*■*      /,y'
1
       INTRODUCTORY LECTURE,

           DELIVERED TO THE CLASS
OP THE
FEMALE MEDICAL COLLEGE


     OF PENNSYLVANIA,
September 13th, 1852,
BY
WILLIAM M. CORNELL, M. D.
fc»*3
PROFESSOR OP
PHYSIOLOGY AND MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE.
PUBLISHED BY THE CLASS.
        PHILADELPHIA :

G. S. HARMS, PRINTER, S. E. COR. FOURTH & VINE STS.
1852.
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AN
    INTRODUCTORY LECTURE


        DELIVERED TO THE CLASS


               OF THE



FEMALE MEDICAL COLLEGE


     OF PENNSYLVANIA,


          Spptember 13th, 1852,
WILLIAM 91. CORNELL, M. D
professor of
PHYSIOLOGY AND MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE.
     PUBLISHED BY THE CLASS.




      «*£•'-: ART «»


         '■-.■ng-ioniv

        PHiLADELPHIA :
G. S. HARRIS, PRINTER, S. E. COR. FOURTH & VINE STS.

          1852. 
                                          Philadelphia, Sep.  27th, '52.
DR.  CORNELL,
                 Dear Sir .-—Regarding your introduction as a  concise and5
comprehensive refutation of the many objections urged against  the medical
education of women,  we, the undersigned, committee of students of the Fe-
male Medical College of Pennsylvania, do, in behalf of our sister students and
the cause of Truth, most earnestly solicit a copy for publication.
  With the desire that this request may receive a favorable answer, we are, hi
the name of our sex and the right,
                                     Most respectfully, Yours &c.
   H. WOLCOTT JOHNSON, New Jersey,         ELLEN S. BOYLE, Vermont.
   MARY J. F. THAYER, New York.            HARRIET A. JUDD, Connecticut.
   MINNA ELLIGER, Germany.                JANE V. MYERS, Ohio.
   C. G. ADAMS, Boston, Mass.                 JULIA A. BEVERLY, Prov. R. I.
   ANNAH N. S. ANDERSON, Pennsylvania.       EMILY J. DAVIS, Illinois.
                                         Philadelphia, Oct, 1, 1852.
  To Mrs. II. Wolcott Johnson and others, committee of the class of the F. M. C.:
Ladies :—
  In reply to your request for a copy of my Introductory Lecture, allow me to
say, as you have expressed an opinion that its publication may tend to advance
She cause of Female Medical Education, I submit it to your disposal.
                     Very Respectfully,
                               Your Obed't Servant,
                                                    W. M. CORNELL. 
INTRODUCTORY  LECTURE.
LADIES,
       Cradled and nurtured in the North, where bleak Boreas reigns,
it will not be expected that, I  should touch the subject of medical
education with that delicacy and widely expanded philanthrophy, and
warmth of feeling, which must prevail in this sunny latitude ;  and espe-
cially, in this everywhere acknowledged Emporium of medical science,
and brotherly and sisterly  affection.  Here,  have flourished, or do
flourish, a Rush, an Eberle,aWistar, a M'Clellan, a Wood, a Dunglison,
a Horner, a Mutter and an host of others, highly, and justly esteemed
for their eminent attainments in the scientific world and in the art of
healing.   But, I am encouraged to cast my mite into this broad foun-
tain, from the consideration, that our Boston  Franklin, became your
Philadelphia  Franklin; and  our Connecticut  M'Clellan, skilled in
art, was once a townsman of my own ; and he became your Surgeon
and the prime mover in giving existence and action to one of your most
flourishing schools of iEsculapean art.  "Nature has never given all
good to  one," says the Greek proverb,  and I  may add, nor has she
confined all knowledge to one place ; and, though
                    "The  sun, that rolls his chariot
                  O'er your heads, works up more fire
                  And color in your faces;"
 and  you have had,  and  still have, many renowned in the medical
 and surgical world ; yet, we  too, have not been wholly barren of such-
 like men.   We have had a Boylston, a Warren, a second and a third,
 a Lewis, a Ware, a  Shattuck and a Jackson, with many others.
    John C.  Warren and  James Jackson of  Boston,  no secondary
 planets in the medical hemisphere, but stars of the brightest lustre in
 our latitude, first introduced a female into  obstetrical practice in
 Boston.  This might have been a "Boston notion ;" but it took well,
 and, having such high authority, as a starting ground, I  may thence
 deduce my present  theme—Female  Medical   Education,  and  espe-
 cially the importance of Physiological  and  Hygienic  knowledge to
  women.  In entering upon this subject,  you will allow me in the first
  place, to say a few words upon Female  Education in general.  This
  seems necessarily preliminary  to the main subject  now under con-
  sideration.  Indeed, female  medical education is the legitimate result;
  the grand completion of the  literary, or classical education of female*.. 
4
   In speaking upon this subject, allow me to premise, that I do not
 appear as an advocate for ultraism, or, as what has been technically
 called woman's rights—though, I hope to make no objection to their
 having their rights.
   The subject of female education,  within the memory of the writer
 {who has not yet lived half a century) was but little thought of.  Men,
 and women  too, who would strain every nerve, and endure great priT
 vations and expense to educate their sops, felt no necessity, and put
 forth no effort, to confer educational endowments upon  their daugh?
 ters.  It seemed, in the language of the  learned and facetious Trum?
 bul, as thougb
                "They loved Mahomet's rules, who holds
                That women ne'er were born with souls,"
 pr intellects of  apy kind.  Even clergymen, civil  offiicers  and pror
