Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Sophia Jex-Blake

  • “For their own sakes”: The Edinburgh Seven, Surgeon’s Hall Riot, and the fate of English medical women

    Mariel TishmaChicago, Illinois, United States “There seems to be practically no doubt now that women are and will be doctors. The only question really remaining is, how thoroughly they are to be educated . . .”—Sophia Jex-Blake, Medical Women: Two Essays1 In 1860s Great Britain, few women could practice medicine. The first was Elizabeth Blackwell.…

  • Thomas Henry Huxley

    JMS PearceEast Yorks, England “In matters of the intellect, follow your reason as far as it will take you, without regard to any other consideration . . . In matters of the intellect, do not pretend that conclusions are certain which are not demonstrated or demonstrable.”– TH Huxley Above a butcher’s shop in Ealing in…

  • Sophia Louisa Jex-Blake, first British woman doctor

    Sophia Louisa Jex-Blake (1840-1912) was a rebellious child from the very start, “fresh, willful, and naughty.”1 She attended Queen’s College in London over the objection of her very conservative father, who upon graduation allowed her to take up a position as a mathematics tutor only if she did not take a salary (1859). After teaching…

  • Elizabeth Blackwell, MD

    JMS PearceEast Yorkshire, England Although Elizabeth Blackwell was portrayed on an 18 cent US stamp in 1974, curiously this was over a century after she graduated in medicine (Figure 1). Many remain unaware of her remarkable story as the first female Anglo-American physician, campaigner, and medical suffragette (Figure 2).1 She was born to a practising…