place where he, for one, hoped and | Government stamp upon them. Unfortrusted she would ever remain. It was tunately several of these Bodies depended not consonant with English ideas, and largely on the moneys they received for all we value most in domestic life, that the passing of candidates. Hence had women should go to the bedsides of all arisen between some a very unworthy sorts of people as physicians and sur- competition, and we had some of them geons. It was not any question of pro-lowering the proper standard in order to fessional jealousy, nor could his objection arise from any fear of competition. The fear that really did exist was on behalf of the welfare of the general community, and he trusted that the House would not listen to, or sanction, any such innovation as the one now proposed, and he would conclude by moving the rejection of the Bill. win to their examinations numbers of candidates. This system had proceeded so far that it was not an infrequent occurrence for candidates who were rejected by one Board for utter incompetence to go almost immediately to another Board and get qualified, become registered, and thus be thrown on the public as State-qualified practitioners. He had called the attention of the House on a previous occasion to the subject, and the noble Lord the Vice President of the Council had acknowledged that it was a bad state of things, and much wanted remedying. Now, it was proposed to make the great change of allowing any of these qualifying Bodies to admit women to their qualifications. Surely, that was only greatly increasing the temptation, which had already been too frequently yielded to, for these institutions to lower the standard of efficiency, and send out to the country persons really unfit to undertake medical practice. What guarantee was there that, if any of these institutions were pressed for funds they would not flood the country with a large number of illeducated and ill-qualified women? Before taking such a great step as the admission of women to the Medical Profession he thought they ought first of all to settle the grave state of things that existed as to proper medical qualification. He concluded by once more urging the very serious objections to the admission of young girls to the study of medicine, an objection which he believed the more it was looked into the more powerful it would prove, and the more fatal to such measures as those which they were now asked to pass. DR. WARD, in seconding the Amendment, said, that those who opposed the admission of women to the Medical Profession were accused of doing so either from professional jealousy, or from sentimental motives. But he thought that the House would not cast a stigma on a great Profession, and on the leading men of that Profession who formed the qualifying Board, by holding them actuated by the mere selfish policy of a trades union. Then those who opposed it were accused of a sentimental objection. He had been engaged for some time in teaching that branch of medicine where this objection would be strongest-anatomy and he had witnessed young ladies in the pursuit of that study. He must state, from what he saw, his original objection to submit young girls to this ordeal was greatly strengthened. Even young men were subject to a severe moral trial; and he thought if hon. Members really knew the state of things they would be very slow to subject young girls to such an ordeal. There was a difficulty which rendered the allowing of qualifying Boards to confer diplomas-a very serious objection. It was acknowledged by hon. Gentlemen on both sides of the House that the whole system of medical qualification and registration was at present in a very unsatisfactory condition. It was well known that the possession of a diploma and a registration was no real guarantee of capacity. As the House was well aware there were at present 19 qualifying Bodies in this country, competing with one another for the granting of degrees and diplomas. All these Bodies were entitled to have their qualifications registered, and thus got the to state why he should vote for the Bill. Mr. Wheelhouse the word " now' stand part of the Question." He would not attempt to go into the larger question which had been so ably handled on both sides of the House, but would content himself with referring to the present state of our population. Our death-rate had remained stationary for the last 30 or 40 years; while, in the same periods, there had been a falling off in the supply of medical men, on whom we must mainly depend for having that death-rate lessened. Independently of that, what had been the effect of recent legislation? No man was allowed to die and be buried quietly as a gentleman ought to be without a certificate from a duly-qualified medical man, to the effect that that ugly customer Death had done his work efficiently, and that he had had nobody to help him except some duly-qualified practitioner. As it was an imperious necessity that we should die and be buried, it was of some consequence that we should not be short of the number of those who were alone able to help the survivors as well as the departed. He had no accurate means of judging except from the Census; but what did the Census say on this matter? He found that in 1841 the number of physicians was 1,112 and the number of surgeons and apothecaries 14,767, making a total of about 15,800. The population at the period was 16,000,000 odd. But according to the Census of 1871 the total number of practitioners was only 