"The emotions which are the strongest force in a woman must not live in
the past; they must not be used introspectively, nor for personal
pleasure and gratification. Used thus, they destroy the woman and weaken
the race. But _flung forward_, flung into interests outside of the woman
herself, and thus transmuted into power, they become to her her
salvation, and to the race a constructive element."

FOOTNOTE:

[11] _Dr. Elsie Inglis_, by Lady Frances Balfour.




CHAPTER VII

THE HOSPICE


During her medical career Dr. Inglis never lost sight of one aim, equal
opportunity for the woman with the man in all branches of education and
practical training and responsibility. She recognized that young women
doctors in Edinburgh suffered under a serious disadvantage in being
ineligible for the post of resident medical officer in the Royal
Infirmary and the chief maternity hospital. "But," writes a friend, "it
was characteristic of her and her inherent inability to visualize
obstacles except as incentive to greater effort that she set herself to
remedy this disadvantage instead of accepting it as an insurmountable
difficulty. _Women doctors must found a maternity hospital of their
own._ That was her first decision. A committee was formed, and the