VALEDICTORY ADDRESS 10 THE GRADUATING CLASS OP THE (Jf*maU DMial dffflUp OF PENNSYLVANIA, AT THE ELEVENTH ANNUAL COMMENCEMENT, ZMULZRCII 14, 1863, >/ BY EMELINE H. CLEVELAND, M. D., PROFESSOR OP OBSTETRICS AND DISEASES OP WOMEN AND CHILDREN, WITH ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE FOURTEENTH ANNUAL SESSION. PHILADELPHIA: CRISSY & MARKLEY, PRINTERS, GOLDSMITHS HALL, LIBRARY STREET. 1863. EMELINE H. CLEVELAND, M. D. MADAME: The undersigned have been directed to transmit to you the enclosed Resolution, unanimously adopted at a meeting of the Corporators of the Female Medical College of Penn- sylvania, held on the 14th inst.; " Resolved, That we have listened with much gratification to the able and appropriate Vale- "dictory Address pronounced this day by Professor E. H. Cleveland before tlio Graduating Class '• iT the College and others assembled on that occasion, and that a copy thereof be requested for " publication/' In discharging the pleasing dnty thus devolved upon us, and soliciting your compliance with the request of the Corporators, we avail ourselves of the occasion to express our individual esteem and high regards. ISAAC BARTON, T. MORRIS PEROT, M. MOORE, REDWOOD F. WARNER, Committee- Philadelphia, March 17,1863. GEXILEMEN: Your note, with the Resolution of the Corporators, requesting a copy of my late Vale- dictory Address, has been received. The address was prepared for the comparatively private occasion of our College Commencement, and with no thought of its publication; neither dous it seem t<> myself worthy of such approval. The request of the Corporators is liowever a sufliciont reason for waiving my own judgment in the matter, and I herewith transmit to you my manu- script. You will permit me to thank you for your expressions of esteem and regard, and to sub- scribe myself, with great respect, yours truly, E. H. CLEVELAND. Messrs. Isaac Barton, T. Morris Perot, M. Moore, Redwood F. Warner. Philadelphia, March 19, 1863. CO jyCIMTIEILTCIE HVCIE IsTT- The Eleventh Annual Commencement was held at the College, North Col- lege Avenue and Twenty-second Street, on Saturday the 14th of March, 18G3, when the Degree of Doctor of Medicine was conferred by the President, T. Morris Perot, Esq., upon the following named ladies: NAMES. KESIDK NCE. SUBJECT OF THESIS. SARAH J. McCARN, New York. Infancy. JERUSHA M. McCRAY, Indiana. Nervous Sy«tem. FRANCES AMELIA COOK, California. Phthisis Pulmonalis. VALEDICTORY ADDRESS. Ladies, Graduates :— The few months of another College session have flitted by so rapidly, that, almost in the breath of our greeting we find ourselves called to bid you farewell; but though the period of our intercourse has been brief—from mid-autumn to early spring—it has furnished time, with its daily recurring social and professional sympathies, for the formation and growth of mutual attachments, and we cannot part from you with indifference. In the name of the Faculty, and on its behalf, it is to-day my duty, at once pleasant and sad, to give you some formal expres- sion of regard, and some word of affectionate adieu. Allow us to congratulate you upon the successful accomplish- ment of this preliminary portion of your medical career—that one object, ardently sought, has been worthily attained, and that you are made, to-day, recipients of the Diploma of this College, with the privileges, rights, and immunities incident to a medical degree. V>re congratulate you the more from our personal knowledge of your meritorious reception of this distinction, and from our conviction that you will do honor to the instrument thus placed in your hands. We rejoice with almost parental satisfaction in the pleasure you experience to-day; but while we look forward with glad anticipations to the future, as it shall open before you, we can- cannot forget, on our own part, that our mutual relationships cease with this interview. Our interest in your welfare will 4 not terminate here however. Witnesses as we have been of your earnest efforts, sharing as we share, your affectionate regard, and knowing, as we know from experience, that your future may not be all bright, we would mingle with our exulta- tions on your behalf, a word of tender sympathy and the assurance, that should trials and disappointments come to you, you may rely trustingly upon our unfailing friendship. We would not omit this opportunity to congratulate ourselves and you upon the present aspect of our common cause. It is true that opposition is still felt to the idea of woman in the medical profession ; an opposition founded, as we are convinced, in part, upon disbelief in her fitness for the physician's work, in part upon jealously of her influence and her pecuniary success. We are glad, however, to assure you that in our own country this opposition is materially diminishing—that in many communities women physicians are welcomed and encouraged, and that, not unfrequently, by resident members of the profession. We have assurances from women who have settled as physi- cians in various parts of the country, and who have carried to their work that resolution and energy necessary to ensure suc- cess in any undertaking, that they