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ASE Science Practice

teaching secondary
C H E M I S T RY
Second edition
Ed i to r: K e i t h S. Ta b e r
Titles in this series:
Teaching Secondary Biology 978 1444 124316
Teaching Secondary Chemistry 978 1444 124323
Teaching Secondary Physics 978 1444 124309
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ISBN: 978 1444 124323

Contents
Contributors iv
Introduction vi
Keith S. Taber
1 Key concepts in chemistry 1
Keith S. Taber
2 Introducing particle theory 49
Philip Johnson
3 Introducing chemical change 75
Keith S. Taber
4 Developing models of chemical bonding 103
Keith S. Taber
5 Extent, rates and energetics of chemical change 137
Vanessa Kind
6 Acids and alkalis 183
John Oversby
7 Combustion and redox reactions 199
Vicky Wong, Judy Brophy and Justin Dillon
8 Electrolysis, electrolytes and galvanic cells 253
Georgios Tsaparlis
9 Inorganic chemical analysis 279
Kim Chwee Daniel Tan
10 Organic chemistry and the chemistry of natural products 303
Vanessa Kind
11 Earth science 343
Elaine Wilson
12 Chemistry in the secondary curriculum 369
Keith S. Taber
Index 379
 Contributors
Judy Brophy graduated in chemistry from Manchester University
before training as a teacher at the Institute of Education. She taught
science and chemistry for many years in inner city (11–18) London
comprehensives, whilst taking an active role in the ASE. Judy
specialised, successfully, in encouraging her A Level students,
especially girls, to aim higher. As a visiting teacher at King’s
College London she passes on her experience to secondary science
PGCE students.

Justin Dillon is professor of science and environmental education

and Head of the Science and Technology Education Group at
King’s College London. After studying for a degree in chemistry he
trained as a teacher at Chelsea College and taught in six inner
London schools until 1989 when he joined King’s. Justin is
co-editor of the International Journal of Science Education and in
2007 was elected President of the European Science Education
Research Association for a four-year term.

Philip Johnson taught chemistry up to A Level for thirteen years

in 11–18 comprehensive schools before joining Durham University
School of Education in 1992. He began researching into the
development of students’ understanding in chemistry while
teaching in schools and continues to do so. His work is published in
international science education research journals.

Vanessa Kind is Senior Lecturer in Education at Durham

University and Director of Science Learning Centre North East.
She has extensive experience of chemical education gained through
teaching in London and Hull, and a previous lectureship at the
Institute of Education, University of London. Vanessa was the
Royal Society of Chemistry’s Teacher Fellow 2001–2002. Her
current research interests include pedagogical content knowledge
for science teaching and post-16 chemistry education.

John Oversby has been a teacher of sciences and mathematics in

Ghana and the UK for over 20 years, and a teacher educator at The
University of Reading for 20 years. He is also an active member of
The Royal Society of Chemistry and Chair of the ASE Research
Committee. He has interests in modelling in science education. He
has been the UK coordinator of a history and philosophy in science
teaching project and is now international coordinator of a
Comenius Climate Change Education network.

iv
 Contributors

Keith S. Taber taught sciences, mainly chemistry and physics, in

secondary schools and further education, before joining the Faculty
of Education at the University of Cambridge, where he is mostly
working with higher degree students. Whilst teaching, he
undertook doctoral research exploring student understanding of
the chemical bond concept. He was the Royal Society of
Chemistry’s Teacher Fellow in 2000–2001. He has written a good
deal about chemistry and science education, and is editor of the
journal Chemistry Education Research and Practice.

Kim Chwee Daniel Tan started his career as a chemistry teacher in

1990. He has been a faculty member of the (Singapore) National
Institute of Education since 1998. He teaches higher degree courses
as well as chemistry pedagogy courses in the pre-service teacher
education programmes. His research interests are chemistry
curriculum, translational research, ICT in science education,
students’ understanding and alternative conceptions of science,
multimodality and practical work.

Georgios Tsaparlis is professor of science education at University

of Ioannina, Greece. He holds a chemistry degree (University of
Athens) and an M.Sc., and a Ph.D. (University of East Anglia). He
teaches physical chemistry (including electrochemistry) and science/
chemistry education courses. He has published extensively in
science education, his research focus being on structural concepts,
problem solving, teaching and learning methodology, and
chemistry curricula. He was founder and editor (2000–2011) of
Chemistry Education Research and Practice (CERP).

Elaine Wilson is a Senior Lecturer in science education and a

Fellow of Homerton College at the University of Cambridge.
Elaine was formerly a secondary school chemistry teacher who was
awarded a Salters’ Medal for Chemistry teaching. She now teaches
undergraduates, secondary science PGCE students, coordinates a
‘blended learning’ Science Education Masters course and has helped
set up a new EdD course. Elaine has received two career awards for
teaching in Higher Education, a University of Cambridge
Pilkington Teaching Prize and a National Teaching Fellowship.

Vicky Wong taught Science and Chemistry in the UK, Spain and
New Zealand for ten years. She was the Royal Society of Chemistry
Teacher Fellow in 2004–2005 and now works as an independent
science education consultant running training courses for teachers,
writing curriculum materials and undertaking research.

v
 Introduction
Keith S. Taber
This book is part of a series of handbooks for science teachers
commissioned by the Association for Science Education. This
particular handbook is intended to support the teaching of
chemistry at secondary level (taken here as ages 11–16 years),
whether as a discrete subject or as part of a broader science course.
The book has been written with a particular awareness of the needs
of new teachers and of those teaching chemistry who would not
consider it their specialism within the sciences. However, the book
should prove to be of interest and value to anyone teaching
chemistry topics at secondary level. The book has been written by a
team of authors who collectively have a wide range of experience in
teaching chemistry, supporting and developing teachers of
chemistry, and undertaking research into teaching and learning in
chemistry topics.
It is sometimes easier to characterise something by explaining
what it is not. This book is not a chemistry textbook for teachers,
although inevitably it discusses chemistry content as part of the
process of describing and recommending approaches to teaching
the subject. There are many good chemistry books available at
various levels, and any teacher who is concerned about their
knowledge and understanding in aspects of chemistry should first
do some work to develop their own subject knowledge before
considering approaches to teaching. So-called ‘pedagogic content
knowledge’ will only be sound when we are building on subject
knowledge that is sound (else we become very effective at teaching
poor chemistry).
The handbook does not set out to act as a teaching guide for any
particular curriculum or syllabus. We intend the book to be equally
useful across different courses: whether the course is arranged as a
set of traditional topics or organised in some other way, for example
teaching concepts through the contexts of major areas of
application of chemistry such as food, transport, fabrics, etc. The
book is not tied to a particular stream or ability level of student. In
some places chapters make explicit suggestions for differentiating
between different groups of students, but you should always
consider how the advice given here can best inform the teaching of
your particular classes.
Nor does the book set out to be a manual for teaching chemistry
in the sense of providing comprehensive coverage of all content that
might potentially be included in a secondary chemistry course.
Such a manual would inevitably be both voluminous and very
quickly out of date as chemistry and chemistry teaching move on.
vi
 Introduction

Ideas for effective chemistry teaching

The philosophy behind the present book is that it is more important
to inform teachers about effective teaching approaches than to train
them to apply specified teaching schemes in particular topics. Some
of the recommendations we offer in the handbook are based on a
good deal of classroom experience and draw on specific research
into students’ learning difficulties and effective innovations in
teaching. The specific suggestions made for teaching these aspects
of the subject can certainly be considered as the best research-
informed advice currently available to teachers.
However, teaching is a contextualised process: students, facilities,
curriculum requirements and so much more can make a difference
to what counts as good teaching in a particular classroom on a
particular day. So just as important as the specific suggestions for
teaching particular concepts is the range of approaches adopted by
authors across the chapters. Drawing upon the range of teaching
and learning activities described here can inform the development
of teaching that is both varied and responsive to the needs of
particular students and classes. Although not everything that could
possibly be covered is included in the book, the thinking behind the
examples that are presented here offers the basis for developing
effective teaching that can be adopted across chemistry teaching
(and often well beyond).

Teaching about the nature of chemistry

In accordance with the philosophy outlined above, the reader will
find a varied set of chapters included in the book. For example,
features of the nature of chemistry as a science are highlighted in
some chapters. Teaching about the nature of science (which has
sometimes been referred to as ‘how science works’), which
recognises how all students need to understand science (i.e. should
be scientifically literate) for their role as citizens (as consumers,
voters, etc.), has become increasingly important. Such a perspective
needs to inform all science teaching and readers may wish to think
how the ideas highlighted in a number of the chapters here (such as
the nature and role of models in developing understanding of the
world) can be more widely applied.
Another key difference between the chapters is the centrality of
the topics discussed. The first five chapters set out key ideas that are
needed to understand any area of chemistry, whereas the other
chapters stand alone to a much greater extent. It is also useful to note
that while almost all of the chapters are clearly about chemistry, the
vii
INTRODUCTION

chapter about Earth science overlaps strongly with several other

sciences, and in particular draws on geology. Given the increasing
importance of interdisciplinary work in science and – even more so
– the importance of understanding the environment in science and
in society more widely, this chapter reminds us that chemistry links
with, builds upon, and feeds into, a wide range of scientific work.
A final difference between chapters that will be very obvious to
readers is the extent to which practical work features. It is said that
chemistry is a practical subject. This is certainly true, but – as a
science – chemistry is just as much a theoretical subject: it is the
interplay of theory and evidence that is at the heart of scientific
work. Chemistry as a science is based upon observations that lead
to the development of categories and the identification of patterns,
and to ways of making sense of, and understanding, the
phenomena. This involves the construction of models and theories,
which can motivate empirical investigations that can then inform
further rounds of theorising and experimentation. In particular,
much of chemistry as a science can be considered to be about
building models and selecting those that are useful to scientists
despite inevitably having limited ranges of application. The notions
of acids (Chapter 6) or oxidation (Chapter 7) certainly reflect this,
being concepts that are the products of human imagination,
designed to reflect the patterns found in nature and to have utility
to chemists as tools for thinking, explaining, predicting and so
supporting practical and technological work. Understanding
chemical ideas in this way, as creative products of scientific work
(rather than simply being descriptions of the way the world is),
should help students make sense of how chemists have modified
these concepts over time (as described in the case of acids in
Chapter 6), and why sometimes we seem to operate with a range of
not entirely consistent models (oxidation in terms of oxygen or
electrons: Chapter 7; oxidation in terms of oxidation states:
Chapter 9).
An activity which illustrates this general point in relation to
particle theory (the topic of Chapter 2) is included in a publication
available from SEP (the Science Enhancement Programme, details of
which are given in the ‘Other resources’ section at the end of this
introduction). The first of two group-work tasks in this activity
‘Judging models in science’ asks students to consider two types of
particle models – particles like tiny hard billiard balls; particles as
molecules with ‘soft’ electron clouds – and to consider which model
better explains a range of evidence based on the observable properties
of matter. Students will find that each model is useful for explaining
some phenomena, but neither fits all the evidence – and of course
both models are still found useful in science.
viii
 Introduction

A key aspect of this Janus-faced nature of chemistry (looking to

both the phenomena and the theories) is that chemistry is discussed
in terms of the macroscopic/molar/phenomenal level and in terms of
submicroscopic particle models which are used to make sense of
those phenomena. These models exemplify the nature of science
(offering an extremely powerful explanatory scheme for making
sense of the nature of the material world), but are known to be
challenging for students.
A central feature of the way chemistry is presented and discussed
in classrooms is the set of representations (such as formulae and
chemical equations) used. This is often seen as a third ‘level’ distinct
from the molar and submicroscopic levels, but is more helpfully
understood as a specialised language that allows us to shift between
those two levels (see Chapter 3). Translating between observable
phenomena, symbolic representations and theoretical models is a
key part both of teaching, and learning, chemistry.

