1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Scharlieb, Mary Dacomb

SCHARLIEB, MARY DACOMB (1845-      ), British surgeon, was born in London June 18 1845, the daughter of William Candler Bird. She was educated privately, and married a barrister who was then practising in India. She wished to study medicine, at that time an extremely difficult profession for a woman to adopt, and entered the medical college at Madras, receiving its diploma in 1878. She afterwards went to England and studied at the London School of Medicine for Women, taking her degree as Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery in 1882 with very high honours. In 1883 she returned to India, and became lecturer in midwifery and gynæcology at the Madras Medical College and examiner in the same subjects to the university of Madras. In 1888 she took her London degree of M.D., and from 1887 to 1902 was surgeon at the New Hospital for Women, being senior surgeon from 1889. In 1887 she was appointed lecturer on forensic medicine to the Royal Free Hospital, in 1889 lecturer on midwifery, and in 1902 chief gynæcologist. She retired from these posts in 1909. In 1917 Mrs. Scharlieb was made C.B.E. She was a member of the royal commission on Venereal Diseases (1913-16), and published A Woman's Words to Women (1905); The Mother's Guide (1905); The Seven Ages of Woman (1915); The Hope of the Future (1916); The Welfare of the Expectant Mother (1919).