What did Pechey and Jex-Blake do after their studies in Edinburgh?
From Bern to Bombay, Edinburgh to London.
Edith Pechey circa 1883. Bourne & Shepherd (anon) [CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Edith Pechey passed medicalexams at the University of Bern in January 1877, her thesis was titled “Upon the constitutional causes of uterine catarrh”. Pechey then joined the College of Physicians in Ireland in May 1877. She worked as a doctor in Leeds and set up the Medical Women’s Federation, of which she was elected president in 1882.
The next year, Pechey moved to Bombay (now Mumbai) where she was in charge of the Jaffer Sulleman Dispensary for women, campaigned for women’s rights and started a nursing training programme. She married Herbert Musgrave Phipson in 1889. Ill-health and diabetes meant Pechey had to give up hospital work in 1894 but she continued her private practice. She also participated in public health measures to control bubonic plague and cholera. Pechey and her husband returned to England in 1905 where she joined the suffrage movement. In 1907 she was treated for breast cancer by May Thorne, Isabel Thorne’s daughter. Pechey died from cancer on 14 April 1908.
Sophia Jex-Blake, like Pechey, passed medical exams at the University of Bern in January 1877 and then qualified with King’s and Queen’s College of Physicians in Ireland. She became the third registered woman doctor in the UK when she registered with the General Medical Council (GMC) in 1877. Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman to be registered with the GMC in 1859.
The former Edinburgh Hospital and Dispensary for Women, also known as the Bruntsfield Hospital. Kim Traynor [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons
Find out more about Pechey in this blog post:
https://theedinburgh7project.wixsite.com/theedinburgh7project/blog/edith-pechey
Author- Madryn Riewer
References:
The Life of Sophia Jex-Blake by Margaret Todd.
Hi I am a french girl artist interest by history of medicine and even more interest by meeting your dream team. I am building a folder in order to propose The seven Edinburgh story as a BD or graphic novel for an editing House who created a collection to reveal woman’s fight under represented in history. I have two keys books and all the internet as sources for that (working on another story, an original one, more fantastic but also based in Edinburgh and the medical world, but sooner than the seven one). I would be so enchanted to meet you, why not on visio? (don’t have the money to move) in order to present you my project and why not compil ours informations. I am really interest in being the more accurated possible and if this project interest you, I would be pleased to share you my illustratrip. You can see one of my draw style on my insta at @ange.du.bizarre
Just came across this in acres of spam and requested insta. Best wishes