A MEDICAL SCHOOL FOR WOMEN.

Evening Star, Issue 3965, 9 November 1875, Page 2

A MEDICAL SCHOOL FOR WOMEN.

To the Editor. I Mb,-I am waiting, wiui as much patience sir 1 pos-ess, for the a/rival of a young New Z alander, who will, I hope, spcdily make his or heraprearanee. ' heocc sion natii'.ally recalls an i e;i which I liave for Home entertained, and to which time only gives additional force, namely, that the so-called Medical School in connection with the Uiago University should he made a school for the instruction of women in nii'.hvifery, and the diseases of women and children. This notion will perhaps startle some people, and will, there is no doubt, greatly annoy my piofe-nionai bethren ; but I thii.k that un I'i'fjudiced readers, who calmly turn it over in their minds, will see that it has much to recemmend it. A medical school for women would siij ply a great want-a medical school for tueu is not wanted. Thu former would \ery soon have a full supply of Btudentß; the latter will never be able to compete with Euiopean and Amcricau schools. In a new Colony like this, wlure poj.iOalion in the_ country distiiets is ho scattered, it is often difficult or even impossible to procure the services of a duly qualified and sober medical man. Now, as nine-tenths of all cases treated are the diseases of women and children, female . petitioners could supply the desideratum. There is no doubt that Dunedin could give a f-.ir education to medical women, and that many such might and would find employment !»olh in towns and country. They would ielieve us of these dreadfully wearisome cses where wo have to sit still and do noshing, and would supplant the i norant and oft/n murderous malpractice of druggists ond "female Mends." J hey would, by taking off our hands the trivial cases, leave us more leisure to apply ourselves to the study of the scientific

branohes of medioine—branches In which English medical men are notoriously behind Continental practitioners. Last, but not least, they would, it is to be hoped, infuse into the mind of the other sex some faint ideas of a physiology a little more advanced than that prevailing in the middle age?, and tench them That while many diseases aie difficu t to cur.', all but a very few may be prevented by attention to a few simple niles and the use of a little common s use.—T am. &c , _ M.D. Dunecnn, November 8.