The contributions of Mary Scharleib to Medicine-A Historical Study

Abstract

Medical education in India can be traced back to very early times. In the post Vedic period, the names of physicians such as Charaka, Sushrutha and Vaghbatta laid the foundations of Indian medicine. After India came under the British rule, the English system of medicine came into vogue in some places. Madras Presidency witnessed the best center for women’s medical care and medical education. Madras itself having four women’s hospitals of different kinds, the Maternity, the Victoria Caste and Gosha, the Christina Rainy and the Kalyani offers most favorable opportunities for clinical instruction and for obtaining the services of qualified women teachers and lecturers from the staff of the above hospitals and otherwise. The initiation of women’s medical work in Madras is closely bound up with the history of Mrs. Scharleib, a young English woman, who went out to India in 1866 with her husband, a barrister in Madras. Mrs. Scharleib heard much from her husband’s clients and clerks and from her own servants, of the unnecessary suffering of Indian women owing to lack of medical attendance, and she determined to take a midwife’s training in order to help them. In 1875 Mary Scharlieb was the first woman to be admitted in Madras Medical College. Mrs. Scharlieb was also appointed as lecturer on midwifery and diseases of women and children to the women students and examiner in Obstetrics and Gynaecology to the University of Madras. In 1887 Mrs. Scharlieb’s  health gave way, and she was obliged under medical advice to leave India for good.