MEDICAL WOMEN

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1651, 21 October 1903, Page 27

MEDICAL WOMEN

At an inquest reported recently, it was stated that the post-mortem examination had been made by a woman doctor, a house surgeon at the Royal Free Hospital. Thirty years ago even the possibility of such an event would have been dnsidered a monstrous idea, but in a quarter of a century the public mind has become so accustomed to the existence of medical women that it is rather inclined to wonder how the community previously managed without them. T'he London School of Medicine, ihe pioneer women’s medical school in England, was only opened in 3874, but since then not only have three more women’s medical schools been opened, but there are also six schools of medicine in the United Kingdom where women can study with men, six universities where they can obtain a medical degree, while they can also qualify under the examinations of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dublin, and of the' Apothecaries’ Hall. London. According to the census for England and Wales for 1891 there were then 101 lady- doctors, but in the last census for 1901 this figure had more than doubled, the total being 212 Whereas in IS9I there were 50 women physicians under the age of 35 y r ears, in 12C1 there were 120.

As to the prospects for women wlio Tiave duly qualified, the number of public and hospital appointments open to them, though still not large, is increasing. The Koyal Freo Hospital, which has always treated women medical students with the greatest hospitality, has women house physicians and surgeons on its staff, beside women clinical assistants and anaesthetists, and a woman also holds the important post of registrar. The New Hospital for ivomen, founded by Mrs Garrett Andersen, is entirely officered by women, and so is the Clapham Maternity Hospital. Many hosptals for women and children, both in London and in other parts of the country, have also appointed women on their medical staff. Quite a number, too, both of poor law infirmaries and county asylums employ women assistants. Women doctors also hold many posts under school boards and other local authorities. The London School Board employs a lady as medical examiner for defective children, while another lady holds a similar post in connection with the home® for defective children under the Metropolitan Asylums Board. A lady fills the position of bacteriologist to the Derby Town Council, while another is medical officer and public vaccinator to a district in Perthshire. Two or three ladies are engaged as medical examiners or referees for insurance or friendly societies, Avhile women doctors are also cmplo3red by the post office for the benefit Qf the female staff in London, Liverpool and Manchester. Probably between 200 and 300 medical women are now working in India, some tinder the Dufferin Fund, some in charge of hospitals, some as medical missionaries, and a very few in private practice. In Persia, in China, in Korea, where a tv Oman is physician to the Imperial Household, and in equatorrial Africa, the British medical woman is also found.

Official figures put the present population of Norway at 2,263.010,