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Women doctors at the front
DISSECTING ROOM
Women doctors at the front The Women of Royaumont A Scottish Women’s Hospital on the Western Front Eileen Crofton. Edinburgh,Tuckwell Press.1997. Pp 347. £17.99. ISBN: 1-898410-86-0 his year, the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) celebrated its centenary. The men and women who make up this body of highly skilled and dedicated professionals are justly proud of their contributions to the well-being and efficiency of Britain’s fighting forces. But for the women doctors of the present RAMC the occasion must be tinged with memories of a different time when the services offered by women were not at all valued by the male hierarchy. Commissions directly into the RAMC were granted to women only after World War II. Many women doctors served “with” the RAMC during World War I, including Louisa Garrett Anderson and Flora Murray who eventually ran the hospital
T
in Endell Street, London, with great success. There were women doctors in Malta, Salonica, and Sinai. But there was another group of women in no way connected to the military. Doctors, nurses, orderlies, and chauffeusses rallied to the call of Dr Elsie Inglis of Edinburgh. She too had been rebuffed by the army hierarchy and the British Red Cross but saw the opportunity to show what women could do. Inglis set up the Scottish Women’s Hospital Unit with the support of the Scottish Federation of Suffrage Societies. This society was allied to the non-militant National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) whose President, Millicent Fawcett, was a sister to Elizabeth Garrett Anderson.
The Nobel Chronicles
he Nobel predictable relaPrize in tion to the direcPhysiology or tion of the nystagmus, Medicine was awarded and the development of in 1914 to Robert dizzy spells. He argued Bárány “for his work that these must be due on the physiology and to reflexes from the pathology of the flow of fluids in the vestibular apparatus”. semicircular canals, Bárány was born in which also must Vienna and obtained a influence the maintenmedical degree in ance of body balance. 1914: Robert Bárány 1900. After studying On the basis of these (1876–1936) psychiatry and neurolprinciples he develogy in Germany, he oped the “caloric test” returned to Vienna in for diagnosis of neuro1903 and began worklogical and middle-ear ing as an otologist. diseases. Then, it was routine When the Nobel practice to treat ear Prize was announced, infections by irrigating Bárány was a Russian external auditory prisoner-of-war. Later canals. Some patients in Vienna, Bárány, complained of dizzinow a celebrity, faced ness during this proceaccusations from coldure, and Bárány leagues of not noted that the dizzy acknowledging his colspells were always accompanied by laborators’ contributions. Most of nystagmus. One patient even these charges were proved false, but remarked that he felt dizzy only Bárány became dejected, left Vienna, when the water was “not warm and spent the rest of his life working enough”. at the Otological Institute in This led Bárány to study the relaUppsala, Sweden. tion between the temperature of the irrigating fluid, nystagmus, and dizziTonse N K Raju ness. He soon established that University of Illinois, Chicago, IL in healthy persons, the water USA temperature and head position had a The Nobel Foundation
T
1156
By November, 1914, there was enough money to equip at least two hospital units. One went to Serbia, and the excursions of that hospital are legendary. Another went to the derelict Abbaye Royaumont just north of Paris. After Herculean cleansing efforts by the women, this hospital opened to patients in January, 1915. Initially, there were just 100 beds, which increased to 600. Royaumont was in continuous action from January, 1915, to March, 1919. At its peak, it was the largest British voluntary hospital in France. The women surgeons worked night and day when the occasion arose. The senior surgeon “La Colonelle” or “The Chief” Dr Frances Ivens, who was 44 years old when she took up her appointment, was there throughout the war as was her second in command Dr Ruth Nicholson. Over 10 000 patients were treated at Royaumont, including those of the Casualty Clearing Station at VilliersCotterets. Most were French, but towards the end of the war Canadian, American, and British troops passed through. The humanity, humour, and sheer grinding hard work of the women who staffed this unit have been captured with great skill by Eileen Crofton in The Women of Royaumont. Another Scottish doctor, she has researched the times and places meticulously with extensive references and given us the flavour of the hospital with the fascinating use of verbatim comments and correspondence. Many of the orderlies were talented musicians or other performers. The competition at Christmas to put on the best ward show was in the firm traditions of English hospital life. There is also the tale of the new sister comforting her soldier patient as he recovered from his operation “Oui, oui”, she cooed, using the only word of French she then knew. Her patient’s increasing agitation was explained by his neighbour who translated, “But madame, he is asking you if he will die.” As a postscript, Crofton tells the stories of the women of Royaumont after this war and into the next world war. Incidentally, Frances Ivens (Knowles) became a Founder Fellow and Ruth Nicholson a Founder Member of the Royal College of Obstetricians in 1929. They had indeed a strange training for their evenutal destiny. World War I changed the lives of the women of Britain. The doctors of Royaumont and their colleagues in other war theatres changed the lives of women doctors, forever, and we are privileged to read their story. Patricia A Last 115 Harley St, London W1N 1DG, UK
THE LANCET • Vol 352 • October 3, 1998
Women doctors at the front The Women of Royaumont A Scottish Women’s Hospital on the Western Front Eileen Crofton. Edinburgh,Tuckwell Press.1997. Pp 347. £17.99. ISBN: 1-898410-86-0 his year, the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) celebrated its centenary. The men and women who make up this body of highly skilled and dedicated professionals are justly proud of their contributions to the well-being and efficiency of Britain’s fighting forces. But for the women doctors of the present RAMC the occasion must be tinged with memories of a different time when the services offered by women were not at all valued by the male hierarchy. Commissions directly into the RAMC were granted to women only after World War II. Many women doctors served “with” the RAMC during World War I, including Louisa Garrett Anderson and Flora Murray who eventually ran the hospital
T
in Endell Street, London, with great success. There were women doctors in Malta, Salonica, and Sinai. But there was another group of women in no way connected to the military. Doctors, nurses, orderlies, and chauffeusses rallied to the call of Dr Elsie Inglis of Edinburgh. She too had been rebuffed by the army hierarchy and the British Red Cross but saw the opportunity to show what women could do. Inglis set up the Scottish Women’s Hospital Unit with the support of the Scottish Federation of Suffrage Societies. This society was allied to the non-militant National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) whose President, Millicent Fawcett, was a sister to Elizabeth Garrett Anderson.
