TIIE AVAR 
AGAINST TIIE 
NEW ENGLAND 
FEMALE MEDICAL COLLEGE. 
BY SAMUEL GREGORY, A.M., M.D., 
Secretary of the Board, of Trustees. 
Circular to the Members of the Massachusetts Legislature, 
BOSTON: 
PRINTED BY ALFRED MUDGE & SON, 34 SCHOOL STREET. 
18G6. CIRCULAR. 
The parties who have petitioned the Legislature to investigate 
the condition of the New England Female Medical College, 
“ for the purpose of inaugurating any reform or improvement,” 
express the belief that the college ought to be so conducted as 
to “ secure the cooperation and approval of leading medical 
men ”; and they assert that the medical profession withhold 
their “ cooperation and approval,” not because they are opposed 
to the institution and its objects, but because of something in 
its management. And as this is used as an argument in favor of 
abolishing or reorganizing the present Board of Trustees, it 
becomes necessary to expose the falsity of the assertion, and 
show the true reasons of the hostility to the college and its 
Managers. 
The institution (which was opened in 1848,) has of course 
had to contend with the difficulties incident to a new and experi- 
mental enterprise, — such as popular prejudice, the doubt as to 
its success and the consequent tardiness to extend the requisite 
pecuniary aid, the incompatible and disturbing elements that 
will work into an enterprise requiring many managers and 
employees, and the feelings of envy, jealousy, and malice to 
which human nature is liable; but, in addition to all this, the 
college has had to struggle against the active opposition of the 
medical profession, and the dead weight of their influence. 
And any little difficulties arising in the institution, any technical 
questions as to its management, that would never be noticed in 
any other corporation, are eagerly seized hold of and magnified 
by this hostile interest, and used to damage or break down the 
college. 
The effort of the petitioners to have it placed to some 
extent under the control of medical men, shows, as will appear 4 
in the following pages, that either they are very ignorant of the 
history of this enterprise, and of what the interests of the college 
require, or else they are desirous to put the institution into the 
hands of those who would rather abolish it, than make it a 
success. 
The writer having given his exclusive attention to the 
enterprise and the institution for the past eighteen years, has 
certainly had ample opportunity to know their history and 
workings, and what is required for their success. 
The writer has no quarrel with the medical profession, and if 
they have any with him he is willing to submit it to an impartial 
tribunal for investigation and adjustment. The presentation in 
the following pages is not prompted by any personal ill-feeling 
toward any man or class of men, but by an earnest interest 
in the success of the college and the beneficent objects its estab- 
lishment was designed to accomplish. In a pamphlet by the 
writer entitled “ Letter to Ladies in favor of Female Physi- 
cians,” published in 1850, the following paragraph occurs: 
“ It is not necessary to say that physicians, as a body, are an 
intelligent, honorable, and most useful class of men. Nothing is 
farther from the author’s desires or intentions than to depreciate 
their worth in the estimation of the public, or to discourage 
sound and thorough medical education. Among the profession 
he has many valued friends and agreeable acquaintances, class- 
mates and others. It is not that he regards their interest less, 
but the general good more, that he thus strongly urges this 
matter.” 
Such were his sentiments sixteen years ago, and such they are 
now. And having said thus much to guard against misrepre- 
sentation, he will now present some historical facts. 
More than forty years ago Dr. John C. Warren and Dr. James 
Jackson, of Boston, introduced a woman into the practice of mid- 
wifery in this city, which aroused great opposition among their 
professional brethren. In the Life of Dr. Warren, compiled 5 
from his autobiography and journals, and published in I860, this 
matter is alluded to as follows: 
“ Dr. Jackson and I proposed to give up our midwifery busi- 
ness more than twenty years ago, and, there being no exclusive 
male practitioner in that department, we determined to recom- 
mend Mrs. Alexander. She was a Scotch woman, regularly edu- 
cated, and having Dr. Hamilton’s diploma. But, although we 
intended to relinquish only what belonged to ourselves, a great 
objection arose to this plan, and we agreed to give her up.” 
“ We agreed,” with the medical profession of Boston, “ to give 
her up.” Had they not given her up the profession would prob- 
ably have given them up. Mrs. Alexander, however, went for- 
ward and had a large and successful practice for about twenty- 
five years, among the most intelligent and influential portion of 
the community. It may be said that times have changed since 
that day. True, but human nature remains the same. 
In 1850, the originators of the institution petitioned the Legis- 
lature for an Act of Incorporation as the “ Female Medical Edu- 
cation Society.” It was opposed by medical gentlemen in the 
Legislature. One of them, in the Senate, having offered his 
objections, Hon. Henry L. Dawes ably advocated the measure, 
remarking in the course of the debate that he did not wonder 
that his friend from Middlesex should be somewhat alarmed in 
prospect of his fair competitors, and thus turned the laugh upon 
him. The bill passed the Senate by a vote of eighteen to four, 
and the House without open opposition. In 1853 the Society 
petitioned for a college charter. Eminent medical men appeared, 
in the interest of the profession, before the Committee on Educa- 
tion, in opposition to the petitioners, and that year the petition 
failed. 
