In 1885 William Osler (1849–1919) expressed his opposition to women-only medical schools in Canada arguing there was no market for female practitioners. He believed women were not strong enough for clinical practice. He was unhappy that the Johns Hopkins University was forced to accept women when its Medical School opened in 1893. At Oxford he continued to express concern about the fitness of women for practice and suggested their best opportunities lay in a limited number of areas –pathology, institutions for women, the care of women and children in general practice, and in India and the missionary field. His views seemed to change during the First World War, when he helped to raise funds for the London School of Medicine for Women and supported Charles Sherrington's attempt to get women admitted to the Oxford Medical School. However, in his last year he was again concerned about the relatively poor quality of women physicians –but at least thought it unsurprising considering how badly they had been treated!
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References
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The following newspapers carried the story on 5 July 1907: The Times, Daily Telegraph, Daily News, Morning Post, Morning Advertiser. There were also articles or entries in The Lady (11 and 18 July 1907), The Queen (13 July 1907), British Medical Journal (13 July 1907), Medical Times (13 July 1907), and The Hospital (3 August 1907).
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32.
This letter is in the Historical Collections of the Library, College of Physicians of Philadelphia. It is reproduced in: GoldenRL, RolandCG. Sir William Osler: an Annotated Bibliography with Illustrations.San Francisco: Norman Publishing, 1988: p. 110
