LADY DOCTORS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCIII, Issue 14363, 1 December 1910, Page 5

LADY DOCTORS.

A NEW OPENING. TJie recently-announced fact that tins year the number of girl students lor medical degrees constitutes a record Js not without its bearing upon ' a remarkable movement in which Lady Hardinge, the new Vicereine of India is understood to take a deep interest (states a London correspondent) This is the proposal to establish a new Government service f or lady doctors in India. Up to the present . the important work of lady .doctors among the nnllions of native Indian women, who wnl die rather than be attended by a. man, has been carried on under what 35 known as the Dufferin fund. This owing partly to its local methods of orgamsat.cn, has been found to admit grave abuses. At present, apart from Lady Mmto, there is not a woman in the central council. In some cases poorly-qualified women have been appointed to responsible pests, and with local control predominant there is not n. wide enough prospect to attract the best lady doctors where they are most needed. Accordingly, j,i a few davs, an influential deputation is to wait* upon Lord IMorley. with a view to the crea- "' tion of a Women's Indian Medical Service, under the immediate authority of the Government, to be entered by open competitive examination, and to "ensure a pension after a certain number of years. One women's hospital in India (the Carna Hospital, Bombay), has been, for some years under a sort of special Government aegis, with the result that it has been a long way the most successful hospital of its kind in the country. Even now about twothirds of the lady doctors in India are natives, many of them extremely clever and highly qualified, and it is intended that the study of medicine among the native women shall be encouraged in every way. On the other hand, there is no diminution in the demand for English lady doctors—especially to supervise and inspect—and under the new auspices a great and useful career should be open to properly-trained English women. It is probable that before she leaves England Lady Hardinge will make a tour of the principal Lon- . don hospitals to gather ideas for what should be a memorable feature of her five years' residency.