Herodotus tells us that physicians were allowed to study one branch of medicine only, hence women would be given obstetrics as rightfully belonging to them. The midwives of ancient Egypt were doubtless educated and capable, for we learn from Ebers' "Egyptian Princess" of the high position women held, that queens reigned in their own right, and that sons of royalty just as often traced their descent from the mother as from the father.
In the eleventh century before Christ there existed a college of physicians in Egypt for both sexes, and several women aequij-ed renown as teachers in the great school at Salerno, and various universities of Italy.
Concerning Ainia Ma/zaloni, whose husband held the chair of anatomy at Bologna, "it happened that he fell ill, and she being a loving wife, sought to supply to him the place of his enfeebled powers, so she became an anatomist and delivered his lectures for him behind a curtain." It is interesting to note that she was offered a professorship in IMilan, which she refused. However, in the year 1806 Marie Delia Donne received her degree at Bologna and was appointed by Napoleon to the chair of midwifery in the university; and the names of Madames Ija Chapelle and Volvin stand pre-eminent in the annals of French medicine as the most renowned accoucheurs of their age.
These various instances testify to the fact that in all ages there have been women who possessed qualities fitted to render them successful practitioners of the art, and exim promoters of the science of medicine.
The pioneer in the struggle for a medical education for women in America was Miss Elizabeth Blackwell. In the year 1849 she received her diploma as a leader of her class from the medical college of Geneva, New York. At the conclusion of her studies in America Dr. Blackwell visited Europe, where she was kindly received at St. Thomas, St. Bartholomew's, and a few other London hospitals. Here she met Florence Nightingale, and says she owes to her chiefly the awakening to the fact that "sanitation is the supreme goal of medicine, its foundation and its crown."
More than two thousand years ago Christ gave the command to preach the gospel and heal the sick, and Dr. C. E. Swain, a graduate of the Woman's Medical College of Philadelphia, enjoys the honorable distinction, not only of being the pioneer woman physician in India, but the first woman physician ever sent out by any missionary society into any part of the non-Christian world. After some years of successful service in North India she accepted an appointment as resident physician at the court of the Raji of Ketri. Through the influence of this woman and other missionaries, the Punditi Ramabai, a high-cast Hindoo woman, came to this country and completed a course in medicine in the Woman's Medical College of Philadelphia. She then returned to her native country, and is working faithfully for the welfare of her less fortunate sisters. It was principally through Lady Dufferin's work that women doctors have received so much recognition in India. Probably between 300 and 400 medical women are now working under the Dufferin fund, some in charge of hospitals, some as medical missionaries and a few
