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Haughton was also responsible for the transformation of Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital
in Dublin. 84 Under his guidance, the hospital was extended to provide surgical,
obstetrical and gynaecological services as well as medical services. He also
introduced a modern system of trained nursing into the hospital. 85 In his obituary in
the British Medical Journal in November, 1897, Haughton is hailed as a brilliant
scientific writer, and for having been responsible for bringing about many reforms in
medical education in Dublin in the late nineteenth century. 86 In addition to his work
in the medical schools, Haughton gave public science lectures in Dublin at Trinity
College. One such lecture, on a Saturday in March 1876, was attended by a large
audience which included a number of ladies. 87 It is possible that it was in this role
that he came to recognise that women and men could be educated together.
Less is known about the other two players in the admission of women to the
KQCPI. Dr. Aquilla Smith, who had proposed the motion that Edith Pechey be
accepted to take the examinations for the medical licence, has a similarly glowing
obituary in the British Medical Journal. He is called ‘one of the best known and most
distinguished of the profession in Ireland’ and is said, because of his knowledge of
educational matters, to have served as the representative of the KQCPI on the
GMC from 1858 until 1888. 88 Dr. Samuel Gordon, was President at the time of the
admission of women to the KQCPI coincidentally had nine daughters and is
heralded in his obituary as having been a brilliant physician and teacher with a
‘paternal and kindly’ manner. 89 Like Aquilla Smith and Samuel Haughton, his
obituary paints the picture of a man who was deeply interested in medical education
and its reform.
In keeping with this liberal attitude towards women medical students, Irish voluntary
hospitals had a history of allowing women onto their wards for clinical experience
and lectures and women medical students appear to have been readily accepted.
84 T.D. Spearman, ‘Rev. Dr. Samuel Haughton’, ODNB.
85 T. Percy C. Kirkpatrick, History of the medical teaching in Trinity College Dublin and the
School of Physic in Ireland, (Dublin: Hanna and Neale, 1912), p.302.
86 ‘Obituary: Rev. Samuel Haughton, M.D., D.CL, LLD’, BMJ, November 6 th , 1897, p.1376-7.
87 ‘Professor Haughton’s lectures’, Irish Times, March 27 th , 1876, p.6.
88 ‘Obituary: Dr. Aquilla Smith, M.D., F.K.Q.C.P.I.’, BMJ, April 5 th , 1890, p.814.
89 ‘Obituary: Samuel Gordon’, BMJ, May 7 th , 1898, pp.1236-7.
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