Practical work and ‘experiments’ in

chemistry teaching
Given the nature of chemistry as a discipline, and of school
chemistry as a curriculum subject, it is essential that students are
introduced to the phenomena that the theories and models are
meant to help us understand. Without experiencing these
phenomena, there is little motivation for adopting the theoretical
ideas. Within school science, practical work has long been seen as a
key part of chemistry lessons in many countries (and especially in
the UK). Yet research also suggests that a good deal of the practical
work undertaken by students has limited impact on learning (or
even on student motivation to continue studying the subject).
Readers should consider carefully whether practical work
undertaken is going to be the most effective way of meeting the
purposes of teaching. In some cases this will certainly be so. So the
chapter on inorganic analysis, an area of secondary chemistry that is
not always given as much attention as it once was, is largely
developed around practical work that students can carry out. This
makes sense, as the aims of teaching this topic include the ability to
carry out analytical procedures and interpret bench observations to
identify particular chemical species present. Other chapters vary
considerably in the amount of laboratory practical work
recommended. In some cases teacher demonstrations are
recommended as being more effective ways of ensuring students can
be helped to appreciate the chemical interpretations of observations

ix
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INTRODUCTION

– as a teacher you can draw students’ attention to the chemically

relevant and away from the salient but incidental. In some topics
alternative forms of engaging, active learning are suggested to help
students learn concepts not easily appreciated from the laboratory
work possible in school contexts. Ultimately, however, theory and
practical experience both have important roles to play and need to be
coordinated across secondary school learning.
One specific issue that has vexed me in this context is the use of
the term ‘experiment’ to describe school science practical work.
Very few chemistry practicals carried out in most schools have any
genuine claim to be experiments (authentic investigations to test
out hypotheses, rather than to illustrate what is already set out as
target knowledge to be learnt), and using the term experiment
loosely may undermine learning about the nature of science, when
we know that students commonly use technical terms such as
‘experiment’, ‘theory’, ‘proof’ and so forth in very vague and
inconsistent ways. However, within the culture of school chemistry
the term experiment is often used for any laboratory practical
activity, especially one that is undertaken by students (rather than
being a demonstration). Some authors here have followed the
common usage and referred to laboratory practical activities as
experiments. This is fine in talk among teachers and technicians,
but it may be wise to consider carefully which practical activities
should be presented to students as experiments. It is probably best
limited to those where they are genuinely testing some kind of
hypothesis – where students are seeking to discover something they
do not actually already know.

MM Ensuring safety during practical work

Many standard chemistry practicals have been carried out safely in
schools for decades and there have seldom been serious accidents.
Yet clearly there are particular potential hazards involved in some
practical work. It is important to keep the potential risks of practical
activities (whether observed by, or undertaken by, the students) in
perspective, yet to remember that student safety must be your
paramount concern. In this book, the margin icon shown here is
used to alert you to particular safety issues that you should be aware
of. Recommended activities are considered suitable for classroom
use by the authors. However, assessing risk is not just about the
activity, but also the people and the conditions. The same practical
may be viable with some teaching groups and not others.
It is, therefore, very important to undertake careful risk
assessments before deciding to do any practical activities in the

x
 Introduction

classroom. Your risk assessment needs to consider the experience

and skills of the person(s) carrying out the activity (teacher or
students), how responsible the particular students are and the
facilities available in the teaching room (presence of a fume
cupboard, adequate ventilation, sufficient access to sinks, plenty of
space for students to move around, support of teaching assistants,
assistance of a qualified technician, etc.)
For any practical activity (including teacher demonstrations) the
teacher should carry out a risk assessment. This might include:
MM checking the model risk assessment supplied by their employer
(this may be supplied by another agency, such as CLEAPPS or
SSERC in the UK, to which the employer subscribes) and
adjusting the model risk assessment as appropriate.
MM referring to the hazards of the starting material and the products
by consulting safety data sheets provided by the supplier, and
adjusting the model risk assessment as appropriate,
MM consulting more experienced teachers or experienced technicians.
As a result, the significant findings should be recorded and the
appropriate control measures implemented. Whatever the outcomes
of a risk assessment, including the risk of annoying hard-working
technical staff, you should always be prepared to suspend or cancel
laboratory work during a lesson if at any point you judge that
student behaviour or some other factor makes continuing unwise.

The structure of the book

The book contains twelve chapters. The first three discuss the
teaching of the most basic chemical ideas, which underpin all other
chemistry topics. These are ideas that will need to be met early on
in the secondary school, but will be developed in more
sophisticated ways throughout the secondary years. Chapters 4 and
5 discuss other fundamental ideas which build upon those
discussed in Chapters 1–3, and provide the basis for the level of
theoretical exploration of chemistry expected of many upper-
secondary level classes (as well as setting out the theoretical basis
that is developed in post-secondary study). The next six chapters
draw upon, and often assume knowledge of, these basic ideas, but
need not necessarily be taught in the order they appear in the
handbook. The final chapter has a slightly different flavour; it
reflects upon how decisions are made about which chemistry topics
should be a part of the secondary education for different groups of
students. For readers in some contexts such decisions will be made
centrally by curriculum authorities, but in many teaching contexts

xi
INTRODUCTION

there may be important decisions to be made about which science

topics should be part of a core curriculum, and which can be seen as
either possible enrichment or as important for some, but not all,
groups of students.

1 Key concepts in chemistry

2 Introducing particle theory

3 Introducing chemical change

4 Developing models of chemical

bonding

5 Extent, rates and energetics of

chemical change

6 Acids and 8 Electrolysis, 9 Inorganic 11 Earth science

alkalis electrolytes and chemical
galvanic cells analysis

7 Combustion and 10 Organic chemistry

redox reactions and the chemistry of
natural products

12 Chemistry in the
secondary curriculum

xii
 Introduction

MM The structure of the chapters

As suggested above, the nature of the eleven topic-based chapters in
this book reflects the diversity of topics found in a chemistry
course, as well as the different teaching approaches judged worth
recommending by the authors who have particular expertise in
those topics. However, all of these chapters include a number of
common features. Each chapter is divided into sections according
to main subsections of the chapter topic, and each includes a
schematic diagram of the chapter structure. Each chapter offers
guidance on a route through the topic. These chapters also discuss
the prior knowledge and relevant experience that students will
bring to the study of the topic at secondary level, as well as
highlighting the common learning difficulties and alternative
conceptions that students are known to have in the topic. Although
the authors here can offer guidance on the likely range of prior
knowledge and common alternative conceptions to be found in
many classes, each group of students is different, and – indeed –
each learner is an individual with their own personal understanding
of the world and their own way of interpreting what they are taught
in chemistry classes.
This is something I am well aware of from my own work, where
I have spent a good deal of time asking secondary-age students to
tell me about their understanding of various science topics. There
are some very common alternative ideas (alternative conceptions or
misconceptions) that are found in just about any class. For example,
it is very likely that in any upper secondary science or chemistry
class you teach, at least some (and in many classes it will be most) of
the students think that chemical reactions occur so that individual
atoms can fill their electron shells. (If you cannot see what is wrong
with that idea, then you may find Chapter 4 quite interesting.)
However, it is also the case that if you spend enough time asking
students to tell you their ideas relating to science topics, you are likely
to uncover some idiosyncratic notion they hold which is at odds with
accepted scientific knowledge and which you have never heard
suggested before. Student individuality and creativity is such that this
is likely to remain the case even when you have been teaching
chemistry for some decades! Some examples of student thinking
about chemistry topics can be found on the ECLIPSE project website
(full details of which are given in the ‘Other resources’ section at the
end of this introduction), offering a taste of the diverse and often
unexpected ways that different learners make sense of the topics they
meet in school science lessons. (Note, the icon here is used in the
margin where references are made to useful websites.)

xiii
INTRODUCTION

As what students already think is a strong determinant of what

they will learn in your lessons, it is worth spending some time
exploring their ideas and in particular undertaking diagnostic
assessment at the start of major topics to check on prior learning
and elicit any strongly held alternative conceptions. In an ideal
world teachers would have time to talk at length to each of their
students. More realistically, ideas can be explored through open-
ended classroom discussion that invites students’ ideas in an
accepting way and explores their consequences (and relationship
with available evidence), before ‘closing down’ discussion to present
the scientific models. This presentation of the ‘scientific story’ can
then be done in ways that anticipate student objections and
emphasise the reasons for the scientific explanations being adopted
in the scientific community – especially where these explanations
contradict students’ own thinking. Classroom materials for
diagnostic assessment have been published in many science topics
and some are referred to in this volume.
The chapters here draw upon research evidence, although in
common with other handbooks in the series, the chapters do not
include in the text references to the research literature. However,
recommendations for further reading and suggestions for resources
likely to be found useful by teachers are listed at the end of chapters.
Keith S. Taber
Cambridge, 2012

Other resources
MM Books
The ASE Guide to Secondary Science Education (Martin Hollins,
editor) offers a broad range of advice and information for those
teaching science in secondary schools. ASE Publications.
An introduction to how students learn in chemistry and the
nature and consequences of their alternative ideas, as well as a range
of classroom resources to diagnose student ideas, can be found in
Chemical Misconceptions – Prevention, Diagnosis and Cure. Taber,
K.S. (2002). London: Royal Society of Chemistry. Volume 1:
Theoretical background; Volume 2: Classroom resources.
To explore further ideas for teaching about the nature of science,
readers might refer to the companion handbook in this series,
Teaching Secondary How Science Works. Vanessa Kind and Per
Morten Kind (2008). London: Hodder Education.

xiv
 Introduction

CLEAPSS provides support for practical work, and in particular

health and safely information for school science. CLEAPSS is the
source for such useful resources as the Secondary Science Laboratory
Handbook and Secondary Science Hazcards (providing safety
information and model risk assessments for handling chemicals).
www.cleapss.org.uk
For a research-based discussion of effective practical work in
school science see Practical Work in School Science: A Minds-on
Approach. Abrahams, I. (2011). London: Continuum.
The group-work activity ‘Judging models in science’ is included
in Enriching School Science for the Gifted Learner. Taber, K.S. (2007).
London: Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme. Available from
‘Mindsets Online’: www.mindsetsonline.co.uk

