FOOTNOTES:

It would be a pleasure to recount the achievements of these justly celebrated daughters of Italy; but lack of space precludes the mention of more than one of them. This was Maria dalle Donne, who was born of poor peasants near Bologna, and who at an early age exhibited intelligence of a superior order. After pursuing her studies under the ablest masters, she obtained from the University of Bologna,maxima cum laude, the degree of doctor in philosophy and medicine. On account of her knowledge of surgery, as well as of medicine, she was soon afterward put in charge of the city's school for midwives. When Napoleon, in 1802, passed through Bologna he was so struck by the exceptional ability of the youngdottoressathat, on the recommendation of the savant Caterzani, he had instituted for her in the university a chair of obstetrics—a position which she held until the time of her death, in 1842, with the greatest credit to herself and to the institution with which she was identified.

Maria dalle Donne is a worthy link between that long line of women doctors, beginning with Trotula, who have so honored their sex in Italy, and those still more numerous practitioners in the healing art who, shortly after her death, began to spring up in all parts of the civilized world.[209]

For it was about this time that the movement which had long been agitated in behalf of the higher education of women began suddenly to assume extraordinary vitality, not only throughout Europe but in America as well. And to no women did this movement appeal so strongly as to those who had long been looking forward to an opportunity to qualify themselves for the learned professions, especially medicine. No sooner did they descry the first flush of dawn on their long-deferred hopes than they began to consider ways and means for putting their fondly nurtured projects into execution.

Seven years, almost to the day, after the death of Maria dalle Donne, Miss Elizabeth Blackwell, a young woman in America, of English birth, decided to enter college with a view of studying medicine and surgery. But, at the very outset, she encountered all kinds of unforeseen difficulties—difficulties that would have caused a less courageous and determined woman to give up her plans in despair. She was told, in the first place, that it was highly improper for a woman to study medicine and that no decent woman would think of becoming a medical practitioner. As to a lady studying or practicing surgery that, of course, was out of the question.

But a more serious obstacle than the conventionalities in the case was the difficulty of finding a medical college that was willing to admit a woman to its lecture rooms and laboratories. Miss Blackwell applied to more than a dozenof the leading institutions of America, and received a positive refusal to her request. Finally, when hope had almost vanished, she received word from a small college in Geneva, New York, announcing that her application had been favorably considered and that she would be admitted as a student whenever she presented herself.

The truth is that the faculty of the college was opposed to the young woman's admission, but wished to escape the odium incident to a direct refusal by referring the question to the class with a proviso which, it was believed, would necessarily exclude her. "But in this it was greatly surprised and disappointed. For the entire medical class, to the number of about one hundred and fifty, decided unanimously in favor of the fair applicant's admission. And they did more than this. They put themselves on record regarding the equality of educational opportunities for women and men in a way that must have put their timid professors to shame. Their resolution, accompanying an invitation to the young woman to become a member of the student body, was worded as follows:

"'Resolved, That one of the radical principles of a republican government is the universal education of both sexes; that to every branch of scientific education the door should be equally open to all; that the application of Elizabeth Blackwell to become a member of our class meets our entire approbation, and, in extending our unanimous invitation, we pledge ourselves that no conduct of ours shall cause her to regret her attendance at this institution.'"

The students were as good as their word. Their conduct, as Miss Blackwell wrote years afterward, was always admirable and that of "true Christian gentlemen." But the women of Geneva were shocked at the female medical student. They stared at her as a curious animal; and the theory was fully established that she was "either a bad woman, whose designs would gradually become evident, orthat, being insane, an outbreak of insanity would soon be apparent."[210]

In due time Miss Blackwell finished her course in medicine and surgery, and graduated at the head of her class. The orator of the day, who was a member of the faculty, naturally referred to the new departure that had been made—the admission of a woman for the first time to a complete medical education—and among other things declared that the experiment, of which every member of the faculty was proud, "had proved that the strongest intellect and nerve and the most untiring perseverance were compatible with the softest attributes of feminine delicacy and grace."[211]

The awarding of the degree of M.D. for the first time to a woman in America excited general comment and widespread interest, not only in the United States, but in Europe as well. The public press was not unfavorable in its opinion of the new departure, and evenPunchcould not resist writing some verses, sympathetic, albeit humorous, in honor of the fair M.D.[212]

After spending some time abroad studying in the great hospitals of Europe, Miss Blackwell started the practice of medicine in New York City. At first, as she declares in her autobiographical sketches, it was "very difficult, though steady, uphill work. I had," she tells us, "no medical companionship, the profession stood aloof, and society was distrustful of the innovation."

The aloofness of the profession arose from a dread of successful rivalry, and the men did not wish to encourage "the invasion by women of their own preserves." "You cannot expect us," one of them frankly admitted to her, "to furnish you with a stick to break our heads with."

But, undeterred by opposition, Miss Blackwell continued her work, daily making converts to the new movement and receiving substantial aid, as well as sympathetic coöperation, from many people, both men and women, prominent in society and public life. In 1854 she started a free dispensary for poor women. Three years later she founded a hospital for women and children, where young women physicians as well as patients could be received. These were the humble beginnings of the present flourishing institutions known as the New York Infirmary and the College for Women. And in less than ten years after her graduation, Miss Blackwell saw the new departure in medical practice successfully established, not only in New York, but also in other large cities of the United States. In 1869 the early pioneer medical work by women in America was completed.

"During the twenty years which followed the graduation of the first woman physician, the public recognition of the justice and advantage of such a measure had steadily grown. Throughout the northern states the free and equal entrance of women into the profession of medicine was secured. In Boston, New York and Philadelphia special medical schools for women were sanctioned by thelegislatures, and in some long-established colleges women were received as students in the ordinary classes."[213]

Meanwhile, the women in Europe were not idle nor heedless of the example set by their brave sisters in America. The University of Zurich threw open its portals to women, and was soon followed by those of Bern and Geneva. The first woman to obtain a degree in medicine in Zurich—it was in 1867—was Nadejda Suslowa, a Russian. She was soon followed by scores of others from Europe and America, who found greater advantages and more sympathy in Swiss universities than elsewhere.

In 1869 the Medico-Chirurgical Academy of St. Petersburg conferred the degree of M.D. upon Madame Kaschewarow, the first female candidate for this honor. When her name was mentioned by the dean it was received with an immense storm of applause which lasted several minutes. The ceremony of investing her with the insignia of her dignity being over, her fellow students and colleagues lifted her on a chair and carried her with triumphant shouts throughout the halls.

The first woman graduate from the University of France was Miss Elizabeth Garrett, of England. She received her degree in medicine in 1870, and the following year the same institution conferred the doctor's degree on Miss Mary C. Putnam, of New York.

After these precedents had been established, the universities of the various countries on the continent, following the examples set by those in the United States and Switzerland, opened one after the other their doors to women, and in most of them accorded them all the privileges ofcives academicienjoyed by the men.

Great Britain held out against the new movement long after most of the continental countries had fallen into line, nor did she surrender until after a protracted and bitter fight, during which the men leading the opposition exhibitedevidences of selfishness and obscurantism that now seem incredible.

The leader in Great Britain of pioneer medical work for women was Miss Sophia Jex-Blake, whose academic pathway was beset with difficulties far sterner than had in the United States confronted her friend and colleague, Miss Blackwell.

Hearing much of the tolerance and liberality of the University of London, she applied to it for admission as a student, but was informed at once that the charter of the institution "had purposely been so worded as to exclude the possibility of examining women for medical degrees."

After this rebuff she made application to the University of Edinburgh, which, like the other Scotch universities, had always boasted of its broad-mindedness and freedom from educational trammels. She was received provisionally, and was, after a while, joined by six other women who had in view the same object as herself. For a time, notwithstanding opposition from certain quarters, everything was quiet and apparently satisfactory. But the gathering storm soon broke, and the seven young women, as they were one day entering the university gates, were actually mobbed by a ruffianly band of students who had all along been opposed to the presence of women in the class and lecture rooms. They pelted the helpless females with street mud and hurled at them all the vile epithets and heaped upon them all the abuse that their foul tongues could command. These outrageous proceedings on the part of the rabble of rowdies were allowed to continue for several days, and, had it not been for a brave band of chivalrous young Irishmen among the students, who formed themselves into a bodyguard for the protection of their fair classmates, and were, in consequence, known as "The Irish Brigade," the hapless women students would not have escaped bodily harm. What a marked contrast between the conduct toward Miss Blackwell of the gallant studentsof the modest little American town and that of the cowardly ruffians of the vaunted "Athens of the North!"

But this was not all. The seven young women in question had matriculated as students of the university with the understanding that they were to have all the rights and privileges of the male students. But after the disgraceful conduct of the mob just referred to, they discovered that the authorities of the university were prepared to break faith with them, and prevent them from getting their coveted degrees, and thus debar them from all chance of medical practice.

