OCR Text |
Show WOMEN AND MEDICINE, I New York has an association for the advancement of medical edar h i -of women, and at oue ol th- in i ; L of the society laet winter, Mr. U f Roosevelt made the following trLuuiul reniirks: It 19 eaid by a writer upon the subject that the vuat oiMority of w.imuD of the present day are m poor hetlth, or, at all events, far from beine peiiVctly iound. taking the standard of absolute health one hundred, the vast majority are net above seventy-five. How mny women there aro who drag lb rough sort o half life; who loot wita dretid upon walk; who are tired out a by a day'j labor almost before the day has begun Nature never intended that odo half of the race should be in a continual 6t"te of illut-Es. Woman may be tha weake-ressel, weake-ressel, but she was not iniendod to drift over a life-long sea ot Buttering', with a! liability to sink at any moment. This consequence of budiiy ill health in women is deplorable It causes uoaappi-ness uoaappi-ness to parents, breeds trouble b9tween husbind and wife, and perpetual s itself in childrea. Men look upon ine continuous con-tinuous ailings of women first with surprise. then with pity, and very of.an, finally, with contempt. Tho most kindly-di-poeed call it allocution, al-locution, and tho brainless idiot basoj upon it his claim to be considered woman's wo-man's metital superior.. It is true that m these times tbe physical standard amonif men is said to hare deteriorated, but nevertheless the average mm can do tolerably well the work that is laid out for life, and U not incessantly hindered by feebleness and ill -health. Tha same .should certainly be the case with women. They have even bolter opportunities for taking care of their heal.h tban have their brothorp, for man must warn the bread, while the majority of women need exert themselves only as they think wise and beat. During the last few yeare the modi oal profession has been open to a oce-aiderable oce-aiderable degree, to women, many of whom have taken advantage of thia growing liberality, to acquire a knowledge knowl-edge of mtdicinB and surgery. Quite a percentage of tho colleges now admit ad-mit women, and there are seyeral medical med-ical flohools and universities exclusively exclusive-ly for women; though nonfl of them, we belieTe, ia up to the high standard of the college for men in point of thoroughness aud instruction. However, How-ever, much of the prejudice having ix.-en overcome, and a fair start made, it U fair to presume that a bsttar knowledge of human anatomy, pby-eiol.y, pby-eiol.y, hygiooe ami of dha&fl-M, to-1 geti.-r with their remedied, will -,xn be acquired by the eox. A3 will be j seen by the rfmarki of Mr. Rocse-velt Rocse-velt abovn quoted, IhSiO ure other, reasons for obtaining tbia knowledge' than" the desire to practice- medicine for a livelihood. We ure warmly in favor of women doctors for the treat-1 mentofwomon patients; but leaving' tbe matter ot prordsio . 1 p . dice aside, all women especially need tho rudiments of a medical edticuion. To their chirgs is entriiHtfd the physical welfare of tbeir f.imiliea, and their ignorance of hr,w to property execute that trust,1 nut un frequently results in permanent disease or death. It would be belter for tbe present and future generations if girls learned less ot highr mathe-1 malic, of Latin, German, French, or men of music and drawing, md t more of the-laws of health. In tha'. case they would make mjre : de&irabin wives i-.d becomol motliers of he ;er children. Also, ad a matter of economy, it would pay to give woman a medical education. Tho doctors' o;lls f.irm no inconsiderable ehare of the family expenses, and many or most of these would ba avoided had the mother spent half the time in the study of medicine that she wasted in learning eotue unnecessary unneces-sary " accomplishment," or in the study nf the- ornamental branches which ahe has neither the time nor meana to practice, if Bhe even bad the desire. Wo decry none of these, but think that more time and pains should be bestowed upon the practical and useful, and if anything has to he Blighted or neglected, let it be the purely ornamental. |