Note 119 — VII. WOMAN IN MEDICINE. (continued 2)
Reading edition
The editor of the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal announced this decision with great regret. The writer declared it “to be impossible that women can frequent our public meetings or lecture-rooms when certain topics are discussed, without breaking through barriers which decency has built up, and which it is for the interest of every lady and gentleman to preserve.... The moral tone of the society will soon be perceptibly lowered.”—(Loc. cit., October, 1879.)
The success of the movement was due to the chivalrous energy of a group of younger members, especially Drs. James and Charles Putnam, Dr. Chadwick, Dr. Cabot, and Dr. Derby.