MM Websites
An introduction to the common alternative ideas
(‘misconceptions’) that students often develop in chemistry is
provided in Kind, V. (2004). Beyond Appearances: Students’
Misconceptions about Basic Chemical Ideas (2nd edn). London: Royal
Society of Chemistry. Available at: www.rsc.org/Education/
Teachers/Resources/Books/Misconceptions.asp
The Royal Society of Chemistry provides a wide range of resources
to support chemistry teaching, which may be searched at:
www.rsc.org/learn-chemistry
Examples of how students think about and explain chemistry (and
other science) topics can be found at the ECLIPSE (Exploring
Conceptual Learning, Integration and Progression in Science
Education) project website:
www.educ.cam.ac.uk/research/projects/eclipse
A range of resources for chemistry teachers recommended by
colleagues on two email discussion lists (Chemistry-Teachers@
yahoogroups.co.uk and [email protected]) are listed at:
http://camtools.cam.ac.uk/access/wiki/site/~kst24/teaching-
secondary-chemistry-resources.html
The magazine Education in Chemistry, published by the Royal
Society of Chemistry, includes a regular feature called ‘Exhibition
Chemistry’ offering ‘ideas for chemistry demonstrations to capture
the student’s imagination’. These are accompanied by a video of the
demonstration which can be viewed on the web:
www.rsc.org/Education/EiC/topics/Exhibition_chemistry.asp

xv
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 1 Key concepts in chemistry
Keith S. Taber

1.1 Stuff, matter, materials

MM Defining chemistry as a science
MM Substances

MM An empirical view of substances

MM A theoretical view of substances

1.2 Mixtures 1.3 Elements and 1.4 Change in

MM Dissolving and compounds chemistry – the
recrystallising MM Teaching about concept of reactions
MM Separating salt from elements and MM Chemical and physical

sand compounds change – a useful rule

MM Chromatography MM The chemist’s elemental of thumb?
MM Formulating mixtures analyser MM Teaching about

MM The periodic table of chemical and physical

the elements change
MM Revising the periodic MM Diagnosing student

table thinking about chemical

and physical change

1.5 Stoichiometry 1.6 Moles –

measuring quantities
in chemistry
MM The chemist’s dozen

MM Range of moles

problems
MM Coda

MM Choosing a route
This chapter will present key ideas that will be taught and
developed through a spiral curriculum. Increasingly advanced
treatments will be revisited throughout the secondary years in
different contexts. This is important because many of the ideas met
in chemistry are abstract, unfamiliar and even counter-intuitive.
Learners therefore need time to come to terms with these ideas; to

1
key concepts in chemistry

explore them and become familiar with them. Few students will be
able to master these ideas when first meeting them, so it is
important that the ideas are carefully introduced and then later
reviewed and reinforced in a variety of contexts. Luckily, chemistry,
as a subject, supports this teaching approach as many of the key
ideas are relevant to teaching and learning across all topics. A
balance will be needed between introducing new materials and
revisiting previous teaching. It is easy to overload students’ working
memories, as they can only keep a limited amount of new
information in their minds at any time. However, effective and
meaningful learning will require students to relate teaching to their
developing understanding of the subject. The key is to recognise
that while ideas are still novel (and often somewhat strange) they
will place a demand on the learner, but if they are regularly
reinforced in various contexts, then over time these increasingly
familiar ideas will shift from being an additional load on memory
to acting as suitable support (‘scaffolding’) for new learning.
It is recommended, therefore, that after a major new idea is
introduced (the distinction between chemical substances and
mixtures of substances, say), you should look for opportunities to
review the idea as often as possible over the next few weeks and
months. Initially treat the reviews as if dealing with new material
(for some students they will be received that way) and over time
shift your approach to treating the ideas as taken for granted within
the community of the chemistry class. Seeking regular formative
feedback (‘Jilly, can you remember what we called a substance with
only one type of atom?’; ‘Vijay, could you remind the class what we
mean by a chemical reaction?’) will provide guidance on how
quickly such shifts are possible with particular classes.
Similar advice would be appropriate to many subjects, but in
chemistry we have to deal with two particular complications that
do not always apply in other subjects. As some of our key ideas are
abstract and cannot be demonstrated directly, it is difficult to
explain them clearly without reference to other equally abstract
ideas. For example, consider the idea that a chemical change
produces different chemical substances. To understand this
statement, a student would already need to have a good grasp of the
concept of chemical substances, so it would seem chemical
substance needs to be introduced first. Yet understanding a
chemical substance as something that retains its identity through
phase changes (such as ice becoming water) to some extent requires
one to already have some notion that such changes are not
considered as chemical changes. Of course, a decision has to be
made about which ideas should be considered most suitable as a
starting point, but students will not be in a position to appreciate

2
 1.1 Stuff, matter, materials

these concepts fully when first introduced. So learning in chemistry

is iterative, involving some ‘bootstrapping’ of partially understood
concepts, one upon another.
Perhaps this circularity can be avoided to some extent by defining
a pure substance differently – in terms of structure at the molecular
level. Yet learning about ‘particle models’, as we will see in this and
the subsequent chapters, is challenging for students and we again
run into the way ideas are intimately interlinked. Finding a simple
‘particle’ level definition of a pure substance that would apply
unproblematically to all substances (such as neon, oxygen, water,
common salt, sulfur, sugar and copper) might be a challenge for
any teacher!
This chapter is organised, as it needs to be, as a linear
presentation of topics. In one sense this is a logical sequence to
follow in teaching, as it builds up the complexity of the ideas.
However, while I would advise teachers to try to follow something
like this sequence, it is more important to realise that whatever
order is chosen, the effective teaching of these ideas will not be
achieved in a single pass through.

1.1 Stuff, matter, materials

MM Previous knowledge and experience
Students will have had experience with materials as part of their
primary education, as well as from their everyday experience of the
world. Students are likely to be familiar in particular with the ideas of
solids, liquids and (probably) gases, although their concepts here may
be limited and imprecise (and talking about materials in this way, as
being ‘solids’, ‘liquids’ and ‘gases’ may not be helpful, as will be
explained in Chapter 2). Some may have met the particle model of
matter and may be familiar with simple representations of the states
of matter at a submicroscopic scale, though they are unlikely to have a
good grasp of the actual scale at which these particles are considered
to exist, nor a strong appreciation of the significance of the models.

MM A teaching sequence
OO Defining chemistry as a science
Definitions in science are notoriously unhelpful. They tend either to
be very vague, too exclusive (i.e. seeming to omit things that should
be included) or so technical that they are only useful to someone
who already has a good understanding of what is being defined.

3
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key concepts in chemistry

Chemistry is usually defined in terms of being about the nature,

properties and structure of matter, or about the properties and
interactions of different substances. While not inaccurate, such
definitions are of limited value to students until they have already
started to see ‘matter’ in chemical terms and to understand what
chemists mean by ‘substances’.
Chemistry is about the ‘stuff’ around us and about how we can
think about this stuff in scientific terms. As a science, chemistry
sets about analysing stuff in systematic ways and this often means
working with simplifications and generalisations – at least as
starting points and ‘first approximations’. The science of chemistry
involves building up a body of theory: a collection of principles,
laws and models that can be used to make sense of, and so explain
and predict, the properties of matter.
These are important points, as a student cannot be considered to
understand chemistry in any depth unless she or he appreciates that,
as a science, its central ‘contents’ are not the phenomena in nature,
but the theoretical constructs people have developed to explain
those phenomena. Most chemists are very interested in the
phenomena themselves – we tend to be fascinated by the colour
changes, the ability to produce smells and bangs and so forth.
Students usually like this aspect of the subject, although for most
the original fascination with smells and bangs is unlikely to last
throughout secondary education if it is based purely on observing
phenomena. What makes chemistry a science, and makes it a science
that continues to fascinate students, is the ability to organise and
explain the phenomena in terms of models of great explanatory
strength; models that with some modification can be applied across
the wide range of substances and reactions met in school science
(and of course beyond).

OO Substances
One of the major simplifications adopted in chemistry is to focus
on substances. This is a simplification because, in our normal
environment, few of the materials we commonly come across are
strictly ‘substances’ in the chemical sense. Figure 1.1 sets out the
relationship between some key ideas in chemistry. So where ‘matter’
is a general term for stuff, we tend to use the term ‘materials’ for
well defined samples of stuff that we can work with – glass, wood,
sodium carbonate (washing soda), poly(ethene), diamond, sea
water, paint, etc. From a technological perspective, these materials
may have a similar status (different types of stuff that can be
obtained, worked in various ways or used in different applications),

4
 1.1 Stuff, matter, materials

but to a chemist they have rather different status. Materials may be

pure substances like diamond or sodium carbonate, or mixtures
such as air or paint. The use of the term ‘mixture’ is another
simplification, as something like wood is more complicated –
although it contains many substances, they are not simply mixed in a
random way, but built into a complex structure. Some manufactured
materials are also composite, such as ‘fibreglass’, which contains
fibres of glass embedded in a polymer (plastic).

Matter
is a general term for any stuff
MM

Materials
are well defined samples of stuff
MM

Mixtures Substances
contain several substances mixed together
MM are chemically pure samples – one type of
MM

stuff

Elements Compounds
MMare considered fundamental types of are pure substances that can be synthesised
MM

substance in chemistry from combinations of elements

Figure 1.1 How some key terms are understood in chemistry

So most common materials in our environment, such as air, sea

water, earth, wood and even steel, are not substances. This is a
simple point but one which is not trivial for students. A key issue
here in the minds of some students is the notion of ‘natural’
materials. For a chemist, natural products are those that derive from
animal or vegetable sources, but are not considered to make up an
intrinsically distinct type of stuff from other materials. (However,
chemical terminology still retains vestiges of earlier thinking that
living matter had some special vital essence, in our use of the terms
‘organic’ and ‘inorganic’.)

5
key concepts in chemistry

For many lay people natural materials are considered to be

intrinsically better (for example, safer) than ‘synthetic’ or man-made
materials. The assumption seems to be that nature knows best, and
man less so. From a scientific perspective, man is part of nature and
any material that can be made by man is just as natural as anything
secreted, excreted or extracted from a living organism. Indeed there
are many berries, fungi, insects and amphibians that produce
substances which are harmful or even lethal to people, whereas
most synthetic products produced by chemists are subject to
extensive safety testing before being allowed onto the market. Many
natural products that were once difficult to obtain (for example,
those requiring expensive processes to extract and purify tiny
quantities of a substance present in living things) can now be
synthesised much more effectively, and of course their chemical
behaviour is unrelated to their origins.
As teachers, we need to be aware that many of our students may
have absorbed at some level the notion of ‘natural-good, synthetic-
bad’ and be prepared to challenge the supposition without ignoring
or underplaying how many synthetic materials can be used to do
harm, in weapons for example, and may bring significant
environmental costs in manufacture or disposal.
A closely related idea is that of purity. When buying orange juice
to drink, for example, we expect it to be ‘pure’ in the sense of just
being material squeezed from oranges, and not including dead flies,
sawdust or the farmer’s finger nail cuttings. To assure the potential
buyer of this, the manufacturer may well claim to be selling ‘100%
pure orange juice’, and in the context of selling and buying a drink
this makes perfect sense.
However, students will need to be taught that no matter how
pure our orange juice is in terms of only being juice from oranges,
it is far from being a ‘pure substance’ in chemical terms. Orange
juice is mostly water, but contains a wide range of other substances
including fruit sugar, vitamin C, citric acid, various amino acids
and flavonoids that make oranges taste different from lemons or
grapefruits. Chemically, orange juice is a mixture of a lot of
different substances, even though it is a natural product. A key
distinction to be introduced and reiterated in teaching the subject,
then, is that between materials which can be understood in
everyday terms (orange juice is a different material from the glass,
paper or ceramic cup we may drink it from) and the constituent
substances that chemists analyse such materials into.
So the task of the chemistry teacher is to find a way to justify
considering iron but not steel, methane but not petroleum, cellulose
but not wood, sucrose but not honey, vitamin C but not orange juice,
and so on, as substances. As this is a difficult distinction for those

6
 1.1 Stuff, matter, materials

new to the subject, it is useful to have a wide range of examples that

can be used when explaining the idea to the students.
However, the examples by themselves only seem persuasive to
those of us who already appreciate the difference between materials
in general and those particular materials that are substances.
Students will have to have good reasons to see this as a meaningful
and important distinction. There would seem to be two different
approaches to thinking about what we mean by substances in
chemistry: one of these is highly empirical and the other more
theoretical. Both approaches offer challenges for the teacher but
also a considerable opportunity to teach about the nature of science
(‘how science works’).

