WOMEN'S MEDICINE.

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Hospital for Women, Soho Square. First edition of this unrecorded report on Britain's first medical institution devoted to the care of women. It was founded in 1842 by Protheroe Smith, a pioneering obstetrician and the first physician in London to administer chloroform in childbirth. The Soho Square "hospital embodied moral and social views about the 'special' nature of femininity" and was guided by Smith's (1810-1882) fervent evangelical beliefs (Moscucci, p. 75). It was distinguished by its closed-wards policy: "This was a pledge to debar medical students from the wards of the new hospital which was no doubt intended to secure public support for the project: ever since men-midwives had entered the lying-in chamber, the suspicion that obstetricians violated women's modesty had proved one of the major obstacles to the advance of the male practitioners of midwifery" (Moscucci, p. 82). Women were also able to stay longer in Soho than at general hospitals, allowing it to more effectively treat chronic and work-related conditions. Although the hospital was originally met with scepticism and concerns about morality, in the ensuing decades its reputation improved to such an extent that it was able to secure royal patronage, this report recording its present supporters as Alexandra, Princess of Wales, and Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Cambridge. They were later joined by Queen Victoria herself, who donated £500 in 1885.

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