The reason why the university was induced to annul its contract, after the women on their part had fully complied with all its stipulations, soon became apparent. It was purely and simply to make it impossible for women to secure a license as medical practitioners. Both in and outside of Edinburgh the conviction daily grew stronger that women doctors were a menace to the monopoly so long enjoyed by the medical fraternity, and that the movement in their favor should be crushed by fair means or foul before it got beyond control. TheSpectatormade this clear by stating at the time of the controversy that "every profession in this country"—England—"is more or less of a trades union," and yet the members of these professions "would shake their heads and prate about the necessity of stamping out trades unionism among workmen." "Women," whined one of the doctors, "would snatch the bread from the mouths of poor practitioners." Another doctor who had championed the cause of women physicians, when commenting on the hypocritical objection that it was unbecoming for women to practice medicine or surgery, expressed the same idea in other words. "It appears," he declared, "that it is most becoming and proper for a woman to discharge all the duties which are incidental to our profession for thirty shillings a week; but, if she is to have three or four guineas a day for dischargingthe same duties, then they are immoral and immodest and unsuited to the soft nature that should characterize a lady."

After Miss Jex-Blake and her companions learned that the university was determined to refuse them the degrees to which they were entitled, they brought suit against it for breach of contract. But, after a long and expensive trial, the judge rendered a decision against them. They then appealed to Parliament, and, after a protracted and strenuous campaign on the part of friends whom they had enlisted in their cause, they saw their opponents not only dragged at the chariot wheels of progress but forced to help to turn them; for, in 1878, after nearly ten years of a persistent, continuous struggle such as had rarely been witnessed in woman's long battle for things of the mind—a struggle in which the intrepid, dauntless Miss Jex-Blake "made the greatest of all the contributions to the end attained"—the women of Great Britain had the supreme satisfaction of winning what was probably the most glorious victory which their sex had ever won.[214]The war was over and henceforward they were free—as were their sisters in other parts of the world—as the women in Italy had been for a thousand years—to devote themselves at will to the study and practice of the healing art without let or hindrance.

What a wonderful change has taken place in the medical world almost within the space of a single generation! The tiny grain of mustard that was sown by two lone women, the Misses Blackwell and Jex-Blake, in their chosen field of effort has grown and "waxed a great tree."Women doctors are now found in all parts of the civilized world and are numbered by thousands. And so great has been their professional success, so widespread is the desire to secure their services, especially in countries like America and England, where opposition was in the beginning especially bitter, that the proportion of women practitioners in medicine and surgery is now regarded as the best index of a nation's enlightenment.

The healing art of Greece and Rome has broadened out into the noble sciences of medicine and surgery of to-day. For, based as they now are on the sciences of chemistry, botany, biology, hygiene, physiology, anatomy and bacteriology, which have all witnessed such extraordinary developments during the last half century, they both deserve a preëminent place in the history of the sciences. And the success which has crowned woman's efforts in surgery and medicine is not only a conclusive indication of her capacity, so long denied by her self-interested opponents, but also the most convincing indication that she is at last properly occupied in a field of activity from which she was too long excluded. Her contributions as writer and investigator toward the progress of both sciences, even during the short time in which she has been able to give proof of her ability, have been notable and augur well for the share she will have in their future advancement. But more important still is the refining influence she has already exerted on both professions, and the relief she has been able to afford to countless thousands of her own sex who would otherwise have been the voluntary victims of untold misery. Women doctors are, indeed, not only worthy representatives of Æsculapia Victrix and of the two sciences which they have so elevated and so ennobled, but are also ministering angels to poor, suffering humanity comparable only with the heroic Sisters of Charity and the devoted nurses of the Red Cross.

