any kind exists.

But public opinion is said to be quite favorable. Women are making
their way slowly into certain callings. The professors of the
universities of Liege and Ghent, when asked their opinion not long
ago by the minister of public instruction, expressed a desire to
see women admitted to the privileges of these institutions on the
same terms as men, and to-day female students are found at all the
institutions for higher education. Another correspondent writes:

Within the past few years an effort has been made among the women
of the middle classes in the large cities, and secondary and
professional schools have been established for girls, which are
already producing good fruit. This movement is beginning to make
itself felt among the upper classes, and it is to be hoped that
the next generation will make longer strides in the direction of
instruction than is the case with the present generation.

In one respect at least Belgium is far behind her neighbor,
Holland. Dr. Isala van Diest, the first and so far the only female
physician in Belgium, although she has passed successfully all the
necessary examinations and taken all the necessary degrees, may not
practice medicine in her own country. She wrote me recently:

I fear I shall soon be obliged to give up the fight and go to
France, England or Holland, unless I wish to lose the fruit of
all my studies.

Concerning the higher education of women Dr. van Diest writes:

There existed in Belgium some years ago a law which required
students who would enter the university, to pass the examination
of graduate in letters (_gradue-en-lettres_). Candidates for this
degree were expected to know how to translate Greek and write
Latin. But as there were no schools where girls could study the
dead languages with the thoroughness of boys who were trained six
years in the classics, the former were almost entirely shut out
from enjoying the advantages of an university course. This
_graduat_, however, no longer exists, and the entrance of women
into our universities is now possible. Female students are found
to-day at Brussels, Liege and Ghent, but their number is still
very small. It was in 1880 that the first woman entered the
university of Brussels, but it was not until 1883 that their
admission became general. They pursue, for the most part,