THE FIRST BRITISH WOMAN DOCTOR

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 188, 4 May 1908, Page 3

THE FIRST BRITISH WOMAN DOCTOR

In these modern days when all sorts of careers are ./thrown open to ;, women, it", is difficult to realise the bitterness and opposition with which .their first advances into the new realms of knowledge were met. ' Then opportunities wero few indeed, and.it had to bo a very resolute and courageous woman who, knew how to seize and make use of them. • Perhaps the strugglo has been most severe and prolonged over their entry into tho profession of medicine, and no small share of tho honour of victory belongs to Mrs. Garrett Anderson, tho first duly qualified woman to practise medicine in the British Empiro, and for several years the only medical woman in London. , Elizabeth Garrett was born in London in 1836, and fortunately her parents had broad and liberal views concerning tho education of their daughters. The home in Aldeburgh where she and her sisters, Mrs. Henry Fawcett and Miss Garrett, the woll-known architect and house decorator, wero educated was the centre; of light and leading, in the quiet little Suffolk town.: Soon after sho was twenty Elizabeth determined to choose medicine as her career in life. Having made the acquaintance of Dr. Elizabeth fllackwell, who j had established herself in, New' York^^J

made up her mind that sho would di» in England what her friend was doing in the United States. ■It was in 1880 that Miss Garrett,'a : ded by tho unfailing sympathy and help of her father, began tho long and plucky assault on the strongholds of medical monopoly. Ft five years sho tried successively the doors of nineteen colleges and halls in Great Britain, which had tho power of giving medical decrees and conferring tho license to practise. Not one would take her in. In the meantime she was studying other branches of University education with. professors in London, Edinburgh, and St. Andrews. At length cume the golden opportunity. The Apothecaries' Hall, which had refused to receive Miss Garrett, were advised that they could not legally, decline to oxantino her, so she entered for the full course of study. All her .-tumbles en'M—wliero hor competitors' begun—at the public examination. Miss Garrett emu-god with glowing colours, took hor degree of ii.J.-i., aua .ras auiu lo register herself as a legally qualified English practitioner. Tho years 1870-71 wero memorable ones in this most eventful career. She obtained her M.D. degree from the University of Paris, contested a seat on tho London School Board, and was returned for. Marylebone rst the head of tho poll, v/as appointed visiting physician at tho East London Hospital, and married Mr. J. G. S. Anderson, of the Orient line of steamships to Australia, whose sister had also entered the medical profession. At the timo of the cholera visititi.i'i in the East of London in 1866, when it was expected that it would.spread to the West End, Miss Garrett started a dispensary ■ near Lisson Grove for the' treatment; of poor women and children. From this .small .beginning has evolved through-Various stages-tho splendid new Hospital for Women in the litis ton Eoad which is Dr. Garrett's particular pride today. It is, of'course, entirely officered by women. ' For many, years she ws its head physician and surgeon, but she resigned the position, some years ago lhat yo'inger v.omen might liavo a chance of forward.Upon her retirement, she-was presented by seventy British- medical women with a handsome set of bilver candlesticks and candelabra in recognition -of the .service- spent in the advancement of women in medical science. It was a joy to her that there were seventy medical women: to make the presentation—a great crowning to her 'pioneer labours on their behalf. _ The refusal' of the Edinburgh University to grant medical degrees to women led ,to'the formation of the London School of Medicine for Women, in Brunswick Square, with which Dr. Garrett Anderson has been so long associated, and'of which sho is Dean. In medicine the course'of study, the oxamina--tions, and tho degrees are .the same for , women as for men.. In regard to her views upon co-education she thinks that upon the , whole, it is plcasanter for women to study in a separate school, as they can lead a 1 more unconstrained, i happier, and brighter life. Dr. Anderson had perforce the oxperienco of being the one woman in a school'of men, and she . looks, back with great compassion and sympathy for herself. ' There was no companionship and no gaiety to relievo the strain of study, and always the haunting feeling of being under scrutiny. In regard to health she thinks that the -women studying modicine havo . better health than " the average young woman. ■ Breakdowns amongst them aro very rare.