The Woman's Medical Journal

A Monthly Journal Published in the Interest of Women Physicians

Published by

THE WOMAN'S MEDICAL JOURNAL

3437 Mooney Ave., Hyde Park
Cincinnati, Ohio

SUBSCRIPTIONS:

Domestic-$2.00 per annum in advance.

Foreign $2.50 per annum in advance.

REMITTANCES should be made by check, draft, registered letter, money or express order.

A subscriber should notify the publishers promptly of any removal, giving Old and New address, that there may be no break in the service of the JOURNAL.

In order to discontinue a subscription, notice must be sent direct to the JOURNAL and all arrears paid in full to date.

COPYRIGHT.-Matter appearing in THE WOMAN'S MEDICAL JOURNAL is covered by copyright, but no objection will be made to the reproduction in reputable medical journals of anything appearing in the columns of the JOURNAL if proper credit be given. The Editors and publishers are not responsible for the views of contributors.

NEWS. Our readers are requested to send us items of news of a medical nature, also marked copies of local newspapers containing matters of interest to women physicians. We shall be glad to know the name of the sender in every instance.

Contributions and books to be reviewed, and all business communications should be addressed to

MARGARET HACKEDORN ROCKHILL, Managing Editor, Cincinnati.

While the needs and interests of women physicians are inseparable from those of men, they are by no means identical; and we earnestly hope and believe that in all questions of family life, with sanitary, moral and social problems, they will raise the tone, widen the perception and alter the attitude of the profession in general, so as to make it respond more perfectly to the needs of society, and exert a high power for good in all directions. If this be realized, it will be seen that the work of women is absolutely essential and of ever increasing importance, and the outlook for this in every respect most helpful.-Dr. William H. Welch.

Editorial.

THE MEDICAL WOMAN'S CONTRIBUTION.

In this world's war your service is absolutely essential.

The medical officer bears the same relative position in war as in peace, in that he is a conservator of health and life.

Through his skill thousands of men receiving slight casualties are returned to the fighting force, thus conserving the physical strength of the army.

In base, field, and evacuation hospitals doctors are as essential as in civil institutions, where the sick and injured are cared for.

As regimental surgeons, and on transports and in the Sanitary Corps, the Government must have doctors if we are to terminate this war successfully.

Your contribution to your country at this critical time is YOUR SERVICE which you can give for the period of the war as an officer in the Medical Reserve Corps. That your country needs you, is best answered in that she is calling you NOW.

The fighting forces are constantly expanding, and such expansion calls for additional doctors; and even with the troops now in training and under mobilization (about two million), the Surgeon General has not enough doctors to fill the requirements.

Secure an application blank at once.

MEDICAL WOMEN IN GREAT BRITAIN ARE GIVEN THE RANK AND PAY OF OFFICERS.

Elsewhere in this issue, a letter dictated by Dr. Garrett Anderson gives some very interesting information about the conditions under which medical women are serving on hospitals staffs in England.

The appointment of the staff by the War Office the members of the staff being graded and paid as Major, Captain, and Leutenant-is in advance of the arrangements by our own Government. Medical women in this country can only serve as contract surgeons, and are not given rank or paid according to rank or service. While the English women cannot hold commissions under the present Army Act of Great Britain, they are rewarded by rank and privileges of same.

MEDICAL WOMEN OF DENVER ORGANIZE A MEDICAL WOMEN'S WAR SERVICE LEAGUE.

Thirty-five of the medical women of Denver met September 13th at a banquet at which Dr. Martha Welpton, secretary-treasurer of the Medical Women's National Association, was the guest of honor.

The burden of her address and of all discussion was war service for medical women and the conditions under which they could best serve their country.

At a previous meeting the women had expressed their unanimous desire for admission to the Medical Reserve Corps, with rank, pay, and title accorded medical men, and had so notified Dr. Morton's committee in Washington. The question of units of women had been given some consideration, but those who regarded it favorably were of the opinion that it was secondary to the first point raised-that of admission to the Medical Reserve Corps.

At the banquet a committee was appointed, with Dr. Mary E. Bates as chairman, to take steps towards the elimination of the word "male," which stands as a barrier towards the inclusion of women in government medical service. This matter is to be presented to our Colorado Senators and Congressmen.

Several women present had the same experience of those in other States when, soon after our entrance into the war, they had patriotically offered themselves to the Government.

