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Gazette, the Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians believed ‘that women are
making a grievous mistake in desiring to become practitioners of medicine; that it is
a career eminently unsuited for them; and that entering it, besides being of no
benefit to themselves generally, will be of no gain to medicine and will be paid for by
the public’. 73 In fact, the Royal College of Physicians in London did not allow
women to take its licentiate examinations until thirty-two years after the KQCPI
when Dossibhai Rustomji Cowasji Patell became its first female licentiate in 1910. 74
Considering that the Royal College of Physicians in London held such hostile views
towards the admission of women to take its licences, we may wonder why the Irish
College differed. I will argue that the decision of the KQCPI to admit women in 1877
was the result of three main factors: firstly, the liberality already shown towards
women in higher education in Ireland, second, the personalities on the Council of
the KQCPI when the decision was made and finally, it is possible that financial
factors may have played a role in the KQCPI’s decision.
Dublin had an unusual history of liberality in the education of women. The Museum
of Irish Industry had admitted both men and women to its public lectures on science
and to its courses on scientific subjects from the 1850s. 75 The Department of
Science and Art provided an annual grant of £500 to the Museum of Irish Industry
for the provision of series of lectures on scientific topics to societies in provincial
towns in Ireland and, as in Dublin, these courses were open to both men and
women. 76 Cullen comments that it is difficult to determine precise numbers of
women students at the Museum of Irish Industry, but, given the large number of
female students that appear in the lists of prize-winners, they are likely to have
comprised a significant proportion of the student body. The vast majority of these
ladies were from the middle classes. 77 The successor of the Museum of Irish
Industry, the Royal College of Science came into existence in 1867 following a
73
‘The Royal College of Physicians and medical women’, Medical Times and Gazette,
March 25 th , 1878, p.307.
74
Information courtesy of Geraldine O’Driscoll, archivist at the Royal College of Surgeons,
London.
75
Clara Cullen, ‘The Museum of Irish Industry, Robert Kane and education for all in the
Dublin of the 1850s and 1860s’, History of Education, 38:1, (January 2009), pp.99-113, on
p.106.
76
Cullen, ‘The Museum of Irish Industry’, p.107.
77
Cullen, ‘The Museum of Irish Industry’, p.109.
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