14,600, although the population had increased to nearly 23,000,000. That, in his judgment, could not be regarded as a satisfactory state of things. Moreover, it should be remembered that our enormous colonial Empire absorbed a vast number of qualified practitioners who otherwise would remain at home. That was shortly the reason why, without going into the petticoat argument, he should vote for the Bill, for he believed it might do some good in promoting the health of the people, and was thus a step in the right direction, although it would not, he was afraid, open the door to a very large number of female candidates. DR. LUSH, in supporting the Bill, said, he thought there had been great exaggeration on both sides. For himself, he could see no danger whatever in admitting women to the study and practice of the Medical Profession. To his belief under no circumstances could females come into general rivalry with male practitioners; but if there was a feeling in society that the Medical Profession should be open to women, and there was from another point of view a large or even a small number of persons who objected to doctors on moral or sentimental grounds, this was a sufficient reason why Parliament should sanction the principle of the Bill. There was, undoubtedly, a great objection by medical students to admit women to study surgery with them; but those objections could be obviated by the arrangement of separate schools. It had been said that ladies might be admitted to take medical degrees with a view to their attending cases of their own sex, and to that he could not see any objection; but it did not seem to him that there would be any great demand for them. He admitted that to allow ladies to be registered who had taken degrees in foreign Universities might be regarded as an invasion of the rights of men who had studied the Profession and taken their degrees in this country; but there was nothing in this Bill that he could see that could be really objected to by medical men, and on those grounds and the important ground that in cases affecting the health of women and children their services would be of great value, he should give his support to the second reading of the Bill. LORD ESLINGTON said, he intended to support the second reading on the broad, the intelligible, and, he hoped, the just ground that he would be no party to throw artificial impediments in the way of women obtaining a status as medical practitioners in this country. In his opinion, a lingering desire to maintain the monopoly of practice in the Profession lay at the root of the objections taken to this Bill; but the House of Commons was opposed to monopolies of whatever description. The hon. and learned Member for Leeds (Mr. Wheelhouse), with that skill and confidence that distinguished the Legal Profession, opposed the Bill, and asked why the British Parliament should be called upon to pass a Bill proposing to give special advantages and facilities to women to obtain medical education? His (Lord Eslington's) answer was, because we had placed women, by the harshness of our law, in a position of disability, and Parliament having done | degrees to women. Some high legal so, Parliament ought to remove it wherever it was possible; and here all women asked was that those women who had received a medical education, and had qualified themselves for the Medical Profession, should be allowed to avail themselves of their education and skill. Parliament was jealous of what were called the rights of women. There were more women than men in England, and their opportunities of advancing in life were limited by the operation of the law, and Parliament should in its wisdom do all it could to assist them by removing impediments to their obtaining a useful and respectable means of support. Now, surely there was no branch of science in which women could be employed more advantageously to mankind than in the Medical Profession. It was not for the House of Commons to estimate the chances of their being employed. If there were a number of women courageous and self-denying enough to throw aside the natural feeling of timidity, ought Parliament to place impediments in the way of their reaching the goal of their honourable ambition? If there were a number of female qualified medical practitioners in this country, he believed that ninetenths, if not the whole, of the opposition to the Contagious Diseases Acts would fall to the ground. For this reason alone he should like to see women admitted to the practice of medicine. He believed they were perfectly competent to do so. He knew that at the present moment there was a lady physician in London who was obtaining more fees than any male medical practitioner in the metropolis. In conclusion, the noble Lord remarked that women were perfectly competent to protect their own morality. DR. CAMERON said, the success of the effort of the hon. and learned Member for Leeds (Mr. Wheelhouse) to prevent the women from entering the Medical Profession was, he was happy to say, extremely problematical. No question had made more rapid progress than this had done during the last few years. Two years ago the right hon. Gentleman the Member for South Hampshire (Mr. Cowper-Temple) introduced a Bill to enable Scotch Universities at their discretion to grant medical Lord Eslington He authorities, including, he believed, the Lord Advocate, had held that the Scotch Universities could grant medical_degrees to women; but the Courts of Law decided that the University of Edinburgh did not