Dr. Welpton was a great inspiration-a needed one; for Denver, equi-distant as it is from both coasts, has not yet felt the stirring needs of a state of war. She vivifield for those present the stirring sessions and banquet of the New York City meeting.

In order that the women might be better united for active work the Medical Women's War Service League was formed, and the following officers elected: President, Dr. M. Ethel V. Fraser first vice-president, Dr. Julia HillCrawford; second vice-president, Dr. Madeline Marquette Baker; recording secretary, Dr. Rose Kidd Beere; corresponding secretary, Dr. M. Jean Gale, 517 Jacobson Building; treasurer, Dr. Mary Reed Stratton.

LETTER FROM THE DOCTOR IN CHARGE, MILITARY HOSPITAL, ENDELL STREET, W. C. 2, LONDON ENGLAND.

To Dr. L. B. Deal, M.D., Secretary California Organization of Women Physicians for Federal Recognition.

September 11, 1917.

Dear Madam-In reply to your letter to Dr. Garrett Anderson, I have pleasure in giving you the following facts about the employment of women doctors by the War Office:

The Medical Staff of this Hospital is appointed by the War Office, and has entire charge and control of the Hospital. The Staff is graded and paid according to rank-namely, as Major, Captain, or Lieutenant. None of us are commissioned, as a commission cannot be held by women under the present Army Act of Great Britain, and as women cannot be attested or sworn in under that Act.

We are given the position of officers, with the pay and allowances of R. A. M. C. officers. In other military hospitals many women are employed. Some of these are graded and paid according to rank, as we are here. Others are engaged as civilian practitioners at a flat rate of 24 shillings a day, without uniform or other allowances. It should be noted that there are men doctors in military hospitals engaged on these terms also. Men so engaged are ineligible for general military service, and the War Office has a habit of regarding women as also ineligible for general service.

Our Staff here has certain privileges. It is permanent, and cannot be moved about by the War Office; and each member, except Dr. Garrett Anderson and myself, has an opportunity of terminating her appointment every six months. Yours faithfully,

(Signed FLORA MURRAY, M.D., Doctor in Charge, Military Hospital, Endell Street, W. C. 2.

PROMPT DIAGNOSIS OF RABIES. The New York Times editorially comments on the research work of Dr. Anna Williams, of the New York Board of Health. Women are daily winning laurels in the eyes of the public, so long opposed to women physicians.

One of the principal handicaps in the application of preventive and remedial measures in cases of suspected rabies has been the delay of forty-eight or more hours required to make a correct diagnosis. It is customary, in case human beings are bitten by dogs, to send the brain of the animal inflicting the wound to a distant expert for examination.

It is now stated that a new method of diagnosis has been instituted in the New York Department of Health by Dr. Anna W. Williams, assistant director of research. Under this method it is said that a positive diagnosis can be made within half an hour after the patient comes under medical observation. It is an

nounced that the new method has already been applied successfully in four cases in Manhattan and the Bronx.

The importance of this discovery lies in the fact that in cases of bites from dogs which are suspected of rabies, the suspense in waiting for the decision of

the expert has a depressing psychological effect on the patient. Under the modern method, cutting down, or practically eliminating the factor of expense tends to remove the element of panic.

The fact that this important advance in medical science has been achieved by a woman physician emphasizes the part that women are now taking in scien tific research. These achievements should, and doubtless will, hasten the already indicated disappearance of the prejudice in some quarters against women physicians.

MORE WOMEN DOCTORS NEEDED.

The following excerpt from a London paper brings a quiet smile at the change of opinion as to the ADVISABILITY of women physicians when a public need for them becomes evident even to the lay observer. As ever, when in a quandary, men turn to women to help them out, and-as everwomen are ready to do so.

With the great toil which the war has made on the ranks of physicians and surgeons, the number of women doctors promises to increase very rapidly in the next few years. Some of the biggest medical colleges in this country have been opened to women this season and the same thing is happening in England. Already in Great Britain the dearth of male doctors has made itself felt. When the war broke out there were about 30,000 medical men in England and about 1,500 medical women. This year, it is stated, the male medical schools are empty, the students being with the colors, while the women schools are filled to overflowing. The London School of Medicine for Women has enlarged its plant and increased its teaching staff and now has 450 students on its books. There has been a great increase in the number of women students at several of the medical schools which formerly were exclusively for men.