 fessed instructors, were all in this condemnation.  But within the last
 twenty-five years, a change, much  for the better, has come over the
 community, apd  much more  in keeping   with the Christian religion,.
 In  all the States of our Union, female seminaries have  been reared,
 richly endowed, and furnished with competent teachers.   These have
 arisen through private munificence.   Also, in our own commonwealth
 ((and I think in some  others) the public  coffers have been opened for.
 this same benevolent purpose, and the result has been the establish-
 pient of normal schools for the thorough literary qualification of female
 teachers ;  and those who  have  had the most to do with instruction
 |n our publip schools, have been  convinced that females make by far
 the best and most successful  instructors  in  them; especially is  this
 the case with the  younger  portion, (which is much the larger) of the
 pupils.  It is the opinion of  many of the lovers of education, that it
 would be preferable to employ female teachers to males, even  at the
 same salaries.
   The enterprise of female education, which has for  some time been
 thus smiled upon by private benefaction, and by the  public  endow?
 ment of Normal schools, has recently received a new impetus by  the
 regular chartering of literary colleges for females in several of the
 States of the Union, of which there  is one in Georgia, one in Missouri,
 and in several other States.   These colleges have all the endowments,
 rights and privileges that are conferred upon the colleges of the land
 for the education of young men.   They have power, and exercise it, of
 conferring degrees upon all who  pursue  a regular course of study for
 three years, and sustain a good and satisfactory  examination  upon the
 branches authorized and required to be studied by the faculty of such,
'Colleges.
   This is  as  it should  be.  What  valid reason  can be  advanced
^.gainst it?  With such examples of.eminent women as have arisen in 
5
 ■the world, it is quite too late to attempt to maintain that females lire
 incompetent to attain as thorough and as finished an education, in all
 the branches of science and literature,  as males.   The Mores, the
 Hales, the  Sigourneys., and  an almost  innumerable  multitude of
 .others, stand up in fearful array against such an opinion.
   The change that has taken place within the last thirty years, in female
 education  has  not been greater, than that which has  transpired in
 the arts, sciences and inventions generally.  I remember, when a lad,
 visiting the  city of  Providence  with my aged  grandsire.  He  had
 followed the ocean in his youth, and had been accustomed to see ves-
 sels propelled only by wind and tide.  Steamboats had then just come
 in vogue,  and when  one started  from  the wharf and moved  swiftly
 forward, against both these, he raised his hands in admiration and  ex-
 claimed—Wonderful!  How  wonderful!   What  would he  say could
 he now come among us ?  What would any of our ancestors say could
 they now appear among us ?   Suppose William Penn could now arise
 and come  forth from his long sleep in yonder tomb.—What would
 he say ?  Though he was
                  "Calm as summer evenings be,"
 when King Charles, the II, told him his non-resistant principles would
 pever do here, and he  would  be  devoured by the Savages, then  in-
 habiting these wilds ;  yet, I fancy, he would  be a little startled by
 the puffings of  our steamships upon the ocean, and the snortings of our
 iron horses upon the  land; and especially, at standing in his city and
 conversing by a telegraphic  wire with  the men  in Shawmut,  hardly
 stopping to speak at Gotham, it being so near. Venerable Penn ! Thou
 little thoughtest  what  honors would be  conferred on thy  sons, and
 as little what a diadem of knowledge, honor and usefulness would  en-
 circle  the  brows of  thy daughters!   Could'st thou have seen their
 future  exaltation and glory, thou mightest well have braved the fury
 of the ocean and the  cruelty of the savage.
   Woman  is well qualified by nature to  be the sweetener of the joys
 and the assuager of the sorrows of our race.  The soft hand of a com-
 panion, a wife, a sister  or a daughter can  more effectually adjust  the
 pillow, administer the  cordial, wipe off the cold dew of death, and
 close  the  extinguished eye, than any other human being.   In  the
 chamber of sickness  and  distress  she is  more  persevering in  her
 efforts, more true in her love to the  last, and less  easily disheartened
 than the other  sex.   For these things she is proverbial in the hours
 of trial.  She never gives up till  the last ray of hope vanishes.
   Now, this property of her nature, which renders her the best  of
 purses, with proper instruction, equally qualifies her to be the best of
physicians.  Above all, is this the  cfise with  her owp  sex and  her 
6
 children.  She can, from her very nature, more  thoroughly under^
 stand and  more  effectually  assuage the diseases and sufferings of a
 sister, than any man can.  All know, and every candid man must ac-
 knowledge, that a great  portion of  that reserve on  the part of  the
 female  patient must be taken away, when the inquirer, or attending
 physician is one of her  own  sex.  Especially  does  every practising
 physician, who has known  the difficulty  with which the symptoms of
 disease are elicited from a  delicate,  suffering female  patient, under-
 stand the nature, truth  and philosophy of this declaration.
   Of course, I here say nothing of  the moral  properties  or feelings
 arising between the sexes,  when these  diseases are of a delicate char-
 acter, because it is taken for granted that, the male physician is, as he