The Scholarship grant of 1854 and the grant of 1855 were 
alike vigorously opposed by medical men in and out of the 
Legislature, but the latter passed the Senate without any 
demonstration against it, and though warmly opposed in tho 6 
House, “it passed by an overwhelming vote,” as reported in 
onp of the daily papers. The granting of the college charter, 
in 1856, was still more zealously opposed, medical influence 
being specially active. A supply of copies of the Boston 
Medical and Surgical Journal, containing an article of five pages 
against the whole idea of female physicians and midwives, was 
sent up to the State House for the members of the Legislature. 
But the opposition lying under the suspicion of not being 
disinterested, it had a contrary effect from what was intended. 
The bill passed the Senate without an open attempt to defeat it, 
and, though it was earnestly contested in the House, it passed 
that branch by a vote of 126 to 21. 
The writer was personally cognizant of all these matters at 
the different sessions, and from past experience and present 
observation, he believes the demonstration against the college 
now going on before the Legislature is stimulated and encouraged 
by the profession, though they do not publicly appear in the case. 
That the complaints now brought forward against the manage- 
ment of the college are not the cause of their opposition is 
evident from the fact that the opposition was the same before 
any such complaints existed. Everybody knows how conven- 
iently Boston influences are brought to bear at the State House. 
The same professional zeal and industry that were exhibited 
in the efforts to prevent the Legislature from aiding the college, 
by the grant of funds and a charter, are shown in efforts to pre- 
vent individuals from giving it money, which of course greatly 
increases the labor and the difficulty of raising the needed funds 
for the institution. And a publication of this kind is necessary 
in order that the friends of the college may better understand 
what it has to contend with, and thus feel the need of extending 
to it more prompt and liberal aid. Hon. John Wade remarked 
to a friend of his, that, on account of the opposition to the col- 
lege, it was not likely to get its share of aid. And this fact, 
together with the importance of the institution, which he said 7 
was “ one of the greatest blessings of the age,” induced him to 
give to it that $20,000 Scholarship Fund. 
The following petition was sent to the Trustees of the City 
Hospital. 
To the Trustees of the City Hospital, Boston: 
Gentlemen, — The undersigned, the Trustees of the New England Femalo 
Medical College, respectfully represent, — That they are desirous to have the 
graduates of this college qualified in the best possible manner for success in 
their vocation and usefulness to society, — that opportunities for observation 
and clinical instruction in a hospital are considered by medical instructors as 
essential to the most thorough education of medical students, — that hospital 
advantages in connection with this college will attract to it students who 
will otherwise be under the necessity of going elsewhere for such benefits, — 
that the students of this college may be useful as nurses or assistants in the 
hospital while obtaining their education. The undersigned, therefore, re- 
spectfully petition your Board to allow the students of this college access to 
the female wards of the City Hospital, at proper times and under proper 
regulations, to receive whatever advantages may be available to them in the 
pursuit of their medical education. 
(Signed) 
CHARLES DEMOND. 
WM. CUM8TON. 
GEO. M. RANDALL. 
MICAII DYER, Jr. 
JOSEPH W. PARKER. 
STEPHEN G. DEBLOIS. 
EDWARD N. KIRK. 
JOSEPH H. WILLIAMS. 
JOHN BATCHELDER. 
MATTHEW HARVEY. 
GEO. n. nEPWORTH. 
JONAS FITCH. 
WM. W. HOPPIN. 
RYLAND FLETCHER. 
JOHN J. NEWCOMB. 
EMERSON DAVIS. 
DEXTER S. KING. 
JOHN P. GULLIVER. 
CURTIS C. NICHOLS. 
SAM’L GREGORY. 
Boston, Sept. 9, 18G5. 8 
The following is the reply to the petition: 
City Hospital, Oct. 10, 18G5. 
Gentlemen, — The Trustees of the City Hospital have taken into consid- 
eration the matter of your petition of Sept. 12. With every desire to make 
our institution useful in the diffusion of medical knowledge, we find that we 
cannot grant your request without interfering with the rules and arrange- 
ments of the hospital. We are supported in our decision by the unanimous 
opinion of the Visiting Physicians and Surgeons. 
By order of the Board of Trustees, 
OTIS NORCROSS, President. 
To Charles Demond, Esq., and others, 
Trustees of Female Medical College. 
No one can deny that this was a respectful and reasonable 
petition, asking merely that female students might have access to 
the female wards, “ at proper times, and under proper regula- 
tions,” while the students of the Harvard Medical School 
(located in Boston,) have the benefit of the whole of the Massa- 
chusetts General Hospital, and the whole of the City Hospital. 
The petition was referred at once to the Board of Physicians 
and Surgeons, some twenty in number. They unanimously 
objected, and the Trustees returned the above reply to the peti- 
tioners. “ Buies and arrangements ” would not have been in 
the way had the physicians been in favor of the medical educa- 
tion of women. They say they are opposed to female physicians 
because they are not thoroughly educated, and at the same time 
they refuse to give them the smallest chance for improving their 
education. 
Last summer a fine young physician and surgeon, in an 
adjoining city, was invited to take a professorship in the college. 