FOOTNOTES:[182]Quoted inMedical Women, p. 11, by Sophia Jex-Blake, M. D., Edinburgh, 1886. Cf. Hyginus,Fabularum Liber, No. 274.[183]Charles Daremberg, who, at the time of his death in 1872, was professor of the history of medicine in the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, had the intention of publishing this work Περι των γυναιων ταζων.—On the Diseases of Women—but his premature death prevented him from executing his project. It is to be hoped that some one else, interested in woman's medical work, may at an early date give this production to the public with an appropriate commentary.[184]Cf. Hertzen et RossiInscriptiones Urbis Romæ Latinæ, p. 1245, No. 9478, Berlin, 1882.[185]"Non mihi si linguæ centum, oraque centum, ferrea vox ... omnia morborum percurrere nomina possim quæ Fabiola in tanta miserorum refregeria commutavit ut multi pauperum sani languentibus inviderent."Epistola ad Oceanum.[186]Hæc inter timidam revocat clamore puellam Alpharides, veniens quæ saucia quæque ligavit.—Ekkehardi PrimiWaltharius, Berlin, 1873.[187]That the Germans, at the time under discussion, regarded learning as having an effeminating effect on men is well illustrated by the following characteristic anecdote: "when Amasvintha, a very learned woman who was a daughter of the Ostrogoth King, Theodoric, selected three masters for the instruction of her son, the people became indignant. 'Theodoric,' they exclaimed, 'never sent the children of the Goths to school, learning making a woman of a man and rendering him timorous. The saber and the lance are sufficient for him.'" Procopius,De Bello Gothico, I, 2, Leipsic, 1905.If we may judge by a letter from Pace to Dean Colet, the noted classical scholar and founder of St. Paul's school in London, such views found acceptance in England as late as the time of More and Erasmus. For we are told of a British parent who expressed his opinion on the education of men in these words: "I swear by God's body I'd rather that my son should hang than study letters. The study of letters should be left to rustics."[188]This work was for a long time regarded as lost, but a manuscript copy was recently found in Copenhagen, and it has since been published by Teubner of Leipsic, under the title ofHildegard's Causæ et Curæ.[189]Archiv für Pathologische Anatomie und Physiologie und für Klinische Medicin, Band 18, p. 286, Berlin.[190]S. Hildegardis Opera Omnia, Ed. Migne, p. 1122, Paris, 1882.[191]"In the municipal and state institutions of this period the beautiful gardens, roomy halls and springs of water of the old cloistral hospital of the Middle Ages were not heard of, still less the comforts of their friendly interiors."A History of Nursing, Vol. I, p. 500, M. Adelaide Nutting and Lavinia L. Dock, New York, 1907.The mortality in some of the state hospitals from the latter part of the seventeenth to the middle of the nineteenth century was appalling, often as high as fifty and sixty per cent. This was due not only to shockingly unsanitary conditions, but also to inordinate overcrowding. A large proportion of the beds, incredible as it may seem, were purposely made for four patients, and six were frequently crowded into them. "The extraordinary spectacle was then to be seen of two or three small-pox cases, or several surgical cases, lying on one bed." John Howard, in hisPrisons and Hospitals, pp. 176-177. Warrington, 1874, tells us of two hospitals that were so crowded that he had "often seen five or six patients in one bed, and some of them dying."It is gratifying to learn that the chief agents in changing this revolting condition, due to faulty construction and management of hospitals, were women. Prominent among these benefactors of humanity were Mme. Necker, Florence Nightingale, and the wise and alert superiors of the various nursing sisterhoods.[192]How like Chaucer's prioress who"Was so charitable and so piteous,And al was conscience and tender herte."[193]Cf.Lib. de Virtutibus et Laudibus, by Ægidius, head physician to Philip Augustus of France, in which occur the following verses:Urbs Phœbo sacrata, Minervæ sedula nutrix,Fons physicæ, pugil eucrasiæ, cultrix medicinæ,Assecla Naturæ, vitæ paranympha, salutisPromula fida; magis Lachesis soror, Atropos hostis.Morbi pernicies, gravis adversaria mortis.quoted in the appendix, p. xxxii, to S. de Renzi's,Storia Documentata della Scuola Medica di Salerno, Naples, 1857.[194]Cf. The introduction to the English translation of theRegimen Sanitatis Salernitanum, p. 28, by J. Ordronaux, Philadelphia, 1870.[195]"Immortal praise adorns Salerno's nameTo seek whose shrine the world once came."[196]SeeStoria Documentata della Scuola Medica di Salerno, ut. sup., p. 474 et seq., and p. lxxvi et seq. of Appendix; also Ordronaux, ut sup., p. 16.[197]Probably her most noted work is the one which bears the titleDe Morbis Mulierum et Eorum Cura—The Diseases of Women and Their Cure.[198]"Physicæ quoque scientiam tam copiose habuit ut in urbe Psaleritana, ubi maxime medicorum scholæ ab antiquo tempore habentur, neminem in medicinali arte, præter quandam sapientem matronam, sibi parem inveniret." Migne, Patrologiæ Latinæ, Tom. 188, Col. 260.[199]As this decree is of singular interest and importance, a copy of the original is here given in full:"Karolus, etc., Universis per Justitieratum Principatus citra Serras Montorii constitutis presentes litteras inspecturis fidelibus paternis et suis salutem, etc. In actionibus nostris utilitati puplice libenter oportune perspicimus et honestatem morum in quantum suadet modestia conservamus. Sane Francisca uxor Mathei de Romana de Salerno in Regia Curia presens exposuit quod ipsa circa principale exercitium cirurgie sufficiens circumspecto in talibus judicio reputatur. Propter quod excellentie nostre supplicavit attentius ut licentiam sibi dignaremus concedere in arte hujusmodi practicandi. Quia igitur per scriptum puplicum universitatis terre Salerni presentatum eidem Regie Curie, inventum est lucide quod Francisca prefata fidelis est et genere orta fidelium ac examinata per medicos Regios paternos nostrosque cirurgicos, in eadem arte cirurgie tamquam ydiota sufficiens est inventa, licet alienum sit feminis conventibus interrese virorum, ne in matronalis pudoris contumelia irruant et primum culpam vetite transgressionis incurrant. Quia tamen de juris indicto medicine officium mulieribus est concessum expedienter attento quod ad mulieres curandas egrotas de honestate morum viris sunt femine aptiores, not recepto prius ab eadem Francisca solito fidelitatis et quod iuxta tradiciones ipsius artis curabit fideliter corporaliter Juramento, licentiam curandi et practicandi sibi in eadem arte per Justitieratum jam dictum auctoritate presentium impartimus. Quare fidelitati vestre precipimus quatenus eandem Franciscam curare et practicari in prefata arte per Justitieratum predictum ad honorem et fidelitatem paternam et nostram ac utilitatem fidelium presentium earumdam libere permittatis, nullum sibi in hoc impedimentum vel obstaculum interentes. Datum Neapoli per dominum Bartholomeum de Capua, etc., Anno domini mcccxxi, die x Septembris v, indictionis Regnorum dicti domini patris nostri anno xiii."Collectio Salernitana, Tom. III, p. 338, by G. Henschel, C. Daremberg, and S. de Renzi, Naples, 1852-59.[200]Universities in the Middle Ages, Vol. II, Part II, p. 712, by H. Rashdall, Oxford, 1895. The most exhaustive work on the University of Salerno and its famous doctors, men and women, is a joint work in five volumes entitledCollectio Salernitana; ossia Documenti Inediti e Trattati di Medicina appartenenti alla scuola Salernitana, raccolti e illustrati, by G. Henschel, C. Daremberg e S. Renzi, Naples, 1852-59. Cf. also,Storia Documentata della Scuola Medica di Salerno, by S. de Renzi, Naples, 1857;L'École de Salerne, by C. Meaux, with introduction by C. Daremberg, Paris, 1880, and Piero Giacosa'sMagistri Salernitani Nondum Editi, Turin, 1891.[201]Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis, Tom. II, p. 150, and pp. 255 and 267, by Denifle and Chatelain, Paris, 1889-1891.[202]"Mulier antea permitteret se mori, quam secreta infirmitatis sui homini revelare propter honestatem sexus muliebris et propter verecundiam quam revelando pateretur."Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis, Tom. II, p. 264, Paris, 1891.[203]It may interest the reader to know that the first two women to get the doctorate in the Paris School of Medicine were Miss Elizabeth Garret, an English woman, and Miss Mary Putnam, an American. The first woman permitted to practice in the Paris hospitals was likewise an American, Miss Augusta Klumpke, of San Francisco.[204]"Possunt et vir et fœmina medici esse." Cf. Chiappelli,Medicina negli Ultimi Tre Secoli del Medio Evo, Milan, 1885.[205]Quoted inWoman's Work and Woman's Culture, p. 87, Josephine E. Butler, London, 1869. Dom Gasquet in hisEnglish Monastic Life, p. 175, tells us that in the Wiltshire convents "the young maids learned needlework, the art of confectionery, surgery—for anciently there were no apothecaries or surgeons; the gentlewomen did cure their poor neighbors—physic, drawing, etc."[206]The first woman to receive the doctorate of medicine in Germany was Frau Dorothea Christin Erxleben. Hers, however, was a wholly exceptional case, and required the intervention of no less a personage than Frederick the Great. In 1754, Frau Erxleben, who had made a thorough course of humanities under her father, presented herself before the faculty of the University of Halle, where she passed an oral examination in Latin which lasted two hours. So impressed were the examiners by her knowledge and eloquence that they did not hesitate to adjudge her worthy of the coveted degree, which was accorded her by virtue of a royal edict.Her reception of the doctorate was made the occasion of a most enthusiastic demonstration in her honor. Felicitations poured in upon her from all quarters in both prose and verse. One of them, in lapidary style, runs as follows:"Stupete nova litteraria,In Italia nonnumquam,In Germania nunquamVisa vel auditaAt quo rarius eo carius."This, freely translated, adverts to the fact that an event, which before had been witnessed only in Italy, was then being celebrated in Germany for the first time, and was, for that very reason, specially deserving of commemoration.[207]"Nemo masculus aut fœmina, seu Christianus vel Judæus, nisi Magister vel Licentiatus in Medicina foret, auderet humano corpori mederi in physica vel in chyrurgia." Marini,Archiatri Pontifici, Tom. I, p. 199, Roma, 1784.[208]Thomas Aquinas, the Angel of the Schools, who had taught in Salerno, and was well acquainted with the leading universities of Europe, was wont to say "Quattuor sunt urbes cæteris præeminentes, Parisius in Scientiis, Salernum in Medicinis, Bononia in legibus, Aurelianis in actoribus—" there are four preëminent cities: Paris, in the sciences; Salerno, in medicine; Bologna, in law; Orleans, in actors. Op. 17.De Virtutibus et Vitiis, Cap. ult.The mediæval poet, Galfrido, expressed the same idea in verse when he wrote:"In morbis sanat medici virtute SalernumÆgros: in causis Bononia legibus armatNudos: Parisius dispensat in artibus illosPanes, unde cibat robustos: AurelianisEducat in cunis actorum lacte tenellos."[209]It may be remarked that it was a woman, Lady Mary Montagu, who introduced inoculation with small-pox virus into Western Europe, and that it was also a woman—a simple English milkmaid—who communicated to Jenner the information which led to his discovery of a prophylactic against small-pox. But of far greater importance was the introduction into Europe of that priceless febrifuge and antiperiodic—chinchona bark. This was due to the Countess of Chinchon, vicereine of Peru. Having been cured by its virtues of an aggravated case of tertian fever in 1638, while living in Lima, she lost no time, on her return to Spain, in making known to the world the marvelous curative properties of the precious quinine-producing bark. The powder made from the bark was most appropriately calledPulvis Comitessæ—the countess's powder—and by this name it was long known to druggists and in commerce. Thanks to Linnæus, the memory of the gracious lady will always be kept green, because her name is now borne by nearly eight score species of the beautiful trees which constitute the great and incomparable genus Chinchona. SeeA Memoir of the Lady Ana de Osorio, Countess of Chinchon, and Vice-Queen of Peru, by Clements R. Markham, London, 1874.[210]Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women, p. 70, by Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, London, 1895.[211]Ibid., p. 91.[212]"Young ladies all, of every clime,Especially of BritainWho wholly occupy your timeIn novels or in knitting,Whose highest skill is but to play,Sing, dance or French to clack well,Reflect on the example, pray,Of excellent Miss Blackwell....*...*...*...*"For Doctrix Blackwell, that's the wayTo dub in rightful gender—In her profession, ever mayProsperity attend her.Punch a gold-headed parasolSuggests for presentationTo one so well deserving allEsteem and Admiration."[213]Op. cit., p. 241.[214]For an interesting account of the long campaign for the admission of women to medical schools and practice, seeMedical Women—A Thesis and a History, by Dr. Sophia Jex-Blake, Edinburgh, 1886.For a more elaborate work on women in medicine, the reader may consult with profit,Histoire des Femmes Médecins, by Mlle. Melanie Lepinska, Paris, 1900.

[182]Quoted inMedical Women, p. 11, by Sophia Jex-Blake, M. D., Edinburgh, 1886. Cf. Hyginus,Fabularum Liber, No. 274.

[183]Charles Daremberg, who, at the time of his death in 1872, was professor of the history of medicine in the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, had the intention of publishing this work Περι των γυναιων ταζων.—On the Diseases of Women—but his premature death prevented him from executing his project. It is to be hoped that some one else, interested in woman's medical work, may at an early date give this production to the public with an appropriate commentary.

[184]Cf. Hertzen et RossiInscriptiones Urbis Romæ Latinæ, p. 1245, No. 9478, Berlin, 1882.

[185]"Non mihi si linguæ centum, oraque centum, ferrea vox ... omnia morborum percurrere nomina possim quæ Fabiola in tanta miserorum refregeria commutavit ut multi pauperum sani languentibus inviderent."Epistola ad Oceanum.

