1111, LIFE OF SOPHIA JEX-BLAKE.•
Comentasers are often made of the length of modern biographies, but Dr. Margaret Todd has her answer ready, and a. very good answer it is. " We have here the kind of thing that is constantly idealized ' in present-day fiction—have it in actual contemporary record—with the added interest that here the story begins in an old-world conservative medium, and passes through the life of
the modern educated working girl into the history of a great movement, of which the chronicler was indeed pars magna." This
is strictly true, and it goes a long way towards justifying the scale on which this Memoir is written, and the minute detail in which the early life of Sophia Jex-Blake has been described.
Sophia Jen-Blake was born in 1840, the year of the Penny Post ; she came, on both sides, of old Norfolk families, and her childhood was spent in Trollopian surroundings and in a luxurious home. It was a happy but tempestuous childhood, for the effort at self-expression led to constant friction. She was riotous, ex- citable, and a " terrible pickle at school," alternating between explosions of insubordination and deep penitence, but always truthful. Athletics, which might have provided a safety-valve, did not exist for early Victorian girls ; her parents were strict Evangelicals, and the comfort of home life did not compensate for these restraints: Yet she was passionately devoted to her parents, as they were to her. The preservation of this affection, in spite of the strain of conflicting outlooks and ideals, is, as her biographer observes, " perhaps the most remarkable thing in the whole history, and full of significance and helpful suggestion for us all in these critical days." After various unsuccessful experi- ments at different schools, she entered Queen's College, London, at its opening in 1858, and stayed there for ten terms, overworking herself as student, tutor, coach—for a while she taught Miss Octavia Hill Euclid—an electrical, stimulating personality, and a devoted but exacting friend. Education being still her aim, she moved to Edinburgh to attend lectures and classes, and became immersed in obstinate theological questionings. Migrating to Germany as a teacher in a school at Mannheim, she was happy for a while, but soon found the surroundings uncongenial. She was unmusical, cared little for dress, and failed to get hold of her pupils. On her return home various schemes presented themselves. She was offered the Principalship of a projected girls' school at Manchester, but the scheme fell through, and in 1865 she sailed for Boston, to study the education of girls in the States. In all she paid three visits to America. Her original aim was fulfilled in the book published in 1867, but her association with Dr. Lucy Sewall and the women doctors of Boston marked the turning-point in her career. For a while the choice lay between teaching and preaching, but the fascination of medicine prevailed, and in her second visit she was formally enrolled as a medical student at the Women's Hospital at Boston. It was here that she realized that women's medical degrees, as then awarded, failed to inspire confidence, and that, urgent as was the need of adequate graduation, that of adequate education was still greater. During her third visit she became a student at the Women's Medical College at New York, but was summoned home at the close of 1868 by the news of her father's fatal illness, cancelling her American prospects, and deciding thenceforth to seek medical education in her native land. In 1869 her long fight began at Edinburgh. (She had been dissuaded by Henry Sidgwick, a strong sympathizer, from
trying Cambridge.) The omens were at first propitious. Though she set out to storm the citadel single-handed, she found strong supporters in Masson, in Simpson, and in Alexander Russel of the Scotsman. A vote in favour of women students passed
by the Senatus was neutralized by the action of the University
Court, but by the end of the year the latter body gave way and a scheme was sanctioned providing for the admission of
women medical students to the University in separate classes.
Unfortunately the perfectly logical and natural demand for further facilities led to a campaign of reaction, in which the baser sort of medical student joined hands with the obstructive Professors.
These included some men of the highest distinction and character, but the alliance was fatal to their cause in the long run. The provocation received by Miss Jex-Blake in the historic riot at Surgeons' Hall was very great, but her biographer admits that she showed a lack of tact and discretion. Local public opinion was against her in the libel action which grew out of this episode, but she had the practically unanimous support of the Press, and the verdict for a farthing damages was a great moral victory. The right of admission to the wards of the infirmary was granted—on
• The life of Sophia .fax-Biake. By Margaret Todd, M.D. (Graham Travers).
• London: Macmillan and Co. i18a. net.]
terms, but the vital question of graduation remained, said though Lord Gifford gave judgment in her favour in her case against the Senatus, it was reversed on appeal by the Edinburgh Law Lords. And at this point Miss Jex-Blake received a severe personal rebuff by her rejection in a medical examination. The question of an appeal to the House of Lords was abandoned, and the campaign passed to London and the House of Commons, where, by the unfaltering assistance of Sir James Stansfeld, Mr. Cowper-Temple, and Mr. Russell Gurney, the Enabling Act was passed in 1876. The Queen's Colleges of Ireland were the first to avail themselves of their powers, and to grant to women the long-deferred privilege of Registration. In 1877, the mantas mirabilis of the cause, women were admitted to the London Free Hospital, and an application for admission to medical examination and degree was granted by the Senate of the University of London. If Miss Jex-Blake was the heroine and chief protagonist of the long fight for women doctors, there were many heroes, notably the three Edinburgh doctors, Balfour, Watson, and Peel Ritchie, whose splendid chivalry she never failed to recognize as long as she lived.
Dr. Todd gives us an. excellent account of Miss Jex-Blake's work as a doctor in Edinburgh, after the " dramatic days " were over, from 1878, when she entered on her practice, to 1899, when she retired to enjoy her " Sabbatical Year " in Sussex. Though not dramatic, these years were rich in activity, in achievement, in joy and sorrow. The greatest blow was the death of her mother. Compared with that the collapse of her medical school owing to the " clash of temperaments " was a small thing. She forgot her disappointment in the success of her students, and the loyalty of those who had stood by her. She was busy with her pen both for the Press and in correspondence. It is worth recording that she was never a misanthrope (in the limited sense). She held " most strongly that Love should still be Lord of all,' and that if two good people love each other heartily in the right way they ought to marry under almost all circumstances. I don't believe in 'sews of celibacy for medical women any more than for any one else. Women are women before they are doctors." Her greatest triumph was in October, 1894, when the University Court at Edinburgh made public their determination to admit women forthwith to graduation in medicine, and the resident members in Edinburgh of the National Association for Promoting the Medical Education of Women presented her with a congratulatory address on the crowning of her twenty-five years' struggle. In her Sussex home Dr. Jex- BIake—she had taken her degree at Berne and Dublin—spent a dozen happy years, amid her books,.her flowers, and her friends, never idle, never so happy as when entertaining tired workers, as most of her guests were, and there she passed away in 1912, having found " port after stormy seas."
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