AN EVENING WITH MISS JEX BLAKE.

Thames Guardian and Mining Record, Volume I, Issue 265, 14 August 1872, Page 3

AN EVENING WITH MISS JEX BLAKE.

[From the Sydney Morning Herald.] Last week a fair audience—l use the term literally, for the better half of creation considerably preponderated—assembled in St. Georges Hall tojhear Miss Jex Blake desenbe her experiences as a medical student. In her way she has been a martyr. She has fought with wild beasts at Ephesus, and she is now “ pursuing,” as the Scotch say, with the terrors of the law, the Senatus Acadeinicus of Edinbu gh University, and Chancellor thereof. So far as last week’s audience was concerned, she is to be congratulated on her success. The Earl of Shaftesbury was in the chair ; on the platform were such leaders of modern thought as Mrs Anderson, and the Kev. James .Vlartineau. Fashionable society sent a very fair contingent. The general punlic, it must be admitted, did not care much about the matter. Indeed, as regards all the lady orators of the present age, it must be confessed that, in spite of their dulcet ton s and gentle manners, it is novelty that chiefly renders them interesting. The tone of the drawing room is not, and cannot be, the tone of the platform. When the novelty is over, unless the public taste has strangely altered, man will be paramount once more. When lovely woman stoops to folly,” in other words, when lovely woman goes in for pedantry and dullness, she is duller than a Dutchman, or a Scotch professor, or a German. 1 place these names in their proper order ; for truly, as Heine says, there is more wit in one dead Frenchman, than in nine living flesh-and-blood Germans. It was impossible to be duller than Miss Jex Blake. There were reporters present, but they wisely abstained from taking notes. Most of my readers, I dare say, have attended committee meetings. It is usual on such occasions to read over the minutes of the previous meeting. of composition is by no means charming, but it is charming compared with the dry recital of factsaud figures with which Miss Jex Blake interested her readers. Interested they undoubtedly were, for was not Miss Jex Blake a champion of their order? Aud so they bravely sat while the fair orator, sweetly smiling all the while, lectured for au hour and a half. We all know how Lord Palmerston managed to exist while ■

heavy orators declaimed : he slept. I could not 6ee how the Earl of Shaftesbury managed ; the fact was, I was done out of ray seat. My ticket was marked nine. When I found ray number, a lady had taken possession of the seat. Of course this was not right. Had a gentleman been in possession, I should have requested him to move. As lam not one of the modern school, and am old fashioned enough still to yield the 2>as to ladies, I retired. His lordship, however, came up —to borrow a phrase from the ringfresh and smiling at the close, saying, as a’l must feel, that the experiment which Miss Jtx Blake was making, was worth trying. If ladies were not fitted to be medical gattendants and advisers they would soon find it out. If they were, it would be so much gained for the public benefit. Mr Christie and Mr Heywood the banker were not 60 sensible as his lordship ; they evidently felt they were in the presence of ladies and spoke accordingly. Now this was a mistake. It is assumed that the votaries of science are beyond disturbing elements, that in the domains of reason men and women aro unknown. It is maintained for instance, that it is want of purity aloue that forbids young ladies and gentlemen studying anatomy and physiology together. It is also unfairly assumed that the young gentlemen alone are to be blamed in this matter. It i’b no answer to say that half a dozen young ladies, of whom Miss Blake is one, are unexoeptionably clever and sedate. Under temporary enthusiasm miracles are wrought; the leaders of Gibbon’s fifteenth chapter will remember to what heights Christ an enthusiasm led the virgins of the warm clime of Africa. But this is a mere matter of detail. That women have a right to study medicine if they will is a truth none of the readers of the Christian World will deny.

