Loma Linda Messages

Loma Linda Faculty to E. G. White, March 10, 1912

Loma Linda, Calif., March 10, 1912.

Mrs. E. G. White, Sanitarium, Calif.

Dear Sister White:

As far as we have opportunity, we have searched out and studied the testimonies regarding the work of Christian physicians in our sanitariums and other denominational work. As a faculty we are unanimous in our desire to carry out these principles in regard to the work of women physicians in treating the diseases of women and in the practice of midwifery. We believe that much more emphasis should be placed upon the education of women for this line of work. LLM 597.5

We also recognize the fact that women physicians will need the counsel and assistance of men physicians in certain cases, notably in surgery and emergencies. LLM 597.6

We are united as a faculty that all students, both men and women, should receive thorough text-book instruction in midwifery, and in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of women. But there is some division of opinion as to whether the men students should receive bedside instruction in these subjects. LLM 597.7

Such work commonly called clinical instruction, is presided over by mature women physicians as teachers, and participated in by only a few students at a time, only the young women at one clinic, and the young men at another clinic, and it is so arranged as to avoid all unnecessary exposure, the patient not seeing the students or the students the patient. LLM 598.1

Some of our number maintain that because men should not treat women in our sanitariums nor practice midwifery when competent women physicians are available for this work, that the gentlemen (989) students should not be given practical instruction in these lines. LLM 598.2

In view of the fact that there are not, at present, either in the home or in the foreign fields a sufficient number of competent women physicians to meet the emergencies of childbirth and to deal with the absolute necessities of the diseases of women; and in view of the fact that men physicians must often be called upon to meet these emergencies, other members of our faculty believe that all students, men as well as women, should be given a most thorough training in all ines. It is feared that if the men students are not thoroughly instructed in these subjects, lives will be needlessly sacrificed because of the blunder and incompetency of untrained physicians, and this would be a serious reproach upon our work. LLM 598.3

Because of this difference of opinion, we write to you, desiring to know if you have been given any light along this line, that is as to whether or not the men students should be denied the opportunities for practical instruction in midwifery and the diseases of women. LLM 598.4

Of course we are aware of the fact that the law demands that this class of instruction shall have been given to all medical students before they present themselves for state examination; but we wish to know if this is in harmony with the light you have received. LLM 598.5

Most respectfully yours,
Committee of the Faculty of Loma Linda
Geo. K. Abbott
Dorothy T. Harbaugh
W. A. George.

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