After ample time for consideration and inquiry lie decided to be 
a candidate. He was appointed, and he sent in his letter of 
acceptance. In due time the annual term and the names of the 
professors were advertised in the public journals. This drew 9 
the eyes of the profession upon him. He was waited upon by 
prominent physicians, one of them a Boston gentleman of high 
position, who told him that if he wanted to retain the good will 
of the profession, it would not do for him to lecture in that 
college. And such was the pressure brought to bear upon him 
that he felt compelled to give up, yes, to violate, his engagement. 
The professorship was thus made vacant just at the commencement 
of the term, much to the disappointment of the Trustees, and the 
detriment of the college. The professor elect was asked if the 
objections of the physicians related to any person connected 
with the management of the college. “No,” said he, “in no way, 
shape or manner — they objected to the ;principle of the thing.” 
That is, to the education of women as physicians. The names 
of physicians engaged in this meddlesome business were given 
to the writer, but he withholds them for the present. 
This spirit of hostility to the college is more determined in 
Boston than in any other part of the State. Here is the battle 
ground, and an army of over three hundred physicians. Here, 
too, women arc making great inroads upon the lucrative practice 
of obstetrics and the treatment of the diseases of women and 
children; and the opposition is as natural as human nature itself. 
All classes of persons fight against reforms arid changes that 
conflict with their interests, however beneficial such reforms and 
changes may be to society at large; and physicians are as good 
as other human beings, and no better. 
There can be no clearer evidence of the success of this enter- 
prise, past and prospective, than this very opposition; for, if it 
was likely to amount to nothing, why all this timidity and pur- 
turbation on the part of the profession ? The advice of a cer- 
tain “ doctor of the law,” one Gamaliel, given to certain parties 
eighteen hundred years ago, may very properly be repeated in 
this connection, — “And now I say unto you, refrain from these 
men, and let them alone, for if this counsel or this work be of 10 
men, it will come to nought; but if it be of God, ye cannot over- 
throw it.” 
The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, (the official organ 
of the profession) of July 7, 1864, in an article headed, “Indis- 
creet Recommendations,” contains the following paragraph, relat- 
ing to a Hospital for women and children, in this city, — an 
institution in no way connected with the New England Female 
Medical College. The paragraph is aimed at certain prominent 
medical men who have ventured to associate professionally with 
female physicians, graduates of the college and others, in the 
hospital. 
“ A communication lately appeared in an evening paper of this 
city, soliciting subscriptions in behalf of a hospital for women 
and children. This may be a desirable object, but we question 
if the gentlemen whose names appeared in support of it were 
delighted to see them attached to a communication of somewhat 
questionable taste in a non-professional print, and we doubt if 
they intended thus to publish their approval of the system of 
committing a hospital to the medical care of female practitioners, 
an interpretation which will, without doubt, attach itself to this 
measure among the profession.” 
Thus it appears that the Editors of the Journal object to 
having a hospital for women and children under the medical care 
of female practitioners. 
Again the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, of January 
18, 1866, in speaking of the Female Medical College and the 
Female Hospital, says, 
“ They both aim at giving to women the education and privi- 
leges of practitioners in medicine, and in doing so claim to hold 
a position in advance of the main body of the medical profes- 
sion. As yet no graduate of the Female Medical School, nor 
any female physician, has been recognized, however fully quali- 
fied, as a regular practitioner, by the Massachusetts Medical 
Society. Graduates of the School are attached to the Hospital, 11 
as officers, and with them, of course, the gentlemen connected 
with the latter are ready to consult.- This is the false position 
of which we complain, and which in our opinion ought to be 
changed. They have signed the Constitution and By-Laws of 
the Society, agreeing to abide by their provisions. These pro- 
visions, to our minds, are clearly at variance with the ground 
they occupy.” 
Thus we see that the editorial expounders of the Constitution 
and By-Laws of the Massachusetts Medical Society arc of the 
opinion that it is clearly at variance with the provisions of those 
instruments to recognize female physicians; yet the petitioners 
to the Legislature wish to put into the government of the New 
England Female Medical College, men who, according to the 
opinions of their own professional brethren, must, by accepting 
the position, violate the regulations of the Medical Society of 
which they are members, and subject themselves to its discipline. 
Perhaps they imagine that the Massachusetts Medical Society is 
going to change its Constitution and By-Laws to enable its mem- 
bers to carry on the Female Medical College. 
They say that the opposition here is not to the object* of the 
college, but only to its management, or to some person connected 
with it. But how is it in other places? In 1850, two years 
after the institution was started in Boston, a Female Medical 
College was opened in Philadelphia. And the hostility of the 
profession there has been even more demonstrative than here, 
us will appear from the following official report, copied with 
approval, into the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, of 
Aug. 28, 1859. 
“ Report concerning Female Physicians. — The following re- 
port on the subject of female medical faculties and graduates, 
was passed recently by the Philadelphia County Medical Society, 
and adopted subsequently by the State Medical Society. 
“ In reply to the propositions embraced in the resolutions 
submitted for their opinion, the censors would respectfully report 12 
that they would recommend the members of the regular pro- 
fession to withhold from the faculties and graduates of female 
colleges, all countenance and support, and that they cannot, 
consistently with sound medical ethics, consult or hold profes- 
sional intercourse with their professors or alumni.” 
The expression, “ female medical faculties,” from the Medical 
Journal, conveys the idea of medical faculties composed wholly 
of women, which is not the case in any female medical college. 
