Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Gender, Education, Domestic Economy

    Responds to news that 'an English lady', 'Dr. Emily' [i.e. Emily Davies], 'had just completed her medical studies at Paris and obtained a diploma to practice as a physician'. Regards a wife who can act like a physician as 'a treasure indeed' and a great improvement on incompetent and expensive domestic nurses. Notes other advantages of women doctors, including saving husbands 'the cost of those continual doctors' who attend their 'ignorant hypochondriacal' wives, and the expectation that women doctors will dispense with the need for 'travelling and change of scene', thanks to their 'sanitary knowledge'. Rejoices at the news of Davies's appointment and hopes that Thomas E Headlam's medical bill will provide 'every facility for British ladies desirous of following the praiseworthy example'.