[186]Hæc inter timidam revocat clamore puellam Alpharides, veniens quæ saucia quæque ligavit.—Ekkehardi PrimiWaltharius, Berlin, 1873.

[186]Hæc inter timidam revocat clamore puellam Alpharides, veniens quæ saucia quæque ligavit.

—Ekkehardi PrimiWaltharius, Berlin, 1873.

[187]That the Germans, at the time under discussion, regarded learning as having an effeminating effect on men is well illustrated by the following characteristic anecdote: "when Amasvintha, a very learned woman who was a daughter of the Ostrogoth King, Theodoric, selected three masters for the instruction of her son, the people became indignant. 'Theodoric,' they exclaimed, 'never sent the children of the Goths to school, learning making a woman of a man and rendering him timorous. The saber and the lance are sufficient for him.'" Procopius,De Bello Gothico, I, 2, Leipsic, 1905.If we may judge by a letter from Pace to Dean Colet, the noted classical scholar and founder of St. Paul's school in London, such views found acceptance in England as late as the time of More and Erasmus. For we are told of a British parent who expressed his opinion on the education of men in these words: "I swear by God's body I'd rather that my son should hang than study letters. The study of letters should be left to rustics."

If we may judge by a letter from Pace to Dean Colet, the noted classical scholar and founder of St. Paul's school in London, such views found acceptance in England as late as the time of More and Erasmus. For we are told of a British parent who expressed his opinion on the education of men in these words: "I swear by God's body I'd rather that my son should hang than study letters. The study of letters should be left to rustics."

[188]This work was for a long time regarded as lost, but a manuscript copy was recently found in Copenhagen, and it has since been published by Teubner of Leipsic, under the title ofHildegard's Causæ et Curæ.

[189]Archiv für Pathologische Anatomie und Physiologie und für Klinische Medicin, Band 18, p. 286, Berlin.

[190]S. Hildegardis Opera Omnia, Ed. Migne, p. 1122, Paris, 1882.

[191]"In the municipal and state institutions of this period the beautiful gardens, roomy halls and springs of water of the old cloistral hospital of the Middle Ages were not heard of, still less the comforts of their friendly interiors."A History of Nursing, Vol. I, p. 500, M. Adelaide Nutting and Lavinia L. Dock, New York, 1907.The mortality in some of the state hospitals from the latter part of the seventeenth to the middle of the nineteenth century was appalling, often as high as fifty and sixty per cent. This was due not only to shockingly unsanitary conditions, but also to inordinate overcrowding. A large proportion of the beds, incredible as it may seem, were purposely made for four patients, and six were frequently crowded into them. "The extraordinary spectacle was then to be seen of two or three small-pox cases, or several surgical cases, lying on one bed." John Howard, in hisPrisons and Hospitals, pp. 176-177. Warrington, 1874, tells us of two hospitals that were so crowded that he had "often seen five or six patients in one bed, and some of them dying."It is gratifying to learn that the chief agents in changing this revolting condition, due to faulty construction and management of hospitals, were women. Prominent among these benefactors of humanity were Mme. Necker, Florence Nightingale, and the wise and alert superiors of the various nursing sisterhoods.

The mortality in some of the state hospitals from the latter part of the seventeenth to the middle of the nineteenth century was appalling, often as high as fifty and sixty per cent. This was due not only to shockingly unsanitary conditions, but also to inordinate overcrowding. A large proportion of the beds, incredible as it may seem, were purposely made for four patients, and six were frequently crowded into them. "The extraordinary spectacle was then to be seen of two or three small-pox cases, or several surgical cases, lying on one bed." John Howard, in hisPrisons and Hospitals, pp. 176-177. Warrington, 1874, tells us of two hospitals that were so crowded that he had "often seen five or six patients in one bed, and some of them dying."

It is gratifying to learn that the chief agents in changing this revolting condition, due to faulty construction and management of hospitals, were women. Prominent among these benefactors of humanity were Mme. Necker, Florence Nightingale, and the wise and alert superiors of the various nursing sisterhoods.

[192]How like Chaucer's prioress who"Was so charitable and so piteous,And al was conscience and tender herte."

[192]How like Chaucer's prioress who

"Was so charitable and so piteous,And al was conscience and tender herte."

[193]Cf.Lib. de Virtutibus et Laudibus, by Ægidius, head physician to Philip Augustus of France, in which occur the following verses:Urbs Phœbo sacrata, Minervæ sedula nutrix,Fons physicæ, pugil eucrasiæ, cultrix medicinæ,Assecla Naturæ, vitæ paranympha, salutisPromula fida; magis Lachesis soror, Atropos hostis.Morbi pernicies, gravis adversaria mortis.quoted in the appendix, p. xxxii, to S. de Renzi's,Storia Documentata della Scuola Medica di Salerno, Naples, 1857.

[193]Cf.Lib. de Virtutibus et Laudibus, by Ægidius, head physician to Philip Augustus of France, in which occur the following verses:

Urbs Phœbo sacrata, Minervæ sedula nutrix,Fons physicæ, pugil eucrasiæ, cultrix medicinæ,Assecla Naturæ, vitæ paranympha, salutisPromula fida; magis Lachesis soror, Atropos hostis.Morbi pernicies, gravis adversaria mortis.

quoted in the appendix, p. xxxii, to S. de Renzi's,Storia Documentata della Scuola Medica di Salerno, Naples, 1857.

[194]Cf. The introduction to the English translation of theRegimen Sanitatis Salernitanum, p. 28, by J. Ordronaux, Philadelphia, 1870.

[195]"Immortal praise adorns Salerno's nameTo seek whose shrine the world once came."

[195]

"Immortal praise adorns Salerno's nameTo seek whose shrine the world once came."

[196]SeeStoria Documentata della Scuola Medica di Salerno, ut. sup., p. 474 et seq., and p. lxxvi et seq. of Appendix; also Ordronaux, ut sup., p. 16.

[197]Probably her most noted work is the one which bears the titleDe Morbis Mulierum et Eorum Cura—The Diseases of Women and Their Cure.

[198]"Physicæ quoque scientiam tam copiose habuit ut in urbe Psaleritana, ubi maxime medicorum scholæ ab antiquo tempore habentur, neminem in medicinali arte, præter quandam sapientem matronam, sibi parem inveniret." Migne, Patrologiæ Latinæ, Tom. 188, Col. 260.

[199]As this decree is of singular interest and importance, a copy of the original is here given in full:"Karolus, etc., Universis per Justitieratum Principatus citra Serras Montorii constitutis presentes litteras inspecturis fidelibus paternis et suis salutem, etc. In actionibus nostris utilitati puplice libenter oportune perspicimus et honestatem morum in quantum suadet modestia conservamus. Sane Francisca uxor Mathei de Romana de Salerno in Regia Curia presens exposuit quod ipsa circa principale exercitium cirurgie sufficiens circumspecto in talibus judicio reputatur. Propter quod excellentie nostre supplicavit attentius ut licentiam sibi dignaremus concedere in arte hujusmodi practicandi. Quia igitur per scriptum puplicum universitatis terre Salerni presentatum eidem Regie Curie, inventum est lucide quod Francisca prefata fidelis est et genere orta fidelium ac examinata per medicos Regios paternos nostrosque cirurgicos, in eadem arte cirurgie tamquam ydiota sufficiens est inventa, licet alienum sit feminis conventibus interrese virorum, ne in matronalis pudoris contumelia irruant et primum culpam vetite transgressionis incurrant. Quia tamen de juris indicto medicine officium mulieribus est concessum expedienter attento quod ad mulieres curandas egrotas de honestate morum viris sunt femine aptiores, not recepto prius ab eadem Francisca solito fidelitatis et quod iuxta tradiciones ipsius artis curabit fideliter corporaliter Juramento, licentiam curandi et practicandi sibi in eadem arte per Justitieratum jam dictum auctoritate presentium impartimus. Quare fidelitati vestre precipimus quatenus eandem Franciscam curare et practicari in prefata arte per Justitieratum predictum ad honorem et fidelitatem paternam et nostram ac utilitatem fidelium presentium earumdam libere permittatis, nullum sibi in hoc impedimentum vel obstaculum interentes. Datum Neapoli per dominum Bartholomeum de Capua, etc., Anno domini mcccxxi, die x Septembris v, indictionis Regnorum dicti domini patris nostri anno xiii."Collectio Salernitana, Tom. III, p. 338, by G. Henschel, C. Daremberg, and S. de Renzi, Naples, 1852-59.

