A WOMAN DOCTOR

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 49, 27 February 1937, Page 27

A WOMAN DOCTOR

AUSTRALIAN STORY

" Reviewing "Henrietta .Condon, M.D.," by Shirley Derbyshire, a Wi-ittr in "The Times Literary Supplement" says that Miss Darbyshire's hovel is based on an actual life, arid a large part of it reads more like a biography than; a work of,. fiction. ..., Henrietta, Con"dp_n was..the.daughter.of a London barrister who emigrated' to South Australia only a year or so after the .foundation of Adelaide. . We are given a glimpse of her forceful character when in London as a. small child she.wrecks" her sister's birthday, party,/from , some, obscure sense of its injustice-, .while children are starving in the streets. Throughout her-life she is as* direct: in action, though . fortunately more. constructive. : As a girl on: the .Condon's station near Adelaide she already showed a • gift of healing, but .she was twentyseven before she began, her medical course in New York. ' Before that time,-.driven from home by her dislike for her father and by an urge for service, she had founded a communal farm,'a hostel for immigrants, and a laundry for unfortunate girls, as well as having, acted as.assistant to a doctor in Melbourne and companion to a lady in Clapham. Having taken her degree.she set up in practice with a friend, and was cursed as a murdress by the mother of her first" patient. Up to this point Henrietta is a living character whose development and adventures hold our interest; but in the latter part of the "book we lose sight of her individuality in her activities—in the clubs she founds and the bit- of slum she clears—until at the end slie blossoms forth again as an astonishing old lady who, at the age of eighty-two or • more, organises a war-time hospital■ and dines- with her great-great nephews in; fashionable restaurants. Finally,, on her 100 th birthday, she achieves the-fame she deserves. Miss Darbyshire.has made an attractive and detailed portrait, though we feel that with such a forceful character there would inevitably- have been stronger -shadows. ■ The- account of the early days in- Adelaide-and-of-the ' vivid-clear- Australian bush is- delightful. ■: .. . : - ,