To a female, a medical degree or a military commission can be nothing more than a graceless memento, and very few respectable females will aspire to such honors. Females have sometimes immolated themselves on the altar of their country, and died for the benefit of mankind; but no such sacrifice is required in the present case—the profession is already amply supplied in all its departments, and its irksome, laborious and responsible duties should not be cast upon the gentler sex. If females do occasionally succeed in the practice of medicine, as one in a thousand may, such are only very rare exceptions to a general rule. Similar exceptions have been witnessed in other vocations. Females in disguise have acted the hero in the army or navy; but every such instance, unless it arose from necessity, deserved censure rather than commendation. And if a female should obtain a lucrative practice and acquire a fortune, even then, her position in society would not be an enviable one. She cannot be respected as a member of a profession to which she aspires to belong. Unbidden and unwelcome she has thrust herself into an associ-
