Sophia Jex-Blake

"The study and practice of medicine seems to me to be divided into two tolerably distinct branches,—Preventive and Curative; and whereas the second of these will, I think, be left by all wise people to those who, by years of study of books and , have mastered some at least of its difficulties, the former should, in my opinion, form an integral part of every system of education which has any pretension to completeness."

"... Whatever shortcomings or errors may be recorded against , it should ever be remembered in her favour that she took the initiative before all the world in opening a college career to women, and in welcoming, on equal terms, all students, of whatever race or hue. This double glory shall surely be hers in the memories of men when much on which she now prides herself more may be forgotten."

"... On Sunday morning the College-chapel is used by the whole community of , and the students may attend there or elsewhere as they please; but in the afternoon the service is specially designed for them, and their presence is required."

"The third College which gives instruction and academic degrees to both sexes is situated at , in Ohio, and being founded in 1852 by a sect calling themselves emphatically "Christians," was by the named , in allusion to Acts xi. 26. The characteristic feature distinguishing this College from the others already named, is the aim of its founders to establish it on a strictly unsectarian basis."

"It is a very comfortable faith to hold that "whatever is, is best," not only in the dispensations of Providence, but in the social order of daily life; but it is a faith which is perhaps best preserved by careful avoidance of too much inquiry into facts."

"... If we go back to primeval times, and try to imagine the first sickness or the first injury suffered by humanity, does one instinctively feel that it must have been the man's business to seek means of healing, to try the virtues of various herbs, or to apply such rude remedies as might occur to one unused to the strange spectacle of human suffering? I think that few would maintain that such ministration would come most naturally to the man and be instinctively avoided by the woman; indeed, I fancy that the presumption would be rather in the other direction. And what is such ministration but the germ of the future profession of medicine?"

"It is clear that in Great Britain at an early period women were commonly found among the irregular practitioners of Medicine; and it is equally clear that their male competitors greatly desired to deprive them of the right to practise."