OO An empirical view of substances

From a chemical perspective, materials are either pure samples of a
single substance or a mixture of substances. When a material is a
mixture, it can in principle be separated into its components. There
are a number of common techniques that can be used to separate
different classes of mixtures, and a mixture that can be separated by
one separation technique will not necessarily be separated by
another. For example, if sand is mixed with salt, it can be separated
by dissolving (the salt) and filtering (Figure 1.2), but this process

glass rod

filter paper

salt solution
stirred
mixture of sand
sand, salt and
water water
filter funnel

salt solution

heat

Figure 1.2 Separating sand and salt – salt is recovered by evaporation after dissolving
TS Chemistry 01.03 and filtering

7
key concepts in chemistry

will not work if the sand is mixed with iron filings. Conversely,
sand can be separated from iron filings by using a magnet, but this
will not have an effect on a sand/salt mixture. Laboratory exercises
in this area can easily become somewhat artificial: for example
giving students a deliberately prepared mixture of sand and salt for
them to separate. That is different from being able to take an
unknown material, find out if it is a mixture and – if so – separate it
into its components. That was the kind of challenge faced by Marie
and Pierre Curie when they carried out their work identifying new
chemical substances (the elements radium and polonium).

Figure 1.3 Marie

Curie has the
distinction of
having been
awarded Nobel
Prizes for her
contributions to
both chemistry and
physics

It is often possible to recognise a mixture because mixtures usually

do not have a distinct temperature at which they melt/freeze or boil/
condense (see Chapter 2). Having identified a material as being a
mixture, it is then possible to subject it to the battery of separation
techniques available to the chemist. So, for example, consider a
liquid that was considered to be a mixture (because a sample had
been found to boil over a range of temperatures). It may be that if
the liquid is heated, one component of the mixture will evaporate,
leaving a solid residue (for example, this would happen with salt
solution). However, it is also possible that all of the mixture would
boil off. If a fractional distillation apparatus were set up (Figure
1.4) and the components of the mixture were found to have very
different boiling points, it would be possible to separate them by
carefully collecting condensate from vapour produced at different
temperatures. If, however, the components have similar boiling
temperatures, separation by this technique will prove difficult.
Perhaps another technique, such as a form of chromatography,
might separate the components in such a case.

8
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nobly.
The magazine-reading world has hardly recovered yet from its
shock of surprise, on discovering the author of “In the Tennessee
Mountains,” a book of short stories, projecting the lines on which the
writer has since advanced in “The Prophet of the Great Smoky
Mountain” and “The Despot of Broomsedge Cove.” Why did Miss
Murfree prefer to begin her literary career under the masculine name
of “Charles Egbert Craddock”? Probably for the same reason as
George Sand, George Eliot, Currer Bell; a reason stated by a stanch
advocate of woman, in words that form a convenient answer to the
common sneer. “Not because they wished to be men, but because
they wished for an unbiassed judgment as artists.” The world has
grown so much more enlightened on this point, that the biassed
critic is now the exception, and the biassed editor is a myth. The
precaution of disguise cannot much longer remain a necessity, if,
indeed, it was necessary in the case of Miss Murfree.
From whatever cause adopted, the mask was a completely
deceptive one. Mr. Craddock’s vivid portrayal of life among the
Tennessee Mountains was fairly discussed, and welcomed as a
valuable and characteristic contribution from the South; and nobody
hinted then that the subtle poetic element, and the tendency to
subordinate human interest to scenery, were indications of the
writer’s sex. The few cherishers of the fading superstition that
women are without humor, laughed heartily and unsuspiciously over
the droll situations, the quaint sayings of the mountaineers. Once
more the reductio ad absurdum has been applied to the notion of
ordained, invariable, and discernible difference between the literary
work of men and that of women. The method certainly defers to
dullness; but it also affords food for amusement to the ironically
inclined.
This review, cursory and incomplete as it is, of the chief
accomplishment of American women in native fiction, serves to
bring out the fact that they have, during the last forty years, supplied
to our literature an element of great and genuine value; and that
while their productions have of course varied in power and richness
they have steadily gained in art. How wide the gap between
“Hobomok” and “Ramona”! During the latter half of the period, the
product gives no general evidence of limitation; and the writers
would certainly be placed, except for the purposes of this article,
among their brother authors, in classes determined by method, local
background, or any other basis of arrangement which is artistic
rather than personal.
In exceptional cases, a reviewer perhaps exclaims upon certain
faults as “womanish”; but the cry is too hasty; the faults are those of
individuals, in either sex. It is possible to match them from the work
of men, and to adduce examples of women’s work entirely free from
them. Colonel Higginson has pointed out that the ivory-miniature
method in favor with some of our masculine artists is that of Jane
Austen. Wherein do Miss Sprague’s “Earnest Trifler,” or “The
Daughter of Henry Sage Rittenhouse,” display more salient
indications of sex than works of similar scope by Mr. Henry James?
“The almost entire disappearance of the distinctively woman’s
novel,”—that is, the novel designed expressly for feminine readers,
such as “The Wide, Wide World,” and “The Lamplighter,”—has lately
been commented upon. It is to be observed that this species—chiefly
produced in the past by women, as the Warner sisters, Maria S.
Cummins, Elizabeth Payson Prentiss, the excellent Miss McIntosh—
has become nearly extinct at the very time when women are
supplying a larger proportion of fiction than ever before; and,
further, that the comparatively few “domestic semi-pious” novels
very popular in late years have been of masculine production. The
original and suggestive, though perhaps at times over-subtle, work of
Mrs. Whitney, thoroughly impregnated with the New England spirit,
and portraying, with insight, various phases of girlhood, takes
another rank. Whatever may be concluded from the decadence of
fiction written of women, for women, by women, it is certainly
probable that women will remain, as a rule, the best writers for girls.
In connection with this subject must be mentioned the widely known
and appreciated stories of Louisa M. Alcott, “Little Women,” and its
successors,—which “have not only been reprinted and largely sold in
England, but also translated into several foreign languages, and thus
published with persistent success.” We are told that when “Little
Men” was issued, “its publication had to be delayed until the
publishers were prepared to fill advanced orders for fifty thousand
copies.”
A like popularity is to be noted of the spirited and artistic “Hans
Brinker, or the Silver Skates,” of Mrs. Mary Mapes Dodge; which
“has had a very large circulation in America; has passed through
several editions in England; and has been published in French at
Paris, in German at Leipsic, in Russian at St. Petersburg, and in
Italian at Rome.... The crowning tribute to its excellence is its
perennial sale in Holland in a Dutch edition.” No name in our
juvenile literature so “brings a perfume in the mention” as that of
Mrs. Dodge, who for years has been as “the very pulse of the
machine” in the production of that ideal magazine for children,
which is not only an ever-new delight but a genuine educational
power.
In poetry, the abundant work of women during the last half-
century shows a development corresponding to that traced in the
field of fiction. As the flood of sentimentalism slowly receded,
hopeful signs began to appear; the rather vague tints of a bow of
poetical promise. The varying verse of Mrs. Oakes Smith, Mrs.
Kinney, Elizabeth Lloyd Howell, and Harriet Winslow Sewall,
represents, in different degrees, a general advance. The “little
vagrant pen” of Frances Sargent Osgood, as she confessed,
“wandered lightly down the paper,” but its fanciful turns had now
and then a swift, capricious grace. The poems of Sarah Helen
Whitman, belonging to the landscape school of Bryant, are of marked
value, as are also the deeply earnest productions of Mrs. Anna Lynch
Botta; which display anew distinctness of motive, possibly
attributable to the influence of Longfellow. The same influence is felt
in some of the early work of Alice Cary; whose individual strain of
melancholy melody clings to remembrance, its charm stubbornly
outliving our critical recognition of defects due, in great measure, to
over-production. Emily Judson sometimes touched finely the
familiar chords, as in the well-known poem of motherhood, “My
Bird.” The tender “Morning Glory” of Maria White Lowell, whose
poems are characterized by a delicate and childlike simplicity, will be
remembered.
In 1873 a critic not generally deemed too favorable to growths of
the present day, recorded the opinion that there was “more force and
originality,—in other words more genius,—in the living female poets
of America than in all their predecessors, from Mistress Anne
Bradstreet down. At any rate there is a wider range of thought in
their verse, and infinitely more art.” For the change first noted by
Mr. Stoddard there is no accounting; the tides of genius are
incalculable. The other gains, like those in fiction, are to be
accounted for partly by the law of evolution working through our
whole literature, by the influence of sounder models and of a truer
criticism, and by the winnowing processes of the magazines; partly
also, by the altered position and improved education of women in
general—not necessarily of the individual, since change in the
atmosphere may have important results in cases where other
conditions remain unchanged.
The poems of Mrs. Howe express true womanly aspiration, and a
high scorn of unworthiness, but their strongest characteristic is the
fervent patriotism which breathes through the famous “Battle-Hymn
of the Republic.” The clear hopeful “orchard notes” of Lucy Larcom—
it is impossible to refrain from quoting Mr. Stedman’s perfect phrase
—first heard long since, have grown more mellow with advancing
years.
 The dramatic lyric took new force and naturalness in the hands of
Rose Terry Cooke, and turned fiery in those of Mrs. Stoddard; whose
contemplative poems also have an eminent sad dignity of style. The
fine-spun subjective verse of Mrs. Piatt flashes at times with felicities
as a web with dew-drops. Many names appear upon the honorable
roll: Mrs. Fields, Mrs. Spofford,—whose rich nature reveals itself in
verse as in the novel,—Mrs. Margaret J. Preston, Mrs. Mary Ashley
Townsend; Elizabeth Akers Allen, Julia C. R. Dorr, Mrs. Stowe, Mrs.
Whitney, Mrs. Dodge, Mrs. Moulton; Mrs. Thaxter, the sea’s true
lover, who has devoted herself to the faithful expression of a single
phase of natural beauty; Mrs. Mary E. Bradley, Kate Putnam Osgood,
Nora Perry, Mary N. Prescott, and Harriet McEwen Kimball; Mary
Clemmer Hudson, Margaret Sangster, Miss Bushnell, “Susan
Coolidge,” “Howard Glyndon,” “Stuart Sterne,” Charlotte Fiske
Bates, May Riley Smith, Ella Dietz, Mary Ainge De Vere, Edna Dean
Proctor, the Goodale sisters, Miss Coolbrith, Miss Shinn, “Owen
Innsley,” Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, and Alice Wellington Rollins.
There is a kind of white fire in the best of the subtle verses of “H.
H.”—a diamond light, enhanced by careful cutting. Generally
impersonal, the author’s individuality yet lives in them to an unusual
degree. We may recognize, also, in the Jewish poems of Emma
Lazarus, especially in “By the Waters of Babylon” and the powerful
fourteenth-century tragedy, “The Dance to Death,” “the precious life-
blood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a
life beyond life.” The poems of Edith M. Thomas, with their exquisite
workmanship, mark the high attainment of woman in the mastery of
poetic forms, and exhale some breath of that fragrance which clings
to the work of the young Keats. Miss Hutchinson’s “Songs and
Lyrics” have also rare quality. The graceful verse of Mrs. Deland has
been quick to win the ear of the public. Louise Imogen Guiney,
sometimes straining the voice, has nevertheless contributed to the
general chorus notes of unusual fullness and strength. In other
branches of literature, to which comparatively few women have
chosen to devote themselves, an increasing thoroughness is
apparent, a growing tendency to specialism. The irresponsible
feminine free-lance, with her gay dash at all subjects, and her
alliterative pen-name dancing in every melée like a brilliant pennon,
has gone over into the more appropriate field of journalism. The
calmly adequate literary matron-of-all-work is an admirable type of
the past, no longer developed by the new conditions. The articles of
Lucy M. Mitchell on sculpture and of Mrs. Schuyler van Renssalaer
on art and architecture; the historical work of Martha J. Lamb and of
Mary L. Booth, the latter also an indefatigable translator; the studies
of Helen Campbell in social science; the translations of Harriet
Waters Preston—these few examples, given at random, are typical of
the determination and concentration of woman’s work at the present
day. We notice in each new issue of a magazine the well-known
specialists. Miss Thomas has given herself to the interpretation of
nature in prose as in verse; “Olive Thorne” Miller to the loving study
of bird-life. Mrs. Jackson, the most versatile of later writers,
possessed the rare combination of versatility and thoroughness in
such measure that we might almost copy Hartley Coleridge’s saying
of Harriet Martineau, and call her a specialist in everything; but her
name will ever be associated with the earnest presentation of the
wrongs of the Indian, as that of Emma Lazarus with the impassioned
defense of the rights of the Jew.
The just and genial Colonel Higginson expresses disappointment
that woman’s advance in literature has not been more marked since
the establishment of the women’s colleges. “It is,” he says,
“considerable and substantial; yet in view of the completeness with
which literary work is now thrown open to women, and their equality
as to pay, there is room for some surprise that it is not greater.”
The proper fruit of the women’s colleges in literature has, in fact,
not yet ripened. It may at first seem strangely delayed, yet reflection
will suggest the reasons. An unavoidable self-consciousness hampers
the first workers under a new dispensation. It might appear at a
casual glance that those released from the burden of a retarding
tradition were ready at once for the race; but in truth the weight has
only been exchanged for the lighter burden of the unfamiliar.
College-bred women of the highest type have accepted, with grave
conscientiousness, new social responsibilities as the concomitant of
their new opportunities.
“Pealing, the clock of Time
Has struck the Woman’s hour;
We hear it on our knees,”
wrote Miss Phelps for the graduates of Smith College ten years ago.
That the summons has indeed been reverently heard and faithfully
obeyed, those who have followed the work of the Association of
Collegiate Alumnæ can testify. The deed, and not the word, engages
the energy of the college woman of to-day; but as these institutions
grow into the life of our land, that life will be everywhere enriched;
and the word must follow in happy time. Individual genius for
literature is sure sooner or later to appear within the constantly
widening circle of those fairly equipped for its exercise. It would be
idle to expect that the cases in which native power and an adequate
preparation go hand in hand, will be frequent; since they are
infrequent among men. The desirable thing was, that this rare
development should be made a possibility among women. It is
possible to-day; some golden morrow will make it a reality.
 VI.
WOMAN IN JOURNALISM.