[199]As this decree is of singular interest and importance, a copy of the original is here given in full:

"Karolus, etc., Universis per Justitieratum Principatus citra Serras Montorii constitutis presentes litteras inspecturis fidelibus paternis et suis salutem, etc. In actionibus nostris utilitati puplice libenter oportune perspicimus et honestatem morum in quantum suadet modestia conservamus. Sane Francisca uxor Mathei de Romana de Salerno in Regia Curia presens exposuit quod ipsa circa principale exercitium cirurgie sufficiens circumspecto in talibus judicio reputatur. Propter quod excellentie nostre supplicavit attentius ut licentiam sibi dignaremus concedere in arte hujusmodi practicandi. Quia igitur per scriptum puplicum universitatis terre Salerni presentatum eidem Regie Curie, inventum est lucide quod Francisca prefata fidelis est et genere orta fidelium ac examinata per medicos Regios paternos nostrosque cirurgicos, in eadem arte cirurgie tamquam ydiota sufficiens est inventa, licet alienum sit feminis conventibus interrese virorum, ne in matronalis pudoris contumelia irruant et primum culpam vetite transgressionis incurrant. Quia tamen de juris indicto medicine officium mulieribus est concessum expedienter attento quod ad mulieres curandas egrotas de honestate morum viris sunt femine aptiores, not recepto prius ab eadem Francisca solito fidelitatis et quod iuxta tradiciones ipsius artis curabit fideliter corporaliter Juramento, licentiam curandi et practicandi sibi in eadem arte per Justitieratum jam dictum auctoritate presentium impartimus. Quare fidelitati vestre precipimus quatenus eandem Franciscam curare et practicari in prefata arte per Justitieratum predictum ad honorem et fidelitatem paternam et nostram ac utilitatem fidelium presentium earumdam libere permittatis, nullum sibi in hoc impedimentum vel obstaculum interentes. Datum Neapoli per dominum Bartholomeum de Capua, etc., Anno domini mcccxxi, die x Septembris v, indictionis Regnorum dicti domini patris nostri anno xiii."

Collectio Salernitana, Tom. III, p. 338, by G. Henschel, C. Daremberg, and S. de Renzi, Naples, 1852-59.

[200]Universities in the Middle Ages, Vol. II, Part II, p. 712, by H. Rashdall, Oxford, 1895. The most exhaustive work on the University of Salerno and its famous doctors, men and women, is a joint work in five volumes entitledCollectio Salernitana; ossia Documenti Inediti e Trattati di Medicina appartenenti alla scuola Salernitana, raccolti e illustrati, by G. Henschel, C. Daremberg e S. Renzi, Naples, 1852-59. Cf. also,Storia Documentata della Scuola Medica di Salerno, by S. de Renzi, Naples, 1857;L'École de Salerne, by C. Meaux, with introduction by C. Daremberg, Paris, 1880, and Piero Giacosa'sMagistri Salernitani Nondum Editi, Turin, 1891.

[201]Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis, Tom. II, p. 150, and pp. 255 and 267, by Denifle and Chatelain, Paris, 1889-1891.

[202]"Mulier antea permitteret se mori, quam secreta infirmitatis sui homini revelare propter honestatem sexus muliebris et propter verecundiam quam revelando pateretur."Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis, Tom. II, p. 264, Paris, 1891.

[203]It may interest the reader to know that the first two women to get the doctorate in the Paris School of Medicine were Miss Elizabeth Garret, an English woman, and Miss Mary Putnam, an American. The first woman permitted to practice in the Paris hospitals was likewise an American, Miss Augusta Klumpke, of San Francisco.

[204]"Possunt et vir et fœmina medici esse." Cf. Chiappelli,Medicina negli Ultimi Tre Secoli del Medio Evo, Milan, 1885.

[205]Quoted inWoman's Work and Woman's Culture, p. 87, Josephine E. Butler, London, 1869. Dom Gasquet in hisEnglish Monastic Life, p. 175, tells us that in the Wiltshire convents "the young maids learned needlework, the art of confectionery, surgery—for anciently there were no apothecaries or surgeons; the gentlewomen did cure their poor neighbors—physic, drawing, etc."

[206]The first woman to receive the doctorate of medicine in Germany was Frau Dorothea Christin Erxleben. Hers, however, was a wholly exceptional case, and required the intervention of no less a personage than Frederick the Great. In 1754, Frau Erxleben, who had made a thorough course of humanities under her father, presented herself before the faculty of the University of Halle, where she passed an oral examination in Latin which lasted two hours. So impressed were the examiners by her knowledge and eloquence that they did not hesitate to adjudge her worthy of the coveted degree, which was accorded her by virtue of a royal edict.Her reception of the doctorate was made the occasion of a most enthusiastic demonstration in her honor. Felicitations poured in upon her from all quarters in both prose and verse. One of them, in lapidary style, runs as follows:"Stupete nova litteraria,In Italia nonnumquam,In Germania nunquamVisa vel auditaAt quo rarius eo carius."This, freely translated, adverts to the fact that an event, which before had been witnessed only in Italy, was then being celebrated in Germany for the first time, and was, for that very reason, specially deserving of commemoration.

Her reception of the doctorate was made the occasion of a most enthusiastic demonstration in her honor. Felicitations poured in upon her from all quarters in both prose and verse. One of them, in lapidary style, runs as follows:

"Stupete nova litteraria,In Italia nonnumquam,In Germania nunquamVisa vel auditaAt quo rarius eo carius."

This, freely translated, adverts to the fact that an event, which before had been witnessed only in Italy, was then being celebrated in Germany for the first time, and was, for that very reason, specially deserving of commemoration.

[207]"Nemo masculus aut fœmina, seu Christianus vel Judæus, nisi Magister vel Licentiatus in Medicina foret, auderet humano corpori mederi in physica vel in chyrurgia." Marini,Archiatri Pontifici, Tom. I, p. 199, Roma, 1784.

[208]Thomas Aquinas, the Angel of the Schools, who had taught in Salerno, and was well acquainted with the leading universities of Europe, was wont to say "Quattuor sunt urbes cæteris præeminentes, Parisius in Scientiis, Salernum in Medicinis, Bononia in legibus, Aurelianis in actoribus—" there are four preëminent cities: Paris, in the sciences; Salerno, in medicine; Bologna, in law; Orleans, in actors. Op. 17.De Virtutibus et Vitiis, Cap. ult.The mediæval poet, Galfrido, expressed the same idea in verse when he wrote:"In morbis sanat medici virtute SalernumÆgros: in causis Bononia legibus armatNudos: Parisius dispensat in artibus illosPanes, unde cibat robustos: AurelianisEducat in cunis actorum lacte tenellos."

The mediæval poet, Galfrido, expressed the same idea in verse when he wrote:

"In morbis sanat medici virtute SalernumÆgros: in causis Bononia legibus armatNudos: Parisius dispensat in artibus illosPanes, unde cibat robustos: AurelianisEducat in cunis actorum lacte tenellos."

[209]It may be remarked that it was a woman, Lady Mary Montagu, who introduced inoculation with small-pox virus into Western Europe, and that it was also a woman—a simple English milkmaid—who communicated to Jenner the information which led to his discovery of a prophylactic against small-pox. But of far greater importance was the introduction into Europe of that priceless febrifuge and antiperiodic—chinchona bark. This was due to the Countess of Chinchon, vicereine of Peru. Having been cured by its virtues of an aggravated case of tertian fever in 1638, while living in Lima, she lost no time, on her return to Spain, in making known to the world the marvelous curative properties of the precious quinine-producing bark. The powder made from the bark was most appropriately calledPulvis Comitessæ—the countess's powder—and by this name it was long known to druggists and in commerce. Thanks to Linnæus, the memory of the gracious lady will always be kept green, because her name is now borne by nearly eight score species of the beautiful trees which constitute the great and incomparable genus Chinchona. SeeA Memoir of the Lady Ana de Osorio, Countess of Chinchon, and Vice-Queen of Peru, by Clements R. Markham, London, 1874.

[210]Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women, p. 70, by Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, London, 1895.

[211]Ibid., p. 91.

[212]"Young ladies all, of every clime,Especially of BritainWho wholly occupy your timeIn novels or in knitting,Whose highest skill is but to play,Sing, dance or French to clack well,Reflect on the example, pray,Of excellent Miss Blackwell....*...*...*...*"For Doctrix Blackwell, that's the wayTo dub in rightful gender—In her profession, ever mayProsperity attend her.Punch a gold-headed parasolSuggests for presentationTo one so well deserving allEsteem and Admiration."

[212]

"Young ladies all, of every clime,Especially of BritainWho wholly occupy your timeIn novels or in knitting,Whose highest skill is but to play,Sing, dance or French to clack well,Reflect on the example, pray,Of excellent Miss Blackwell....*...*...*...*"For Doctrix Blackwell, that's the wayTo dub in rightful gender—In her profession, ever mayProsperity attend her.Punch a gold-headed parasolSuggests for presentationTo one so well deserving allEsteem and Admiration."

[213]Op. cit., p. 241.

[214]For an interesting account of the long campaign for the admission of women to medical schools and practice, seeMedical Women—A Thesis and a History, by Dr. Sophia Jex-Blake, Edinburgh, 1886.For a more elaborate work on women in medicine, the reader may consult with profit,Histoire des Femmes Médecins, by Mlle. Melanie Lepinska, Paris, 1900.