It appears from the above report that, in Philadelphia and 
throughout the State of Pennsylvania, not only are women physi- 
cians in all ways discountenanced by the gentlemen of the art, 
but if a medical man, however respectable, presumes to take a 
professorship in a female medical college he is put under the 
ban of the profession. 
Mrs. Sarah J. Hale, Editress of Godey’s Lady’s Book, Phila- 
delphia, in an article in that Magazine, says, u The dead weight 
of self-interest and prejudice that has opposed the medical edu- 
cation of women can hardly be estimated by any except those 
engaged in the work. It has been a hard struggle.” 
It will certainly not be pretended that this action of the Phil- 
adelphia and Pennsylvania Medical Societies was occasioned by 
anything connected with the Female Medical College in Boston. 
Lest, however, it should be so pretended, a case still farther 
away will be cited. 
A medical college for women was opened in London in 1864, 
the President of which is Lord Townshend. In the report of its 
anniversary meeting, in 1865, as found in the Victoria Magazine, 
the following paragraph appears : 
“ Mr. Burney stated that the Committee were under obligations 
to these eminent men, [the professors in the institution,] for having 
braved the prejudices and unfriendliness of the general body of 
their professional brethren by identifying themselves with the 
commencement of this movement.” 
Thus it appears that professional “ unfriendliness ” is no re- 13 
specter of persons or places. It will show itself wherever an 
attempt is made to give women a medical education; and the 
person who does the most to start and carry forward such a 
movement will be the most cordially disliked by all physicians 
who dislike the object in view, — precisely as William Lloyd 
Garrison, of all men in the world, has been the most heartily 
disliked south of Mason and Dixon’s line. 
Prominent physicians have just been formally asked, in view 
of this matter pending before the Legislature, whether, in case 
the present Board of Trustees should be set aside arid a new 
one organized, they would take positions in the new Board, and 
help manage and carry on the college; and they have declined 
the proposition; thereby showing that they are opposed to the 
institution itself and to its objects; and are unwilling in any way 
to give it their countenance or support. 
It is but just to state, that the college has many friends and 
approvers in the profession, who aid it in a quiet way but do not 
deem it expedient to subject themselves to the professional dis- 
comfort and injury which a connection with the institution, or 
any public advocacy of its claims, would bring upon them. 
In the Life of Dr. Warren, before quoted from, occurs the 
following paragraph: 
“ Many years ago, we find a plan in discussion by Drs. 
Jackson, Warren, and others, for the instruction of females in 
midwifery. This was abandoned for weighty reasons. Mrs. 
Alexander was subsequently introduced by them; but the plan 
of employing females did not, nor has it yet, come into favor.” 
Thus we see that eminent physicians, years ago, discussed a 
plan for some sort of a school for the education of midwives 
(a system that prevails throughout the continental countries of 
Europe), but even that they abandoned for “ weighty reasons.” 
What those “ weighty reasons ” were, we can readily judge from 
the treatment which Drs. Warren and Jackson received for 
introducing one midwife into practice. Eminent physicians 14 
undertook a small affair and failed. But eighteen years ago a 
movement commenced outside of the profession, and has been 
carried on chiefly by non-professional men and the public 
generally, and the result is, the New England Female Medical 
College, with a list of two hundred and thirty students, sixty-one 
graduates, and assets to the amount of $66,000. Can there be 
any stronger evidence that the college has been judiciously and 
efficiently managed by its past and present Trustees, and that it 
would be most unwise to disturb in any way the existing 
organization ? 
It would be unjust to suppose that the opposition of the 
profession to female medical colleges, here and elsewhere, is 
altogether due to personal and professional, interest. Many 
physicians do not believe it practicable, or beneficial to society 
to introduce women into the profession, even in the capacity of 
midwives, much less as physicians. If therefore both their 
belief and their interest are against the plan, they certainly are 
not the persons or the class of society who will earnestly and 
efficiently carry on a female medical college. 
And then there are the deep-rooted professional prejudices. 
According to Hume, the historian, it was remarked that no 
physician in Europe, who had arrived at the age of forty years, 
ever to the end of his life adopted Harvey’s doctrine of the 
circulation of the blood; and Harvey’s practice in London was 
for a time sadly diminished by the professional odium drawn 
upon him by his great discovery. Physicians all believe in the 
circulation of the blood now; and at some future time they will 
believe in women as a useful and important part of the medical 
profession. 
It may be asked how, if such is the feeling in the profession, 
have professors been obtained for the college ? They have 
mostly been physicians residing out of Boston, and not subject 
to the pressure of professional influence existing in the city. In 
other cases they have been been physicians newly arrived in the 15 
city, and having no relations with the profession here. The col- 
lege has less difficulty in that respect at the present time than 
formerly, as it has now competent lady professors, from its own 
graduates; and half of the six professorships arc more properly 
tilled by ladies. The difficulty of getting professors has been 
increased by the small inducements the Trustees have been able 
to offer. In fact, the whole movement, from its inception to the 
present time, has been a continuous struggle under difficulties, 
and if its history was fully known, instead of complaints there 
would be an expression of wonder that so much has been accom- 
plished under the circumstances. 
The proper place for physicians in a medical college is in the 
Faculty, as instructors, and not in the Board of Managers. The 
Harvard Medical School is not managed by medical Trustees. 
