In Board of Aldermen, May 8, 1871.

Laid on the table, and ordered to be printed.

Attest:

S. F. MCCLEARY, City Clerk.

CITY OF BOSTON.

IN BOARD OF ALDERMEN, May 8, 1871.

On motion of Alderman COWDIN, the Board took from the table City Doc. 29, being the Report on petition of the Trustees of the Female Medical College, that their students be admitted to Clinical Lectures at the City Hospital, — and the question being on the acceptance of said report, Alderman Cowdin spoke as follows:

MR. CHAIRMAN,

Instead of adopting the course recommended by the committee in the last paragraph of their report, I move, "that this matter be referred to the Trustees of the City Hospital, with the respectful recommendation of the City Council, that the prayer of the petitioners be granted."

It appears from the committee's report, that the rules and regulations made by the trustees are subject to the approval of the City Council; and further, that students shall be admitted in such numbers and with such restrictions as the trustees may deem expedient. The City Council has never approved of any regulations excluding medical students because they were females; nor do the words "in such num

bers and with such restrictions" refer to this matter. If the approval of this rule by the City Council is used as authority to exclude women, it is used for a purpose never intended; and it is proper that we should give some expression in regard to the matter of admitting women.

As to the matter of right, of which the committee's report speaks, the petitioners only claim that female students have the same right as male students to share in the benefits of the hospital. Their college is chartered by the State, with the same powers and privileges as the Harvard Medical School, and has the same right to the benefits of the public hospitals.

In the announcement of the annual term of the Harvard School, we read as follows: "Clinical Instruction in Medicine and Surgery is given daily in the Massachusetts General Hospital and the City Hospital. Other hospitals and the various dispensaries and infirmaries of the city are likewise open to students." Thus the students of that institution have the range of the whole city, while the Female College is asking for the third time, that its students may be admitted to one of those institutions, and to the female wards only.

The committee say in their report, that "it is competent for the City Council to instruct the trustees" of the hospital, but intimate that this case is not one that would justify such a course. If it is not such a case, it is certainly one of great importance, and quite sufficient to justify the mild recommendation which I have proposed. There is a great and growing demand for educated female physicians for practice among women and children. It is a well-known fact, that multitudes of girls and young women lose their health and life even, because of their reluctance to apply to male physicians, to investigate and treat disorders peculiar to females. In view of this fact, the Mount Holyoke Fe

male Seminary at South Hadley, has, for the past ten years, supplied itself with graduates of this college, as resident physicians in the seminary; and the Rev. Dr. Kirk, president of that seminary, in a published letter, says: "As a matter of experience, we have found it work admirably. I think I may say, that, with a larger family, we never had so little sickness in the house, as since this arrangement was made." The family of which Dr. Kirk speaks, consisted of over three hundred pupils. The great Vassar Female College, in Poughkeepsie, N. Y., with an annual attendance of about four hundred pupils, has in like manner, since its opening, six years ago, employed a lady physician, graduate of this Female Medical College in Boston.

a

But the question before us is not whether the public need and will have female physicians, that was settled years ago; but whether New England women shall have a fair chance to get a medical education in Boston, or be put to the trouble and expense of going elsewhere; whether we will run down our own institution, and help to build up similar ones in other cities? How is the matter in New York? From the anuual announcement of a female medical college in that city, published in 1869, we read as follows: —

The liberal sentiment of New York has opened to women the great city hospitals and dispensaries, with their valuable clinical lectures. Among these may be mentioned Bellevue Hospital, which receives annually from ten to twelve thousand patients, over five hundred being obstetrical cases; the Charity Hospital, which receives annually about one thousand patients, a large proportion being affected with chronic diseases; the Fever and Small Pox Hospitals; the Hospital for Epileptics and Paralytics; the Nursury Hospital; the Insane Asylum; the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary; and the Demilt and other city Dispensaries."

So much for the liberal sentiment of New York. How