BY
SUSAN E. DICKINSON.

The pioneer woman in American journalism was Mrs. Margaret

Craper, of the Massachusetts Gazette and News Letter, in the years
of the Revolutionary War. After her to the year 1837 must be referred
the first entrance of any American woman into the field of active
journalism. At that time Mrs. Ann S. Stephens accepted the duties of
editorial writer and literary critic in the columns of the New York
Evening Express. Her connection with that paper continued for
thirty years, but after 1857 it was limited to the editorial pages by the
press of exacting duties elsewhere. In the last named year Mrs.
Elizabeth F. Ellet succeeded her as literary editor of the Express,
sustaining well the reputation which Mrs. Stephens had gained for it
of a just and high standard of criticism. But in the intervening twenty
years other women had followed Mrs. Stephens’s lead, and made
their mark in journalism with a freshness, a vigor, and a brilliance
unsurpassed by any of the numerous later comers. During the
thirties Mrs. Sarah Josepha Hale and the once famous Grimké
sisters, Sarah and Angelina, availed themselves of the opportunities
offered for special writing by New York and Philadelphia papers. In
1841 Mrs. Lydia Maria Child, one of the most widely known authors
of the day, made her appearance in the arena of New York
journalism as editor of the Anti-Slavery Standard, a weekly
newspaper published by the American Anti-Slavery Society. Mrs.
Child had already demonstrated her editorial ability in the
establishment and conduct, for eight years, of the Juvenile
Miscellany, the pioneer children’s magazine of America. For two
years Mrs. Child conducted the Standard alone; then, for six years
more, in conjunction with her husband. But her best work during
these years was done in 1842–’3–’4 as special New York
correspondent for the Boston Courier, then edited by Joseph T.
Buckingham. These weekly letters of hers, original, sparkling,
thoughtful, vigorous, depicting the social, literary, musical, and
dramatic life of the metropolis, were afterwards republished in two
volumes, which hold a wonderful fascination still, when read after
the lapse of more than a generation.
It was while Mrs. Child’s letters were forming one of the greatest
attractions of the Boston Courier, in 1843, that Miss Cornelia Wells
Walter took charge of the editorial columns of the Boston Transcript,
doing her work as ably and faithfully as any of her masculine fellow
journalists. And in the next year, 1844, Margaret Fuller, who in 1840
had founded, and for two years edited, that famous quarterly, the
Dial, came from Boston to New York at the request of Horace
Greeley to fill the position of literary editor of the Tribune. Here she
set the standard of criticism at high-water mark, and made its
literary notices famed for a discrimination, sincerity, justness, and
fearlessness of judgment and utterance which contributed largely to
the influence of the paper. In the summer of 1846, when she sailed
for Europe, its review columns had in her hands attained a
reputation which in after years the scholarly editing of Dr. Ripley did
but sustain.
In the same year that saw the beginning of Mrs. Child’s brilliant
letters from New York, the readers of the Louisville Journal greeted
the advent of another woman, Mrs. Jane G. Swisshelm, in letters and
editorial contributions bearing the strong stamp of an earnest,
aggressive, deeply thoughtful but vivacious mind, intense in its
sympathies, ready to do battle against every form of wrong-doing,
and gifted with a bright humor which winged the shafts she sent
abroad with unfailing vigor. It was but a little while until she became
also special correspondent for the Spirit of Liberty, issued at
Pittsburgh. She speedily proved herself a worthy compeer of her
Eastern sisters in the journalistic field. In 1848 she removed to
Pittsburgh and established there the Saturday Visitor, a paper which
grew rapidly into wide circulation and influence.
 But before she had reached this point in her career, while in fact
the fame of this Western worker was just beginning to be heard of in
the seaboard cities, the reading public of those cities was startled into
a fever of enthusiasm by the letters of a Western girl in Eastern
papers, the Home Journal, the Saturday Gazette, the Saturday
Evening Post, the National Press. It was in 1845 and ’46 that “Grace
Greenwood” first took her place, while still a girl in her teens, as one
of the most brilliant, clear-headed, and versatile of newspaper
correspondents, in which special province, so far as journalistic work
is concerned, she has elected to remain, with the exception of the few
years, beginning with 1853, during which she published and edited
the Little Pilgrim. Mrs. Swisshelm’s ambitions, on the contrary, led
her always to prefer the active duties of editor and publisher. The
Saturday Visitor under her management was a power in the fields of
political and social reform, of home duties and graces. She enlisted
the services of other women for its departments. Chief among these
helpers was Mrs. Frances D. Gage of Ohio, who became afterwards
widely known as a charming writer for children, an earnest woman’s
rights speaker, and contributor to the New York Independent. In
1856, after her connection with the Visitor ceased, Mrs. Gage led the
van of women journalists in her own State by becoming associate
editor of an agricultural paper in Columbus, conducting its Home
department with marked success. Mrs. Swisshelm, attracted in 1856
by what seemed a wider sphere for work in the new Northwest, sold
her Pittsburgh paper and soon afterwards started, in Minnesota, the
St. Cloud Visitor. In this she of course continued her advocacy of
Free Soil and anti-slavery doctrines, and within a year her office was
raided and her press destroyed by a mob. Fearlessly she gathered her
resources together, and began the publication of the St. Cloud
Democrat, in which she afresh demonstrated her ability, and in the
campaign of 1860 supported Mr. Lincoln for the Presidency. After
the close of the war she returned to the duties of active journalism;
having, during the years of conflict, laid them aside to perform
efficient service as a nurse “at the front.” Her vigorous pen until
nearly the close of her life failed not to serve every cause in whose
truth and justice she believed.
Near the same time at which Mrs. Swisshelm founded the
Pittsburgh Visitor, Mrs. C. I. H. Nichols became the editor of the
Windham County Democrat, a Whig paper published at Brattleboro,
Vermont. This she conducted for many years with admirable success,
her editorials being often widely copied. In 1851 “Gail Hamilton”
made a brilliant dash into journalism as special contributor to the
National Era, Dr. Bailey’s paper at Washington, for which Mrs.
Stowe wrote “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” and Grace Greenwood did some of
her best work. In 1854 the woman’s rights agitation, which had taken
form several years before at the Seneca Falls Convention, and
received a new impulse at the Worcester Convention of 1851, was
reinforced by the appearance at Boston of a new paper, the Una,
published and edited by Mrs. Paulina Wright Davis and Mrs.
Caroline H. Dall. This failed of long life for want of pecuniary
support, but it was energetically conducted while it lived, and is well
worthy of remembrance as the pioneer woman suffrage paper of
America. In 1855 Miss Antoinette Brown, afterwards Mrs. Blackwell,
became for a time one of the special contributors to the New York
Tribune. She devoted her writing to social and reformatory subjects,
giving chief place therein to the bearing upon women of the vices and
defects of our social system.
In any notice of American women in journalism it is needful to
give thus, in somewhat broad detail, an account of the workers
during those first twenty years, because of the wide influence which
they wielded in behalf of noble living and high thinking, and the
practical stimulus which they gave to work in the various lines of
social reform.
After those twenty years were over, as the country became more
widely and thickly settled, as newspapers multiplied and enlarged
their departments, and called for an increasing staff of writers of
varying abilities, women journalists also became more numerous,
and began to take up special lines of correspondence and reportorial
work. In 1856 Miss Cunningham, who soon after became Mrs. D. G.
Croly, still better known as “Jennie June,” entered upon her
journalistic career as a fashion writer, first on the Sunday Despatch,
then on various other New York papers. In 1857 she invented the
manifold or syndicate system of correspondence, supplying fashion
items, gossip, and news of social topics and occurrences,
simultaneously to newspapers all over the country. In this
department of work her followers have multiplied until it would be
hopeless to name or to count them. In 1860 she suggested the
founding of Demorest’s Illustrated Magazine of Fashions, and
edited it for twenty-seven years, during which time she not only
maintained her syndicate work, but proved herself a good “all round”
writer for the press, having held at different times a position on the
staff of nearly all of the leading New York dailies. In the autumn of
1889 Mrs. Croly issued the first number of a weekly paper, The
Woman’s Cycle, the aim and purpose of which are amply indicated
by its title.
During the period of the Civil War and the few years immediately
succeeding, the larger city papers began to avail themselves of the
work of women as special writers, as correspondents, and reporters.
The New York Tribune numbered upon its editorial staff Mrs.
Rebecca Harding Davis and Mrs. Lucia Gilbert Calhoun; Mrs. Louise
Chandler Moulton supplied it weekly with the literary, dramatic, and
art news of Boston, and Miss Ellen Mackay Hutchinson began her
work upon it as assistant to Dr. Ripley in its book review department.
Miss Middie Morgan on the Times has shown among journalists as
thoroughly as Mlle. Rosa Bonheur has done among painters, that a
woman may fill admirably any unusual place to which she is adapted
by inclination and circumstance. Quite recently Miss A. L. Wilson
has won a kindred success as manager and assistant editor of the San
Francisco Breeder and Sportsman.
Of correspondents in this period, Mary Clemmer (then Mrs. Ames)
was the first to become widely known. Her Washington letters to the
New York Independent, and other papers, continued for a series of
years to stand in the front rank of journalistic correspondence.
Succeeding her come a long line whose names and work have
become famed. Mrs. Burnham, afterward Mrs. Fiske, in the
Republican of St. Louis, later in various Chicago, Washington, and
New York papers; Miss Anna M. H. Brewster, Mrs. Lucy H. Hooper,
Mrs. John Sherwood, Miss Kate Field, are among those whose
unmistakable gifts and conscientious work have won high place for
themselves and opened the way for others.
The religious press, weekly and monthly, was not far behind its
secular contemporaries in securing the aid of women as conductors
of special departments. For the last thirty years there have been few
or none of these that have not steadily numbered one or more
women among their regular contributors.
 No woman in New York had taken the editorial control of a paper
after 1849, when Mrs. Child relinquished her place upon the
Standard, until 1867 Miss Mary L. Booth took the charge, from its
initial number, of Harper’s Bazar. Her reputation, earned as
historian of New York and as a translator, had become a national one
when in 1861, in a week’s time, she rendered accurately into brilliant
English Gasparin’s famous “Uprising of a Great People.” It aided in
drawing immediate popular attention to the new journal. How
faithfully and admirably her editorial work was done for the
remaining twenty-two years of her life has but recently been borne
witness to over her grave.
In 1868, one year after the Bazar was started, the lively agitation
in favor of woman suffrage gave birth to the Revolution, of which
Miss Susan B. Anthony was the publisher and Mrs. Elizabeth Cady
Stanton editor-in-chief. Two years later the Woman’s Journal was
started in Boston, with Mrs. Lucy Stone, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, and
Mrs. Mary Livermore upon its editorial staff. If these two papers, and
the by no means insignificant number which have arisen to follow
their footsteps, have not as yet seen the accomplishment of their
especial aim, they have served as potent factors in woman’s
educational, industrial and social advancement, in helping to secure
the repeal of unjust laws, and, if last named, by no means least, in
awakening women to a sense of their solidarity as a sex—to the truth
that “where one of the members suffers all the members suffer with
it.”
In the mean time there were, both in the West and South, women
who had demonstrated their ability and fitness for the profession of
journalism. In New Orleans Mrs. E. J. Nicholson, first as coadjutor
and then as successor to her husband, has for thirty years or more
held editorial control of the Picayune, of which she is the chief
owner. On her paper and on the Times-Democrat, also owned by a
woman, women have for many years held responsible positions. In
Assumption, the Pioneer has, for a term second only to that of Mrs.
Nicholson’s career, been owned and edited by Mrs. Susan Dupaty.
Mrs. S. V. Kentzel has for fourteen years made her paper, the St.
