History of medical practice in Illinois - Bushnell Historical Society

Medical Education in Illinois 441President Andrew S. Draper and every Board of Trustees have been ourloyal and active supporters since 1897. Since 1913, the state has done itspart in contributing funds necessary to the growth and development of yourcollege, and I am sure that President Kinley, his Board of Trustees, and ourDean will continue to do their part with all the energy, enthusiasm andcourage of the founders and faculty who led the way.WOMAN'S MEDICAL COLLEGE OF CHICAGOHELGA RUUD, M.D. 9VOLUMEI of this series contains the names of only two women physicians:Dr. Margaret Logsden and Dr. Charlotte F. Stringer. Not onlywere there few women practicing medicine in Illinois during the years1850 to 1900, but for that matter very few anywhere else in America. Thisis remarkable as women, since time immemorial, have administered to thesick and have served as healers. It is for the historian and psychologist toexplain why they should have gradually abandoned their age-old vocationas physicians. The opinion has been expressed that perhaps witchcraft,that cruel and barbarous plague which swept over Europe and Americaduring the seventeenth and early part of the eighteenth centuries, mightpossibly have been one of the causes. It was the popular belief at that timethat women were in league with the devil to the injury of their neighbors;that they could change themselves into bats and sprites,fly throughthe air on broomsticks, or enter rooms and kill newborn babies and theirmothers. In such an atmosphere it is not surprising that women becameafraid to study medicine. However, the inherent desire in women to healand care for the sick reasserted itself and they eagerly sought to enter theBDr. Ruud was born in Norway on December 28, i860. She received her first schoolingat a private school and later attended middelskolen, from which she graduated in 1879.In 1880, she came to the United States, serving as a governess. In 1885, she began thestudy of medicine, graduating from the Woman's Medical College in 1889. The followingyear she was appointed resident physician to the women's department of the CountyInsane Asylum at Dunning and remained there for five years. She then went to NewYork City to study at the Postgraduate Hospital. From 1896 until her retirement a few\ears ago, Dr. Ruud was engaged in the general practice of medicine among women andchildren in Chicago, and was clinical professor of obstetrics at the Woman's MedicalCollege from 1896 to 1900. One of her recent activities has been the preparation of thismaterial for Volume II of the series The History of Medical Practice in Illinois, a continuationof the work of one of her hospital associates, the late Dr. Lucius H. Zeuch. Atthe present writing (1954), Dr. Ruud is still alive and well.—Editor