An Indignant Professor.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5426, 29 November 1895, Page 2

An Indignant Professor.

A certain Professor Albert, a distinguished Burgeon of the Vienna University, has just published, in a pamphlet entitled "Women and the Study of Medicine," a very extraordinary attack upon all women who attempt to qualify themselves for admission to any of the learned professions. Be starts out with the assumption that women are incapable of development, and then proceeds to show, to his own entire satisfaction, that all the necessaries and comforts of life are the results of man's ingenuity, industry and power. "The carriage yon ride in," he claims, "is hia work, the horses that draw you were tamed by him, the giant oity has been built by him* All you buy— meal and bread, wine and salt — if you follow it to itß origin, you will find was worked for by man. Railways, poßts, telegraphs are the work of man. There iB no social order in the world which is not his work." This 1b a tolerably large contention on behalf of his own Bex, but the ungallant professor goeß much further in his denunciation of women who aspire to be anything more than mothers of children and domestic drudges. He even believes that women's souls are different from those of men. The women themselves, acoording to this authority, are "illogical" and know only the " Billy desire to live." He does not oondeßcend to tell us in what . way " the silly desire to live " is inimical to the development of what he is pleased to call the higher faculties, and*, strangely enoagfc, he admits that it does not prevent' women from becoming efficient nurses and. midwives, or even "unlearned assistants iof the doctor." He is particularly indignant that women should ever think of becoming specialist?, "God protect us from them," he exclaims with more fervour than piety; as he contemplates an army of " scientific creatures " settling down to practise in the large cities and "taking the bread out ot men's mouths." But he comforts himself with the reflection that the exanjgii stands between "the profession Tnd the "unsexed student." "If, after all," he says in conclusion, " there should be girls willing to attempt the atndy of medicine, happily those who will succeed are' very few indeed. Let them be examined with all the severity possible on the part of the examiner. No indulgence of any kind to them 1" Apparently the news of the distinguished eucceßß of women in competitive examinations in England has not yet reached so far as' Vienna; but the Professor will probably live long enough to disoover that the "unaexed student" requires no indulgence even in her march to the highest positions in his own pro* feseion. The facts concerning women workers in Great Britain disclosed in a Parliamentary paper laid on the table oi the House of Commons a little time ago, would doubtless have a very disturbing effect upon the author of the pamphlet to which we have just alluded. They go to show that English women have made immense strides towards "economic independence" during the past twenty years. The paper in which they are contained loses come of its value by the confession made in the introductory notes that, owing to differences in the modes of taking the census, the returns of 1871, 1881 and 1891 are not always comparable. It seems that many of. the occupational headings of the 1871 census were changed in 1881 and in 1691. Variations were also made in. the grouping of individual occupations under the general headings. Moreover, the instrnotionß issued to clerks at the several csnßusea in regard to the manner in which they should deal with occupation^ vaguely described in the householders' schedules, differed widely, so that "domestic nurses" and "sick nurses," for example, were, in very large numbers, indefinitely returned simply as "nurses." Still, the definitions and figures are clear enough to prove that there has been an enormous addition of women aspirants to the ranks of the professions since 1871. There was evidently no return of women doctora in that year; they wereawaiting their degrees, or had degrees which the census 'did not recognise ; in 1881 they were returned aa 25 in number, but in 1891 they were 101 in England and Waleß. Women veterinary Burgeons appeared for the firat time in the census of 1891. There were then two of them. Besides over 63,000 sick nurses,, there were 887 women engaged in " subordinate medical service." Under the Bomewhat comprehensive heading of "author, editor, journalist," we find 660 women in 1891, as compared with 452 ten years before and 255 in 1871. Women reporters were rare in 1881. Fifteen was the total number for England and Waleß ; but in 1891 there were 127. In the arts the invasion of the ladies is moßt conspicuous. In 1881 there were 1960 of their sex who returned themselves aa painters, engravers, or sculptors; in 1891 the number had risen to 3032. For the first time in 1891 there were lady architects on the census* rhoy numbered nineteen. Lady musicians and mußio mistresses numbered over nineteen thousand in 1891. They were but eleven thousand ten years before. Instead of 2368 actresses, as in 1881, there were in 1891 3696. Surely there aro faots enough bero to satisfy even Profesßor Albert that women, whatever the condition of their eoule, are not altogether unable, to make their way in the professional walks of life.