[214]For an interesting account of the long campaign for the admission of women to medical schools and practice, seeMedical Women—A Thesis and a History, by Dr. Sophia Jex-Blake, Edinburgh, 1886.

For a more elaborate work on women in medicine, the reader may consult with profit,Histoire des Femmes Médecins, by Mlle. Melanie Lepinska, Paris, 1900.

Archæology, in its broadest sense, is one of the most recent of the sciences, and may be said to be a creation of the nineteenth century. In its restricted sense, however, it dates back to the beginning of the Italian Renaissance. For it was at this period that the collector's zeal began to manifest itself, and that were brought together those priceless treasures of ancient art which are to-day the pride of the museums of Rome and Florence. It was then that Pope Sixtus IV and Julius II, his nephew, laid the foundations of the great museums of the Capitol and the Vatican, and enriched them with such famous masterpieces as the Ariadne, the Nile, the Tiber, the Laocoön and the Apollo Belvidere. Their example was quickly followed by such cardinals as Ippolito d'Este, Fernando de' Medici, and by representatives of the leading princely houses of the Italian peninsula. In rapid succession the palaces of the Borghese, Chigi, Pamphili, Ludovisi, Barbarini and Aldobrandini became filled with the choicest Greek and Roman antiques. In the course of time many of these treasures found their way to the museums of Venice, Madrid, Paris, Munich and Dresden, while still others were purchased by wealthy art connoisseurs in various parts of Europe and Great Britain.

In the beginning these antiques in marble and bronze were used chiefly for decorative purposes. "Courts, stairs, fountains, galleries and palaces were adorned with statues, busts, reliefs and sarcophagi applied in such a manner asto become incorporated in contemporary art and thereby to gain fresh life."[215]

These treasures of antiquity, statues, bas-reliefs, mosaics, coins, medals, busts, sarcophagi, and productions of ceramic art, although at first used almost exclusively for decorating palaces and villas and enriching museums, were eventually to become of inestimable value in the study of the history of art and the civilization of Greece and Rome, as well as of the various nations of antiquity with which they had come into contact. Besides this, they supplied the necessary raw material not only for classical archæology, but also for that more comprehensive science of archæology which deals with the art, the architecture, the language, the literature, the inscriptions, the manners, customs and development of our race from prehistoric times until the present day.

Among the women who took a prominent part in collecting material toward the advancement of archæologic science were those illustrious ladies—as celebrated for their knowledge and culture as for their noble lineage and their patronage of men of letters—who presided over the brilliant courts of Urbino, Mantua, Milan and Ferrara.

Preëminent among these were Elizabetta Gonzaga, Duchess of Urbino, and Isabella d'Este, Marchioness of Mantua. The palace of the former—"that peerless lady who excelled all others in excellence"—was famous for its precious antiques in bronze and marble, but above all for its superb collection of rare old books and manuscripts in Greek, Latin and Hebrew.

Isabella d'Este, who was through life the most intimate friend of Elizabetta Gonzaga, was acclaimed by her contemporaries as "the first lady in the world." She was a true daughter of the Renaissance, in the heart of which she was brought up; and "the small, passing incidents ofher everyday life are to us memorials of the classic age when the gods of Parnassus walked with men."[216]She was an even more enthusiastic collector than the Duchess of Urbino, and her magnificent palace in Mantua was filled with the choicest works of Greek and Roman art that were then procurable.

She has been described as one who secured everything to which she took a fancy. She had but to hear of the discovery of a beautiful antique, a rare work in bronze or marble uncovered by the spade of the excavator, when she forthwith made an effort to procure it for her priceless collection. If that was not possible, she would not rest until she could secure something else even more precious. She aimed at supremacy in everything artistic and intellectual, and would be content with nothing short of perfection. Hence it is that her collection of antiques, like those of her friend, the Duchess of Urbino, is rightly regarded as having been of singular value in preparing the way for the foundation of scientific archæology—a foundation that was laid by the eminent German scholar, Winckelmann, in the eighteenth century by the publication of his masterly work—History of the Art of Antiquity.

The first woman of eminence to take an active part in archæologic excavation was the youngest sister of Napoleon Bonaparte, "the beautiful, clever and ambitious Caroline." When Joachim Murat became king of Naples, after his brother-in-law, Joseph Bonaparte, had in 1808 been transferred to the throne of Spain, his wife, Queen Caroline, gave at once a new impetus to the work of the excavation of Pompeii along the lines planned a few years before by the eminent Neapolitan scholar, Michele Arditi. She exhibited the keenest interest in the work, and the notable discoveries which were made under her inspiring supervision of this important undertaking show how muchclassical archæology owes to her intelligent and munificent patronage.

Queen Caroline proved her interest in the excavations that were to contribute so much to our knowledge of antiquity "by appearing frequently at Pompeii and stimulating the workmen to greater efforts. She frequently spent entire days, during the great heat of summer, at the excavations, to encourage the lazy workmen and to reward them in the event of success. The funds were increased so as to make the employment of six hundred men possible. The Street of Tombs was next uncovered, forming a complete and solemn picture, greatly impressing the beholder even to-day. For the first time a complete outline of an ancient marketplace and its surroundings could be obtained. The market, closed and inaccessible to wheeled traffic, was surrounded by a colonnade filled with monuments, with the great temple in the background, and beyond the arcades were other temples or public buildings, among the principal being the stately Basilica. Constant and increased efforts were thus crowned by important results. The Queen did not withhold generous assistance. The French architect, Fr. Mazois, received from her fifteen hundred francs while preparing his monumental work at Pompeii."[217]

It is not too much to say that Queen Caroline's archæological work at Pompeii was as far-reaching in its results as was that of her illustrious brother in the land of the Pharaohs. It drew in the most impressive manner the attention of the world to the vast treasures of art which lay concealed under the earth-covered ruins of the once noted cities of the ancient world, and stimulated scholars and learned societies to undertake similar researches inSicily, Greece, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and the almost forgotten islands of the Ægean Seas.

While this energetic sister of the great Napoleon was occupied in bringing to light those priceless treasures of art which had for seventeen centuries lain beneath the ashes of Vesuvius, a bright, refined,spirituelleyoung girl, born in Dublin and bred in England, was unconsciously preparing herself for a brilliant career in the branch of archæology known as Christian iconography. Her name was Anna Murphy, better known to the world as Mrs. Jameson. At an early age she gave evidence of unusual intelligence, and she had hardly attained to womanhood when she was noted for her knowledge of languages and for her remarkable attainments in art and literature. Numerous journeys to France, Italy and Germany and a systematic study in the great museums and art galleries of these countries, but, above all, her association with the most distinguished scholars of Europe, completed her education and prepared her for those splendid works on Christian art which have made her name a household word throughout the world.

Mrs. Jameson was a prolific writer, but those of her works on which her fame chiefly rests are the ones which are classed under the general title,Sacred and Legendary Art. They treat of God the Father and Son, of the Madonna and the Saints, as illustrated in art from the earliest ages to modern times. So masterly and exhaustive was her treatment of the difficult subjects discussed in thischef d'œuvreof hers that no less an authority than the eminent German archæologist, F. X. Kraus, writes of this elaborate production as follows:

"Neither before nor since has the subject matter of this work been handled with such skill and thoroughness. The older iconographic works were mere dilettanteism. For the first time since classical archæology had applied the principlesof modern criticism to Greek and Roman iconography, and had presented an example of scientific treatment free from such reproach, was a serious iconography of our early Christian monuments possible. Mrs. Jameson was the first to attempt this on a large scale. It was clear to her—and here lay the advance which her work reveals—that in order to accomplish her colossal task two things must be realized. She must not build on a foundation of material that is imperfect or brought together in a haphazard way. She must not only see and test everything available in the way of monuments, but she must likewise place the productions of literature and poetry beside those of the plastic arts. It was clear to her, also, that, in this case, one would throw light on the other, and that the investigator who would lay claim to the name of archæologist must, moreover, study the spirit of a people in all its monumental and literary manifestations.

"Mrs. Jameson strove to learn the mind and the mode of early Christian times from the works of the Fathers. She saw in the hymns of the Middle Ages and in the writings of the mystics the sources of the art ideas which disclose themselves in the wall and glass paintings of our cathedrals and in the entrancing creation of a Fiesole. She had also the special advantage of being thoroughly imbued with Dante's ideas of the plastic arts of the Middle Ages.