Tammany Farmer, of eminent practical value and importance to the
agricultural and material interests of a large part of the State. Of later
years there have been quite a number of additions to the list of
women journalists of Louisiana, foremost among these being Miss
Addie McGrath of the Baton Rouge Truth, who is one of the chief
officers of the Press Association, and Mrs. M. L. Garner, owner and
editor of the Carroll Banner at Lake Providence; Mme. Marie
Roussel is the editor of Le Propagateur Catholique of New Orleans.
A Woman’s National Press Association was formed at New Orleans
in May, 1885. Two years later the addition of foreign members
caused a change of name to the Woman’s International Press
Association. Mrs. Nicholson is its President. Near the same time that
Miss Booth assumed charge of Harper’s Bazar, Mrs. Mary E. Bryan
entered upon the literary management of the Sunny South at
Atlanta, Georgia. She had served her apprenticeship to journalism as
assistant editor upon an Atlanta paper, and had afterwards edited a
political journal in Natchitoches. After ten years management of the
Sunny South she joined the corps of women editors in New York,
taking charge of the Fashion Bazar a dozen years ago. After Mrs.
Bryan’s departure from Atlanta there seems to have been no other
woman in that part of the South inspired with an ambition for
newspaper work until Miss Andrews recently took a place upon the
Atlanta Constitution. Texas has a number of women journalists,
most of whom are new-comers in their profession; but one of them,
Mrs. S. L. McPherson, in 1877, established and still edits and
publishes at Sherman the Daily Democrat. For the two or three
previous years her home had been in Caddo, Indian Territory, where
she had aided her husband in publishing the Oklahoma Star. These
ladies are all welcome members of the Texas Press Association.
There are a number of recent indications that journalism is likely to
become a favorite profession among Southern women.
In the West, while Mrs. Swisshelm was still making herself felt as a
power in Minnesota, Mrs. Susan C. Vogl, of late years the successful
business manager of the Boston Woman’s Journal, began
journalistic work upon the Western Spy of Sumner, Kansas.
Afterwards she wrote for St. Louis and New England papers for some
years before her removal to Boston. In 1868 Mrs. Myra Bradwell
founded the Chicago Legal News, of which she has been ever since
the editor and business manager. In 1871 the Illinois Legislature
passed special acts making the columns of the News evidence in the
courts; and after the burning of all records in the Chicago fire, Mrs.
Bradwell’s paper was selected by the circuit and supreme court
judges as the publication to have exclusive right to publish notices in
regard to their cases. Mrs. Agnes Leonard Hill’s journalistic work
began as early as 1869 in Kentucky, was carried on in Chicago
papers, and for the last eight years she has been engaged in editorial
labors in Colorado.
In 1876 Miss Margaret F. Buchanan, now Mrs. Sullivan, entered
upon the journalistic career, in which she speedily gained an enviable
reputation, showing herself as thoroughly equipped as any brother of
the press among them all to meet the serious questions and vexed
problems of political and social science, and equally ready for
brilliant descriptive work or discriminating criticism. Near the same
time Miss Emily S. Bouton took the position upon the Toledo Blade
which, in its varied demands upon her, not only as the head of its
literary and household departments, but as leader writer and special
contributor, has served to show the wide range of her
accomplishments and her ability in every line of journalistic labor.
The editorial and dramatic columns of the Blade have been indebted
to her for some of their strongest work. It was to the Blade also that
“Shirley Dare” gave much of the best of her early versatile
achievements in the journalistic field. Somewhat earlier Mrs. Kate
Brownlee Sherwood had filled a responsible position upon another
Toledo paper. The Indianapolis Journal has for many years given a
fair field to women journalists, and in its columns Miss Anna
Nicholas, Mrs. Florence Adkinson, Mrs. May Wright Sewall, and
others have achieved success. In 1878 Mrs. Belle Ball entered on a
very different line of newspaper works as traveling correspondent of
the Albuquerque (New Mexico) Journal, and of two Kansas papers,
her especial duty being to report the progress of the Atlantic and
Pacific Railroad, with all its incidental accompaniments—one of
these being for months together the peril to life from Indian foes.
After two years of this arduous experience she became an associate
editor on a Kansas paper. For the last two years she has been the
literary editor of the Kansas City Times.
After 1876 women journalists multiplied in the West as rapidly as
in New England. The Illinois Woman’s Press Association, formed in
1886, at the close of 1888, numbered 66 members, of whom 45 are
either business managers of important journals, editors, or editorial
assistants. Investigation shows a large number of newspaper women
in the State who have not enrolled themselves in this or any
association. The Western Association of Writers, organized in July,
1885, has many women editors, correspondents, and reporters
among its members. The Ohio Woman’s Press Association has in its
Cincinnati branch over thirty members, nearly all of whom are
journalists. The Cleveland branch numbers between forty and fifty,
about one-half of whom are authors and one-half journalists.
Earlier than any of these was the Woman’s National Press
Association, organized at Washington, D.C., in July, 1882. This has a
large membership, and, like all of the others, is in a prosperous
condition. Since 1887 a special press gallery for its members has
been set apart in each of the houses of Congress. The New England
Woman’s Press Association was organized in Boston in November,
1885. At present it numbers nearly 100 members, all journalists or
magazine editors. When the Woman’s Journal was established it
found no woman journalist in Boston save Miss Sallie Joy, now Mrs.
White, who was then doing more or less desultory work upon the
Boston Post. In 1869 she was enrolled as one of the regular staff of
that paper. After her marriage in 1874 she transferred her services to
the Advertiser, and later to the Herald, and to-day she is duly
honored by the numerous sisterhood of Boston newspaper women as
their pioneer and leader.
Since New York saw the establishment of Harper’s Bazar in the
interests of women in one direction, and of the Revolution in
another, women’s publications in both of the lines thus indicated
have multiplied until it is quite out of the question to give a list of
them outside of the pages of a newspaper directory. The most widely
known follower in the path of the Bazar is the Ladies’ Home Journal
of Philadelphia, of which Mrs. Louisa Knapp was from the beginning
until January, 1890, the editor, with a salary of ten thousand dollars
a year, and with Mrs. Emma Hewitt and Mrs. Mary Lambert as
assistants. There are probably not many more such pecuniary prizes
as yet in the grasp of women journalists; but, on the whole, there are
not many such open for any one. It may as well be said here that
Philadelphia, which was the first city in the United States to set wide
open many doors for woman’s work, as yet numbers fewer women
journalists than any other large Northern city. Mrs. Hollowell, for
many years past editor of the Household department of the Ledger,
and more recently Mrs. Kate Upson Clark of the Press, have
broadened their departmental work and made it of great value in
educational and divers other lines.
Following the lead of the Revolution and the Woman’s Journal
there are many others; some as out-and-out suffrage papers, and
others covering more broadly the circle of woman’s industrial and
social interests. In the East, the van among these is led by the
Woman’s Magazine, published by Mrs. Esther T. Housh at
Brattleboro, Vermont. Mrs. Housh began its publication originally at
Lexington, Kentucky, under the title of Woman at Work. In the
south is the Woman’s Chronicle of Little Rock, Arkansas. In the far
West are the Queen Bee of Denver, Colorado, the Woman’s Tribune
of Beatrice, Nebraska, and the New Northwest of Portland, Oregon,
—all owned and edited by women. Those in the nearer West are too
many to specify. With these, widely differing yet in one sense kindred
to them, should be named The Woman’s Exponent, the official organ
of the Woman’s Association of Utah. It is edited by Emmeline B.
Wells, and carries the motto “The Rights of the Women of Zion, and
the Rights of the Women of all Nations.” The association which
publishes it claims a membership of 22,000 women, “thoroughly
organized for the relief of the poor, and for medical, philosophical,
historical, and religious study.”
The Pacific slope has had comparatively few women journalists,
but the names of several appear upon the roll of membership of the
lately formed Central and Northern California Press Association.
The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union has within the last four
or five years multiplied greatly the number of women engaged in the
practical work of journalism. Beginning with the Union Signal,
founded by Mrs. Matilda B. Carse in Chicago, they have started up in
almost every State of the Union, and many local papers have W. C. T.
U. departments, all edited by women.
The vital interest of working women in the vexed problems of the
relation between capital and labor has called into existence at least
one paper, the Working Woman. This is the organ of the Woman’s
National Industrial League. It is published in Washington, D. C., by
Mrs. Charlotte Smith, who long ago proved her editorial ability in St.
Louis. Miss Mary F. Seymour has, more recently, established in New
York the Business Woman’s Journal, which from its initial number
has carried the prestige of success in its chosen field. Miss Fanny M.
Earl, of the Hartford Insurance Journal has made her name widely
known in business circles all over the country, and aided in
conquering their respect for woman’s practical abilities.
Our Anglo-African sisters are awakening to a comprehension of
the use of the press as an instrument of value to themselves and their
race. The names of half a dozen who have been or are now in
editorial charge of race papers are well known, and at least a score of
others who are actively engaged in journalism. A few of them have
been employed as reporters or as special contributors on some of the
leading dailies in our great seaboard cities.
Having noted the rapid increase in the number of newspaper
women who in other parts of the country are doing faithful and
worthy work in this their chosen profession, it remains to say that
New York City has not fallen behind in this respect. The evidence of
their capacity and fitness for the work is before the public in almost
every daily, weekly, and monthly publication issued in the
metropolis. Besides these are many whose work goes, through the
syndicate system, all over the country. Their work, usually signed,
serves even more widely to attract ambitious and intelligent young
women to the same profession than does the exceptional reputation
of such editors as Miss Booth, Mrs. M. M. Dodge, Mrs. Martha J.
Lamb, and Miss Jeanette Gilder. There are two Amateur Press
Associations of these youthful intending journalists in New England.
There may be others in other parts of the country. And the number of
those who are being inducted into the practical work of journalism,
on rural and county papers, owned by their relatives or friends,
grows greater every year.
From the very first there have been for women in journalism an
open door and a fair field. The earliest comers went into it because
their services were sought for. Themselves and those whom their
success led to embrace the same profession met with a warm
welcome from the public; in not a few instances even an enthusiastic
one.
In each and every department of journalism—whether in office
work, i.e. as editors, editorial assistants, or reporters; or in outside
work, as correspondents, special contributors, or syndicate writers—
the wages paid to women are the same as those paid to men of
similar capacity, doing the same work. The prices paid vary
according to the financial status of the papers themselves. In the
larger cities writers “on space” receive on some journals payment at
the rate of five dollars per column; some other papers pay as much as
ten dollars per column. With all these writers, except where special
articles have been ordered by the chief, and the length thereof
specified, it is a matter of uncertainty how much space will be given
them. The exigencies of the case often cut down what, under other
circumstances, would be a welcome column article to two or three
paragraphs, sometimes to as many lines. Office salaries in large cities
vary from ten or even only eight dollars per week to as much as fifty
or sixty dollars per week. A fair average for syndicate correspondence
is probably about ten dollars per column. On country and county
papers wages are of course much lower, often running down to a
figure which makes outside labor needful for even plain country
living. But whether in city or country women who can do the needful
work as well as men may be sure of as good pay as men, and of fair
and just treatment at the hands of their journalistic brethren.
 VII.
WOMAN IN MEDICINE.