 should be, a gentleman, a man of moral worth, above suspicion. Hence,
 I  leave entirely  out of the present  discussion  the  great argument
 which many use against the employment of men  in diseases and  con-
 ditions of the  character  described.
   Then, as to  the condition of children, the female can  better  un-
 derstand their symptoms and the  condition of their health, than a
 man can.  It  would be  strange if  they could not, when they are al-
 ways with them.  In civilized life,  who would expect a woman to use
 the sword, the plow, the axe, as dexterously as a  man ?   Equally ab-
 surd is it to expect a man to understand all that is indicated by the
 cries and sobs, the  laughs  and  scowls, and  the various symptoms of
 disease, in the child.  The  woman is ever with them, the man seldom.
Nothing, however, is to be inferred from this statement to prove that
 a man physician cannot, by much more study than would be required
 by a woman, bring  himself to know something  about  the  diseases of
 children. But it is meant  to be implied  that women have much  ad-
 vantage over men in coming to the knowledge of the diseases of chil-
 dren.  We wish it to be distinctly  understood that we  advocate no
partial medical education, but a thorough one in all branches pertain^
 ing to the medical profession.
   So far as the practice  of midwifery is  concerned, we have only to
 say, in the language of  the Keport of the Sanitary Committee of the
 commonwealth of Massaclusetts, for 1850, « For the first one hundred
 and fifty years after the settlement of this  country, this branch of prac-
 tice was mostly in the hands of females."  We believe not only mostly,
 but  wholly.
   We invite you, ladies  into a wide  field of physiological and  medi-
 cal research, preparatory to a life  of medical practice.  No science
 offers richer treasures, or more abundant  compensation than this.   It
 pays its votaries more than  compound interest—yea, usurious interest.
 Every stream  of science is  tributary to this  vast reservoir.   It is the
 gummum banum, the chief good, (so far  as  this life, at least, is cop 
7
Cerned) of human knowledge.  The earth with its ores or minerals ;
the water with its cleanly lavements and  medicinal springs—the fire
with its purifying flames and latent caloric—the ocean with  its saline
productions—natural philosophy with its levers or powers of motion,
and principles of rest, with light and heat, reflection and refraction—
Chemistry with its elementary simples and compounds affinitatively
combined—Botany  with its herbage of leaves, like  those  from the
" tree of life," for the healing of the nations, with its shrubs and balms
from a thousand flowers—a knowledge of ourselves, wonderfully con-
stituted as we are—yea, everything in  nature—all creation, from its
nadir to its zenith,  pays tribute to the iEsculapean fund.
   Think, for a moment, of  this animal economy, the  theme of your
study—the object of your investigation.  Its  various parts, how un-
like !  Its structure and functions, how singular !—bones and blood—
solids and fluids—the  opaque muscle and the transparent  humors—
the vegitating hair—the keenly feeling nerve—the curious digestive
apparatus—the breathing  lungs and beating  heart—various  organs
and apparatus, designed for multifarious uses, and in  health discharg-
ing all these functions well, are all here brought together.  Here are
gathered into one frame, compacted and harmonized,  and  stowed side
by side, all  contradictory  and conflicting elements—earth that will
not burn—phosphorus that  will burn from air alone—oil and water-^
fire and water—acid and alkali—solid  and  fluid—vegetable and ani-
mal—iron and oxygen which corrodes it.  Here, they not only tole-
rate each other, but harmonize and co-operate together for the common
good of this machiue.   Each is indispensable  to  its  fellow, and one
cannot say to the other, " I have no need of thee."   This is the field
of investigation.
   While we maintain that a physician should be strictly educated for a
physician, and abhor the idea of every  person  being  his own doctor,
we also maintain that every one should  know something about this cu-
rious workmanship ; and we believe every woman would spend time and
 money to good profit, if she would attend one course of medical lectures
—not to practice or dabble in medicine, but to know herself and her
duties to her family.  Hundreds of lives would be annually saved, and
thousands of children rendered more healthy, useful, nappy and long-
lived by a proper knowledge and  due application of Physiology and
 Hygiene.
   All mankind have seemed to be asleep about a knowledge  of the
human organization, " God's master work," and of " medicines which
He has caused to grow out of the earth."  Talk to  them about pro-
perty and money, and  you  would think  they were all lawyers and bro-
kers, they reason so acutely about mmm and tuum, but lecture to them1 
8
  about health, which is worth more than all the gold of El  Dorado,
  and they are mute.
    You may  circle the earth—you may navigate the seas, and then re-
  turn to the study of yourself, and  vht  your wonderful mechanism and
  in the adaptation of organs to their uses, you will find more wisdom,
  more manifestations of means leading  to an end> than in all beside.
               "How poor, how rich, how abject, how august,
           How complicate, how wonderful is man!
           How passing wonder, he who made him such!
           Who centered in our make such strange extremes!
           From different natures marvellously mixed!"
    One half the time that most men devote' to politics, that curses our
