FEMALE PHYSICIANS IN AMERICA.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3546, 20 November 1882, Page 4

FEMALE PHYSICIANS IN AMERICA.

The state of medical science in America is very different from that which prevails in this country. The scientific knowledge and skill of the physicians and surgeons occupying the highest ranks is fully equal to that of the similar classes in Europe ; but the education received by the great bulk of the profession is not equivalent to that which the same grade receive in the United Kingdom. Of the sixty - five medical colleges in tho United States, not more than a quarter are giving extended courses of instruction such as ore imperative in the medical schools of Great Britain. Moreover, the colleges pass their own pupils, and have a distinct pecuniary interest in their success. It is not surprising that a medical school of higher standing should at last be establisbed in New York, its object being to raise the standard of medical knowledge amongst those physicians already in practice. The course of study is to consist of clinical teaching and demonstrations, in contradistinction to lectures. The medical faculty consists, with one exception, of men eminent in the departments of medicine which they will have to teach. The exception is that one chair—that of the diseases of children —is filled by a lady, Dr. Mary Putman Jacobi. We are informed by the correspondent of the Lancet that even in America this is the first instance of a woman being elected as a professor in a medical school, and that, ' whatever opinion may be expressed respecting this innovation, there can be but one as to the fitness of this lady for the position in question. Dr. Mary Putman Jacobi's skill in treating the diseases of children is acknowledged by the medical profession, and her instruction in this department will be a welcome addition to the excellent course of study which will be provided.' That a woman should have been appointed a professor on the staff of a medical college which aims at being the highest in the United States, is a fact of which the advocates of female medical education may be proud ; and the circumstance that it has been chronicled with approbation by the talented correspondent of a medical contemporary which has hitherto almost ignored the existance of female colleges is a fact that will not be a little gratifying to those who seek to promote the cause of medical education amongst women. —The Queen.