possess such a power, and the women who had already graduated were thrown adrift. The Bill which he referred to was thrown out, and the right hon. Gentleman now adopted the only other alternative of allowing women who had obtained certain foreign degrees to have their names inscribed on the Medical Register of Great Britain. He regretted that the hon. Member for Galway (Dr. Ward) should have expressed an opinion that to allow women to practise the Profession would be subversive of all the established rules and usages of the Profession; but he would remind the hon. Gentleman that the Medical Council were not now hostile to the admission of women to the study of medicine. trusted the right hon. Gentleman would not divide the House on the present measure, because he believed the division would be taken on a false issue. The Medical Council was now in favour of the principle of admitting women to the Profession, and he understood that that body was also prepared to support a Bill on the subject introduced by the right hon. and learned Gentleman the Recorder of London. Even the Government had been educated, for he believed the noble Lord the President of the Council stated plainly the other night that the Government was prepared to give the utmost support in its power to the Recorder's Bill. That Bill embodied everything that was proposed three years ago by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for South Hampshire. That right hon. Gentleman might then with perfect consistency withdraw the Bill at present before the House, and which was confessedly but a makeshift one, in favour of one which embodied all that he himself had originally proposed. He trusted, therefore, that on the present occasion the right hon. Gentleman would not press his Bill to a division if the Government gave the House an assurance that the measure introduced by the Recorder should be proceeded with. MR. LYON PLAYFAIR: I regret that my right hon. Friend the Member versities which I represent, and both of which are interested in the training of medical graduates, have not petitioned against this Bill. Now, there are two Bills before the House. There is the Bill of the right hon. and learned Gentleman the Recorder of London, the principle of which is that the Licensing Bodies of the Kingdom should be al for South Hampshire (Mr. Cowper-ceived a single objection. The two UniTemple) should have spoken so much about the Medical Profession being opposed to allowing women to be placed on the Medical Register. I think my right hon. Friend has mistaken the strength of that feeling. There are no doubt many who think women are unfitted for the practice of medicine and surgery; and there are others who think the public demand for female doc-lowed to admit women to practise meditors is much exaggerated. But there are few who have the selfish feelings ascribed to them by my right hon. Friend, or who would try to exclude women from the Profession in the desire to keep a monopoly of practice. There certainly have been considerable difficulties in adapting to the education of women institutions which were established for the education of men. This, however, would have occurred in regard to any Profession, such as the Law or the Church. In fact, as my hon. Friend remarked just now, public opinion and the opinion of the Profession have grown so rapidly within a year or two, that it is surprising so little prejudice and so little opposition have been shown. The steady and obtuse refusal which has been spoken of, was in reality a want of adaptation of the institutions to these purposes. In the case of the Edinburgh University the medical school is altogether insufficient for the purpose of educating men, and we have subscribed £80,000 in order to build a new medical school to receive the men who are desirous of admission. Therefore it was simply impossible to adapt our institution to the sudden influx of the other sex. This subject is, however, receiving the full attention of the Royal Commission on Scotch Universities, of which Commission I have the honour to be a Member. As a proof that my right hon. Friend was mistaken in thinking that the medical men opposed the introduction of women into the Profession, I may state that I have many hundreds of medical men in my constituency, and that I have not received from one of them a letter in opposition to this Bill. I have presented a Petition from the College of Physicians of Edinburgh pointing out the difficulty of carrying out this measure, but to the general principle that women, if they desire to enter the Profession, shall be able to do so in a proper manner, I have not re cine and surgery. That is a Permissive Bill, which may have large consequences if it is carried into effect. As the force of public opinion increases on this subject there will be found Licensing Bodies which will admit women to a place in the Register. Of this Bill of the Recorder's the Government have, I believe, expressed a general approval. If the Government were distinctly to state that they are really desirous that that Bill should pass this Session, I hope my right hon. Friend the Member for South Hampshire will not press forward his measure. I will give one or two reasons why he should not press it forward. There are several objections to his Bill. He gives to the Universities mentioned in the Schedule a right for any female graduate in those Universities to come to be placed on the English Register. But what do foreign nations do themselves? Germany, for example, will