  land, and, like the  Circean cup, turns  the beads of all who  drink it,
  and makes rascals of most of them; or, thlat fashionable ladies spend
  in midnight revels and theatrical  amusements, balls and masquerades,
  and  tending puppies, which qualify them  for  anything but domestic
  duties—one half this time would  prepare them to attend to the wants
  of themselves and their families,  when sickness visits their dwellings,
  and, especially, would it enable them to distinguish between the swel-
  ling puffs and vaunting boasts of  the empiric, or quack* and the mo-
  dest, well-informed  physician.  Here is to be one of the greatest be-
  nefits of diffusing physiological and hygienic knowledge.  Nothing will
  blast quackery  like  it.   Yes, only instruct females in anatomy, phy-
 siology, a general knowledge  of medicine and midwifery, and the  dis-
  eases of the human  frame, and it  will  do  more  to banish quackery
 from the land, than all the legislative enactments, and all the artillery
 of physicians, have done since there was a legislature or a quack or a
 doctor.   What  quack would dare  to quit the shades  of his native ig-
 norance and native insignificance, if he knew he must encounter the
 searching scrutiny of knowledge, and that blazing touch-stone  of  cri-
 ticism, truth ?  No, if every woman in the land were instructed in
 these branches,  as she should  be, and which should always form a part
 of her education, it would externrinate this whole race of vagabonds.
 It would soon leave them but a beggarly account of " empty pill-boxes
 and dirty bottles."
   Who ever  knew  educated  physicians to  swallow these nameable
 and nameless compounds ?   They spurtf them as they would "' Pando-
 ra's box,"  that  scattered  death  everywhere.—And, only let every
 family be instructed  on  this subject, and what power Oh earth could
 make them buy  such vile trash, or eat it,- if they did.
  We must say, that other studies, in comparison with those included
in our object, are but as  the rills to the mighty ocean.
  We do not object to conferring upon woman all  the accomplishments
and graces, which can arise from-lavishing upon her everything which* 
9
Will Contribute to the  suavite in modo, that can be done, in consis-
tency with her performing the duties  of life:  We  wish her  to  be
adorned with all  the beauties and attractions of the " Houries ;" but
we would  have her, at the same  time, possessed of the wisdom of
" Zobeide."   We desire to see her move with the  ease, and grace, and
lightness of a Sylph.   It would be a most valuable  accession to her
in a sick room, over that iron clank, and charybdean scowl and xan-
tippean yell, which sometimes invade these quiet enclosures.  But
these, (desirable  as they are,) can be but as the chaff to the wheat, a*
the gossamer  to the precious weight—as the polish  to  the diamond*
compared with what we purpose to impart  to woman.  We mean to
make her what Heaven designed  she should be, " an helpmeet for
man."
   With all the drawbacks she has hitherto  had, we ask again, who
has been  the  great alleviator in the  chamber of sickness, when wo
most need  a comforter ?  Who must adjust  the pillow  to the  aching
head ? Who administer the cordial to the nauseous stomach ! and when
death must come, at last, who must wipe away its chill dews and close
the expiring eye ?  Has it not been Woman, under all her former dis
advantages 1
   Within a very  few days I have seen a compliment paid to your sex,
in the late extreme  suffering among the numerous passengers on the
Isthmus.  »The ladies were  specially active in relieving the sick and
the needy.  One, in particular, we could name, who, during the whole
time of their detention at San Juan, was a perfect sister of charity to
the destitute sick.  She went among them, like an angel of mercy, ad-
ministering to their necessities, speaking words of hope and comfort,
and alleviating their sufferings, by those little attentions, which only a
woman knows how to bestow.  Many a rough adventurer called down
blessings upon her—many a countenance, over  which  death was al-
ready stealing, lightened up with  a  joyful  smile, as she bent  over
it.  She was entirely fearless on her own account.  She forgot her-
self in her solicitude for others.  We  rejoice that she escaped an at-
tack of  disease.  Was  there  not a Providence  in it ?  Talk  about
woman being timorous, and wanting firmness in the hour of distress !
It is a libel upon the sex.  I have seen her stand by the sick and ad-
minister to their  comfort, till the disease vanished, or death closed the
sad scene,  when timorous men had not enough of confidence and self-
possession  even  to  enter the room of the distressed.  Go  ye, and
preach such a doctrine to others, but  tell it not to the clergyman, or
the physician who often visits the sick.
   We design to diminish the disadvantages  in the pathway of woman's
doing good.—To  instruct her in those necessary things which will cer-
ta;nly be called forth in playing  the great game of life. 
10
  The State Commissioners of Massachusetts, appointed to make a
sanitary survey of the commonwealth, speak as follows : In answer to
the objection, "We haven't time !" to attend to these studies.  " Irr-
deed !  but we have  time for other  things—for labour, for  leisure, for
dissipation, for  almost  anything we desire to pursue.—And  to what
purpose more useful than the preservation of our lives and health can
we devote a portion of our time ?   If time is not taken by us, and used
by us, for this object, it will be taken by another agent; and we shall
be prematurely deprived of  an opportunity of using it ourselves for
any purpose whatever.
