CORRESPONDENCE.
ENGLISH AID TO INDIAN WOMEN.
THE writer assisted at a conversation recently between an Indian statesman of reputation, and a lady who had worked towards establishing the English branch of the Dufferin Fund. "You would not say," he observed, "that the Dufferin Fund had done good to millions ?" "Indeed I should," she replied, "to millions and millions ;" and she proceeded to prove her case, much to his surprise. It seemed strange that a man who had made Indian affairs the business of his life should not know facts which affect so large and important a section of Indian mankind, and which are at this moment urgently appealing to the whole British public. The truth is, it is not realised that every Hindoo or Mahommedan woman above the labouring class, spends her life from early childhood—earlier in the case of Mahom- medans than Hindoos—in a portion of the house divided from the rest by a heavy curtain or purdah, called the " zemma." The custom varies in different parts of India, is on the whole more strictly observed in the North than in the South, and is nowhere entirely relaxed, except on the West Coast, where the Nair ladies, whose privileges are legally very great, appear in public unveiled. But the enormous majority are cloistered,—among Mahommedans with such strictness, that the eye of a stranger falling accidentally on a married woman entitles her husband to a divorce. A doctor can only feel his patient's pulse or see her tongue through a slit in a curtain, and has no power to rectify the insanitary conditions which ignorance and custom impose on an Indian household. The only medical advisers really admitted to the Zenana till the last few years were the dhans, or barber-women, whose remedies were of the most barbarous description that superstition or cruelty could suggest. The difficulties put in the way of female medical study in England reacted on India, and with the exception of a few Zenana teachers and female missionaries, there were no available means of cure for the millions of women precluded by caste or religion from seeking the advice of male doctors. Madras, so often called the benighted Presidency, was before the rest of India in this respect. Thirty-two years ago, an excellent school of nursing had been opened there, which has trained many hundred valuable women. They did something ; but it was not nurses, but doctors, that were required. In the year 1872, however, Lord Hobart was appointed Governor of Madras. His wife, who had lived much in Constantinople, took a deep interest in Mahommedans, and during his tenure of office it was arranged by him, in conjunction with Surgeon- General Balfour, Dr. Cornish, and Dr. Turnell, that women were to be admitted to study on the same footing as men at the General Hospital, and to take medical degrees at the Madras University, thereby qualifying themselves for attend- ance on their own sex. Several very able lady-doctors were the result of this enactment, among whom I may mention Mrs. Scharlieb, now practising in London, and Miss White, who has had a successful career at Hyderabad. Some years
later, a further movement was made at Madras, -when Mrs. Grant-Duff, wife of the then Governor, founded the Victoria Hospital for caste women, which was eagerly filled. This, a caste hospital set up by some American missionaries at Umritsur, and the scattering of Zenana medical ladies already mentioned, were, all put together, a meagre provision for the millions who wanted help. But a supreme effort was at hand. In 1884, Lord Dufferin was appointed Viceroy, and the Queen-Empress, touched by the unmerited sufferings of so many of her subjects, personally c3mmended the matter to the care of the Countess of Dufferin, as she then was, who, fortunately for the great enterprise she had to accomplish, was singularly businesslike, energetic, and capable.
