a
profession was often regarded as in league with the powers of evil.
Down to the nineteenth century, women never held any recognized place
as practitioners, excepting in the capacity of midwives.

In the eighteenth century there were, outside of the recognized
profession, a number of women who practised medicine with considerable
success; but, although skilful, they would be regarded to-day as mere
quacks. Mrs. Joanna Stephens, who proclaimed that she had found
a remarkable cure for a painful disease, appears to have been so
successful in her treatment of cases as to enlist genuine respect for
her attainments. Parliament voted her a grant of five thousand pounds
sterling. Mrs. Mapp, commonly termed "Crazy Sally," who had repute as
a bonesetter, received from the town of Epsom the offer of an
annuity of one hundred pounds sterling if she would remain in that
neighborhood. She was such a popular character that the managers of
Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre sent her a special request to attend
a performance at which they desired to have a large audience. She
complied, and the attendance was satisfactory.

Early in the century there was a renewal of attempts which had
formerly been made to require women who practised obstetrics to come
under some form of registration; but when the matter came before
Parliament, in the form of an enactment prepared by the Society of
Apothecaries, a committee of the House of Commons reported that "It
would not allow any mention of female midwives." Although women were
not received into the regular profession as qualified practitioners
until after the middle of the century, they were under no legal
prohibition to practise medicine; but in 1858 the passage of the
Medical Act, which required a doctor to qualify by passing the
examination of one of the existing medical boards, set up a barrier
to women, as it placed them subject to the discretion of the boards,
which unanimously refused to admit them. The only exceptions to this
rule were made in favor of those persons who had received a medical
degree abroad and had been practising before the passage of the act.
It was in this way that Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell became registered.
Miss Elizabeth Garret, whose studies did not begin till two years
after the compulsory registration law, was also enrolled under
exceptional conditions.

At last matters came to an issue, and a notable struggle occurred
which marked an era in the medical profession of