  A shortened life and a debilitated frame, will  be the consequence
of ignorance and  inattention ;  a lengthened  life  and an invigorated
constitution, of knowledge  and application.  In plain  English, we
have no time, means, we  have no  disposition.  "Where  there^is  a
will, there is a way;"—where  there is a disposition, there  is a time,
a time for everything."
  Our people spend an indefinite amount of money in the perusal of
the miscellaneous literature of the  age ;  but a book, written with ever
so much talent and authenticity, which contains facts in relation to the
in-comings and out-goings of human existence—to the rise and fall in
the tide of human welfare—matters which concern and affect  every
member of society, is too dry and  statistical.  It will not interest.—
" We hav'nt time to examine it."
  We go to the root of the matter, to the family, the original of all
government and of  all  education.   We  wish, we  purpose  to instruct
in things of the greatest moment, those  who are, and are to be, moth-
ers ;  and when this is well done, we are willing here to rest the cause.
We  have no fears but  they  will  communicate  to those  whom they
love, and whom the  God of nature and Providence may commit to
their care, that information which  will be so necessary for their future
happiness and usefulness.   Who ever forgot what his mother taught
him ?  And what mother can tell the future exaltation of that infant
now lying in its cradle?   The precious boon is committed to you__
nurse it—guide it—train it aright.
   Two parts of my Professorship  every body admits to be necessary
to all.  Certainly, then, they are necessary  for the medical  student.
They are, Physiology and Hygiene.—The former, the base, the foun-
dation of  the latter.—The latter absolutely necessary to the health,
comfort, political economy, or  wealth and longevity of our race.
   Drs. James Jackson, M. S. Parry, S.  B. Woodward and Edward
Jarvis, in  letters addressed  to  the Hon.  Horace Mann, then  Se-
cretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education, in answer to the
following question of the Secretary—" How great, a proportion of di* 
11
 ease, of suffering, of a divination of the physical capacity of useful-
 ness, and of the abridgment of life, cemes from sheer ignorance, and
 which, therefore, we might hope to see averted, if people had that de-
 gree  of knowledge which is easily attainable ?"—severally answered,
 " more than one half."  This was in 1843, and it may be safely said,
 the ratio has not since decreased.
   From these data, as well as from many others, of equal importance,
 it is evident that, one-half the deaths that transpire, arise from igno-
 rance—from a violation of natural laws ; consequently they are suici-
 dal.  From hence, we think, we see the necessity of a Professorship
 of Physiology; yea, of Hygiene, to instruct, especially,  females in a
 knowledge of their organization,  and in the means to be  used for the
 preservation of health and the lengthening out of life.
   In addition, we would say, while we  mean to  give females in  this
 College a thorough medical education in all branches usually taught
 in any medical  college—that they shall not be inferior in the  knowl-
 edge of all that pertains to medical  science, to the male  graduates of
 other colleges, we, nevertheless, expect, that the greater proportion of
 their practice will be among their own sex and children.   This being
 the case, and the  earliest education of children being committed to the
 mother, we  feel it to be of the  utmost importance that, our pupils
 should be thoroughly versed  in the principles of  Physiology  and the
 laws of Hygiene.   Both these are required by law to be taught in our
 public schools in Massachusetts, and should be required in all  schools.
   But some one says—" what do  you expect to do?  How many weak
 minded  women there are—Do you expect to make  physicians of these ?
 They will do far more injury than good.   Who will  trust their lives,
 or those of their families in such  hands ?"  To this objection, we say,
very well.  Who does not know that, there are weak minded women—
 women who could never understand, and be proficients, in  the great art
of healing ?   And who does not know, too, that there are weak minded
 men.  Men  whom you could not make understand the simplest trade ?
 What medical professor, in any of our colleges, has not been  puzzled
and tormented by such, and compelled  to put them into the  medical
 hopper, again and again, before they could possibly grind them through
the medical mill, and dub  them, Doctors ?   And, who does not know
 that there are  some, yea, many, finally ground  through, whom  you
 would not employ to prescribe for your lap-dog ?   How  large a pro-
 portion   of the male  graduates  of our numerous  colleges, do  you
expect,  will  make  Cullens and  Galens, Boerhaaves and  Hunters 1
 What proportion of men, in other professions and departments of life,
are Newtons and Adamses, Washingtons and Napoleons ? 
pj
  We do not expect all our graduates will be Madame Boivins  and
La Chapelles, any more than we do that all women in other occupations
will be Queen Elizabeths, or Hannah Mores, Mrs. Sigourneys, Cha-
pones, or Jenny Linds.   But the fact that some  have been already
eminent in the medical profession, proves that others may be.
  It will be time  enough to make this objection  when  there are no
males who may properly be called weak brethren, and no men doc-
tors—who properly deserve the name of  bettys and gran-bettys ?  Ev-
erybody knows that all women are not of equal talent, and everybody
ought to know, that all men are  not.  When all our male  physicians
