Volume III Part 67 (1/2)
The general agitation of the question: What are women best qualified for in the struggle for existence? naturally led liberal minds to the opening of new avenues for the employment of their talents, shared equally with men. Her right to practice in medicine had been conceded after a long and severe conflict. Even the domain of the theologian had been invaded, but law and dentistry were as yet closed, and in the case of the latter, unthought of as an appropriate avocation for women. The subject, however, seemed so important, presenting a field of labor peculiarly suited to her, that one gentleman, then professor in the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery, felt it his duty to call public attention to this promising work. In a valedictory delivered by him to the cla.s.s of 1866, at Musical Fund Hall of Philadelphia, he included in his theme the peculiar fitness of dentistry for women. The question was briefly stated, but it rather startled the large audience by its novelty, and the effect was no less surprising on the faculty, board of trustees and professional gentlemen on the platform.
In the fall of 1868 the dean of the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery was waited upon by a German gentleman, who desired to introduce a lady who had come to this country with the expectation that all colleges were open to women. Although informed that this was not the case, he still entertained the hope that she might be admitted as a student of dentistry. She gave her name as Henrietti Hirschfeld, of Berlin. The matter came up before the faculty, and after a free discussion of the whole subject, she was rejected by a majority vote, but two voting in her favor.
In a subsequent interview with Professor Truman, he learned that she had left her native land with the full a.s.surance that she would have no difficulty in ”free America” in securing a dental education. She had also the positive sanction of her government, through the then minister of instruction, Dr. Falk, that on condition of receiving an American diploma she would be permitted to practice on her return. Her distress, therefore, at this initial failure was, naturally, very great. The excitement that this application made was intensified when it was rumored among the students that a woman desired to be matriculated. The opposition became very bitter, and manifested itself in many petty annoyances. In the course of a day or two one gentleman of the faculty, and he the dean, concluded to change his vote, and as this decided the question, she was admitted. The opposition of the professor of anatomy, who belonged to the old school of medical teachers, was so manifest that it was deemed advisable to have her take anatomy in the Woman's Medical College for that winter. The first year of this was in every way satisfactory.
Although the students received her and Mrs. Truman, who accompanied her on the first visit, with a storm of hisses, they gradually learned not only to treat her with respect, but she became a favorite with all, and while not convinced as to the propriety of women in dentistry, they all agreed that Mrs.
Hirschfeld might do as an exception. The last year she was permitted by the irate professor of anatomy, Dr. Forbes, to take that subject under him.
She graduated with honor, and returned to Berlin to practice her profession. This was regarded as an exceptional case, and by no means settled the status of the college in regard to women. The conservative element was exceedingly bitter, and it was very evident that a long time must elapse before another woman could be admitted. The great stir made by Mrs. Hirschfeld's graduation brought several other applications from ladies of Germany, but these were without hesitation denied. Failing to convince his colleagues of the injustice of their action, Dr. Truman tried to secure more favorable results from other colleges, and applied personally to Dr. Gorgas of the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery. The answer was favorable, and he accompanied the applicant and entered her in that inst.i.tution. This furnished accommodation for the few applicants. The loss in money began to tell on the pockets, if not the consciences, of the faculty of the Philadelphia school. They saw the stream had flown in another direction, swelling the coffers of another inst.i.tution, when, without an effort, they could have retained the whole. They concluded to try the experiment again, and accepted three ladies in 1872 and 1873--Miss Annie D. Ramborger of Philadelphia, Fraulein Veleske Wilcke and Dr. Jacoby of Germany. Their first year was very satisfactory, but at its close it was very evident that there was a determination on the part of the minority of the cla.s.s to spare no effort to effect their removal from the school.
A pet.i.tion was forwarded to the faculty to this effect, and although one was presented by the majority of the students in their favor, the faculty chose to accept the former as representing public sentiment, and it was decided not to allow them to take another year at this college. This outrage was not accomplished without forcible protest from the gentleman previously named, and he appealed from this decision to the governing power, the board of trustees.[262] To hear this appeal a special meeting was called for March 27, 1873, at which the communication of Professor Truman was read and ordered filed. A similar communication, in opposition, was received, signed by Professors T. L. Buckingham, E. Wildman, George T. Barker, James Tyson and J. Ewing Mears. The matter was referred to a committee consisting of Hon. Henry C. Carey, W. S. Pierce and G. R.
Morehouse, M. D. At a special meeting convened for this purpose, March 31, 1873, this committee made their report. They say:
Three ladies entered as students of this college at the commencement of the session, 1872-73, paid their matriculation fees, attended the course of lectures, and were informed, by a resolution adopted by a majority of the faculty at the close of the session, that they would not be permitted to attend the second course of lectures. No other cause was a.s.signed for the action of the faculty than that they deemed it against the interest of the college to permit them to do so, on account of the dissatisfaction which it gave to certain male students, etc. * * * The goal to which all medical and dental students look, is graduation and the diploma, which is to be the evidence of their qualification to practice their art. To qualify themselves for this they bestow their time, their money and their labor. To deprive them of this without just cause is to disappoint their hopes, and to receive from them money and bestowal of time and labor without the full equivalent which they had a right to expect.
After discussing at length the legal aspects of the case, the summing up is as follows:
We, therefore, respectfully report that in our opinion it is the legal right of these ladies to attend, and it is the legal duty of this college to give them, as students, a second course of lectures on the terms of the announcement which forms the basis of the contract with them.
This report was signed by all the committee, and read by W. S.
