932

AbstractsOF

INTRODUCTORY ADDRESSES, ETC.,DELIVERED AT THE

MEDICAL SCHOOLSAT THE

Opening of the Session 1903-04.

LONDON (ROYAL FREE HOSPITAL) SCHOOL OFMEDICINE FOR WOMEN.

INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS BY ELIZABETH M. PACE,M.D. LOND.

MY first and pleasant duty is to bid you all most heartilywelcome to this school where I spent so many happy hoursmyself. I most warmly congratulate you on your choice of aschool and hope that you will er;oy your work here as muchas I did. I should like to give you a short sketch of thehistory of this school and of others for women which havesprung up since. You will see how much we owe to the menand women who gave ungrudgingly their time and energy inthe founding of this school and how much lies with you tocarry on the traditions of the first students here. We canhardly realise what energy and perseverance were needed towork under the conditions they had and we must take carethat the fact of getting easily what they had to fight for doesnot make us value it the less.The history of medical women in Great Britain begins nearly

60 years ago, when Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell took her degree inAmerica and she was the first medical woman on the British

Register. She was followed in 1865 by Mrs. Garrett Andersonwho had many difficulties to overcome, but who obtaineda medical qualification from the Society of Apothecariesafter very considerable personal trouble and pecuniary outlay.The fact of Mrs. Garrett Anderson being followed by otherwomen anxious to tread in her footsteps alarmed somemembers of the medical profession and the agitation raisedended in the examination of the Society of Apothecaries beingshut to women. As it had been the only one which admittedthem this was very serious and it was after this that thestudents who had hoped to obtain their qualifications inLondon went to Edinburgh and attempted to get both theirmedical education and degrees in the University there.Allowed at first to matriculate and to take their students’tickets, difiiculties arose over the teaching. The professorsnot being obliged to teach women students some of themrefused. After four years of effort to get matters put on asfair a footing for women as for men it was found to be hope-less and the students left Edinburgh. These women cameback to London and with the help of Mrs. Garrett Anderson,who was then practising in London, and with the enthusiasticsupport of sympathisers, both medical and non-professional,the little medical school in Handel-street was openedin October, 1874. It had 23 students. A provisional councilof 24 influential medical men was formed and Dr. Anstiewas appointed the first dean. A iitaff was appointed, con-sisting of lecturers who held similar posts at other schools.Three years passed before clinical teaching could be obtainedfor the Handel-street students, but in 1877 the Royal FreeHospital opened its doors to women students. Theirnumber rose to 34 and the school showed insreasing pros-perity. Till 1876 no legal qualifications to practise medicinecould be obtained by women, but after Mr. Russell Gurney’sBill, enabling all British licensing bodies to give diplomas towomen, was passed the Royal College of Physicians of Irelandconsented to examine them, and several women passed itsexamination. In 1878 the University of London admittedwomen to degrees in all subjects, and the London Universitymedical degree has always been the one taken by a largeproportion of the students of this schcol. The Scotchuniversities did not follow the example of London till 14

years later, but with time all the doors by which men mayenter the medical profession have been opened to women,with the exception of the Rcyal Colleges of Physicians ofLondon and Surgeons of England and the medical degrees ofOxford and Cambridge. In 1886 a small medical school forwomen was started in Edinburgh where Miss Jex Blake was Iby that time in practice. It did useful work for 12 years,until the changed conditions in Edinburgh, making it I

possible for women to attend some mixed classes in theUniversity, made it impossible for the little school to competewith a cheaper system of teaching. In 1890 the MedicalCollege for Women now in Minto House was founded and theschool has flourished. In the same year a medical schoolwas founded in connexion with the Queen Margaret College.Glasgow. This was later incorporated with the University.The Irish have always proved generous to women students.As I have said, all their degrees are open to us and we areadmitted to all their medical schools with the exception ofTrinity College, Dublin. There is no need, therefore, forseparate schools and none exist. In America the tendencyseems to be towards closing of the separate and increaseof mixed schools. As for the later history of yourown school you know that it has flourished exceed-ingly. 30 years ago it had 23 students and now thenumber is 195. The old students, numbering some hundreds"are scattered all over the world, many of them doing valuablework abroad and others at home, proving by their successin hospital and private practice that there is a need, nay, ademand, for our woik. The incorporation of the school withthe Royal Free Hospital and the recognition of the London(Royal Free Hospital) School of Medicine for Women as one ofthe constituent schools of the University of London have beenthe two latest developments in its growth. You have now ameans of medical education as different from those of 30years ago as the spacious buildings and excellent lecture-rooms are from the little house in Handel-street, now socompletely transformed. This we owe to the friends whohelped the school through its early days, to the friends whonever wavered in their determination to gain for all the rightto work at what they most care for. We cannot give thembetter reward than to let them see younger generations ofmedical women devoting themselves heart and soul to theprofession that they, by their efforts, have made possible.

SCHOOL OF PHARMACY OF THE PHARMACEUTICALSOCIETY.

INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS BY JOSEPH W. SWAN, F.R.S.

Dr. Swan congratulated the students on the excellentopportunity which the school afforded them for the scientificstudy and practice of pharmacy. He could not help con-trasting the position of British pharmacy to-day with theinferior position it occupied at the time of his first con-tact with it 60 years ago. The institution by the Pharma-ceutical Society of the School of Pharmacy had contri-buted towards the improvement of the scientific educationof the pharmacist ; his reputation could rest on no betterfoundation than superior technical and scientific know-

ledge. The educational progress of pharmacy under theauspices of the Pharmaceutical Society had been a happyexception to the rule of our general educational want of

progress. The events of the last 60 years illustrated in aremarkable manner the enormous advantages of education.They showed conclusively that our want of thoroughnessin education and the consequent want of imagination andcapacity to appreciate the value of scientific research hadcaused us immense national loss. The period (exactlycovered by the work of the school) had been without

parallel for its industrial and economic results and super-ficially regarded they seemed to falsify the contention of thebeneficial effects of education ; for 60 years ago we werean unlettered race, a large percentage of the populationbeing unable to read or to write. But it must be remem-bered that we had had many accidental compensationswhich for a time had neutralised and hidden the educationalweakness of our position. At the outset we had the goodfortune to have among us a number of men of genius who bytheir inventions and their enterprise in connexion with theextended use of steam power for manufactures, railways,and iron steamships, had with the help of our abundant coalraised Great Britain to the highest pitch of industrial pros-perity. These great results of British invention and enter-prise had been obtained before the influences of education inthe creation of rivalry and competition were felt as they arenow. All the advantages of our initiative were exhausted,our industrial rivals were now armed with our own

weapons, and they had added to their effectiveness theenormous force of superior education in their use. Wewere now menaced by the imminent danger of industrialruin unless at this late hour we repaired the fault ofour former and continued neglect by immediately takingthe necessary steps to put our house in educational