DR FLORENCE KELLER, M.D.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVI, Issue 12590, 27 August 1901, Page 5

DR FLORENCE KELLER, M.D.

MORE AMERICAN INVASION. OUR GIRLS—THEIR COMPLEXIONS AND THEIR FEET. A CHAT WITH A LADY!DOCTOR. In many respects the great American nation, despite much that is artificial and shoddy in its strenuous life, can give a useful lead to less progressive communities. In one field in particular,. the. professionalism of women, our Trans-Pacific cousins are strikingly- advanced in -comparison- -with the more conservative methods cl the Old Country and the colonies alike. The lady doctor and- the lady lawyer, which are only just not anomalies in New Zealand, are recognised institutions in America. It would be unkind to suggest that America having sent her entertainers over here to make us ill, was now sending her doctors to make us better, and it is perhaps am accident of coincidence rather than cue ol significance that the recent American invasion should have included a lady doctor as well as a physician of the more generally recognised sex. Dr Florence Keller and her 'husband, Dr P. Martin Keller, in order of interest, have arrived in Christchurch to take charge of the Sanitarium at Papanui, and in pursuit of a personality ol probable interest a “Lyttelton Times” reporter waited upon the lady yesterday morning and besought an interview. Awed by reminiscences, yaguely iterative, of the professional woman according to the accepted type of the cartoonist, it was not without some qualms that the reporter meekly proffered his request, but the stately young, blonde who responded', to it quickly swept such, trivial fond apprehensions ’to the fourwinds. Naturally the talk took a personal turn in its introductory stages. Mrs Keller stated that she and her husband were about to take charge ol the Papanui Sanitarium non-residentially and also to practice generally in the district, her own specialty being the diseases of women and children. She holds a Chicago diploma and has had considerable experience of sanitaria in America. For two years the was upon the medical staff of the Battle Greek ' Sanitarium, Michigan—“the largest sanitarium in the world,” she says, displaying a picture of a building which is certainly , calculated to carry the conviction of its claim. Indeed, when she adds that it employs a thousand nurses and a staff of forty-three physicians, cvne ceases to wonder. Subsequently Mrs Keller practised at the Spokane Sanitarium, “ out West,” and last year she made a prolonged trip through the Ohautauquas, lecturing on sanitation and other public interests. But she is anxious to get off purely personal matters, which, she submits, are a little bit too advertisy to be strictly professional, and so the talk .takes an impersonal v turn. She has not been long enough in the country to form any decided views . upon its possibilities, but she confesses at once to a strong predilection in its favour. “ The country,” she comments, “ reminds me very' much of the Western - States 5 it is similar in character i and has the same class of buildings, and there is apparently the same general prosperity . among its people. And Ido admire the elegant complexion of your girls,” she adds enthusiastically. “ And deplore their ugly feet?” 1 'suggests . her interviewer. “ Well, yes,” continued' the, doctor, .with a, half-, grudging admission. .“ I suppose I have noticed it. • Probably it’s the shoes tney wear. I was warned before coming here about the difficulty of getting nice footwear and so brought a good supply with me. I’m not sure, though, that your girls are not choosing the wiser sort, though, to wear. But they walk so badly. I should like to got hold of some of them and straighten put that stoop,” and she squared her own straight shoulders impressively. Dr Keller is a prohibitionist, and the. movement has her heartiest co-pperatrom She admits that her Kphere of usefulness in this direction has been limited by the disabilities attaching to women in the States. “We haven’t got a say, you know,” she explains, “dike the. women have here. Dr Pomare, who was one of my class-mates in Chicago, used to say to me, ‘ If you come to New Zealand you can surely vote, and I used to answer, ‘ Then I surely will come.’ It was a jest at the time, but here I am.” The Prohibition movement is not dead 1 nor even dying dm America, Dr Keller thinks. It is not so pronouncedly before the public, became the newspapers which are always -running after new gods have, dropped it for the exploitation of newer sensations 1 , and that large -frothy section of the community which loves to do likewise is also worshipping elsewhere, but the solid backbone of the movement is untouched', and it is at heard as sound and progressive as ever it was. “It was- the same with bicycling,” explained'til© Doctor .illustratively. “ A short time 'ago the whole of America was on wheels; now cycling is dying'down, and you see practically, few wheels'. It is a good thing, too, for wheeling has been- very detrimental to the American nation. When the Spanish American war started quite a number of our hoys who wished to enlis t for service were rejected on the ground of heard trouble, which was brought about solely by cycling. Racing, of course, car-, ries the worst results in its train, and some of the cycling contests of recent years have resulted in direct death to participants. Cycling, too, is very detrimental to women as a rule.”

Having run amok among the wheeling fraternity, Dr Keller hifd a few words to say about vege'tarianism. lam not* a vegetarian,” she said, although I am to address the Vegetarian Society this week. I don’t allow that anybody who touches animal products at all, even eggs, butter and milk,, can claim to* be a vegetarian. Still, X am 'thoroughly at one "with a great man v-of the' principles of the vegetarians, and ’thee© Is no doubt that excessive meateating is most detrimental to* the health of a community.” 4fter some further impersonal gossip concerning journalism in tho - States the interviewer took hie leave-, satisfied that amoncr the things undreamt of in even the philosophy of Horatio not the least convincing and impressive is the lady doctor.