A NOTABLE MEDICAL WOMAN

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 188, 29 April 1918, Page 3

A NOTABLE MEDICAL WOMAN

Dll. BENSON INTERVIEWED. A recent interview with Dr. Benson, of Camu Hospital fame, who lias been unpointed to the vacant place of the great Dr. Elsie Inglis, of tho Scottish Women's Hospitals, has proved most inlurcsting, states a writer in "The Queen." Dr. iJcnson ie taking out the "Elsie Inglis" Unit to the Balkans, and all the plans, so carefully thought out and arranged by the late C.H.0., have been lovingly carried through by the' oxecutive committee. ijorbia, so dear to the heart of Dr. Inglis, was and is still ■ the goal and desiro of the Scottish Women's Hospitals, and they hope to see this splondidly brave little country reinstated among the nations of Europe. Dr. Benson has a quiet, calm manner, but it is a quietness that inspires confidence and gives an assurance of a strength and a great endurance. Dr. Benson whs educated mainly at home. She went to, Brighton High School later on, where she gained a Cambridge- local scholarship for Newnham College. There her great, wido life began in 1881. Sho was at Newnham four years, studying mathematics and scionce, then she went to the London (Koval Free Hospital) Medical School for "Women. ■ She holds tho M.D. degree for London University and B.So. After she had qualified she held various hospital appointments in England before going out to India in 1894 to take chargo of the Cama Hospital, Bombay. She succeeded Dr. Pcchey Phipson, who was one of 'the great pioneers of tho medical ] education movement for women in Edinburgh, London, and India. Dr. Benson holds these same high ideals. The Cama Hospital was opened in 1886, and is a civil hospital, tho only one in India entirely officered by medical women. At the sarno timo the Government 'Medical College and University degrees were thrown open to women. There are hundreds of Indian -women now in each Presidency holding the ,B.A. and the medical degrees. An Association of Women Graduates, recently formed in Bombay, numbers over a hundred members, mostly" Indian. Tiho Association of Medical Women in India numbers hundreds.. The recently formed "Dufferin Service" offers good careers to both Indian and European

woinon. , , Tho Cama Hospital has over a hundred beds for Indian women and'children, for all branches of medical and surgical work, and nioro than a hundred maternity cases pass through its doors in one month, many of them very difficult and complicated. , , The hospital is beautifully situated, looking over the Maidan, and has lovely "rounds, which were originally laid out by Dr Phipson. Lady Minto expressed hor great admiration of their boauty when she visited tho hospital. Iu 1912 Dr. Benson went for a holiday tour with an old friend, from Damascus aoross tho Euphrates to Diarbokir, in Armenia. Thence they floated on skm rafts, cnlledl "keleks," down to Bagdad, the whole length of the Tiffns and SO back to India via Basra. It took two and a half months from Bombay, back to Bombay, and was a delightful oxpenrnce This keenness for adventure and travel was one of the many inducements which led her to join the Scottish Women's Hospitals when sho resigned from her work in India; but she has an mlon** admiration for their magnificent efforts for the women's cause and their exertions for the relief of tho nek and the suffering. . _ _ The "Elsie Insrlis" Unit, with Dr. Benfinn as C.M.0., has been inspected by the King anil Queen at' Buckingham Palace.