WOMEN AS DOCTORS

Press, Volume LV, Issue 10129, 31 August 1898, Page 5

WOMEN AS DOCTORS

The Medical Congress now sitting in Berlin (says the correspondent of the London " Daily Telegraph" of July l.th) has devoted a Urge part of its session t,o the consideration of the question, "Can women be recommended to devote themselves to tha study of medicine, and practise medicine as a profession." The Congress finally resolved that women might be allowed to follow the medical profession, but on two conditions. In the first place, women must submit to tho same course of studies, examinations, and duties as men; and, secondly, there must be no half-doctors, that is, women who are capable of treating only diseases of women and children. The first condition (comments the correspondent) is justifiable enough, for unless she has traversed the whole field of medicine, a woman can become an excellent nurse, but not a doctor. The second condition seems unfounded, for specialism is the order of the day, and once a woman has passed her final examinations she should be free to devote herself to any particular branch of the profession for which she feels herself specially qualified.