y a physician who has no cause
to complain of this frequently criminal diffidence on the part of women,
and their objection to state their complaint freely. All this is easy to
understand; irrational, however, is the posture of the men, and of
several physicians among them, who will not admit the justice and
necessity of the study of medicine, in particular, by women.

Female doctors are no new sight. Among most of the ancient peoples, the
old Germans in particular, it was upon woman that the healing cares
devolved. There were female physicians and operators of great repute
during the ninth and tenth centuries in the Arabian Kingdom,
particularly among the Arabians (Moors) in Spain, where they studied at
the University of Cordova. The pursuit by women of scientific studies at
several Italian Universities--Bologna and Palermo, for instance,--was
likewise due to Moorish influence. Later, when the "heathen" influence
vanished from Italy, the practice was forbidden. In 1377 the faculty of
the University of Bologna decreed:

"And whereas woman is the fountain of sin, the weapon of the devil, the
cause of man's banishment from Paradise and the ruin of the old laws;
and whereas for these reasons all intercourse with her is to be
diligently avoided; therefore do we interdict and expressly forbid that
any one presume to introduce in the said college any woman whatsoever,
however honorable she be. And if, this notwithstanding, any one should
perpetrate such an act, he shall be severely punished by the Rector."

Indeed, down to this day, Christian clergymen, of both Protestant and
Catholic confession, are among the most zealous enemies of the pursuit
of scientific studies by woman. The fact was shown in the debates of the
German Reichstag on the admission of women to the study of medicine; it
is furthermore shown by the reports of the Evangelical convention, held
in the spring of 1894 in Frankfurt-on-the-Main, where clerical
mouth-pieces protested sharply against allowing women equal rights in
the discussions of the convention.

The admission of women to the pursuit of University professions has,
above all, the result of exercising a beneficent influence upon the
industry of the male youth. As admitted from different quarters, the
ambition of the male students leaves much to be wished for. That alone
were a great gain. Their morals also would be greatly improved: the
inclination to drunkenness and brawling, as well as habitual