Very wisely Miss Blake dwelt little on this part of her subject. Mr Mill was, of course, her authority on the mental equality of the sexes, and as to the need that women should study mcdiciue she was impregnable. Passing over, for instance, the mischief of enforced idleness, the positive need that many women have of earning their daily bread, she asked what we were to do in the East ? What with regard to the nuns, who would on no account tell their symptoms to a man ? and what were we to do in the case of the many sensitive girls in our country who, rather than speak of what they felt and suffered to a doctor of the other sex, would ( ndur - any amount of pain ? Mi a Blake next, proceeded to explain the law, by whi'-li it a pears that women are ex eluded fro n the in die; 1 , r s buoji, no: aa women,b it sinply from the proviso iismthe Registration Act. Miss Elizabith Bl n Jewell and Mis Anderson had obtained their diplomas before the passing of that Act. In 1869, with a view to qualify herself for the medical profession, Miss Blake addressed a letter to the Dean of the Medical Faculty of the University of Edinburgh, requesting permission to attend lectures at the medical school during the coming session. The Medical Faculty acceded to this request, and, a day or two after, the Senatus Academicus, by a majority of 14 votes to 4, sustained that decision. On appeal against this decision, the University Court decided in April that, considering the difficulties at present standing in the way of carrying out the resolution of a Senatus as a temporary arrangement in the interest of one lady, and not being prepared to adjudicate finally on the question whether women should he educated in the medical classes of the University, the Court sustains the appeal, and recalls the resolution of the Senatus. Of course, this was a challenge to Miss Blake, which she accepted ; and, on the 21st of June, she had to write to tho Senate that other ladies beside herself were desirous to attend the medical classes. Ultimately their request was complied with. Officially it was decreed that the women were to attend medical classes, separate from the others, and taught by the same professors. Accordingly, Miss Blake, Mrs Thorne, and Miss Peachey, were, in 1869, admitted provisionally to the usual examination in ATts prescribed for medical students entering the University. The trio received the usual three tickets of admission, and completed the first half of the course of study required for matriculation. These ladies greatly distinguished themselves, and one of them gained a scholarship. This made matters worse. Public feeling was created. There were students who hissed and hooted at the ladies in the most senseless and brutal way. There were students who became their protectors. In describing these years of conflict, of alternate defeat and success, Miss Jex Blake became terribly bewildering. The upshot seemed to bo that in November, 1871, the Senatus resolved by 14 votes to 13 to recommend to the University Court that the existing regulations regarding the instruction of women should be rescinded, and the latter seemed to have done, so. “ though desirous to remove, so far as possible, any present obstacle in the way of a complete medical education being given to womeD, provided always that medical instruction to women be imparted in strictly separate classes.” Under these circumstances Miss Jex Blake and her friends, after haviug gone on with their studies—some for one, some for two, and some for three years, and spent much time and money in endeavouring to procure the benefit of University instruction, now find themselves under the necessity of instituting an action in Court. They are advised that they have legal ground for doing so, and last December a committee was formed of influential people in England and Scotland to arrive at a thorough understanding of the real difficulties of the case 1 1 secur the admission of women to E lin burgh University on the ordinary terms, though not necessarily of the same classes with men ; to provide the means of hospital instruction in Edinburgh for all ladies who are registered students of medicine, and incorporate with the lady si udents wlienevevr necessary, nod especial.y to aid them in obtaining such legal assistance as may be required to ascertain and assert their rights as matriculated students of the University, and as registered students of medicine. I hope I have not done Miss Jex Blake injustice. I applaud her spirit. I sympathise with her in fter cause. Were I ill, I should gladly commit myself to her tender mercies. I know she is goodnatured, for with such dimpled cheeks she can’t well be otherwise. I know she is intelligent, for such bright black eyes denote no lack of wit. In the round, broad head I see she is of the same class who “When they will, they will, you may depend on’t,” and who “When they won’t, they won’t, and there’s an end on’t,” but if she must lecture, let her give us fewer details; and if in narrating the vexatious and injustice to which she has been exposed she would really work herself up into a passion, I for one should not be angry. Chbistopbir Crayon,