"And all this is evidenced in a form which exhibits neither dry dissertation nor wearisome nomenclature. Each of her articles is a little essay. It teaches us what place the Madonna, or St. Catherine, or some other saint has held in the memory and in the imagination of past centuries. We behold the sainted forms flitting before our eyes in all the charm of poetic perfection which was given them by the childlike phantasy of the Middle Ages, and in all the power which they exercised over men's minds, and which, however we may view the religious side of thequestion, certainly had the effect of creating forms of infinite beauty and pictures of unspeakable reality."[218]

When we recollect that Mrs. Jameson achieved so much before the foundations of Christian archæology had been fully laid; before de Rossi's monumental publications had supplied the means of interpreting early Christian sculpture; before critics and archæologists were at one regarding the significance of early Christian and Middle Age symbolism, or agreed on the principles that were to guide to a correct understanding of the pictures of Roman and Gothic art, and while students were yet in ignorance as to the real influence of Byzantine art on that of western Europe, we cannot but wonder at the courage and the energy of this gifted woman in undertaking and in bringing to a happy issue a work which, even to-day, with all our increased facilities and greater array of facts, would be considered a herculean task.

As we read her admirable volumes onSacred and Legendary Artwe can, as did a close friend of hers, see the enraptured author "kindle into enthusiasm amidst the gorgeous natural beauty, the antique memorials and the sacred Christian relics of Italy," and we are prepared to believe, with the same friend, that there was not "a cypress on the Roman hills, or a sunny vine overhanging the southern gardens, or a picture in those vast somber galleries of foreign palaces, or a catacomb spread out, vast and dark, under the martyr churches of the City of the Seven Hills, which was not associated with some vivid flashes of her intellect and imagination." And we can also understand how "the strange, mystic symbolism of the early mosaics was a familiar language to her," and why she should experience special delight when she found herself "on the polished marble of the Lateran floor or under the gorgeously somber tribune of the Basilica of Santa MariaMaggiore, reading off the quaint emblems or expounding the pious thoughts of more than a thousand years ago."[219]

It is gratifying to know that Queen Victoria recognized the surpassing merits of this noble woman by placing her on the civil list, and that our own Longfellow was able to say of her masterpiece,Sacred and Legendary Art, "It most amply supplies the cravings of the religious sentiment of the spiritual nature within."

A countrywoman of Mrs. Jameson and her contemporary, who also deserves an honorable place in the literature of archæology, is Louise Twining. Although inferior in intellectual attainments and literary activity to the accomplished author ofSacred and Legendary Art, her two works onTypes and Figures of the Bible Illustrated by ArtandSymbols and Emblems of Early Mediæval Christian Arthave given her a well-deserved reputation on the Continent as well as in the British Isles. The latter volume Mrs. Jameson herself declares in herLegends of the Madonnato be "certainly the most complete and useful book of the kind which I know of."

A third woman who has won fame for her sex in the island kingdom in the domain of archeology is Miss Margaret Stotes. Her activities, however, have been chiefly confined to the antiquities of Ireland, on which she is a recognized authority.

The notable part she took in editing Lord Dunraven's great work,Notes on Irish Architecture, established her reputation on a firm basis. Among her other important works areEarly Christian Art in IrelandandChristian Inscriptions in the Irish Language, chiefly collected and drawn by George Petrie, one of the annual volumes of the Royal Historical and Archæological Association of Ireland. This work has justly been described as an epoch-making contribution to Christian epigraphy and to our rapidlydeveloping knowledge of Keltic language and literature. The learned Dr. Krauss, than whom there is no more competent judge, in referring to this splendid performance, does not hesitate to affirm, "No man could have done better than this brave college girl, whom I would wish to greet across the Channel with a cordialMacte virtute."

The women archæologists so far mentioned, with the exception of Queen Caroline Murat, were conspicuous as writers rather than active investigators in the field. There have been, however, quite a number who have won distinction as "archæologists of the spade"—women who, either alone or with their husbands, have superintended excavations in different lands, which have yielded results of untold scientific value. Among the most conspicuous of these are Mme. Sophia Schliemann, Mme. Dieulafoy and the enterprising Yankee girl, Miss Harriet A. Boyd.

Of these the first named is the wife of the late Dr. Henry Schliemann, who immortalized himself by his famous excavations at Troy, Tiryns and Mycenæ—enterprises which solved for us the great problem of nearly thirty centuries and demonstrated in the most startling manner "the truth of the foundations on which was framed the poetical conception that has for thousands of years called forth the enchanted delight of the educated world." During his meteoric career as an archæologist, Schliemann was able to realize the dreams of his youth, and succeeded in unveiling the mystery that had so long hung over Sacred Ilios, and to give the heroes of the Iliad a local habitation on the rediscovered Plain of Troy. And his glorious achievements we must credit largely to that brave and devoted woman—his wife—who was ever at his side to share in his trials and labors and to raise his drooping spirits in hours of depression, or when hostile criticism treated him as a visionary in the pursuit of a chimera.

Mrs. Schliemann is a Greek lady who was born and bred under the shadow of the Acropolis and a worthy descendantof those proud Athenian women who wore the golden grasshopper in their hair as a sign that they were natives of the City of the Violet Crown. She was not only dowered with intellectual gifts of a high order, but she was also her husband's most congenial companion and sympathetic friend in all his literary work, while she was his very right hand in those glorious enterprises at Hissarlik and Mycenæ, which secured for both of them undying fame.

Dr. Schliemann was the first to attest the never-failing assistance which he received from this noble woman who, as he informs us, was "a warm admirer of Homer" and "with glad enthusiasm" joined her husband in executing the great work which he had conceived in his early boyhood. Usually they worked together, but at times Mrs. Schliemann superintended a gang of laborers at one spot while the Doctor was occupied at another in the immediate vicinity. Thus it was she who excavated the heroic tumulus of Batieia in the Troad—that Batieia who, according to Homer, was a queen of the Amazons and undertook a campaign against Troy.[220]

Mme. Jane Dieulafoy is noted as the collaborator of her husband, Marcel Dieulafoy, in the important archæological mission to Persia that was entrusted to him by the French government. The results of this mission, in which Mme.Dieulafoy had a conspicuous part, were published in Paris in 1884 in five octavo volumes.

It was during this expedition to the ancient empire of Cyrus and Artaxerxes that this indefatigable couple became interested in the ruins of Susa, the ancient capital of the Persian kings. On their return to France they succeeded in securing money and supplies for conducting excavations among these ruins which, in the end, yielded results which were, in some respects, as important as those which rewarded the labors of the Schliemanns in Greece and Asia Minor.

So completely had Susa—the City of the Lilies—been buried and forgotten for nearly two thousand years that even its site was almost as much a matter of dispute as was that of ancient Troy. And yet it was one of the greatest and richest cities of antiquity—the city of Esther and Daniel, the city of the mighty Assuerus who reigned from India even unto Ethiopia, over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces—the city where the great Alexander celebrated his nuptials with Statira, the daughter of Darius, with a magnificent festival at which, according to Plutarch, "there were no fewer than nine thousand guests, to each of which he gave a golden cup for the libations."

In December, 1884, the two brave and venturesome explorers were on their way to Susa with high hopes, but not without a full knowledge of the difficulties and dangers that they would have to confront among the fanatical nomads of Arabistan, where the very name of Christian inspires rage and horror. It meant, as Mme. Dieulafoy herselftells us, "to cross the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf and the deserts of Elam three times in less than a year; to pass whole weeks without undressing; to sleep on the bare ground; to struggle nights and days against robbers and thieves; to cross rivers without a bridge; to suffer heat, rain, cold, mists, fever, fatigue, hunger, thirst, the stings of divers insects; to lead this hard and perilous existence without being guided by any interest other than the glory of one's country."[221]

In spite, however, of all the opposition which they encountered among the fanatical Mussulmans of Arabistan and of the dreadful sufferings incident to living in a desert where it was at times impossible to secure the necessaries of life, their mission was successful, and their account of their finds in the ancient capital of Elam was as thrilling in its way as anything reported of the excavations at Troy or Pompeii. Their splendid collection of specimens of ancient Persian art and architecture, now on exhibition in the Museum of the Louvre, testifies to the successful issue of their expedition and to their indomitable energy in conducting researches under the most untoward conditions.[222]So highly did the French government value the part Mme. Dieulafoy had taken in this arduous enterprise that it conferred on her a distinction rarely awarded to a woman for scientific work—that of Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.

As an archæologist, the gifted and energetic American woman, Miss Harriet Boyd—now Mrs. C. H. Hawes—has achieved an international reputation for her remarkable excavations in the island of Crete. She is a frequent contributor to archæological journals; but it is upon her splendid work in the field that her fame will ultimately rest.

Her first work of importance was undertaken as Fellow of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. This was in 1900, and the field of her investigations was the Isthmus of Hierapetra in Crete. Here she excavated numerous tombs and houses of the early Geometric Period,circa900 B.C., and paved the way for those brilliant discoveries which rewarded her labors during the following three years.