Why should this be ? The two departments — the Government 
and the Faculty — should be composed of persons of different 
interests. A corporation of non-medical men are competent to 
select suitable professors. If they need any information to aid 
in the selection they can easily obtain it from physicians out of 
the college. The corporation of Harvard University consider 
themselves competent to appoint professors for the medical 
department of the institution; and so are the Trustees of the 
Female Medical College competent to make up a faculty for that 
institution. 
In regard to the law points in question, relating to the State 
grants and the election of officers, it may be remarked that the 
scholarship grant of $5,000, in 1854, was applied by the Trustees, 
as they believed then, and do now, according to the terms and 
intent of the Resolve. Among the Trustees, and sometime 
Treasurer of the college, was Hon. Samuel E. Sewall, who 
helped frame the Resolve, and who is a man of acknowledged 
eminence in the legal profession. Had there been any doubt 
about the matter, the time to raise the question was after the 
first annual instalment had been paid. But neither the leading 16 
petitioners, who were then a part of the college, and who now 
bring this charge of misapplication of funds, nor the State 
Auditor or State Treasurer, so far as known to the Secretary, 
who drew for the Treasurer all the quarterly payments, ever 
raised such a question; and probably neither these parties or 
any of the Trustees ever had a doubt upon the subject. The 
Trustees think that “ no legislation is necessary ” upon that 
point, and they are entirely willing to leave it to the common 
sense of the public. 
As to the grant of $10,000, in 1855, to be applied in pro- 
viding a building, and for the general purposes of the institution, 
that has been used precisely according to the terms of the Re- 
solve, and there is not room for a reasonable doubt on that 
point. 
As to the election of officers, the Committee on Education did 
not feel so clear as to pass upon that point themselves, but had 
it referred to the Judiciary Committee. The Trustees may 
therefore well be excused if they overlooked or mistook the 
meaning of the charter in that particular. It is obvious that 
the four members who go out annually are entitled to act, at 
the annual meeting at which their term of office expires, on all 
business except that of voting for their successors. No one 
alleges that they did vote; and the only question is, whether 
there must be a full quorum present besides the outgoing mem- 
bers, in order, legally, to fill the four vacancies. As if there 
should be just the quorum, of one hundred, of the House of 
Representatives present, and a question should arise upon which 
some of those present were prohibited, under the rule, from 
voting. Would the House omit to act on the question because 
there was not a quorum present independently of the non-voting 
members ? It is quite likely that the legal nicety might escape 
notice. As even the question of the voting of the soldiers in 
the House, upon the bounty bill, was not raised till after consid- 
erable voting had taken place upon the subject. 17 
But suppose there was an error in the case. No harm resulted 
from it, and certainly none was intended. The Trustees were 
all duly notified, and knew what was to be done, and neither the 
absent members nor any body else ever found the least fault with 
anything that was done, and the meeting referred to, in the 
lieport of the Committee on Education, took place more than 
eight years ago. Corporations sometimes transact business 
without a quorum, and the next meeting approves of the doings, 
and they are held to be legal. In the case of these elections 
the record was read and approved at the next meeting with a 
quorum of votes. 
In view of the foregoing facts and considerations, can the 
Legislature think it expedient to set aside or in any way to dis- 
turb the present government of the college, under whose auspices 
it started and has grown up to its present position, and place 
the institution under a new and less experienced board of man- 
agers ? Cau the Legislature consider it just toward the large 
number of intelligent and honorable men who have served, gra- 
tuitously and disinterestedly, as Trustees, to make the trifling mis- 
takes, if they are mistakes, the occasion of abolishing the Board, 
as if they had committed some great offence, and subjecting the 
government to the process of “ reconstruction ” ? 
Instead of such an extraordinary and uncalled-for measure as 
the abolishment or the reorganization of the Board, it is believed 
that the Legislature will, in accordance with the desire of the 
Trustees, legalize, if necessary, the doings of the corporation, 
and let them go on undisturbed, to erect the college building, and 
finish the great work they have brought so near to completion. 
In fact, if anything inadvertently done needs confirming, there 
will be the same necessity for legalizing it, in order to save the 
property and enable a new or modified corporation to go on, 
that there would be to enable the present Board to go forward 
legally. And if the transactions are such as can properly be 
confirmed, what occasion or excuse can there be for the Legisla- 18 
turc to set aside the present Board and create a new one ? The 
old Board will have all the advantage of its past experience, 
together with the light afforded by this legislative interpretation 
of past enactments relating to the institution. 
The writer regrets the necessity of the foregoing exhibition of 
professional illiberality and intolerance, and he closes by reaf- 
firming what he said in commencing, that this presentation is not 
prompted by any personal ill-feeling toward any man or class of 
men, but by an earnest interest in the success of the college and 
the beneficent objects its establishment was designed to accom- 
plish. 
Since the foregoing pages were in type, a published document 
by Enoch C. Rolfe, M. D., the leading petitioner to the Legisla- 
ture, has been supplied to the members, being a “Reply to Dr. 
Gregory’s Circular,” of April 26. 