have soon gained the con- fidence of the community, and an amount of practice to be compared favorably with that of any male physician of an equal term of residence. Indeed, in some instances, it has been sur- prising to observe how quickly all opposition has vanished, and how soon the woman physician has come to be regarded as indispensable. In some large cities, especially in our own, prejudice has assumed a more active form, and you are not unaware that the records of the Philadelphia County, and even the Pennsylvania State Medical Societies are disgraced with resolutions denying professional recognition, not to women only, but to those of the other sex, who shall hold medical consultation with them, or otherwise favor our enterprise. We are happy, however, to chronicle the fact, that so rapidly is this prejudice giving way, that not only may members of the Philadelphia County Medi- cal Society consult with women and their instructors, but those 5 of them belonging to the professional aristocracy of our profes- sionally proud city, may request such consultations. The general hospitals of our Country are still closed, except in one or two instances, to the medical inspection of women. The establishment of separate hospitals under the auspices of women, is in part annulling this disadvantage—in part only —as these institutions are yet in their infancy, and incapable of affording that amount and variety of practice to be observed in older and more extensive establishments. Abroad, especially in Britain, is our enterprise assuming a phase of more than common interest. We hear most flattering accounts of the reception given in London to an American lady, now prosecuting her medical studies in that city. From Drs. Carpenter and Druitt, she has received friendly encourage- ment, and their formal recognition of her medical degree; while she is admitted to visit freely in some of the best London hospitals. We trust the time is not far distant when the Universities of Britain, not less than her Hospitals, shall be open to women for medical study. Indeed, during the last year a young English woman of intelligence, wealth and position, was admitted as a medical student to the University School of St. Andrews, Edinboro, and that without objection, except on the part of a single professor, whose conservative tendencies led him to vigor- ous opposition. We regret to say that his objections were so strongly urged that the Senatus became alarmed at the idea of having been the first to take the lead in so great an innovation; and, after consideration, resolved that " the granting of tickets in the case was not sufficiently authorized ; that this novel question raised ought to be deliberately considered and decided; and that the opinions of other Universities and of lawyers should be taken of the matter, i£ thought advisable." Legal counsel was taken, which was adverse to the applicant, simply on the ground of the alleged "inexpediency of admitting female students to the University with a view and with the 6 right of graduation; not that there exists in the charters or foundations of St. Andrews anything which could be construed to deprive the Senatus of the power of receiving such students under such regulations as might be thought reasonable." Decisions of this sort will not long satisfy the British public, especially in the face of inquiries from the British press as to the right of Senati thus to exclude ladies from Universities founded by law and supported by public money, and in pre- sence of assertions that " it is not wrong, but right, to educate women to the highest pitch possible, and that female doctors of medicine would be a great boon to society, and an invaluable safeguard to the feelings of delicacy of their own sex :"* and, in Britain, where the House of Commons is King, the opinions and wants of the people will ultimately become the ruling power with Senati Academici even. In other parts of the old world but little effort is making for the medical education of women, beyond a midwifery educa- tion. In Vienna and Berlin, we are not aware that admittance has recently been asked, by women, to Universities or general hospitals. In Paris, L'Ecole de Mddicine is religiously closed, and general hospitals are entered only by personal favor. L'Administration de 1'Assistance Publique will officially deny all women admittance to the wards of the various hospitals under its control, for the purpose of medical inspection, while many of its physicians will look upon them as innovators, and peremptorily refuse their application. Others, with a real magnanimity, will admit their right and title to a profound medical education, and extend to them every opportunity within their power for observation and experience. The influence of women upon the profession has hardly, as yet, become a matter of history. Too brief a period has elapsed since their introduction to the arena of medicine to have proved more than the personal capability or incapability of the several women who have chosen this as their field of labor. Whatever may arrive in the future, it is not yet observed, however, that * Weekly Scotsman, Nov. 8, 1862. 7 a lower standard of attainments prevails in the profession, or that any new system of ethics has been formally adopted, else- where than in Pennsylvania. It has been contended that the constitution of the female mind is such as would render woman a dangerous element in a profession in which are needed nice discriminations and logical reasonings. That her mind is less inductive than that of man is, perhaps, possible, while there may be truth in the suggestion of a departed son of genius, that " induction is not the whole of logic, or the Baconian method alone worthy the attention of sound and sensible thinkers." Many of our greatest modern discoveries attest the utility and power of deductive reasoning— that the mind may safely journey from ideas to facts, as from facts to ideas, and possibly this very element of deduction in the female mind may become an element of progress in the medical profession. In other departments has this same element, whether clad in the garb of manhood or of womanhood, left its impress upon science and upon art, and who does not know, that to the deductive mind of the immortal Goe'the are we indebted for one of the most interesting discoveries in a department of phy- sical science, in which the physician is especially interested. " Strolling in a cemetry near Venice, he stumbled on a skull which was lying before him. Suddenly the idea flashed across his mind, that the skull was composed of vertebrae; in other words, that the bony covering of the head was simply an expan- sion of the bony covering of the spine. This luminous idea was afterwards adopted by Oken and a few other great naturalists of France and.Germany, but was not received in England till ten years ago, when Mr. Owen took it up, and in his remarka- ble work on the Homologies of the Vertebrate Skeleton, showed its meaning and purpose as contributing toward a general sys- tem of philosophical anatomy." Ladies, we have not told you, or pretended to tell you, the whole of medicine. It is a subject too vast to be discussed minutely in the ordinary term of a college session, or to be com- passed in its fullness in the common period of medical study; but, 8 if, in our several departments we have made you familiar with their fundamental facts and principles, so that henceforth you may profitably conduct your own investigations, we have done about what we could, and we may safely rely upon your inherent interest in the profession of your choice, and upon your consci- entious regard for your reputation as physicians, and for the welfare of those who may become your patients, for assurances that your study shall not terminate with to-day. Though you here bid farewell to the lecture-room, and cease your attendance upon formal instructions, we are persuaded you will but transfer to a more responsible field the same interest, the same untiring energy, with "the patience of hope." A broad field for observation and philosophical inquiry lies before you:—we say philosophical, for there is philosophy in medicine as well as in mechanics. Like every abstract science, medicine rests upon a basis of principles, and is built up of general ideas, upon each of which is dependent a host of particular ideas. Its philosophy is engaged in discovering these fundamental principles and ideas—establishing their verity and relative importance, and ranging in proper dependence subordi- nate notions and facts. Questions of such interest cannot fail to engage your attention, or to repay, manifold, your efforts; and in our day, when the strife of isms and the rage of new-fangled notions is such, that it has become almost the fashion of the times, to disbelieve in medicine as a science, and to cast reproach upon its adherents as blindly groping in superstitious darkness, and doing good or evil as chance may direct their hand, it becomes the more important that the foundations of one's belief and prac- tice be philosophically established, that one accept, and knowing wherefore the doctrines of empiricism or of rationalism, or of both—or that one intelligently take sides with the organicists or vitalists of modern times, or maintain a medium ground. Ladies, you will allow us a word upon your rights and duties as members of the medical profession. These will not differ in consequence of your womanhood, from the rights and duties of physicians of the opposite sex. The same rules of conscience and of etiquette which should govern them, should govern you. 9 These you will find prescribed in that code of ethics promulgated by the Divine hand, and inscribed upon the sacred page, or upon every man's conscience, and in that lesser code as adopted by the American Medical Association. To both these, we would refer you as capable of furnishing useful suggestions for the various events of your professional lives. It was a remark of the celebrated Hufeland, that " the highest mission of man after that of the service of the altar, was to be priest of the sacred fire of life, dispenser of the best gifts of God, and master of the occult forces of nature, for the preser- vation of health and the cure of disease. To live for others and not for one's self, is the essence of the medical profession; and to its supreme end, that of saving the life and health of others, should the physician sacrifice not only his ease, his per- sonal advantages, the pleasures and agreements of life, but if need be, his health and existence, possibly even his reputation." To accomplish a mission so high, the physician has need of peculiar qualifications of mind and heart. Most emphatically should he be able to " add to faith, virtue ; and to virtue, know- ledge ; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, pa- tience; and to patience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity." In the details of his daily practice, the physician should be discrete and prudent, never seeking to penetrate the secrets of his patients, beyond what may be necessary to a thorough appreciation of the case, and a proper discharge of his duty:— should guard at all times and most sacredly the confidences entrusted to him; even before the bar of justice revealing nothing that could in any manner compromise the honor or reputation of his patients. We would insist upon this point the more, inasmuch as, being women, the sorrows, woes even, of many a heart, will be poured into yours; and inasmuch, also, as the accusation is gratuitously bestowed upon our sex, of prying unnecessarily into the affairs of others, and of holding our confidences lightly. It is time this reproach were removed from the brow of womanhood, and as women not less than as physicians, there is work for you in 10 showing yourselves worthy of confidence, and reticent where reticence is due. The physician should be alike impartial to the rich and the poor, lavishing his attentions upon the most sick and the most unfortunate, and never refusing his care, in an urgent case, to a fellow-mortal, however unworthy,—be he a personal enemy, the enemy of one's country or of humanity, or to whatever extent degraded by debauchery and crime. Perhaps in a moral sense is this forgetfulness of social dis- tinctions, and this self-abnegation more especially required of wo- men who would make themselves ministers of good to their kind. The duties of the physician are not limited to the relief of the physical sufferings of his fellows. Another apostolate is given him with reference to their moral and intellectual progress, and when we remember the low estate of woman in mental culture and attainments, the manifold hindrances which place themselves in her pathway toward excellence in any department, and the scorn with which an erring daughter of Eve is continually re- minded of her fault, and plunged deeper in ruin, we cannot but regard it as one of the distinctive missions of the woman phy- sician, in giving her portion to the defence of the public health, that she spare no effort for the instruction and elevation of woman, especially that she endeavor to diffuse correct hygienic notions, and to inculcate those moral precepts from which one may not depart without danger to health and life. It has been remarked, "For the physician, ignorance is not simply a misfortune—it is a crime, for it may leave a patient to die, or directly cause his death." However instructed, there- fore, the true physician will labor still, and that the more earn- estly as science shall advance the more rapidly. In what manner should this labor be accomplished becomes a question of real moment to such as you, going out, as you go to- day, to assume the office and responsibilities of the physician. Were we gentlemen, addressing those of our own sex, it would be no difficult task to offer some practical hints upon this point. Going into whatever community almost, you would find essential assistance in the fraternal fellowship of neighboring 11 physicians, and from medical societies, ready to welcome you to their councils. As women, you may yet, for a time, have to forego these helps, and to establish your claim to recognition and fellowship by years of patient work and waiting. If such shall be your fortune, the more urgent will be the necessity of creating for yourselves opportunities of instruction by supplying yourselves with books and periodicals, and by carefully studying in its details whatever case may come before you. From the multiplicity of books now offered to the profes- sion, and from their expensiveness, it will be quite impossible for you to procure at once anything like a complete library, as it would be quite impossible', should an active practice soon throw itself upon your hands, to make yourselves familiar with the subject-matter of its volumes. It will probably be better for you to possess yourselves of a few standard authors upon the different branches of medical practice, in addition to your college text-books, and then rely much upon journals—some substantial foreign journal, with such American periodicals as you may have occasion to value. We say foreign journal, not that we have a predeliction for things outre-mer, but that foreign journals, if not as a class conducted better than our own, give us information from a dif- ferent stand-point, make us familiar with a more extended field of observation and of literature, and afford us broader range from which to gather suggestions, or to select valuable books. Home journals have their advantages in giving us sug- gestions with reference to our own literature, to forms and varie- ties of disease peculiar to our country and circumstances, and to the value of different modes of treatment in the same, or nearly the same conditions. Neither should the study and reading of the physician be confined to what may be regarded as essentially medical sub- jects. In the language of the late lamented Buckle, "No one can have a firm grasp of any science, if, by confining himself to it, he shuts out the light of analogy and deprives himself of that peculiar aid which is derived from a commanding survey 12 of the co-ordination and inter-dependence of things, and of the relations they bear to each other. He may no doubt work at the details of his subject; he maybe useful in adding to it facts; he will never be able to enlarge its philosophy, for the philosophy of every department depends upon its connection with other departments, and must, therefore, be sought at their points of contact. It must be looked for in the place where they touch and coalesce; it lies not in the centre of each science, but on the confines and margins." Besides, the study of other departments, of the natural sci- ences, of mental and moral philosophy, of belles-lettres, and of the arts even, in addition to giving the physician a broader acquaintance with his own science, a richer mental furnishing for his especial work, supplies one of the most imperative wants of the human mind, that of variety, in its occupations. To no one is the rule of constancy in the pursuit of his pro- fession, of more importance than to the physician. The proverb " Qui va d la chasse perd sa place" has had more than one illustrious exemplification in the lives of men distinguished for talent, and holding positions by royal favor, and, in the hum- bler records of the profession, perhaps no single cause has more frequently blighted the fairest hopes, than the habit of absence from the post of duty. It is a dictate of reason, not less than of humanity, that the physician should never abandon his patient, however incurable Le may suppose him. The resources of nature are incalculable, and the most intractable diseases—phthisis and cancer even— have yielded to her ministrations, when effort had seemed un- availing. If we may quote again from Hufeland, " Life is too short for us ever to be able to say, with certainty of not being deceived, that there is no further hope; and it is a rule impoi- tant to the physician never to lose hope or courage: hope suggests new ideas, opens new ways to the mind, and even ren- ders possible that which had seemed impossible. He who no longer hopes ceases to think: he falls into apathy, and the patient should necessarily perish, for he who is called to succor him is already dead." 13 Neither will the true physician abandon his patient in his hour of mortal agony ; but when hope and effort are no longer avail- ing to save, will cheerfully bestow those tender ministrations, by which death shall be robbed of half his terrors. The physician, of all men, perhaps, needs an abiding faith in that Providence which rules over all;—nay more, a religious trust in a personal, present, spiritual guide, and a sense of accountability to Him in whose hand is the giving and the with- holding of life. Accountable to no other for his determinations and his acts, and dealing with a subject no less precious than human life, the thought of the Eternal should be ever present to his spirit, and a light from tefore the throne of the Almighty should guide him in the way. The sweet influences of religion, besides sustaining his own soul in a thousand anxious perplexi- ties, become often a marvelous resource of good to his patients, teaching them consolation in misfortunes, the control of the pas- sions, influencing all their acts of life, and consequently their health, and the physician ought not to be without this arm of strength. Ladies, in bidding you farewell, you will permit us to hope, th:-it for a time at least, disordered Nature may present herself to yon in amiable mood ; that the highest success may attend your mi'.-.istrations upon the sick and the. suffering, and that the choicest blessings of Providence and of Grace, may enrich your future lives. THE FEMALE MEDICAL COLLEGE OF PENNSYLVANIA, North College Avenue & Twenty-Second St., Philadelphia, ( Near Girard College.) --------------4*«**-------------- ^LIsTlsrOTJlTCE^dlEISrT. The Fourteenth Annual Session of this Institution will commence on Wednesday, October 14th, 1863, and continue Five Months. In the face of opposition, and amid the difficulties inseparable from a new enterprise, the Faculty and Corporators have worked on in faith until tjey have seen many of the obstacles to the full medical education of women removed, and they are now able to offer facilities to the earnest student never possessed before. A Hospital for the Treatment of Diseases of Women and Children, established under the auspices of this Institution, has treated, within the last year, in its indoor and outdoor departments, more than fifteen hundred patients. This is open to our students, and offers tine opportunities for acquaintance with various forms of disease, and with the operation of remedies. Still year by year the Faculty find additional evidence that the ripe time for women to study and practice medicine has fully come, shown by the widening demand for their professional services, and the position accorded to the capable among them, as well as by the peculiar adaptation which experience proves them to possess for many departments of medicine. The necessities and changes engendered by our civil war, demand new and remunerative employments for many women, and, to those possessing the requisite qualifications, there is, perhaps, no sphere of noble and virtuous activity that offers higher inducements than that of medicine. The College possesses ample facilities for impaiting thorough scientific instruction in the various branches of a Medical education; the lectures and demonstrations being aided by an excellent Museum of Papier M.-ichb* Models, Drawings, Natural Preparations, Microscope?, and other apparatus. 15 The Faculty are deeply impressed with the necessity of raising the gene- ral standard of Medical education, and it is their earnest desire to render those who go forth as the Alumni of this school, so thoroughly fitted for their work as to claim and receive the confidence and respect of the community and the profession. The curriculum of study in this Institution and the requirements for gradua- tion, are in all respects as high as those of the best Medical Schools in this country. The candidate must have been engaged in the study of medicine for three years, and must have attended in different years, two courses of lectures on each of the following subjects: Chemistry and Toxicology, Anatomy and Histology, Materia Medica and General Therapeutics, Physiology and Hygiene, Principles and Practice of Medicine, Principles and Practice of Surgery, Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children, and must also have taken two courses of instruction in Practical Anatomy. The application for the degree must be made at least six weeks before the close of the session. The candidate, at the time of application, must exhibit to the Dean, the tickets for admission to two courses of lectures, as above specified, and present the graduation fee, and a thesis on some medical subject, of her own composition and penmanship. The thesis, which will in all cases be retained by the Faculty, will be referred for examination to one of the Professors, and general bad spelling or inatten- tion to the rules of» grammar, shall preclude a candidate from examination. Each candidate will be examined by each Professor separately, and when the examinations are completed, will be voted for by ballot. THE FEES ARE AS FOLLOWS: Professor's Tickets each $10.00, making $70.00 the first year, and $70 00 the second year. Practical Anatomy $5 00 each session. No fees are required for lectures after the second session. Graduation fee $25.00. Whole cost of two or more courses of lectures and graduation, .$175.00. Six students will be admitted annually to the lectures, on the payment of $20.00 per session, by making application at Iqpst thirty days before the opening of the session, accompanied by testimonials as to character, age, occupation, qualifications, and want of means. Any lady who does not incline to become a physician, yet desires instruction in some of the branches taught in a Medical College, as a part of a liberal education, may take the tickets and attend the Lectures of any one or more of the Professors. Board will be secured for those who may request it, either at the Hospital or in some other place convenient to the College. Communications should be addressed to MRS. E. II. CLEVELAND, M. D., Woman's Hospital, North College Avenue, Philadelphia. CORPORATORS. MATHIAS W. BALDWIN, THOMAS BRAINERD, D. D. ISAAC BARTON, JACOB T. BUNTING, FERDINAND J. DREER, WILLIAM ELDER, M. D. EDWIN FUSSELL, M. D. MORRIS L. HALLOWELL, ELLWOOD HARVEY, M. D. JOSEPH JEANES, THOMAS L. KANE, Esq. JOHN LONGSTRETII, M ARM A DUKE MOORE, JAMES MOTT, WILLIAM J. MULLEN, WM. S. PEIRCE, T. MORRIS PEROT, PHILIP M. PRICE, WILLIAM B. THOMAS, REDWOOD F. WARNER, 0. HOWARD WILSON. BOARD OF MANAGERS. MRS. ALEXANDER CtJMMINGS, " E. II. CLEVELAND, M. D. " FERDINAND J. DREER, « R. L. FUSSELL, M. D. " ROBERT UAMMETT, " TU0MAS L. KANE, ELIZABETH D0RSEY*, MRS. WILLIAM O. M0HEHEAD, " ANNE D. MORRISON, ANN PRESTON, M. D. MRS. RICHARD G. STOTESBURY, " EDWARD YARNALL, ANNA WHARTON. FACULTY. ANN PRESTON, M. D., Professor of Physiology and Hygiene. EDWIN FUSSELL, M. D., Professor of the Principles and Practice of Medicine. EMELINE H. CLEVELAND, M. D., Professor of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children. M. SEMPLE, M. D., Professor of Chemistry and Toslbology. REYNELL COATES, M. D., Professor of the Principles and Practice of Surgery. M. G. KERR, M. D., Professor of Materia Medica and General Therapeutics. MARY J. SCARLETT, M. D., Professor of Anatomy and Histology, and Demonstrator of Anatomy. EDWIN FUSSELL, M. D., Dean, 910 North Fifth Street. E. H. CLEVELAND, M. D., Secretary.