Volume III Part 75 (1/2)

We are indebted to Annie Laurie Quinby for the following account of the founding of a hospital for women and children, and of some of the difficulties women encountered in gaining admittance into the medical colleges:

Mrs. Quinby says: In 1867, some Cincinnati ladies met at the residence of Mrs. J. L. Roberts and organized a health a.s.sociation, the object of which was to obtain and disseminate knowledge in regard to the science of life and health. Mrs.

Leavett addressed the ladies on the importance of inst.i.tuting a medical school for women, stating a recent conversation she had with Prof. Curtis, and suggesting that he be invited to lay his views before them. A vote to that effect was pa.s.sed, and in his address Professor Curtis touched the following points:

Women have greater need than men of the knowledge of the science of life, and can make more profitable use of it.

_First_: They need this knowledge. In a practice of thirty-six years, full seven-tenths of my services have been devoted to women who, had they been properly instructed in the science of life, and careful to obey those instructions, would not have needed one-seventh of those services, while they would have prevented six-sevenths of their sickness, suffering and loss of time, and a like proportion of the expenses of doctoring, nursing, medicines, etc., etc.

_Second_: They can make a far better and more profitable use of this knowledge than men can, because they can better appreciate the liabilities, sufferings and wants of their s.e.x, which are far more numerous and imperative than ours; and they are always with us, from infancy to boyhood and womanhood, to watch us and protect us from injury, and to relieve us promptly from the sufferings that may afflict us, as well as to teach us how to avoid them. _Third_: Their intellectual power to learn principles is as great as ours, their perceptions are quicker than ours, their sympathies are more tender and persistent, and their watchfulness and patient perseverance with the sick are untiring. I regard the teaching and practice of the science of life as woman's peculiarly appropriate sphere. Its value to the family of the wife and the mother, is beyond estimation in dollars and cents, by the husband and father. No money that he can properly spend to secure it to his daughters, should be otherwise appropriated; for, should they never enter the family relation, it will be a means of escape from sickness mortification and expense to themselves, and of useful and honorable subsistence, not only priceless in its possession, but totally inalienable by any reverses of fortune. The possession of this knowledge from their infancy up, would do more to prevent their becoming poor and ”friendless,” than do all the alms houses for the former, and ”homes” for the latter that society can build, while it would cost less to each individual than does an elegant modern piano. Forty years ago your speaker obtained from the legislature of Ohio a liberal university charter under the t.i.tle of ”The Literary and Botanical Medical College of Ohio,” which was afterwards changed to ”The Cincinnati Literary and Scientific Inst.i.tute and Physio-Medical College.” By the aid of able a.s.sistants he conducted this inst.i.tution for the benefit of men only, till, in 1851, the students of the cla.s.s were between eighty and ninety. From that time to the present, he has received women into the cla.s.ses and demonstrated that they are not only as competent as men to learn all parts of the science of life, but, in very many particulars, far better qualified for the practice of the art of curing disease. The last session of the college was suspended that he might travel in the country and learn the disposition of the friends of progress to establish the inst.i.tution on a permanent foundation, and is happy to say that all that seems necessary to that glorious consummation is the prompt and concentrated effort of a few judicious and influential ladies and their friends to secure pecuniary aid.

June 11, 1879, a dispensary for women and children was opened in Cincinnati, by Drs. Ellen M. Kirk, and M. May Howells, graduates of the New York College and Hospital for Women. Their undertaking proving successful, with other ladies of wealth and ability they soon after established a hospital. November 1, 1881, the certificate of incorporation[304] was filed in the office of the secretary of state. The ladies labored unweariedly for the support of these inst.i.tutions. At two public entertainments they realized nearly a thousand dollars. For the establishment of a homeopathic college they manifested equal earnestness and enthusiasm. Many of them interested in this mode of practice, seeing the trials of Dr. Pulte in introducing this new theory of medicine, determined to help him in building up a college and hospital for that practice. By one fair they raised $13,500, net profits, and the Pulte Medical College was established. But the remarkable fact about these inst.i.tutions is that after being started through the labors of women, women appealed in vain for admission for scholars.h.i.+ps for a long time. For a clear understanding of the matter, and a knowledge of the defense made in behalf of the right of women to enter the college, I send you the following from Dr. J. D. Buck:

Pulte Medical College, of Cincinnati, was organized under the common law, and opened in 1872, for the admission of students, with no provision, either for or against the admission of women. From time to time, during the first seven years, the subject of the admission of women was broached, but generally bullied out of court amid sneers and ridicule. The faculty stood five against and four for. The opposition was the most p.r.o.nounced and bitter imaginable, the staple argument being that the mingling of the s.e.xes in medical colleges led always and necessarily to licentiousness.

Finally, in the fall of 1877, seven of the nine members of the faculty voted to admit women. One professor voted no, and the leader of the opposition, Prof. S. R. Beckwith--a life-long opponent of the broader culture of women--left the meeting with the purpose of arresting all action. In this, however, he failed; the vote was confirmed.

On the following day another meeting was held, when the vote was re-considered and again confirmed, each of the seven members agreeing to stand by it. Still again, another meeting was called, at the instance of the leader of the opposition, and in the absence of two of the staunch friends, a bare majority of the whole faculty voted to exclude women, as heretofore, and notified the applicants for admission, who had been officially informed of the previous resolution to admit them, that they would not be admitted.