It was determined to form a vast Asssociation, to be known as "The National Association for Supplying Female Medical Aid to the Women of India," and on August 18th, 1885, a prospectus was published in which the constitntion of the Society was laid down. The Queen-Empress was its patron, and its affairs were to be managed by a Central Committee, while efforts were to be made to establish branches all over India. How far these efforts were successful, may be learnt by referring to a very interesting map published in the fifth annual report, by which it will be seen that the centres of the National Association extend from Rangoon in the east to Quetta and Kurraclaee in the west, and that the operations of the fund extend as far north as Kangra and as far south as Trichinopoly. It succeeded in obtaining the official services of the Surgeon-General in advising the selection of its em- ployees. Medical women were to be grouped under three grades,—firstly, lady-doctors registered under the Medical Acts of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, or possessing such certificate of qualifications as would entitle them to such registration; secondly, female assistant-surgeons; thirdly, female hospital assistants. In addition to this, the Central Committee has succeeded in getting an improved sani- tary primer, called "The Way to Health," introduced into all the English and vernacular public schools of the lower grades in Northern and Central India ; and the Government has offered a reward of 1,000 rs. for an advanced work on the same sub- ject. With regard to money, at the end of three years the Association had received something under seven lakhs of rupees, and had an income of 30,000 rs., derived from invest- ments, now increased to more than eleven laklas, with an income of 50,000 rs. Out of this, six medical, twelve nursing, and two hospital assistant-scholarships were founded. Annual grants in aid were given to the support of the female medical staffs at Agra, Delhi, and Lahore, and allowances towards nursing expenses in some other places.
Lady Dufferin and Ava, as she had then become, returned to England in 1889, a resolution having been previously passed by the Central Committee of the National Association to the effect that it desired such an English branch to be formed. This has been done, its objects being :—(1), To bring the aims of the National Association for Supplying Female Medical Aid to the Women of India more prominently before the public in the United Kingdom ; (2), to aid in raising further subscrip- tions for the Dufferin Fund ; and (3), selecting such lady- doctors as the Association may require to be sent to India, and generally to act as representatives of the Central Committee in the United Kingdom.
There are now four scholarships offered by the United Kingdom branch to ladies willing to prepare for the practice of medicine in India, namely :—At the London School of Medicine for Women, (1) the " Jubilee " Scholarship of £25 a year for four years, held by Miss Jones, (2) the Dufferin
Scholarship of 225 a year for four years, held by Miss Arnott, (3) the Stuart Mill Scholarship of £30 a year for four years, held by Miss Bentham ; and, at the Edinburgh School of Medicine, (4) the Dufferin Scholarship of £25 a year, held by Miss Venters.
A very valuable arrangement has been made, and cordially accepted by the Central Committee, of having always in India an English lady in waiting for an appointment. The advantages of this are threefold :—(1.) A British lady- doctor has the opportunity of practical preparation for a substantial appointment, by being attached for a short period to an Indian hospital or native medical school, where she can acquaint herself with the peculiarities of the climate and the treatment of Indian diseases, under the guidance of doctors
who know the country and customs of the people. (2.) A British lady-doctor will have time to learn something of the native language before she is called upon to work alone. (3.) There will always be a supernumerary lady-doctor in India, available to be sent to any post which is suddenly vacated either for a long or a short period.
When the United Kingdom branch was first started, Mrs Fawcett and her daughter, Miss Philippa Garrett Fawcett, jointly paid over to this branch a sum of £400, to be devoted towards the founding of two scholarships or prizes in India for female medical students. This money, it was explained, was originally collected in India as a voluntary contribution towards the electioneering expenses of the late Mr. Fawcett, and Mrs. Fawcett and her daughter generously desired to' return it in this form for the advantage of the people in India.
But, kind as individuals have been, there has been but scant response from the English public. The full joy of charity,. the glance of the grateful eye, the speech of the grateful tongue, the sight of ease replacing pain, and of happiness taking the place of sorrow,—these are not to be had when the recipients of charity live seven thousand miles away in the profoundest seclusion. But it would be well if people would for a moment exert their imaginations, and think what illness means without medical aid, without sanitary appliances, and with constitu- tions too often prematurely destroyed. There are literally millions of gentle Indian women who are in this position, and who have no hope, in this generation at least, if the English benevolent will not forward the work more quickly. It is not many benevolent things that we have done for them, and this is the one undertaking about which there is no difference of opinion or collision between the Eastern and Western mind.
The present secretary of the English branch, Mr. Edmund Forster Webster, late chief secretary at Madras, has an office at 1 Queen Victoria Street, where subscriptions can be paid. and information received.
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