Pierce, one of the number, and judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia. It carried with it, therefore, all the force of a judicial decision, and was so accepted by the board, and adopted at once. This left the majority of the faculty no choice but to accept the decision as final as far as these ladies were concerned. This they did, and the three were invited to resume their studies. Two, Misses Ramborger and Wilcke, accepted, Miss Jacoby refused and went to Baltimore.
The most interesting feature of this matter, and that which clearly demonstrated a marked advance in public opinion, was the stir it made in the press. The daily and Sunday papers bristled with strong leaders, the faculty being denounced in no measured terms for their action. To such an extent was this carried, and so overwhelming was the indignation, that it practically settled the question for Philadelphia, although several years elapsed after these ladies were graduated before others were accepted.
When that time did arrive, under the present dean, Dr. C. N.
Pierce, they were accorded everything, without any reservation, and the school has continued ever since to accept them. At the meeting of the National a.s.sociation of Dentists, held at Saratoga, 1869, Dr. Truman introduced a resolution looking to the recognition of women in the profession. The resolution and the remarks were kindly received, but were, of course, laid on the table. This was expected, the object being to make the thought familiar in every section of the country.
These efforts have borne rich fruit, and now women are being educated at a majority of the prominent dental colleges, and no complaints are heard of coeducation in this department of work.
The college that first accepted and then rejected--the Pennsylvania of Philadelphia--has a yearly average of seven to eight women, nearly equally divided between America and Germany.
Of the three dental schools in Philadelphia, two accept women, and the third--the Dental Department of the University of Pennsylvania--would, if the faculty were not overruled by the governing powers.
The learned theories that were promulgated in regard to the injury the practice of dentistry would be to women, have all fallen to the ground. The advocates of women in dentistry were met at the outstart with the health question, and as it had never been tested, the most favorably inclined looked forward with some anxiety to the result. Fifteen years have elapsed since then, and almost every town in Germany is supplied with a woman in this profession. Many are also established in America. These have all the usual requisites of bodily strength, and the writer has yet to learn of a single failure from physical deterioration.
The first lady, Miss Lucy B. Hobbs, to graduate in dentistry, was sent out from the Cincinnati College, and she, I believe, is still in active practice in Kansas. She graduated in 1866. Mrs.
Hirschfeld, before spoken of, returned to Germany and became at once a subject for the fun of the comic papers, and for the more serious work of the _Bajan_ and _uberlana und Meer_, both of them containing elaborate and ill.u.s.trated notices of her. She had some friends in the higher walks of life; notable amongst these was President Lette of the _Trauen-Verein_, whose aid and powerful influence had a.s.sisted her materially in the early stages of her effort. The result of these combined forces soon placed her in possession of a large practice. She was patronized by ladies in the highest circles, including the crown princess. She subsequently married, had two boys to rear and educate, and a large household to supervise. She has a.s.sisted several of her relatives into professions, two in medicine and two in dentistry, besides aiding many worthy persons. She has established a clinic for women in Berlin, something very badly needed there. This is in charge of two physicians, one being her husband's sister, Dr.
f.a.n.n.y Tiburtius. She has also started a hospital for women.
These are mainly supported by her individual exertions.
Notwithstanding all these multifarious and trying duties, she practices daily, and is as well physically and mentally as when she commenced. Fraulein Valeske Wilcke of Konigsberg has been over twelve years in a very large practice with no evil results; Miss Annie D. Ramborger, an equal time, with an equally large practice, and enjoys apparently far better health than most ladies of thirty.
Dentistry is, probably, one of the most trying professions, very few men being equal to the severe strain, and many are obliged to succ.u.mb. No woman has as yet failed, though it would not be at all remarkable if such were the case. The probabilities are that comparatively few will choose it as a profession, but that another door has been opened for employment is a cause for congratulation with all right-thinking minds.
For opening this profession to women a debt of grat.i.tude is due to Dr. Truman from all his countrywomen, as well as to those n.o.ble German students, who have so ably filled the positions he secured for them. Similar struggles, both in medicine and dentistry, were encountered in other States, but the result was as it must be in every case, the final triumph of justice for women. Already they are in most of the colleges and hospitals, and members of many of the State and National a.s.sociations.
In 1870, the Society of Friends founded Swarthmore College[263] for the education of both s.e.xes, erecting a fine building in a beautiful locality. At the dedication of this inst.i.tution, Lucretia Mott was elected to honorary members.h.i.+p and invited to the platform. With her own hands she planted the first tree, which now adorns those s.p.a.cious grounds.
The persecutions that women encountered in every onward step soon taught them the necessity of remodeling the laws and customs for themselves. They began to see the fallacy of the old ideas, that men looked after the interests of women, ”that they were their natural protectors,” that they could safely trust them to legislate on their personal and property rights; for they found in almost every case that whatever right and privilege man claimed for himself, he proposed exactly the opposite for women. Hence the necessity for them to have a voice as to the laws and the rulers under which they lived. Whatever reform they attempted they soon found their labors valueless, because they had no power to remedy any evils protected by law. After laboring in temperance, prison-reform, coeducation, and women's rights in the trades and professions, their hopes all alike centered at last in the suffrage movement.
In 1866, a suffrage a.s.sociation was formed in Philadelphia at a meeting of the American Equal Rights Society,[264] held in Franklin Inst.i.tute. This convention was marked by a heated debate on the duty of the abolitionists now that the black man was emanc.i.p.ated, to make the demand for the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women, as well as the freedmen.
We are indebted to John K. Wildman of Philadelphia for the following: