WOMEN IN MEDICINE AND SURGERY 305 



hibited evidences 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 path- 

 way 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 Uni- 

 versity 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 provision- 

 ally, 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, every- 

 thing 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 sev- 

 eral days, and, had it not been for a brave band of chival- 

 rous 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 students 



