WOMEN IN MEDICINE AND SURGERY 307 



the 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 strenu- 

 ous campaign on the part of friends whom they had en- 

 listed 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 at- 

 tained" the women of Great Britain had the supreme 

 satisfaction of winning what was probably the most glori- 

 ous victory which their sex had ever won. 1 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 medi- 

 cal 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. ' ' 

 1 For an interesting account of the long campaign for the ad- 

 mission of women to medical schools and practice, see Medical 

 Women A Thesis and a History, by Dr. Sophia Jex-Blake, Edin- 

 burgh, 1886. 



For a more elaborate work on women in medicine, the reader may 

 consult with profit, Histoire des Femmes Medecins, by Mile. Melanie 

 Lepinska, Paris, 1900. 



