Henry Carrington Bolton

“ Encouraged by her father, she pursued her studies under the guidance of eminent masters; she learned physiology and medicine with the erudite physician Gaetano Tacconi, mathematics with Manfredi, and natural philosophy with the disciples of Gassendi, and she astonished these profound philosophers by her talents. Laura Bassi studied for the pure love of knowledge, and had no ambition to seek public honors, but, to gratify the pardonable pride of a father as well as the earnest desires of her instructors, she consented to support a philosophical thesis before a learned audience of professors. ”

“ The student in art, thanks to the philanthropy of our venerable citizen, Peter Cooper, can, without incurring expense, acquire a knowledge of designing or of wood-engraving which will hardly fail to secure for her a competence. The student in biology will receive her share of attention at a summer school of science on our Atlantic seaboard, or held in connection with some enterprising institution of learning. The student in pharmacy and chemistry can conduct her researches on an equality with men, or, if she prefer, in laboratories controlled and officered in large part by women themselves. ”

“ The physicians of Athens becoming jealous of Agnodice's great reputation and lucrative practice, summoned her before the Areopagus, and accused her of abusing her trusts in dealing with female patients. To establish her innocence, Agnodice disclosed her sex, and her persecutors then accused her of violating the law prohibiting women and slaves from studying medicine, but the wives of the most influential Athenians arose in her defense and eventually obtained a revocation of the law. ”

“ The student in medicine now gains access to medical colleges in nearly every State in the Union, and the legitimacy of her pursuit as well as her ability to grapple with it gains increasing advocates. "She is no longer regarded as too good and too stupid to study medicine." ”

“ A century later another female practitioner flourished, of whom women have no reason to be proud. In the year 1738 Mrs. Joanna Stephens proclaimed in London that she had discovered a sovereign remedy for a painful disease. Notwithstanding her gross ignorance and vulgar demeanor, she secured a large circle of patients from among the upper and wealthy classes, and, after enriching herself by enormous fees drawn from their credulity, she proposed to make her medical discovery public in consideration of the modest sum of twenty-five thousand dollars. ”

“ Several writers on the history of science make casual reference to the operations performed by the early chemists: some state in a general way their acquaintance with the processes of distillation, sublimation, filtration, etc.; others are more explicit. Hermann Kopp, in his exhaustive "Geschichte der Chemie," [2] states that "filtration as a chemical process was first accurately described by Geber, who calls it by a special name, destillatio per filtrum, 'trickling through a filter,' in contrast to the collection of a liquid by ordinary distillation." ”

“ Women desirous of acquiring medical knowledge are no longer obliged to disguise themselves in male attire like Agnodice the Athenian, nor are practitioners liable to suffer the penalties of the law for their works of benevolence and charity. ”

“ So long as the practice of medicine formed a part of the priestly functions, as in ancient Egypt, the crafty guardians of superstition sedulously concealed their superior knowledge from an ignorant and credulous people, and especially from women. ”

“ Half a century later lived a woman justly distinguished for combining in one person a high degree of female loveliness, womanly virtue, and intellectual strength: though not occupied with the art of healing, we can not pass in silence the accomplished Hypatia. ”

“ IN attempting to sketch the history of the entrance of women into the medical profession, we find the earlier periods obscured by a meagerness of material and a lack of sequence which our superficial researches have failed to supplement.
Isolated cases of gifted women attaining notable surgical skill and successfully pursuing the divine art of healing are recorded at various epochs in the history of the intellectual development of woman, but they occur at long intervals of time and in widely scattered chronicles. ”

“ From the earliest times women have successfully grappled with a most difficult branch of medical science, gynecology, but long-existing and deep-seated prejudices prevented an extension of their practice, and save in exceptional cases they were forbidden both the acquirement of accurate and systematic knowledge and the exercise of their chosen vocation. ”

“ THE separation of a liquid from solids suspended in it, by straining through some material pervious to the one and impenetrable to the other, was a familiar process in the remotest antiquity. Observation of various processes in nature, such as the purification of water by trickling through sandy soil, or perhaps the accidental passage of rain-water through an outstretched cloth, a garment, or a tent-cover, would obviously suggest the simple expedient. History fails to record the period of the invention or the name of the individual who first put it in practice. ”

“ The invention of medicine was almost universally attributed by the ancients to the gods, and it is a curious fact that in both Egyptian and Grecian mythology we find female deities occupying important relations to the healing art. To the Egyptian deity Isis, the wife and sister of Osiris, peculiar medical skill was attributed, and a multitude of diseases were regarded as the effects of her anger. ”

“ Anna Morandi was born at Bologna five years later than Laura Bassi, and died four years earlier. She became the wife of Giovanni Manzolini, a poor, hard-working maker of anatomical models. Manzolini was an expert painter and modeler in wax, and was employed by one Lelli to construct a series of anatomical models for the use of the professors in the Institute of Bologna. Anna not only aided her husband, but soon surpassed him in skill, and particularly in that scientific knowledge upon which the success of their joint labors so largely depended. ”

“ The rapidity of filtration does not seem to be hastened by lengthening the longer arm of the siphon, and is chiefly dependent on the number of threads in the filter, and on their fineness. In one experiment, thirty-two strands of cotton yarn filtered twice as fast as sixteen strands, and only half as fast as sixty-four strands. Oil filters much slower than saline solutions, and the latter much slower than pure water.
We have used the expression "capillary siphoning" in describing anethisis, and perhaps it needs justification. ”

“ The ancient and honorable universities of Italy were, we believe, the first to recognize the capacity of women to give instruction of a high character. The University of Bologna, founded in 1116, was attended in the year 1250 by ten thousand students, engaged in the study of jurisprudence, of philosophy, and of medicine. ”

“ To satisfy her desire for knowledge she disguised herself in male attire, and, braving the fatal results of detection, dared to attend the schools of medicine forbidden to her sex. Among her instructors was numbered Herophilus, the greatest anatomist of antiquity and the first who dissected human subjects. After completing her studies, Agnodice preserved her disguise and practiced her chosen calling in the Grecian capital with great success, giving particular attention to the diseases of her own sex. ”

“ The candidate for medical honors also finds in Boston, Philadelphia, New York, and Chicago, well-appointed schools of medicine especially adapted to her needs, with corps of trained and sympathizing instructors ready to lend a helping hand.
Looking across the Atlantic, we find countries so lately intolerant of the intellectual advancement of woman at last yielding, not always gracefully, to the inevitable. The little republic of Switzerland and the mighty empire of Russia have for many years manifested practical sympathy with the cause ”

“ Chief among these is the fact that, when the capillary siphon is adjusted, it requires no further attention; there is no pouring into a constantly emptying funnel, and there is no possibility of overflow. When properly arranged, the last drop of liquid passes from the upper vessel to the lower, and, except in certain cases of extreme divisibility, the filtration is perfect. The process seems particularly adapted to the purification of weak solutions, as of mineral waters, where the insoluble portion is not to be conserved. ”

“ The ancient Romans employed strainers and colanders (colum) made of a great variety of materials. Wine-strainers were made of silver and bronze; the poorer classes used linen, and, where nicety was not required, they used those made of broom or of rushes. Strictly speaking, however, percolation through colanders is not filtration, for capillary action plays no part.
It is interesting to note that the earliest mention of filtration which a brief search has disclosed refers to the method we have ventured to call anethisis. ”

“ The young woman who seeks intellectual training of a more technical character, with a view to adopting a professional career, will find many avenues opening up with constantly increasing privileges and facilities. ”

“ Mapp, or, perhaps we should say, highly valued the benefit the town derived from the influx of wealthy patients, and they offered her the sum of five hundred dollars per annum if she would continue to reside in the town.
The first half of this century has witnessed the career of a few women eminent in the art of healing; in France Madame La Chapelle had an extensive gynecological practice, and Madame Boivin attained to such distinction that she was honored with the degree of Doctor of Medicine by the University of Marburg. ”

“ While Laura Bassi taught physics, Anna Morandi-Manzolini anatomy, and Maria Agnesi mathematics, in the Bolognese University, we might naturally expect the gentler sex to avail themselves of the opportunity of studying under their sisters' instructions. And such, in fact, was the case: the names of some of these students are recorded by the historian, many of whom received the degrees of Doctor of Philosophy and Doctor of Medicine. In 1799 Doctor Maria delle Donne appears as Professor of Medicine and Obstetrics ”

“ Under the influence of Mohammedan rule, women were placed in excessive isolation, and it is not surprising to find under these circumstances that certain women were skilled in attending to the requirements of their own sex. ”

“ In 1880 the young woman with aspirations for intellectual culture finds open to her such excellent training-schools as Holyoke, Wells, and Rutgers, such-noble institutions as Vassar, Smith, and Wellesley. ”

“ Avicenna also, writing of remedies for diseases of the eyes, mentions a collyrium compounded by a woman well versed in medical science. On the whole, however, the number of women instructed in medicine among the Arabs was very small, owing possibly to the inferiority to which women were condemned by Eastern usages.
In Christian countries the nuns as well as the priests attended to the healing of the sick as an act of charity and piety. Abelard, in the twelfth century, permitted the practice of surgery to those of the convent of the Paraclete, over which Héloïse presided. ”

“ There is obviously much choice in the material of which the capillary siphon is made. We have tried cotton, wool, lamp-wick, and asbestus, and we find stout, silky wads of the latter most serviceable; it is also useful for filtering very acid and alkaline solutions. ”

“ Beaugrand states that the most ancient document extant relative to the organization of surgery in France forbids the practice of surgeons and of female surgeons who have failed to pass a satisfactory examination before the proper authorities. This paper bears the date 1311. References to female surgeons appear again in an edict of King John in 1352; from these documents it appears that women exercised the function of surgeon under legal authority. At a somewhat later period we find the calling of physician followed by women in Spain, Germany, and England. ”

“ Does she not shrink from contact with her brothers, she may gain entrance into many universities, either expressly founded in a liberal spirit, as Oberlin, Cornell, and Ann Arbor, or which have yielded to the steady pressure of public opinion, and now open their doors more or less widely to the gentler sex. ”