BY

MARY PUTNAM JACOBI, M.D.

“Fifty years hence, it will be difficult to gain credit for the assertion that American women acquiesced
throughout the former half of the 19th century, in the complete monopoly of the medical profession by men,
even including midwifery, and the diseases peculiar to women. The current usage in this respect is
monstrous.”—New York Tribune, Editorial, 1853.

The history of the movement for introducing women into the full practice of the medical
profession is one of the most interesting of modern times. This movement has already
achieved much, and far more than is often supposed. Yet the interest lies even less in what
has been so far achieved, than in the opposition which has been encountered: in the nature
of this opposition; in the pretexts on which it has been sustained, and in the reasonings,
more or less disingenuous, by which it has claimed its justification. The history, therefore,
is a record not more of fact, than of opinion. And the opinions expressed have often been
so grave and solid in appearance, yet proved so frivolous and empty in view of the
subsequent event, that their history is not unworthy careful consideration among that of
other solemn follies of mankind.
In Europe, the admission of women to the profession of medicine has been widely
opposed because of disbelief in their intellectual capacity.[32] In America it is less often
permitted to doubt—out loud—the intellectual capacity of women. The controversy has
therefore been shifted to the entirely different ground of decorum.
At the very outset, however, two rival decorums confronted each other. The same
centuries of tradition which had, officially, reserved the practice of medicine for men, had
assigned to women the exclusive control of the practice of midwifery. It was assumed that
midwifery did not require the assistance of medical art,—that the woman in labor traversed
a purely physiological crisis, and required only the attendance of kindness, patience, and
native sagacity,—all obtainable without scientific knowledge, from her own sex. This being
taken for granted, the propriety of limiting such attendance to women appeared so self-
evident, that, from the beginning of the world till the eighteenth century A.D., the custom
was not seriously questioned. There is an exact parallelism between the relations of men to
midwifery and of women to medicine. The limitation of sex in each case was decided by a
tradition so immense, as to be mistaken for a divinely implanted instinct, intended by
Providence as one of the fundamental safeguards of society and of morals. In each case the
invasion by one sex of a “sphere” hitherto monopolized by the other, aroused the coarsest
antagonism of offended delicacy. In each case finally, a real basis existed for the traditional
etiquette: there was some reason for protesting against the introduction of the male
accoucheur into the lying-in room, or of the ardent young girl into the medical school. But
in each case, whatever reasons for protest existed, were outnumbered and outweighed by
others, to whose greater importance they were finally compelled to give way. Other things
being equal, it was unpleasant for a woman to be attended in the crisis of her confinement
by a man. But when the necessity for knowledge was recognized, when men became skilled
while midwives remained ignorant,—the choice was no longer possible; the greater
decorum of female midwifery was obliged to yield to the greater safety of enlightened
masculine practice. Similarly, it was occasionally unpleasant for young women students to
find themselves engaged in certain subjects of medical study together with classes of young
men. But in proportion as midwifery became enlarged by the new province of gynæcology,
did occasions multiply on which it was extremely unpleasant for non-medical women to be
medically treated by men. The difficulties of educating a relatively few women in medicine
were compelled to be accepted, in order to avert the far greater difficulties of medical
treatment for a very large number of women.
The history of medical women in the United States, to which these pages exclusively
apply, may be divided into seven periods, as follows:
First, the colonial period of exclusively female midwifery,[33] many of whose
practitioners, according to their epitaphs, are reported to have brought into the world one,
two, or even three thousand babies apiece. The Mrs. Thomas Whitmore of Marlboro,
mentioned in the note, is especially described as being “possessed of a vigorous
constitution, and frequently traveling through the woods on snow-shoes from one part of
the town to another by night and by day, to relieve the distressed.”[34]
During this period of female midwifery, the medical profession proper of the colonies
remained entirely unorganized and inarticulate.[35] Without making especial inquiry, a
superficial observer could have almost overlooked the existence of doctors, as a special
class, in the community.
There followed, however, a second period, that, namely, of the Revolution, and the years
immediately preceding and following it. During the former, physicians began to travel to
Europe for instruction. During the Revolutionary war their public services in the military
hospitals, though apparently not very useful to the sick,[36] yet served to bring the
profession, for the first time, out of obscurity; and the opportunities afforded for the
collective observation of disease on a large scale, first breathed the spirit of medical science
into the American profession. The first achievement of the new-born interest in medical art
and education was the expulsion of “females,” from even the outlying provinces of the
profession, and from their world-old traditional privileges as accoucheurs.[37] It was a
harsh return to make for the services rendered to the infant settlements by these valiant
midwives, who had been tramping through the snow by night and by day to bring into a
very cold world the citizens of the future republic![38]
Third. After this, however, came a period of reaction. In 1848, a Boston gentleman, Mr.
Samuel Gregory, began to vehemently protest against the innovation of “male midwives,”
and, opened a crusade on behalf of the women, with something of the pathetic ardor of the
Emperor Julian for a lost cause.[39] To judge by the comments of the public press, Mr.
Gregory’s protest against “man-midwifery” awoke sympathetic echoes in many quarters. At
the present day the interest in the movement thus roused, at once progressive and
reactionary, lies chiefly in the remarkable similarity between the arguments which were
then advanced against the intrusion of men into midwifery, and those which were
subsequently urged against the admission of women to medicine. Thus:

“The employment of men in midwifery practice is always grossly indelicate, often immoral, and always
constitutes a serious temptation to immorality.”—Summary of Mr. Gregory’s argument in “Man-Midwifery
Exposed,” 1848.
 “I view the present practice of calling on men in ordinary births, ... as a means of sacrificing delicacy and
consequently virtue.”—Thomas Ewell, M.D., of Virginia.
“The practice (of male midwifery) is unnecessary, unnatural, and wrong,—it has an immoral tendency.”—
W. Beach, M.D., New York.
“There are many cases of practice among women ... in which the sense of propriety would decide that the
presence of a female practitioner is more desirable than that of a man.”—New York Observer, 1850.
“There are a few self-evident propositions which it would be questioning the common sense of mankind to
doubt. One is that women are by nature better fitted than men to take care of the sick and the suffering.”—
Godey’s Lady’s Book, 1850.
“The especial propriety of qualifying women to practice among children and their own sex, will be admitted
I hope by all.”—Rt. Rev. Bishop Potter, 1850.
“We have long been persuaded that both morality and decency require female practitioners of medicine.
Nature suggests it; reason approves it; religion demands it.”—Northern Christian Advocate, 1850.
“This is one of the most important projects of the day for the improvement of the condition of women.”—
Zion’s Herald, 1850.
“The employment of men as ‘midwives’ is a modern custom, and one not to be commended.”—Phil.
Saturday Post, 1850.
“To attend medical clinics in company with men, women must lay aside their modesty. There are still
enough gentlemen who would blush to expose their mothers or sisters or wives to what, before women,
would be improper and indecent.”—Letter to editor N. Y. Med. Record, 1884, by M. K. Blackwood.
“History, physiology, and the general judgment of society unite in the negative of woman’s fitness for the
medical office.”—“Woman and her Physician.” Lecture, Theoph. Parvin, Prof. Dis. Women, 1870.
“If I were to plan with malicious hate the greatest curse I could conceive for women, if I would estrange
them from the protection of women, and make them as far as possible loathsome and disgusting to man, I
would favor the so-called reform which proposed to make doctors of them.”—Editorial Buffalo Med. Journal,
1869, p. 191.
“There are free-thinkers in the medical profession as there are free-lovers in social life.... The opposition of
medical men arises because this movement outrages all their enlightened estimate of what a woman should
be. It shocks their refined appreciation of woman to see her assume to follow a profession with repulsive
details at every step, after the disgusting preliminaries have been passed.”—Sherry, Med. and Surg.
Reporter, July 6, 1867.
“It is obvious that we cannot instruct women as we do men in the science of medicine; we cannot carry
them into the dissecting room and hospital; many of our more delicate feelings, much of our refined
sensibility must be subdued before we can study medicine; in females they must be destroyed.”—Remarks on
Employment of Females as Practitioners, Boston, 1820.
“The ceremonies of graduating Miss Blackwell at Geneva may well be called a farce. I am sorry that Geneva
should be the first to commence the nefarious process of amalgamation. The profession was quite too full
before.”—Letter by D. K. to Boston Journal, Feb. 1849.
“The bare thought of married females engaging in the medical profession is palpably absurd. It carries with
it a sense of shame, vulgarity, and disgust. Nature is responsible for my unqualified opposition to educating
females for the medical profession.”—Dissert. on Female Phys. by N. Williams, M.D., read before a N. Y.
Med. Soc., June 6, 1850.
“Females are ambitious to dabble in medicine as in other matters, with a view to reorganizing society.”—
Edit. Boston Med. and Surg. Jour., 1852, p. 106.
“The serious inroads made by female physicians in obstetrical business, one of the essential branches of
income to a majority of well established practitioners, make it natural enough to inquire what course to
pursue.”—Ibid., Feb. 1853.