not take the imprimatur of the Universities of Berlin and Leipsic, but requires all candidates for the Medical Profession to pass a special examination to show that they know the practice as well as the theory of their art. Why, then, should we accept the degrees of those Universities without any such test in England? I can quite sympathize with those who would open a side door to admit ladies to the Profession, but it would be impossible to close that side door against male graduates, and, in that event, the Medical Registration Act would be broken through. The Bill of the right hon. and learned Gentleman the Recorder is amply sufficient, and I trust Her Majesty's Government will give facilities for passing it into law. MR. STANSFELD said, that the principle of admitting women to the Medical Profession had been accepted by the Medical Council, and practically, therefore, the question was simply one of time. Sir William Gull had said there could be only two courses open--to re ject Mr. Cowper-Temple's Bill and shelve | same way as men do. The field is wide the whole question as regarded Eng- when we enter into that subject; but land; or to take up the whole question before we pass away from it, I must and accept the pith of Mr. CowperTemple's Bill. The Report of the Medical Council was perfectly clear, and not capable of any misunderstanding. Though they expressed an opinion that there were special reasons why medicine might not be a field suitable for women, they were not prepared to say that women ought to be excluded from the Profession. The practical question for the House was, not whether women in large numbers should study and practise medicine, but whether Parliament was justified in maintaining a law which prevented women from following the practice and rendering service to any who might desire to employ them. After the advances of the Government to the Medical Council, he believed that the Government intended to support the enabling Bill of the right hon. and learned Recorder for London, and he concurred with some of those who had gone before him in the opinion that if the Government would give that measure an efficacious support, it would not be advisable to divide upon the measure now before the House. He hoped his noble Friend the Vice President of the Council would be able to make a satisfactory statement to the House on this matter. He could not understand how the Government could address such a question as they addressed to the Medical Council at the close of last Session, and could receive such a reply, without coming under some kind of obligation to deal with this question. He therefore trusted his noble Friend would make some statement satisfactory to the House and to his right hon. Friend on this subject. VISCOUNT SANDON: The discussion which has taken place to-day has shown that considerable interest is taken in this subject. Hon. Members have shown full knowledge of the gravity of the subject, and the general tone of the discussion has been of a moderate character, and has led one to feel that the proposal brought forward by my right hon. Friend is not one that the House is prepared to scout entirely. I will not enter into the general question of fitness or unfitness of women to enter into the Medical Profession, or to take a concern in the affairs of life generally, in the Mr. Stansfeld protest against some opinions which have been stated in the House, as to any necessary injury to the female character resulting from their being concerned in surgical or medical matters. I, for one, cannot forget the very distinguished services which the ladies of England rendered at the time of the Crimean War under Miss Nightingale, nor as representing Liverpool, the circumstances under which Miss Jones, one of the most delicate-minded and gifted of her sex, exerted herself at the head of one of the largest infirmaries at Liverpool-and I need not say what the duties of a surgical nurse are-and I never heard it stated for one moment that the delicacy, refinement, moral sense, and higher feelings of those women were injured by any service which they rendered. I have thought it right to say this, as some rather strong opinions have been expressed on this subject. As to our reception of this Bill, I must say at once we could not concede the principle of this Bill to women without proceeding in the very next Session to allow men to practice with foreign qualifications; and this, as the House is aware, would lead to a large and disputed question, and one on which great difference of opinion prevails, and in regard to which the Government are not prepared at this moment, or called upon at this moment, to pronounce an opinion. That alone would make it absolutely essential to refuse to accede to this Bill. It is absolutely impossible to legislate with regard to foreign qualifications for women alone. With regard to that point there can be no doubt as to the action of the Government. But I think it is right I should state what has been our course in this matter, so that the House may see we have not neglected the matter. During the last Session of Parliament, the Lord President of the Council, within whose Department these matters specially fall, wrote to the Medical Council. Now, when I allude to the Medical Council, I ought to remind the House that you cannot have a more important body as representing a great Profession. By universal consent they are admitted to possess the best and most acknowledged abilities from the three sister countries; so what |