Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to WomenBlackwell, Elizabeth
History
Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women
Blackwell, Elizabeth
Blackwell, Elizabeth, 1821-1910; Women physicians -- United States -- Biography
My enlarging experience in various countries in respect to the
relations between men and women—the customs, the diseases, the social
disaster springing from errors as to human physiology and neglect in
education with regard to the most important functions—showed me the
imperative work which devolved upon the physician in this matter.
I realised that the mind cannot be separated from the body in any
profound view of the scope of medical responsibility. Under the olive
trees of Bordighera, and sitting by its lovely blue sea, I meditated
on the duty of the physician, and finally wrote the small work,
‘Counsel to Parents on the Moral Education of their Children.’
So little at that time was the importance of sexual education
understood, and the necessity of its consideration accepted, that
when I read my manuscript to a warm and enlightened English friend
staying at Mentone, she assured me that if I published that manuscript
my ‘name would be a forbidden word in England.’
I sent the manuscript, however, to about twelve of the leading London
publishers, who all declined the publication. I therefore printed a
small edition myself, which a bookseller consented to keep on sale.
A copy of this little book fell under the notice of Miss Ellice
Hopkins, who, considering that it would be useful in the special work
in which she was engaged, induced Mr. Hudson, the then acting member
of the firm of Hatchard & Co., to reconsider the matter and publish
the book for her use. The arrangement was made and the book printed;
but soon after I received a letter saying that though the firm had
never yet broken faith with an author, yet they feared they must do
so now; for the senior member of the firm, Bishop Hatchard’s widow,
had seen the proof of the book, thrown it into the fire, and desired
that its publication should be stopped!
Finally, a little consultation of elderly clergymen was called to
consider the subject, and it was at last resolved that if the name of
the work could be changed, and the distinct announcement made in the
title that it was a medical as well as a moral work, the publication
might be continued. Of course the change was made, and ‘Counsel to
Parents’ became ‘The Moral Education of the Young, considered under
_Medical_ and Social Aspects.’
I mention this curious experience as an encouragement to those who are
engaged in all branches of moral work. Public sentiment has advanced
since 1876. Looking now at the very reticent way in which the subject
is treated in this little book, it is difficult to believe that such
an episode could have occurred.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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