t
without being impressed that none of those societies so laudably
established in India for the promotion of science and female education
have ever thought of sending one of their female members into the more
civilized parts of the world to procure thorough medical knowledge, in
order to open here a college for the instruction of women in medicine.
The want of female physicians in India is keenly felt in every quarter.
Ladies, both European and native, are naturally averse to expose
themselves in cases of emergency to treatment by doctors of the other
sex. There are some female doctors in India from Europe and America,
who, being foreigners, and different in manners, customs and language,
have not been of such use to our women as they might. As it is very
natural that Hindoo ladies who love their own country and people should
not feel at home with the natives of the other countries, we Indian
women absolutely derive no benefit from these foreign ladies. They
indeed have the appearance of supplying our need, but the appearance is
delusive. In my humble opinion there is a growing need for Hindoo lady
doctors in India, and I volunteer to qualify myself for one.

"Are there no means to study in India? I do not mean to say there are
_no_ means, but the difficulties are many and great. There is one
college at Madras, and midwifery classes are open in all the
presidencies; but the education imparted is defective and insufficient,
as the instructors are conservative, and to some extent jealous. I do
not find fault with them. That is the character of the male sex. We must
put up with this inconvenience until we have a class of educated ladies
to relieve these men. I am neither a Christian nor a Brahmin. To
continue to live as a Hindoo, and go to school in any part of India, is
very difficult. A convert who wears an English dress is not so much
stared at. Native Christian ladies are free from the opposition or
public scandal which Hindoo ladies like myself have to meet within and
without the Zenana. If I go alone by train or in the street some people
come near to stare and ask impertinent questions to annoy me. Example is
better than precept. Some few years ago, when I was in Bombay, I used to
go to school. When people saw me going with my books in my hand they had
the goodness to put their heads out of the window just to have a look at
me. Some stopped their carriages for the purpose. Others walking in the
streets stood laughing