Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/82

 lxxii INTRODUCTION

established order of things, thence forward the question of women in medicine was a live issue. Always where the tale of women's progress is told the names of these pioneers must be remembered with honor:* Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell, Marie Zakzrewska, and Ann Preston are the ones who above all bore the burden and heat of the day. Writing of them Dr. Putnam Jaocbi says, " the little group of women who neverthe- less dared to face this opprobrium contained collectively nearly all the elements necessary for success, although in no one member of the group were these united. Instructive enthusiasm for the science of life, pre- dilection for medical practice, enlightened resolve to elevate the intel- lectual capacity and enlarge the practical opportunities of women, the habit of progressive philanthropy, personal interest in the pursuit of nearest friend, the husband; literary training." In 1849 Hobart College at Geneva admitted and graduated Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman in America to receive a medical diploma. In 1851 the Eclectic College at Rochester graduated two women, and in 1852 the Cleveland Medical College gave a degree to Emily Blackwell. The Rush Medical College of Chicago had previously admitted her, but for this act was censured by the State Society and so refused her continuance of instruction. Of the schools that were started for women the Gregory Medical School of Boston was the earliest, in 1848, offering a curriculum inadequate to the purpose; in 1874 its funds were handed over to Boston University to which women were eligible, but the medical school became homeopathic. In Philadelphia the Pennsylvania Medical School arose, but never achieved anything above mediocrity and finally lapsed. In 1850 The Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania was founded, many years and lives of effort went to its upbuilding before it entered upon its present era of prosperity and thoroughness. The various established medical schools throughout the country were vacillating in their attitude to the movement, opposed for the most but with just enough yielding to importunity to keep alive a flicker of hope. Meagre and insufficient as the opportunities were, it is not surprising that a number of women obtained degrees without being in any way qualified to undertake the duties of a physician, but this was also true to a great extent of the men, the requirements in many institutions being notoriously inadequate and perfunctory.

5. The period in which women physicians began the founding of hos- pitals where they could obtain clinical training. The earliest of these was the New York Infirmary for Women and Children, founded by the Drs. Blackwell, chartered in 1854 as a dispensary, a ward of twelve beds for lying-in women being added in 1857. In 1865 the hospital was increased to thirty-five beds — now a flourishing modern hospital; in this same
 * Vide. Biographies, Elizabeth Blackwell, Marie Zakzrewska and Ann Preston.