Forbearance on the part of the friends of justice was no more to be thought of, and notice was given that the wrong should be righted, at all hazards. For the next two years war raged persistent and unflinching on the part of the friends of the rights of women, bitter and slanderous on the part of the opposition. All the tricks of the politician were resorted to to defeat the cause of right, and more than once by misrepresentation they obtained the announcement in the public press that the case was decided, and women forever excluded. Still the cause moved on to complete triumph, and to the disgrace and final exclusion from the college of two of the most bitter leaders of the opposition.

In the fall of 1879 it was announced in the annual catalogue, ”that students will be admitted to the lectures of Pulte college without distinction of s.e.x,” a very simple result indeed, as the outcome of two years' warfare. At the opening of lectures the first of October, four female students presented themselves, and were admitted to matriculation. Every prophecy of disaster had failed. The cla.s.s was an increase in numbers over that of any preceding year, and showed a marked improvement in deportment and moral tone from the presence of ladies, who from their high character and bearing exerted a restraining influence, as they always do, on those disposed to be gentlemen. At the commencement exercises in March, 1881, three women, viz: Miss S. C. O'Keefe, Mrs. Mary N. Street, and Mrs. M. J.

Taylor, received the degree of the college, after having attended the same lectures and been submitted to the same examination as the male graduates. The prize for the best examination (in writing) in physiology, was awarded to Miss Stella Hunt, of Cincinnati. The right of women to admittance to this college cannot again be raised except by a two-thirds vote of both faculty and trustees--a majority which will be difficult to obtain after the record which the women have already made as students in the inst.i.tution.

Yours truly, J. D. BUCK.

After all this educational work and this seeming triumph for the recognition of an equal status in the colleges for women, we find this item going the rounds of the daily journals, under date of Cleveland, March 29, 1885:

Considerable excitement prevails among the homeopathists of Cleveland. Commencement exercises of the college are to be held next Tuesday evening, and Miss Madge d.i.c.kson, of Chambers, Pa., was to have delivered the salutatory address. Dr. H. H. Baxter, a prominent professor of the college, objected, saying a woman salutatorian would disgrace the college. Miss d.i.c.kson resigned the honor, and no address will be delivered.

In April, 1873, Miss Nettie Cronise of Tiffin, was admitted to the bar. In the following September, her sister Florence was admitted, and they practiced as N. & F. Cronise, until Miss Nettie's marriage with N. B. Lutes, with whom she has since been a.s.sociated under the firm name of Lutes & Lutes. Miss Florence Cronise has her office in Tiffin. Soon after commencing practice Mrs. Lutes was appointed to examine applicants for admission to the bar, the first instance of a woman serving in this capacity in the United States, although Florence Cronise and one or two other women have since done like duty. These ladies and Miss Hulett were the first women to open law offices and begin an active, energetic practice of the profession.

In 1885, Miss Mary P. Spargo of Cleveland, was admitted to the bar.

FOOTNOTES:

[285] Among those a.s.sociated with Mrs. Mendenhall were Mrs. Calvin W. Starbuck, Mrs. W. Woods, Miss Elizabeth Morris, Miss Ellen Thomas, Mrs. Kendrick, sister to General Anderson, Mrs. Caldwell, Mrs. Annie Ryder, Mrs. Mary Graham, Mrs. Louisa Hill, Mrs. Hoadly.

[286] The officers of Cincinnati Equal Rights Society were: _President_, Mrs. H. A. Leavitt; _Vice-President_, Mr. J.

B. Quinby; _Corresponding-Secretary_, Mrs. A. L. Ryder; _Recording-Secretary_, Mrs. L. H. Blangy; _Treasurer_, Mrs. Mary Moulton; _Executive Committee_, Mrs. J. B. Quinby, Mr. ---- Hill, Mrs. A. L. Ryder. Mrs. Dr. Mortell, Mrs. Mary Moulton, Mrs. Mary Graham, Mrs. Annie Laurie Quinby, Mrs. L. H. Blangy and Mrs. Dr.

Gibson.

[287] The delegates appointed were, Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Quinby, Mrs.

Mary Graham, Mrs. Charles Graham, Mrs. Mary Moulton, Mrs. Dr.

Morrel, Mrs. Blangy, Mrs. M. V. Longley, Mr. and Mrs. A. G. W.

Carter, and Mrs. Soula and daughter.

[288] The officers of the State Society were: _President_, Mrs. H.

Tracy Cutler, M. D., Cleveland; _Vice-President_, Mrs. M. V.

Longley; _Recording Secretary_, Mrs. H. M. Downey, Xenia; _Corresponding Secretary_, Mrs. Miriam M. Cole, Sidney; _Treasurer_, Mrs. L. H. Crall, Cincinnati; _Warden_, Mr. J. B.

Quinby, Cincinnati; _Business Committee_, A. J. Boyer, esq., Dayton; Elias Longley, esq., Cincinnati; Mrs. R. L. Segur, Toledo; Mrs. Morgan K. Warwick, Cleveland; Dr. M. T. Organ, Urbana; Mrs. E.

D. Stewart, Springfield; Miss Rebecca S. Rice, Yellow Springs.

[289] The speakers at Pike's Hall were Susan B. Anthony, Mary A.