The investigations conducted during these three years under Miss Boyd's directions yielded results of transcendent value. Assisted by three young American women—the Misses B. E. Wheeler, Blanche E. Williams, and Edith H. Hall—she superintended the work of more than a hundred native employees whom she had on her payroll. By good fortune in the choice of a site for excavation and by well-directed efforts she was soon able to unearth one of the oldest of Cretan cities and to expose to view the ruins of what was probably one of the ninety cities which Homer tells us in his Odyssey graced the land of Crete—"a fair land and a rich, in the midst of a wine-dark sea."

So remarkable were the finds in this long-buried Minoan town and so well preserved are its general features that it has justly been called the Cretan Pompeii. It antedates by long centuries the oldest cities of Greece and was aflourishing center of commerce ages before the heroes of the Iliad battled on the plains of Troy.

It is not too much to say that the extraordinary discoveries made by this enterprising Yankee girl at Gournia, no less than those made by British and Italian archæologists at Knossos and Phæstos, have completely revolutionized our ideas respecting the state of culture of the inhabitants of Crete during the second and third millenia before the Christian era. They have thrown a flood of light on the origins of Mediterranean culture, and have, at the same time, supplied material for a study of European civilization that was before entirely wanting.

An enduring monument to Miss Boyd's ability as an archæologist is her notable volume containing an account of her excavations at Gournia, Vasilike and other prehistoric sites on the Isthmus of Hierapetra. It will bear comparison with any similar productions by the Schliemanns or the Dieulafoys. A later work onCrete, the Forerunner of Greece, which she wrote in collaboration with her husband, Mr. C. H. Hawes, is also a production of recognized merit. As a study on the origin of Greek civilization it opens up many new vistas in pre-history and illumines many questions that were before involved in mystery.

Besides Mrs. Hawes, three other American women have achieved marked distinction by their archæological researches. These are Mrs. Sarah Yorke Stevenson, Miss Alice C. Fletcher and Mrs. Zelia Nuttall.

Mrs. Stevenson has long been identified with the progress of archæological research, especially with that in Egypt and the Mediterranean. A prominent member of many learned societies, she is likewise a writer and lecturer of note. She enjoys the distinction of being the first woman whose name appears as a lecturer on the calendar of the University of Harvard. In acknowledgment of her scholarly ability and eminent services in the development of its Department of Archæology, the University of Pennsylvaniahas conferred upon her the honorary degree of Doctor of Science.

That American women have not been behind their sisters in Europe in their enthusiasm for archæological investigation is evinced by the researches and writings of Miss Alice C. Fletcher and Mrs. Zelia Nuttall, both of whom enjoy an international reputation in the learned world.

Miss Fletcher's chosen field of labor has been in ethnology and anthropology. Her studies of the folk lore and the manners and customs of various tribes of North American Indians have a distinct and permanent value, while those of her contributions which have been published by the Smithsonian Institution and the Bureau of Ethnology—contributions based on personal knowledge of a long residence among the tribes she writes about—show that she has exceptional talent for the branches of archæology to which she has devoted many years of earnest and successful study.

Mrs. Nuttall is the daughter of an American mother and an English father. Thanks to the care that was bestowed on her education by her parents and to her long residence in the different countries of Europe, she is proficient in seven languages. This knowledge of tongues has been of inestimable advantage to her in her researches in European libraries and in those historical and archæological investigations which have rendered her famous. She has devoted special attention to the early history, languages, religions and calendar systems of the primitive inhabitants of Mexico and Central America, in all of which she is a recognized authority.

When, some years ago, the mysterious ruins of Mexico began to attract the special attention of archæologists, Mrs. Nuttall was selected by the University of California as the field director of the commission which it sent to pursue archæological researches in this Egypt of the New World. A more competent or a more enthusiastic director couldnot have been chosen. Her finds in the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon at Teotihuacan and elsewhere in our sister republic were especially important. In recognition of her achievements President Porfirio Diaz nominated Mrs. Nuttall honorary professor in the Mexican National Museum. She was also offered the position of curator of the archæological Museum of Mexico; but this office she declined. She holds membership in a large number of learned societies in America and Europe and is a frequent contributor to numerous magazines on historical and archæological subjects. She has had the good fortune to discover a number of important manuscripts illustrating the early history of Mexico. Chief among these are a Hispano-American manuscript which she dug out of one of the libraries of Madrid and another which was found in a private collection in England and reproduced in facsimile in this country. In honor of its fair discoverer it is now known as the Codex Nuttall, and is regarded by experts as one of the most precious records of ancient Mexico.

What is probably Mrs. Nuttall's most valuable contribution to archæological science is her erudite work entitledThe Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations. It is a comparative research based on a study of the ancient Mexican, religious, sociological and calendar systems, and represents thirteen years of assiduous labor. It is a worthy monument to the scientific ability of this gifted Americanist, and one which brilliantly illumines some of the most controverted points of comparative archæology.

The Nestor of women archæologists is Donna Ersilia Caetani-Bovatelli—the daughter of the famous Dante scholar, the late Duke Don Michel Angelo Caetani-Sermonetta. Since the days of Boniface VIII, whom Dante scornfully denounced aslo principe de' Pharisei, the family of the Caetani has been one of the most illustrious of theRoman nobility, and is to-day ranked with those of the Colonna and Orsini.

Besides his thorough knowledge of Dante, whoseDivina Commediahe regarded as the great artistic production of the human mind—a work which he knew by heart—the Duke of Sermonetta was deeply versed in philology and archæology. No one was more familiar with the history and antiquities of Rome than he was, nor a greater friend and patron of scholars of every nationality. The Palazzo Caetani was the resort of not only the savants of Rome, but also and especially of those who gathered from all quarters of the world to study the rich collections of antiquities for which the Eternal City is so famous. Here the ablest authorities in history and archæology discussed the latest discoveries among the ruins of Greece and Asia Minor, and the most recent finds in the Forum or amidst the crumbling ruins of the palaces of the Cæsars.

Having such a father and brought up in such an environment it is not surprising that Donna Ersilia acquired at an early age that taste for archæology which was, as events proved, to constitute the chief occupation of her long and busy life. Having enjoyed and studied literature and the languages under the best masters in Rome, she was thoroughly prepared for the work of deciphering Greek and Latin inscriptions and for an intelligent study of the ancient monuments of Italy and Hellas.

Her learned countryman, A. de Gubernatis, assures us that she has such a thorough knowledge of Latin and Greek that she writes both with ease and elegance, and that she is endowed with an admirable memory for philology and archæology. Besides being a mistress of several modern languages, she is also familiar with Sanscrit.

Since the death of her husband, in 1879, she has devoted all her time, outside of that given to the care and education of her children, to the pursuit of classical archæology, in which she has long been regarded as an authority of thefirst order. Her salon, unlike those of the frivolous leaders of high life, has for many years been the favorite rendezvous in Rome of learned men and women from every clime. Here were seen the noted historians Gregorovius, Theodore Mommsen, and Giovanni Battista de Rossi, the illustrious founder of Christian archæology. Here the representatives of the French, German and American schools of archæology meet to exchange views on their favorite science and to find inspiration in the knowledge and enthusiasm of their gifted hostess, who always takes an active part in their recondite discussions, and never fails to contribute her share to these meetings, which have contributed so much toward the advancement of science and the history of antiquity. Whether the discussion turn on the deciphering of an ancient text, the inscription of a monument or a recently excavated sarcophagus, Donna Ersilia's opinion is eagerly sought, and her judgment is generally unerring.

This cultured and erudite daughter of sunny Italy has been a prolific writer on her favorite branch of research. Besides contributing to such publications as theNuova Antologiaand the bulletins of the archæological commissions in Rome, she has found time to prepare for the press a number of volumes of the highest value on divers questions of Roman and Greek archæology.

It is interesting, in this connection, to note the fact that, after Mme. Curie had been refused admittance into the French Academy, one of the members of this institution, who had voted against her on the ground that she was a woman, had occasion to attend a meeting of the Academy of the Lincei in Rome, an association which plays the same rôle in Italy as does the French Academy in France, and found, to his astonishment, that the dean of the department of archæology, as well as the presiding officer of some of the most important meetings of the academy, was a woman. She was no other than Donna Ersilia Caetani-Bovatelli, the learned and gracious scion of an honoredrace. So taken aback was the Gallic opponent offeminismethat he could but exclaim: "Diable!they order things differently in Italy from what we do inla belle France."

Considering their attainments and achievements, the two women who occupy the highest place as archæologists in the English-speaking world are Mrs. Agnes Smith Lewis and Margaret Dunlop Gibson. They are the twin daughters of the Rev. John Smith, an English clergyman, and have long enjoyed an enviable reputation among Scriptural scholars and Orientalists.

During their youth they had the advantage of instruction under the best masters, and, among other things, acquired a wide knowledge of the modern and classical languages. Subsequent study and frequent visits to Greece and the Orient made them proficient in modern Greek, Arabic, Hebrew and Syriac. Becoming interested in the search for ancient manuscripts, they resolved to make the long and arduous journey to the Greek convent of St. Catherine on Mt. Sinai.

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