From this paper it appears that the war is waged mainly 
against the Secretary, and has been for years; and had he not 
been strong in the justice of his case, and in the confidence of 
the Trustees, he would have been swept away long ago. The 
hostile spirit that pervades the article would perhaps be a suffi- 
cient antidote to any harm it might do, but there are some things 
in it that seem to require notice. 
In speaking of the first class in midwifery taught by him and 
Dr. Cornell, Dr. Rolfe says, the Secretary, at the close of the 
term of three months, wished them to have certificates that they 
were qualified to practise. To some extent they were, some of 
them having practised that branch before they came to the 
school. Mrs. Sylvia Goodwin, of Worcester, has attended be- 
tween two and three thousand births, though she never attended 19 
a medical school at all, and with better success than the most 
learned doctors of the art. 
Dr. Rolfe’s arrears, of $150, and all other college debts, would 
doubtless have been paid before this, had not these hostilities 
interfered with collecting funds, lie vouches for the qualifica- 
tions of the thirty-nine graduates who went out from the college 
during his connection with it, thus contradicting the allegation 
of his associate petitioners. 
The Trustees were obliged to reduce the pay of the profes- 
sors from $300 to $200 for the term. Dr. Rolfe replied that he 
could not lecture for less than he had been receiving, and thus 
closed his connection with the college. Now Ire says “he could 
not conscientiously support the government of the institution 
longer.” It is obvious that he would have continued if the other 
hundred dollars had been added. 
In 1849 the Secretary gave some lectures in a country town. 
An interest was created, and the people wanted a midwife for 
the place, and Mrs. Goulding was selected and sent to the 
school. This is the “ instrumentality ” of which he spoke in his 
Circular. Mrs. Goulding has had repeated commendations in 
the Annual Reports, and elsewhere, for her successful labors as 
a collecting agent. She had the best part of the field, and the 
constant co-operation of the Secretary. She reported to him, 
one day, that Mr. L., a wealthy gentleman of Roston, remarked 
to her, “ You are the one to get the money, and Dr. Gregory is 
the man to write it up.” She was, however, by no means, “ the 
sole reliance for sustaining the institution ” even in the few years 
in which her success was greatest. Dr. Rolfe says the Secretary’s 
statement that she partook of the funds which she now says 
were misapplied is false. The counsel for the petitioners (Mrs. 
G. heading the ladies’ petition,) alleged that the $10,000 raised 
to secure the State grant of like amount, was misapplied. Mrs. 
G. partook of that $10,000. 
The Secretary's brother, contrary to Dr. Rolfe’s statement 
had a certificate of agency from the President of the Society. 20 
Dr. Rolfe’s remark, repeated from Mrs. Goulding, deprecia- 
ting the Secretary’s services, as if he did nothing, is in strange 
contrast with his complaint that he does everything. Mrs. Gould- 
ing, in a letter to the Secretary, dated Taunton, July 25, 1854, 
says: “I received yours of the 21st. with circulars and reports 
for which I am much obliged. I am also obliged for the 
information relative to the debts of the Society. It is truly 
hard for you to bear the responsibility of so much expense, 
gaining nothing for yourself but the consciousness of having, 
benefited those who are too stupid to realize it.” She seems 
now to have forgotten the abundant encomiums she used to 
bestow upon the Secretary for his toils and sacrifices, and the 
great good she thought he was doing for mankind. 
The writer assumes no credit to himself, for at best he has 
been but a humble instrument. But one thing is beyond dispute, 
— when he began there was not so much as a germ of an insti- 
tution ; under his labors and supervision the college has grown 
up from nothing to what it is, — something important enough, as 
it appears, to take up some time and attention in the Massachu- 
setts Legislature. 
Dr. Rolfe says the Secretary “ is in no respect entitled to the 
credit of being a pioneer in the work of establishing colleges, 
by name or nature, for the purpose of female medical education.” 
If it was a mere matter of “ credit ” the writer would say 
nothing; but as the object of this combined assault of all the 
elements of disaffection and hostility is first to disparage and 
then to “ crush out ” the Secretary, he feels compelled to reply 
to this oft-repeated assertion. 
Dr. Rolfe speaks of the idea of a college with a full course of 
medical instruction as having been suggested to the writer by 
Dr. Longshore, of Philadelphia, from whom he received a letter, 
dated May 23, 1849; not, as Dr. R. says, in the winter of 
1848-49. In a pamphlet by the writer, written in 1845, and 
published in 1846, by his brother, George Gregory, who as 21 
early as 1844 collected materials upon this subject, this language 
occurs, “there is demanded now, as formerly, a supply of female 
accoucheurs; also, a class of female physicians, qualified at least 
to attend to the peculiar complaints of their own sex.” In 
advertisements of public lectures, in Boston, by the writer, in 
March, 1848, more than a year before the letter from Philadel- 
phia, it was stated that one of his objects was “to show the 
importance of the establishment of a school in the city to 
educate female physicians and accoucheurs,” and that the audi- 
ence “ would have an opportunity to sign a petition to the 
Legislature to establish an institution to educate female physi- 
cians and mid wives.” In an advertisement of the first term of 
the lectures, in 1848, the following parapraph appears: “This 
incipient measure may perhaps grow into a New England Col- 
lege for educating midwives, nurses, and female physicians. This 
college should be located in Boston, as the focus of New Eng- 
land, and connected with it should be a well-regulated Lying-in 
Hospital.” 
