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12 injury is much lessened, if not altogether prevented. The conscientious physician will guard the character of his confiding patient with scrupulous fidelity, and will take good heed that no act of his shall sully, in the least, those beautiful graces for which she is so highly and so justly esteemed. But, gentlemen, the least consideration will show you that women are not competent to the duties that such persons would impose upon them. They are not fitted for them by nature, nor can they acquire the necessary qualifications by education. I have shown you, I think, that the study and practice of midwifery demand the highest faculties of our nature—intellectual, moral and physical. You have seen that they require a vigorous intellect, a disciplined mind, and a matured judgment. Now, allow me to ask, are these the mental qualities that characterize woman ? Is she gifted with intellectual strength ? Has she that power of concentration of thought and mental abstraction which are necessary in the pursuit of science ? Does she excel, for example, in astronomy, in mathematics, in chemistry, or in any of the abstract sciences ? No, gentlemen, her mind is not for science; it is too versatile — it cannot be fixed for a sufficient length of time upon one subject, but delights in a constant succession of topics. With her, as you well know, imagination takes the place of reason, and judgment comes from instinct. She is deficient, too, in those peculiar moral faculties that are called into exercise in the practice of our art. Self-control, firmness of purpose, and moral courage, are the great requisites of the obstetrician. The characteristic traits of woman are of an entirely different order. The inimitable Shakspeare, always truthful in his delineation of character, describes her with graphic force, as " soft, mild, pitiful and flexible." With such dispositions, she is totally unsuited to the practice of our art. Her gushing sympathies would not allow her to look unmoved upon suffering, but would ever tempt her to ...