It seems to be very generally accepted among physi cians and surgeons that the women will continue after the war to maintain the place in the profession they are now taking. It is scarcely probable that the proportion of women doctors would ever rise beyond a certain point, but within limitations the field of medicine unquestionably offers attractions to numbers of women. There are some branches of the profession moreover for which they would seem to be especially well qualified. For example, they are said to be extremely good at laboratory work. Their attention and interest in detail is a great advantage," says a correspondent of the London Observer.

WORDS OF APPRECIATION FOR THE

JOURNAL.

The editor has been cheered by several very kind letters recently received accompanied by checks for subscriptions. The following is one of the several which has helped very much:

"Please find enclosed check to cover my account. I appreciate the JOURNAL very much. It fills a real need, standing in a class by itself, and should be in the hands of every woman physician in the United States. I am registered for war service, and if called wish it to follow me, if possible.

"Very truly,

"Somewhere in Illinois."

mines are added to the ordinary perils of the sea, sadness becomes pain both to those who go and to those who remain.

It was a brave group of medical women, in the uniform and bearing the insignia of the Women's Hospitals Committee of the National Women's Medical Association, which sailed for France a fortnight ago under the Red Cross.

It is fitting that some statement should be made regarding the preparation of these women to do medical work among the civilian population of France. The call was from the Red Cross for orthopedists; and among the first to respond were two sisters from Germantown, Pennslyvania-Doctors Florence and Dorothy Child, daughters of Mr. and Mrs. George Child. They were both graduated from Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania, with the degree of A.B. and Johns Hopkins University Medical School with the degree of M.D.

Dr. Florence Child had served as interne at

she accepted the call to go to France she was in spector in the Division of Child Hygiene, Bureau of Health, Philadelphia.

Dr. Dorothy Childs also served as interne at the Babies' Hospital, New York City, and in the Woman's Hospital of Pennsylvania. She has been officially connected with the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Tuberculosis. Later she was lecturer on hygiene and physician to the women students, University of Kansas.

Dr. Ethel Lyon Heard, of Galveston, Texas, graduated at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1915. She had previously taken a full course in nursing at the Carney Hospital Training School, Boston, Mass. She was an interne at the Philadelphia General Hospital; later pathologist at the John Sealy Hospital, Galveston, Texas. At the time of sailing she was assistant in the Department of Gynecology, University of Texas.

Dr. Esther Parker received the degree of

of Technology.

Mrs. Mary Nevins, although not a graduate in medicine, goes out to serve as bacteriologist in the Red Cross Hospital, Paris. She has served in the Pasteur Institute, Paris. She goes with a leave of absence from the State Laboratory at Albany, New York. She took with her, her two sons to enter the military service in France. They were below the age of enlistment here.

Dr. Stevens goes out as a dentist. She is a graduate of the Dental School of Tufts College, Massachusetts, and was an assistant in the school when called to go to France. She also was on the staff of visiting dentists of the Forsythe Infirmary, Boston.

Dr. Mabel H. F. Bancroft, who at the last moment was obliged to defer sailing until a later date, received her preliminary education in the private schools of France, and therefore speaks French fluently. She was graduated from the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, 1903. She held an interneship at the West Philadelphia Hospital for Women and Children, later in the New York Infirmary. She was clinical assistant in medicine at the Philadelphia Polyclinic, and in surgery at the Woman's Hospital, in general medicine at the West Philadelphia Hospital for Women and Children, later in the Memorial Hospital, Orange, New Jersey.

Dr. Esther Blair was graduated from the Woman's Hospital of Pennsylvania. She was an interne at Blockley Hospital, also at the Nursery and Child's Hospital, Staten Island, N. Y. Physician at the Dexmont Hospital for the Insane sixteen years. She also served three years as physician to women, Carnegie Institute

Dr. Helen Hill Woodroffe, Los Angeles, Cal., was graduated from the Denver Homeopathic College in 1900. She is a member of the California State Homeopathic Medical Society and of the South California State Homeopathic Medical Society, also Los Angeles County Medical Society. She has been vice-president of and on the board of the South California State Homeopathic Medical Society; on the board of the Los Angeles County Milk Commission; physician of the Los Angeles Humane Society for Children. She was also secretary of the Red Cross for the five beach cities of Santa Monica, Sawtelle, Venice, Ocean Park, and Playa del Rey.

The National Women's Medical Association is to be congratulated that the first contingent of medical women sent out by the Red Cross for foreign service are so well fitted, both by education and training, for the important work which awaits them.

ELIZA M. MOSHER.