The college in Philadelphia was not opened till 1850, but it 
commenced with a full Faculty. In 1851 an arrangement was 
made to have a full Faculty in the New England Female Medi- 
cal College, as it was then called. The Secretary’s objection 
was not to having a complete college organization, at the earli- 
est period practicable, but to importing the Philadelphia Faculty 
to Boston. And the result showed that his objection was well 
founded; for a part of that Faculty, with I)rs. Cornell and 
llolfe, announced “A course of Medical Lectures to Women in 
the City of Boston, by the Faculty of the Female Medical Col- 
lege of Pennsylvania, in conjunction with the New England 
Female Medical College, to commence February 16, 1852.” 
The joint Faculty then went to Philadelphia, and in their cata- 
logue of students they published all of the Boston class as being 
students of the college of Philadelphia, with no intimation of 
the existence of a college in Boston. And for years the N. E. 22 
College suffered from this arrangement, which made it a sort of 
appendage to the Pennsylvania college. 
If the Boston institution has received more funds it has more 
to show, a better foundation; and it has sent out more gradu- 
ates according to the number of years it has conferred full medi- 
cal degrees; and they are regarded as standing fully as high in 
medical attainments. 
Dr. Rolfe speaks of the Board of Lady Managers, connected 
with the college about three years, commencing in 1859. Their 
efforts were devoted to the hospital branch, and the college 
• # 
proper was left embarrassed pecuniarily by the experiment. 
The Trustees discontinued the hospital department, and there 
was no further occasion for a Board of twenty-four Lady Man- 
agers. Some of these ladies, with others, started a new hospi- 
tal. If they have been successful, it is a matter of gratification. 
But a hospital is an ancient idea, and has no opposers, while the 
Female Medical College was a new comer in the world, and has 
had to struggle for its existence, under a heavy fire all the while. 
Some physicians have ventured into the hospital with the lady 
practitioners, but they have been castigated by the Medical 
Journal, as appears in the foregoing pages. Somebody tried to 
mollify the editors of the Journal by informing them that the 
hospital had no connection with the college, as they at first 
supposed. 
Dr. Rolfe’s statement as to the standing of the Secretary with 
the Board of Trustees is sufficiently answered by the fact that he 
has always been triumphantly sustained. Only one out of the 
forty-three different trustees ever suggested to him that he 
decline a re-election. There was in 1861 a desperate effort 
made to have him dropped from the secretaryship, — not from 
the Board; and after a long investigation of what Dr. Rolfe 
calls u the numerous and grave complaints against the Secretary,” 
the matter was brought to a test, and at a meeting of thirteen 23 
members of the Board (a larger number than ever met before or 
since), only three votes were cast for another candidate. 
])r. Kolfe’s statement respecting various trustees, as to the 
length of time they served, and the amount of labor and exami- 
nation they bestowed, in meetings and out, is very erroneous and 
unjust. 
Since this matter came before the legislature, much has been 
said about trouble in the institution; two parties; and the idea 
of compromising, and harmonizing, and healing difficulties. 
There is entire harmony in the Board, and in the Faculty, and 
between the two. The discord is all outside, among those 
who want to get in. Nobody cared to seize control of the 
institution when it was poor and struggling for existence; but 
now that it has by the labors of its past and present managers 
secured a large pecuniary and real estate property, and is 
sure to take rank, in the words of the petition to the legis- 
lature, “ among the institutions for which New England is 
so renowned,” there arc a plenty of people who want to help 
manage it. 
J)r. Rolfe says the Trustees are men of high reputation — “so 
high,” says he, “ that 1 would willingly submit our case to their 
decision, provided we could have a full and patient hearing, as 
we have repeatedly, but vainly, tried to obtain.” 
The Committee on Education, in their report, of April 12th, 
to the Legislature, say: 
“ The petitioners alleged that they had failed to obtain a hear- 
ing before the Trustees, and therefore they appealed to the 
Legislature, as the power granting the charter. The Trustees 
replied that they had ever been ready, and still were ready, to 
investigate any charges that were properly preferred against the 
institution. By mutual consent, such an investigation before the 
Trustees, was made, and the report of that investigation was 
submitted by the Trustees to the committee, in writing.” 
The Trustees had three lengthy meetings, two of which were 24 
devoted to hearing the allegations of the petitioners and the proofs 
in support of them. The Trustees made a long report to the 
committee, accompanied with the following brief result of their 
investigation: 
To the Committee on Education of the Senate and House of Representatives. 
Gentlemen: We, the undersigned, Trustees of the Female Medical 
College, would most respectfully report, that the petitioners to the General 
Court, with their counsel, appeared before this Board, and had ample oppor- 
tunity to examine all the books, papers, and records of this College, and 
present such evidence as they deemed proper to support their allegations. 
After a full hearing, we are fully satisfied that the allegations have not 
been proved; and we believe that there has been no misapplication of any 
funds, and no mismanagement of the affairs of the College, and no ground 
for any examination by your honorable Committee. 
JOHN BATCHELDER. 
MICAn DYER, Jr., 
STEPHEN G. DEBLOIS, 
CURTIS C. NICHOLS, 
JOHN J. NEWCOMB, 
WM. CUMSTON, 
GEO. M. RANDALL, 
SAMUEL GREGORY. 
