Page:Address on the Medical Education of Women (1864) - Blackwell.djvu/15

, in any attempt they make to secure for themselves a solid education. Let us then do all we can to deserve confidence, and welcome the interest which is growing in the profession, as they begin to perceive the important character of this work.

Fourthly.—A woman's medical college must be founded on an endowment. Any attempt to commence such a college without means, relying on the fees of students, the self-denial of the teachers, and accidental subscriptions, must result in a very inferior system of instruction.

In undertaking to found a medical college for women, we do not stand in the same position as an ordinary college. The class must necessarily be smaller and poorer. We have not the great incidental assistance which all male colleges have, from the fact that public hospitals and dispensaries are freely at their command. They have the whole influence of the profession to aid them; while the position of a professor or teacher is so much desired, that pecuniary compensation is the least of the advantages connected with it. All this great system of instruction which has gradually been formed for the use of male students is not at present available for women. It is obvious that special arrangements must be made, in order to provide the thorough instruction contemplated for students placed at so great a disadvantage.

This, then, is the last distinctive feature of a good college for women; and these four points, viz., thorough examinations, complete education, friendly relations with the profession, and a substantial foundation, are the improvements which women need, and which the public has a right to demand.

We believe that the time has come to form a really good school of medicine for women. The hospital organization, under the title of the N. Y. Infirmary for Women and Children, has been preparing the way for such a school for nearly ten years, and its working has been watched by the profession even more than by the