are John Hunters, we will pledge ourselves, all our female graduates
shall equal Madame Boivin,
   But, it is said, " women cannot go abroad to attend the sick—their
domestio employment  precludes them from practice.  What shall they
do, when they are called for, and cannot go ?"   Just what the male
Doctor does when he is called for, and cannot go—stay at home.  Just
what everybody else does, when  he is asked to do a thing and  cannot
—let it alone.  " But the  people will not employ them if you make
them doctors."   Very well, then, let them employ others.  We don't
expect people to employ  those whom they do not choose to  employ ;
and we are willing to say, that, if woman never practices medicine, she
would be amply repaid for studying it.  Another says, " you will break
up the medical profession—you  will drive all the  men out of  it,  and
even those who are now in it,  will starve."  They may as  well starve
as the women.   They have as much physical strength, and as many
hands  and feet, to earn their daily bread, as women have, and, if they
cannot cope with women in the medisal  profession, let them take an
humble occupation, in  which they can. But this objection is fully  an-
swered by the one made  above—that women are  so feeble, so unskil-
ful,  that they will never succeed in the medical  profession.  Then,
surely, they will not be likely  to starve all the men out of it.   Which-
ever horn of this dilemma is taken, equally gores the  objector.
   It is said, women cannot be surgeons ;  and surgeons are sometimes
 necessary.  The  first part of this statement remains to be proved.—
They have been surgeons, and may be again.  But suppose  they are
 not.   Why, then, can they not do as well as ordinary physioians.   Not
 one in ten of the physicians of Philadelphia, Boston, and other cities,
 and large towns, does the surgery for his own patients.  Many, of the
 first medical attainments, do not pretend to practice surgery.   If they
 have only a fractured limb to replace, or a tumor to  escind, they call
 in aid, or send the patient to  the hospital, to be treated by those who
 have their hands constantly in such business.   Cannot women do the
 same ?  If, in nine cases  out of  ten, physicians have an obstetrical 
13
ca?e, which even  threatens to need a surgical operation, they call in
the aid of one or more, who are in the habit of performing such ope-
rations.   Cannot women do the same ?
   We are willing there should be surgeons.  There always have been,
and always will be, and the idea that men will go out of the profes-
sion, or refuse to consult and co-operate with a regular medically edu-
cated woman, is a mere bug-bear.  It does not bear so much relation
to the subject as an Egyptian mummy does to a live man.
   It has been objected, that we are raising up a host  of quacks  or ir-
regular Practitioners, and thus increasing the evils of Empiricism,  and
augmenting the embarrassments of the medical profession.  To this
charge, we, the members of this faculty, plead not guilty.   We  know
that many females were in practice  before this  College  existed, and
they had received no regular medical education.   Some of them, and
some others, may  have attended a course  or part  of  a course of lec-
tures here, and gone  away and said, they  were educated in this col-
lege, and have claimed this  as their alma mater: but they are  not
graduates, nor are we responsible for  them.   Call for their diplomas,
and if they do not produce them, treat them as you would other char-
 latans.
    But it is said, to  study medicine, as  men  do, would destroy  all
 delicacy and modesty (those most precious jewels) of  the  female sex.
 Perhaps it would, if  they  were to hear lecture after lecture, day by
day, from a Professor of Midwifery, for instance,  filled up with story
after story, ridiculing the most sacredN*id interesting position, that of
child-birth, in which woman  is ever placed, it might  injure their sen-
sibility and delicacy.  But, is it necessary for them to hear such  lec-
 tures ?  We might turn the  tables and ask, what is the effect of such
 lectures upon a class of a hundred boys, or young men, from eighteen
 to twenty-five years of age ?   What opinion will they form of young
women, their sisters, cousins, the  companions of their youth ?
   We feel that we are doing a  great  work, if we educate  females to
practice medicine scientifically and understandingly, even in Christian
lands.  We know that they do now, much of the prescribing for their
husbands, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters and children, in the com-
 munity, and, we confess, we have the weakness to believe that they
can do this better if  they know more ; and the question  is, shall they
 be taught thoroughly how to  do it, or do it without this knowledge.
   But we do not expect our  efforts to give females a  medical educa-
 tion, and their influence, will be limited to Christendom.   It is a, great
 WOrk__and stretches beyond the present  bounds of Christianity, as
 we saw demonstrated yesterday from the missionary.   We look to the
 140,000,000, of India, its present number of inhabitants.   Suppose,
 a christian missionary goes there.  He finds his way  hedged up—they
 are jealous of his religious influence.  They fear  that their wives and
 children are sick, and this missionary  cannot see them.  But, like O'
 in the early gospel history, he has " taken Luke, the beloved physi-
 cian with him," in the  person of  his own wife.   She  understands the
 healing art.  They,  like all  other barbarous people, wish to be re-
 stored^ health.—She restores them—They look upon her as an an-
 gel of mercy—as the barbarians  once did upon Paul, when he  shook