Boston, March 28, 1866. 
There would hare been a larger number present but for some 
vacancies then existing in the Board, and imperative engage- 
ments on the part of some of the members. Of the truth and 
justice of Dr. Rolfc’s statement as to the refusal of the Trustees 
to give the petitioners a hearing the reader can judge. Dr. 
Rolfe is, however, disposed to treat them leniently. “I will 
not,” says he, “ condemn them, nor will I allow S. Gregory to 
hide behind such a shield.” 
If the object of all this demonstration was, as is now evident, 
to hit “ S. Gregory,” it would have been more straightforward 
and manly to have attacked him directly, instead of assailing the 
whole Board of Trustees, — a more simple and just proceeding, 
to have dragged him out, if he deserved it, than to upset a whole 
corporation for the purpose of tipping him out. But though the 
petitioners are manifestly bent upon this expedient it is impossi- 
ble to believe that the Honorable Senate and House of Repre- 25 
scntativcs will (lo anything in aid of such a manoeuvre. They 
will rather vindicate the Trustees, and then leave them to use 
their own judgment as to who shall be the President, Treasurer, 
Secretary, and Committees of the Board. 
As these assailants are trying in all ways to depreciate the 
services of the Secretary, it may be proper in self-defence to 
allude to the agency he has had in the financial success of the 
college; and this he does without wishing to detract in the least 
from the credit due to other trustees, and to agents, more than 
thirty of whom have been employed. 
The Wade Scholarship Fund of $20,000, about which com- 
plaints are made, might not have been given to the college had 
the Secretary bestowed less attention upon the matter. It was, so 
far as appears, the result of nine years of acquaintanceship with 
Col. Wade, with constant effort to make the college merit his 
favor, and due attention to keep him informed of its progress 
and prospects. An additional $10,000 is to come from the same 
estate some years hence. Mrs. Waterhouse, of Cambridge, 
made a donation of medical books, through the application of a 
lady acting as an agent. This led to the Secretary’s acquaint- 
ance with her and the suggestion to her that she endow a profes- 
sorship. After some months had passed she sent for the Secre- 
tary to come and get $1,000 toward the professorship, and she 
informed him at a still later period that she should provide for 
the completion of the endowment. She accordingly left the 
additional $9,000 by her will. A connection of Edward A. 
Raymond asked Rev. Martin Moore if he knew how Mr. Ray- 
mond came to leave that bequest of $5,000 to the college. “No,” 
said Mr. M. “ It was all owing to Dr. Gregory’s persistence,” 
said the gentleman. Persistence in a proper way of course, else 
it would have defeated its purpose. 
The Secretary obtained the signatures of one hundred and 
twenty-eight of the leading men of Boston, representing many 
millions of dollars, to petitions to the City Government to sell 26 
the college a building lot at a low rate. A liberal offer was 
made by the city, and he then raised over $10,000, which, with 
Mr. Raymond’s bequest, paid for the land. In addition to these 
items, he has from the beginning been a collecting agent for 
general expenses. 
Dr. Rolfe says, the Secretary is a traducer of the medical 
profession. If the medical profession desire it the writer will 
join them in having their allegations investigated by an impartial 
tribunal. If it is decided that he has wronged them in anything 
he has written or spoken, he will retract it, and make all amends 
that reasonable men can ask. If it is decided that he has only 
told the truth, though to them unpalatable, they shall forever 
after hold their peace. 
Dr. Rolfe says the Secretary is obnoxious to many of the 
graduates of the College. Some of them may have been drawn 
into this party of assailants of the Secretary, and some may 
differ from him in their views and ideasj and might therefore 
prefer that the College should be under the management of those 
of their own sentiments and predilections; but he is willing to 
have any of the graduates asked whether they have ever received 
from him any other than kind and respectful treatment, and 
whether he has not manifested an interest in their success while 
in the College, and after they have left it. 
The Secretary is aware that he has within a few years 
displeased some of the graduates, by his agency in procuring 
the adoption of the title, Doctress, instead of Doctor, in the style 
of the medical degree conferred by the College. The Trustees 
believe that the public convenience and the cause of female 
medical education will be promoted by the use of a distinctive 
feminine title for female physicians, and that a Female Medical 
College should take the lead in establishing this usage. 
The following is a testimonial presented to the Secretary in 
1861, at the time of the effort to have him displaced. It was 27 
signed by thirty ladies, eighteen of whom Averc graduates at the 
time, six have graduated since, and the others were students: 
“ To all whom it may concern : 
We, the undersigned, recent students and graduates of the New England 
Female Medical College, feel ourselves much indebted to Dr. Samuel 
Gregory, for his many kindnesses and his uniform regard for our comfort and 
interest in our progress, during the time occupied in the pursuit of our 
studies, and certify that we have ever found in him the gentlemanly qualities 
and scholarly fitness requisite for the important station he fills. We would, 
moreover, express our gratitude for his noble and persevering efforts in the 
cause of female education, without which effort, we feel assured, such cause 
must have long waited for support, or languished for want of encouragement, 
that has placed it among the successful reforms of the day.” 
Boston, May, 18GG.