Page 21 - 1912 February - To Dragma

86 TO DRAG MA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI

One may suppose there could hardly he two opinions as to nursing
being an appropriate calling for woman, who has to work for her
livelihood; and in fact men and women alike do not question her
attendance in that capacity on either sex; yet when it comes to the
medical profession, which is in fact but a higher, more theoretical
and trained development of the same science of medical nursing.
I venture to say she is still looked upon dubiously by many.

Apart from the class of women who prefer to consult the medical
man, unhappily there is another, numbering many thousands (par-
t i c u l a r unmarried women) who would rather suffer years than des-
cribe their symptoms to a man, who neglect their health because they
have a repugnance to consulting a doctor, until their ailments, slight
at first, through neglect have become incurable. Many long illnesses,
painful operations, and supervening deaths might, probably, have
been avoided in the past, i f these women had either less modesty
about consulting a medical man, or retaining that characteristic,
enough confidence and faith in their own sex to consult a qualified
woman in the capacity of a doctor. I n fact many of them think
they have no alternative. They hardly recognize there are medical
women.

On account of this latter class of women, who will as years go by
gain faith in their sex, and those, many in number, who desire for
themselves and their children the medical services of their own sex,
there is a demand by the public for women in medicine.

Does the general public prove its trust in medical women so
far that they can make a fair living out of their profession. In
plain words, do women, as general practitioners in this country, make
good? These questions can surely be answered in the affirmative for
those women who come to this work thoroughly prepared and who
make medicine their life work. Woe to the woman or man who
enters medicine for its lucrative results. It is not one of the most
lucrative fields, but it is the richest h. service. I t is only exceptional
women who even think in the first place, of entering the medical
profession, and still more exceptional are those women who success-
fully pass their five or more years of training.

There is surely a great opportunity in the medical profession for
those women who feel intensely that it is their vocation, and who
after completing their college course, are willing to spend a half
dozen years or more in their vocational training.