 off the viper.  They listen to her, and, through her,  to her  husband. 
14
 Is she not verily, " an help-meet for him," in his missionary labors ?—
 Perhaps, by no other means could " a great door and effectual, be
 opened to  him." Certainly, by none so naturally and readily. We have
 some such  now among us, who may one day set their feet among these
 very millions, and when they do  it, we expect to hear these physical-
 ly and morally healed idolaters  exclaiming, " How beautiful are the
 feet of them who bring glad tidings of good things"—who bring us
 bodily health through the medium of  which spiritual life dawns.
   It is not always easy to gain access to men, even in civilized life,
 much less  in  barbaric, to preach to them the gospel.   They  do not
 believe you are so disinterested, as to come to preach to them purely
 for their spiritual  good.   They  ask, " what  sign shewest thou" that
 thou hast come out of such pure motives ?  You administer to the dis-
ease of the body, and thus fulfil the original command of the saviour,
 " as ye go, heal the sick."   The heathen starts from his slumbers—
 the idolater casts away his idols.   He exclaims, these christians have
come to do us good.   They have saved our children's lives.  We will
 now hear about your religion.
   We look into the dominions of the Sultan—infidel as he is, he, even
 now, has more regard for human rights, than  many nominally chris-
 tian.  But he venerates his prophet—he has his seraglios, and your
missionary  cannot pass their threshholds.  It  is not so with woman—
 she can go  and administer medicine to the sick, where her  husband
 cannot enter.   Through her medical  knowledge, the key is found to
 the heart of many a son of the swarthy Turk, and, also, of the wan-
 dering Ishmaelite, and together, they exclaim, " after all, these  chris-
tian dogs do us good.   They heal our  sick—They save our dying.—
Some good thing does come out of Nazareth.   These christians have
 not horns and hoofs, and such selfish hearts as we supposed.  We will
 now hear about your religion."
   We turn to China, that oldest, greatest, and, (in its own estimation)
 the only celestial empire of the world.   She numbers 360,000,000 ;—
 and though, by the wonder-working Providence of God, her five great
 maritime gates are set wide  open to  the Christian minister ; yet, so
jealous are  they of his influence, that he cannot travel more than half
a day's journey into the Empire, from any one of them.
   Suppose, now, the female missionary goes there, medically educated,
 with her husband.   Do you believe she  could not go where he could
 not ?  Let her heal one child—one woman—and she would be sent
 for, to be carried in a grand palanquin, or a  royal basket, where he
 would be prohibited admission.   A Chinese, like any other man, will
 pile " skin upon skin," and  silk upon silk, and tea  upon tea, till he
 " gives  all that he hath for his life."  It is in this way, we expect to
 open the door of beneficence, of humanity, of knowledge, refinement,
 civilization and religion, to multitudes.  See Grant, the surgeon mis-
 sionary, among these barbarians !  Armed with his cataract needle, he
 wends his way through passes guarded by armies.
   Our beginning has been small, but it is not to be despised for that.
 That ancient and sturdy oak grew from an acorn.   Napoleon, the man
 of destiny, who made and unmade kings and kingdoms with a  word,
 was once " an infant, muling and puking in its mother's arms."
              "With rude simplicity Rome first was built,
              'Twas afterwards adorned, and carved, and gilt." 
15
  Our wall may seem weak, and you may say, « if but a fort go up-
on it, it will fall down."  But our cause rests upon a deep foundation
■—upon the broad principle of humanity, of right, of justice, of reli-
gion.   We have, too, altogether the best part of  the community with
us ; and, I may add, the best part of the medical profession.  There
are some old  men, we know, who wish " all  things to remain as they
have been"—-who never change, right  or wrong, and who never wish
to see any  change in others.   Then, too, we have to encounter some,
who have sons, and who wish to leave their own mantles, with all their
privileges, upon them.   Their vision, of course, never spreads beyond
their own firesides.  They  think  it a  great  innovation, an enormous
offence, to instruct  women in Medicine.  They were born lords  of
this art.  They had it by hereditary descent.   If not born to it, they
have  so long held it, that they now  claim it by possession.
   When it was announced that Miss Blackwell had received the degree
of  M. D., at Geneva Medical  College,  a correspondent of  the Boston
Med. and Sur. Journal, wrote as follows :—" It is to be regretted that
she has been  induced to depart from  the appropriate sphere of her
own sex, and led to aspire  to honors and duties,  which, by the order
of nature, and the common consent of  the world, devolve  alone upon
men ; and I am sorry that  Geneva Medical College should be the first
to commence the nefarious process  of amalgamation."   This commu-
nication was answered by one of the Professors  of that college, and,
 I may add, so well answered, as to carry with it such  an anesthetic
effect, that the pen of the  objector  has never since awaked, and it is
supposed, the  anodyne, like the sleep  of Rip Van  Winkle, will last
for many years.  " Your correspondent is decidedly behind the  age,"
says  the learned  Professor.  " How long is it," he  asks, " since the
leading physicians of Boston  sent  out a  circular, recommending the
establishment of  an institution for the  education of females in the art
