that pertains to the preservation of health and cure of diseases should no longer be permitted to prevail among those who have the direct and sole care of infancy, and are the nurses and watchers by the sick. The good results of educating women for the profession are thus truly set forth in the interesting "Valedictory Address," by Dr. Elwood Harvey, one of the Faculty of the Female Medical College:—
WHAT FEMALE PHYSICIANS CAN DO.—"No intelligent person doubts that, if we were obedient to the laws of health, so far as they are now understood, sickness and suffering would be greatly diminished. The average of human life would be prolonged, and its usefulness and happiness increased. In the earliest ages of which we have any recorded history, rules for the preservation of health, and regulations for the prevention of diseases, constitute a conspicuous part of the legal code."
* * * * * *
"In this country, where the people govern themselves, it is the people that must be enlightened, that they may govern themselves wisely. Though there is not a more law-abiding nation on the earth, we are blessed in having but few laws to be obeyed. There is a larger individual liberty here than elsewhere, and consequently a greater individual responsibility. It is to the people, then, that you are to convey a knowledge of the laws that govern their being. You have ample scope for usefulness in this capacity. In your own sex, you will find wives and mothers, ignorant of their own constitutions, bringing wretchedness and misery upon themselves, discomfort and suffering upon their families, and, worse than all, entailing enfeebled constitutions and diseases upon their offspring. To enlighten these, to teach them the duty they owe to themselves, to their families, to society, to posterity, and to Him who created them, and instituted the laws they violate, is your peculiar province. Do this, and the world will owe you a debt it can never repay—but you will have your reward."
FEMALE PHYSICIANS WANTED.—"Some of the obstacles that oppose the entrance of the young practitioner to a remunerative practice will offer less than their usual amount of resistance to you. It commonly happens that the young physician has to wait long years of probation, during which much work has to be done for small pay before he begins to reap the full reward of his labors. Not only is it necessary for him to acquire a reputation for skill and attention to business, but a respectable age must be attained before he can hope to be employed in some of the most profitable departments of practice. With you the case is very different; there is an existing demand for your services which none others can so well supply. Each city in this country is ready to give employment to a large number of female physicians, each lesser town and country village is waiting for one or more; numerous applications from various parts of the country have been made for female physicians. At a moderate computation, we may estimate the number now in actual demand in this country at not less than five thousand. You are wanted for a kind of practice that most male physicians would gladly relinquish to you, whenever they are convinced that you have been regularly educated, and are competent to perform the duties of the position you have assumed."
WHILE on this subject, we will give here an original article, written for our "Book" by a professor in another institution,[C] which shows that this liberal feeling towards