Slit,—As I am convalescing (from a disease caught from a patient) I have time to write regarding Canon J a ck man's apology.
I gather he is sorry for saying what he did, but is it possible that he still thinks it ? Was the sketch meant to be a fair likeness of a woman doctor?
I knew a student who fainted on six occasions before she could watch an operation. She qualified and became herself a surgeon's assistant, and later married and had children.
I myself when first entering the wards was overcome with nausea on watching a very simple wound dressing, though I felt worse years later when I first performed an operation.
During the years I worked with missionary Sisters in the tropics I was often terrified at the operations I had to perform singlehanded. One is not born with a liking for these things, nor does it ever develop, though control over one's feelings may be won. Is it this control that is thought to be hardness, I wonder? I should have expected from the Church a judgment more in accord with imagination a n d charity.
Mr P. G. Wodehouse has seen clearly and represents us very fairly in his -book and play, " Good Morning, Bill."
CATHOLIC WOMAN, M.D. London.
Canon Jackman, eminent though he 4s, can scarcely be considered the " Church."—Editor.]