Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 3.djvu/1004

Rh longer strides in the direction of instruction than is the case with the present generation.

In one respect at least Belgium is far behind her neighbor, Holland. Dr. Isala van Diest, the first and so far the only female physician in Belgium, although she has passed successfully all the necessary examinations and taken all the necessary degrees, may not practice medicine in her own country. She wrote me recently:

Concerning the higher education of women Dr. van Diest writes:

There existed in Belgium some years ago a law which required students who would enter the university, to pass the examination of graduate in letters (gradué-en-lettres). Candidates for this degree were expected to know how to translate Greek and write Latin. But as there were no schools where girls could study the dead languages with the thoroughness of boys who were trained six years in the classics, the former were almost entirely shut out from enjoying the advantages of an university course. This graduat, however, no longer exists, and the entrance of women into our universities is now possible. Female students are found to-day at Brussels, Liege and Ghent, but their number is still very small. It was in 1880 that the first woman entered the university of Brussels, but it was not until 1883 that their admission became general. They pursue, for the most part, scientific studies, thereby securing more lucrative positions as teachers, and pass their examinations for graduation with success.

Switzerland being made up of more than a score of separate cantons closely resembling our States in their political organization, it is difficult to arrive at the exact situation throughout the whole country small though it be. However, generally speaking, it may be said that the Helvetic republic has remained almost a passive spectator of the woman movement, though a few signs of progress are worthy of note. The Catholic cantons lag behind those that have adopted Protestantism, and the latter are led by Geneva. Though subject to the Napoleonic code, Geneva has never known that debasing law of the tutelage of women which existed for so long a time in the other cantons, even in the intelligent canton of Vaud, where it was abolished only in 1873. It was not until 1881 that a federal statute put an end to the law throughout all Switzerland. Geneva has always been very liberal in its treatment of married women—divorce exists, excellent intermediate girls' schools were created more than thirty years ago, and women are admitted to all the