and science of midwifery ?  Prof.  Warren can enlighten  him on this
 point."   He adds, " Tempora mutantur, et nos non mutamur in illis."
   Says the Hon. Horace Mann, " I deem woman well calculated for
 the practice of medicine.  In the  sick chamber, woman  has always
been at home.  In many branches of medical practice, it is barbarism
to have any other than a woman.  In botany, in pharmacy, in nursing,
woman is unequalled, yet  a  senseless  custom forbids her  to  practice
 as a  physician.
    The sanitary and  physiological' education of  women, has been the
 most unfortunate that it could be.   If there  were, for  three or four
 generations only, a strict obedience to natural laws, then indeed, would
 the earth be glorified by a new and noble race."
   This is the language of a man who has done  more for the educa-
 tion  and health of the rising generation, than any other of his age.
   What is the great offence, the gravamen, of medically educating
 females ?  If Geneva college  might educate one, and  Cleveland col-
 lege another, and others have been frightened out of it by  the boys
in attendance, why may not this college educate them ?  Did it dis-
 grace Geneva or Cleveland ?  Or are there but two women fit to be
 educated ?
   We admit that woman has her own  sphere in  which to act, as much
 as man.  She is better calculated for some duties, than for others, and 
16
 we maintain that, there are none, within the whole range of these du-
 ties, for which she could have been better designed, or more in her
 sphere of usefuluess, than in this of medicine.   Tell about this being
 the appropriate sphere of man, and his alone !   With ten fold more
 plausibility and reason, might we say, it is the  appropriate sphere  of
 woman, and her's alone.  The order  of nature—the constitution  of
 families—the nature of human society—the earthly origin of the race
 —the commission of the child first  to the care of woman—the  deli-
 cacy of  females—all these proclaim her fitness  to be the good physi-
 cian.
   You may ridicule her in the faithful discharge of  these duties, and
 throw obstacles in  her path and ours;  but  what good cause cannot
 and have not selfish men ridiculed ?   Ridiculed and opposed, it  will
 succeed.  God and  nature, and all  good men are interested in  this
 work of mercy J and he savors but little of  the scholar, the gentle-
 man, or  the Christian, and above all, of the good physician, who  will
 oppose it.
   I will conclude by cslling back your attention to the pursuits be-
 fore you.  I have already merely glanced at the extent and nobleness
 of the field ; and, I do not design now to spread before you the full
 extent of that science and art, in the cultivation and practice of which,
 you are to spend a life.  Think not this hill of science can be easi-
 ly climbed.   Was there ever any royal road to it ?   Never.   Hidden
 riches are treasured up in  the interior of this  vast domain.   They
 must be wooed or never won.  You are to ponder over Nature's ample
 volume, in which, of men  of  science, " an army might be lost,"  and
 even we, your professed teachers, have but just entered within  the
 threshhold  of her  enshrined  treasures.  Commence  these lectures,
 then, with a determination not to be satisfied with the mere technicali*
 ties of your profession.   There is enough  before you to engage all
 your powers, and to amply repay all your studies, and to raise you to
 the respect and confidence, and admiration,  even, of this age and of
 posterity.  Had not the ancients considered medicine worth cultiva-
 ting, they never would  have associated it with light,  and wisdom, and
 music, and committed them all to the superintendence of Apollo,  the
 God of the Sun.   What still  adds grandeur  to  the study is, it is in-
 vestigating the work of God,  and if
             " The spangled heavens, a shining frame,
             Their great Original proclaim."
 still more does this world in miniature  bespeak its Author.
  Every part of this organism, not only those more  coarse and open,
 but those most delicate and concealed, we will expand to your view.
 The tiny filaments of the nerves, and  their  intricate windings—the
 grand organ, the brain, with its commissures and labyrinths—the  pri-
 mordeal cell, the embryotic, atomie molecule, from its incipient state,
 with all its manifold phases and combinations, reaching to the full de-
 velopment of this fearful  and wonderful organization—the very glo-
 bules of  the  blood, measured with microscopic exactitude—all these
 are to pass  before you.   In these branches, we will lead you to follow
in the steps  of Bichat, Schleider, Schwunn and  others, who have re-
 cently given a new  impetus to them. 
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           PENNSYLVANIA.

     THIS THIH.I> -A.3NT2»TXJ-A.Xj

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Commenced September 13th, 1852, and  will close /are. 31i£, 1853.

                     FACULTY.
  Joseph S. Longshore, M. D., Professor of Obstetrics.
  Abraham Livezev, M. D., Professor of Practice of Medicine.
  David J. Johnson, M. D., Professor of Chemistry and Toxicology.
  William M. Cornell, M. D., Professor of Physiology and Medi-
     cal Jurisprudence.
  Enoch C Rolpe, M. D., Professor of Surgery.
  Ellwood Harvey, M. D., Professor of Materia Medica.
  Seth PancoasT, M. D., Professor of Anatomy.
  Persons wishing further information in relation to the present or to
     the next session, may apply personally or by letter to
                   DAVID J. JOHNSON, M. D.,
               Dean of the Faculty, No. 229 Arch St.
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