These parallel columns might be extended much further, did our space permit. We
cannot, however, pass by the following gem of eloquence from an English source, but
quoted in the Cincinnati Lancet and Clinic for 1881. It is from the address at the British
Medical Association by the President of that year:
 “I am not over-squeamish, nor am I over-sensitive, but I almost shudder when I hear of
things that ladies now do or attempt to do. One can but blush, and feel that modesty, once
inherent in the fairest of God’s creation, is fast fading away. You gentlemen, who know the
delicacy of women’s organization,—you must know that constitutionally they are unfit for
many of the duties of either doctor or nurse.
“May not habit so change that fine organization, that sensitive nature of women, as to
render her dead to those higher feelings of love and sympathy which now make our homes
so happy, so blessed?
“Will not England’s glory fade without its modest sympathizing women, and its race of
stalwart youths and blooming maidens?
“You now, gentlemen, know my views as to the propriety of ladies becoming doctors or
nurses.”[40]
The Fourth period of woman’s medical history was initiated when Mr. Gregory,
supported by the popular enthusiasm he had aroused, succeeded in opening a School of
Medicine (so called) for women, in Nov. 1848.[41] The first term lasted three months: a
second term began the following April, 1849;—and with the announcement for the second
year it was declared that the twenty pioneer pupils had not only followed the lectures, but
“had attended above 300 midwifery cases with the most satisfactory success.”
In the prospectus issued for the second year of the school, Mr. Gregory brought forward
a new set of arguments in its support, in addition to those previously adduced. There was
then (1849) in New England, a surplus female population of 20,000 persons,—and
“hundreds of these would be willing to devote any necessary length of time to qualify
themselves for a useful, honorable, and remunerative occupation.” They could afford,
moreover, to give their services at a much cheaper rate than men, charging about a third
the ordinary fees,—thus $5 instead of $15 for attendance on a confinement case.
Thus not only would the morals of the community be preserved, but the burdens on its
purse be considerably lightened by the employment of educated women as obstetricians.
As the medical profession had just become keenly alive to the peculiarly lucrative character
of obstetrical and gynæcological practice, this suggestion that it might now profitably be
undersold naturally aroused the keenest resentment. It was soon retorted that the cheaper
practitioners were to be prepared by a system of education so cheap as to be absolutely
worthless; and unfortunately the early history of the first medical schools for women
entirely justified this accusation.
To support Mr. Gregory’s school, a Female Medical Education Society was formed in
Boston, and incorporated with a state charter. Nothing seemed at the outset fairer than the
promises of the new college,—but it had one fatal defect. There was no one connected with
it who either knew or cared what a medical education should be. It followed that, under the
name of medical education, was offered a curriculum of instruction, so ludicrously
inadequate for the purpose, as to constitute a gross usurpation of the name,—in a word, to
be an essentially dishonest affair. And still more unfortunately, the same inadequacy,
naïvely or deliberately unconscious of itself, continued in greater or less degree, to
characterize all efforts for the isolated medical education of women for the next twenty
years. This, the fourth period of their medical history,—deserves therefore to be considered
by women rather as a pre-medical or preliminary epoch; where purposes were enunciated
that were only to be fulfilled many years later.
The Gregory Medical School maintained a precarious existence until 1874, when, by an
enabling act of the Legislature, the funds were handed over to the Boston University, just
founded,—upon condition that women should be admitted to the medical department of
the latter. This condition was punctually fulfilled; women students were rendered eligible
to all departments of the new university. But as the medical school, for some reason,
became exclusively homœpathic,—the fortunes of medical women in the regular profession
were not thereby greatly advanced.[42]
Now, however, the movement for women had widened and reached Philadelphia, where
two schools were started. One of these, the Penn Medical School, ran a permanently
unenviable career of unfitness, and was finally extinguished. The other, the Woman’s
Medical College of Pennsylvania, was founded in 1850, and after a long and precarious
period of struggle, finally touched upon a solid basis of medical realities, and thence began
its prosperous modern career. In the mean time, and fortunately for the cause, a new
departure had been taken in several other directions. The Gregory School had been
founded with the avowed intention of educating women for midwives; and it did not
succeed even in this limited aim, because it was either ignorant of or indifferent to the rigid
system of education imposed, wherever, as in Europe, midwives are recognized and
educated. In America, where hostility to class distinctions is so profound as to interfere
with the recognition of even the intellectual distinctions which are alone just,—it was
probably a foregone conclusion that the various ranks in medicine which exist in European
countries would never here become officially established.[43] But a startlingly long step was
taken at a stride, when, thirty years after the pæan of victory had been sounded over the
complete suppression of female midwifes, so that not even this corner of possible medicine
might remain in possession of women,—that then, half a dozen women, unknown to each
other, and widely separated in this immense country, should appear almost simultaneously
upon the scene, and demand the opportunity to be educated as full physicians. Their
history marks a fifth period in the movement.
The first of this remarkable group of women was Harriet K. Hunt of Boston.
This lady had for several years assumed the responsibility of practicing medicine, while
yet unprovided with a medical diploma. This was reprehensible, but from a practical
standpoint, the course seems to have been justified by subsequent events. For when, in
1847, Miss Hunt requested permission to attend lectures at the Harvard Medical School,
her request was promptly refused. After the graduation of Elizabeth Blackwell at Geneva in
1849, Miss Hunt thought that the times might have become more favorable, and, in 1850,
repeated her application at Harvard. In mobile America, three years may sometimes effect
such a change in sentiment as would require three centuries in the Old World. On this
occasion, five out of the seven members of the Faculty voted “That Miss Hunt be admitted
to the lectures on the usual terms, provided that her admission be not deemed inconsistent
with the statutes.”[44] A week later, the President and Fellows of the University announced
that the statutes of the Medical School offered no obstacle to the admission of female
students to their lectures. But, on the eve of success, Miss Hunt’s cause was shipwrecked,
by collision and entanglement with that of another of the unenfranchised to privileges. At
the beginning of the session, two, and later a third, colored man, had appeared among the
students, and created by their appearance intense dissatisfaction. When, as if to crown this
outrage to gentlemanly feeling, it was announced that a woman was also about to be
admitted, the students felt that their cup of humiliation was full, and popular indignation
boiled over in a general meeting. Here resolutions were adopted, remonstrating against the
“amalgamation of sexes and races.” The compliant Faculty bowed their heads to the storm,
yielded to the students, who, though young and inexperienced, were in the majority, and
might possibly withdraw in a body to Yale,—and, to avoid the obloquy of rejecting, under
pressure, a perfectly reasonable request, advised the “female student” to withdraw her
petition. This she did; the storm subsided, and the majesty of Harvard, already endangered
by the presence of the negro, was saved from the further peril of the woman. Miss Hunt
returned to her private medical practice, which, though unsanctioned by law and
condemned by learning, was so successful that, in 1872, she celebrated her silver wedding
to it.[45]
Thus, on this first occasion, it was not a sentiment of delicacy that forbade the Harvard
students to share their privileges with a woman; but a sense of offended dignity of sex,
which distinctly allied itself with the other and equally touchy dignity of race. The odd idea
was advanced on this, as on so many other occasions, that whenever a woman should
prove herself capable of an intellectual achievement, this latter would cease to constitute
an honor for the men who had previously prized it. Hence the urgent necessity of excluding
women from all opportunity of trying.
In 1849, “Diplomas and advanced courses of study were things entirely outside the
intellectual life of women.”[46] The pioneer female colleges, the Troy Seminary and the Mt.
Holyoke school, had scarcely been founded,[47] and women everywhere received only the
most rudimentary education. On the other hand, the medical education of men, was, as
compared with the objects to be attained by it,—in about an equally rudimentary
condition. The intrinsic tests were so shifting and unreliable, the standard of attainments
so low, that it was proportionately necessary to protect the dignity of the profession by
external, superficial, and arbitrary safeguards. Of these the easiest to apply was the
distinction of sex. It was often difficult to decide, in the absence of intrinsic tests, whether
a given individual were or were not a competent physician: but it was of course always easy
to recognize that he was a man. This simple principle of distinction was adopted, therefore,
as the guiding rule in future controversies. All men, however or wherever educated, were to
be considered competent physicians, if only they chose to say so themselves. And all
women were correlatively to be declared incompetent, no matter what care they had taken
to prepare themselves. The principle was well suited to crude and uncultured societies, and
became proportionately popular.
Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell were led to the study of medicine in a different manner
than Harriet Hunt, their immediate predecessor. While still quite young girls, they were,
by the sudden death of their father, unexpectedly confronted with the necessity of
supporting not only themselves, but their mother, and a large family of younger brothers
and sisters. “Then we realized the infinite narrowness and pettiness of the avenues open to
women, and the crowds of competitors who kept each other down in the struggle. We
determined that we would endeavor to open a new door, and tread a fresh path,—rather
than push for a footing in one already filled to overflowing.”[48]
In this determination a new key-note was sounded. The Blackwells, and especially
Elizabeth, were less the associates of Harriet Hunt, and of their own immediate successors,
than the spiritual daughters of Mary Wollstonecraft, whose courageous demand for a wider
field for her sex had remained hitherto almost alone, like a voice crying in the wilderness.
They did not seek wider opportunities in order to study medicine, but they studied
medicine in order to secure wider opportunities for all women.[49]
It was by sheer force of intellect, and of the sympathetic imagination born of intellectual
perception, that Elizabeth Blackwell divined for women the suitableness of an occupation
whose practical details were, to herself, intrinsically distasteful. Among all the pioneer
group of women physicians, hers chiefly deserves to be called the Record of an Heroic Life.
For with her, the struggle with bitter and brutal prejudices in the world was not sustained
by the keen and instinctive enthusiasm for medicine, which has since carried hundreds of
women over impossibilities. Rather was the arduousness of the struggle intensified by a
passionate sensitiveness of temperament, which, under a cold exterior, rendered her
intensely alive to the hardships of the social obloquy and ostracism which she was destined
to encounter in such abundance.