The Nobel Chronicles
he Nobel predictable relaPrize in tion to the direcPhysiology or tion of the nystagmus, Medicine was awarded and the development of in 1914 to Robert dizzy spells. He argued Bárány “for his work that these must be due on the physiology and to reflexes from the pathology of the flow of fluids in the vestibular apparatus”. semicircular canals, Bárány was born in which also must Vienna and obtained a influence the maintenmedical degree in ance of body balance. 1914: Robert Bárány 1900. After studying On the basis of these (1876–1936) psychiatry and neurolprinciples he develogy in Germany, he oped the “caloric test” returned to Vienna in for diagnosis of neuro1903 and began worklogical and middle-ear ing as an otologist. diseases. Then, it was routine When the Nobel practice to treat ear Prize was announced, infections by irrigating Bárány was a Russian external auditory prisoner-of-war. Later canals. Some patients in Vienna, Bárány, complained of dizzinow a celebrity, faced ness during this proceaccusations from coldure, and Bárány leagues of not noted that the dizzy acknowledging his colspells were always accompanied by laborators’ contributions. Most of nystagmus. One patient even these charges were proved false, but remarked that he felt dizzy only Bárány became dejected, left Vienna, when the water was “not warm and spent the rest of his life working enough”. at the Otological Institute in This led Bárány to study the relaUppsala, Sweden. tion between the temperature of the irrigating fluid, nystagmus, and dizziTonse N K Raju ness. He soon established that University of Illinois, Chicago, IL in healthy persons, the water USA temperature and head position had a The Nobel Foundation
T
1156
By November, 1914, there was enough money to equip at least two hospital units. One went to Serbia, and the excursions of that hospital are legendary. Another went to the derelict Abbaye Royaumont just north of Paris. After Herculean cleansing efforts by the women, this hospital opened to patients in January, 1915. Initially, there were just 100 beds, which increased to 600. Royaumont was in continuous action from January, 1915, to March, 1919. At its peak, it was the largest British voluntary hospital in France. The women surgeons worked night and day when the occasion arose. The senior surgeon “La Colonelle” or “The Chief” Dr Frances Ivens, who was 44 years old when she took up her appointment, was there throughout the war as was her second in command Dr Ruth Nicholson. Over 10 000 patients were treated at Royaumont, including those of the Casualty Clearing Station at VilliersCotterets. Most were French, but towards the end of the war Canadian, American, and British troops passed through. The humanity, humour, and sheer grinding hard work of the women who staffed this unit have been captured with great skill by Eileen Crofton in The Women of Royaumont. Another Scottish doctor, she has researched the times and places meticulously with extensive references and given us the flavour of the hospital with the fascinating use of verbatim comments and correspondence. Many of the orderlies were talented musicians or other performers. The competition at Christmas to put on the best ward show was in the firm traditions of English hospital life. There is also the tale of the new sister comforting her soldier patient as he recovered from his operation “Oui, oui”, she cooed, using the only word of French she then knew. Her patient’s increasing agitation was explained by his neighbour who translated, “But madame, he is asking you if he will die.” As a postscript, Crofton tells the stories of the women of Royaumont after this war and into the next world war. Incidentally, Frances Ivens (Knowles) became a Founder Fellow and Ruth Nicholson a Founder Member of the Royal College of Obstetricians in 1929. They had indeed a strange training for their evenutal destiny. World War I changed the lives of the women of Britain. The doctors of Royaumont and their colleagues in other war theatres changed the lives of women doctors, forever, and we are privileged to read their story. Patricia A Last 115 Harley St, London W1N 1DG, UK
THE LANCET • Vol 352 • October 3, 1998