{{Short description|British physician (1842–1924)}} {{Infobox person | name = Louisa Atkins | honorific_suffix = | birth_name = Louisa Catherine Fanny Bell | birth_date = 1842 | death_date = 1924 | occupation = Physician, medical lecturer | employer = Birmingham and Midlands Hospital for Women; New Hospital for Women | known_for = Being one of the first British women to qualify in medicine }}
'''Louisa Atkins''' (1842–1924)<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Almond |first=Sophie |date=31 May 2020 |title=The Forgotten Life of Annie Reay Barker, M.D |url=https://academic.oup.com/shm/article/34/3/828/5849164 |access-date=2023-12-10 |journal=Social History of Medicine |volume=34 |issue=3 |pages=828–850 |doi=10.1093/shm/hkaa039 |pmc=8408445 |pmid=34483732}}</ref> was a British physician, and one of the first British women to qualify in medicine.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Bland |first=Lucy |url=http://archive.org/details/banishingbeastse0000blan |title=Banishing the beast : sexuality and the early feminists |date=1995 |location=New York |publisher= New Press |isbn=978-1-56584-307-3}}</ref> She was also England's first female House Surgeon, at the Birmingham and Midlands Hospital for Women.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Group |first=British Medical Journal Publishing |date=1924-11-01 |title=Louisa Atkins, M.d |url=https://www.bmj.com/content/2/3331/836.3 |journal=Br Med J |language=en |volume=2 |issue=3331 |pages=836–837 |doi=10.1136/bmj.2.3331.836-b |issn=0007-1447|url-access=subscription }}</ref> ''The BMJ'' described her as "a pioneer in the cause of medicine as a profession for women".<ref name=":2" />
== Early life == Louisa Catherine Fanny Bell was born in 1842, the daughter of Robert and Henrietta Bell of Hull.<ref name=":6">{{Cite journal |last=Mathews |first=E.T. |date=21 October 1995 |title=MRS ATKINS AND THE FIRST DEATH WITH METHYLENE ETHER |url=http://www.histansoc.org.uk/uploads/9/5/5/2/9552670/volume_18.pdf |journal=Proceedings of the History of Anaesthesia Society |volume=18 |pages=56}}</ref> Atkins had a "continental upbringing", and had been educated in France.<ref name=":2" /> When still young, she went to India, where in 1860 she married Frederick William Maclean Atkins<ref>{{Cite web |date=25 September 1860 |title=British India Office Marriages |url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=BL/BIND/M/136309/2 |access-date=2023-12-10 |website=www.findmypast.co.uk}}</ref> - an army officer many years her senior.<ref name=":2" /> He died a few years after their marriage, when Louisa was still considered a minor.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":6" />
== Medical career == The London School of Medicine for Women not yet being open, Atkins attended medical school in Zurich, matriculating in 1867 and gaining her degree in 1872.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=Louisa Atkins - Health Sciences Library - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |url=https://hsl.lib.unc.edu/specialcollections/bios/atkins |access-date=2023-12-10 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Lutzker |first=Edythe |url=http://archive.org/details/edithpecheyphips0000lutz |title=Edith Pechey-Phipson, M.D.; the story of England's foremost pioneering woman doctor |date=1973 |location=New York |publisher= Exposition Press |isbn=978-0-682-47597-6}}</ref> She was one of the "Zurich 7": the first group of women to be admitted to, and awarded degrees from, Zurich's medical school.<ref name=":3" /> Her thesis was titled ''Ueber Gangraena Pulmonum bei Kindern'' (pulmonary gangrene in children).<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":4">{{Cite web |title=Louisa Atkins |url=https://pendulumdiscoveries.com/louisa-atkins |access-date=2023-12-10 |website=pENDULUM dISCOVERIES |language=en-US}}</ref> [[File:Edith Pechey.jpg|thumb|Edith Pechey, who succeeded Atkins as House Surgeon at the Birmingham Hospital for Women]] In July 1872, Atkins was appointed house surgeon at the Birmingham and Midlands Hospital for Women,<ref name=":1" /> where she began a lifelong friendship with Arthur Chamberlain, brother of Neville Chamberlain.<ref name=":2" /> As women were not yet permitted to sit the examinations of any of the medical licensing bodies, Atkins was not fully registered, but the hospital's committee awarded her the position over two male candidates.<ref name=":4" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Blake |first=Catriona |url=http://archive.org/details/chargeofparasols0000blak |title=The charge of the parasols : women's entry to the medical profession |date=1990 |location=London |publisher= Women's Press |isbn=978-0-7043-4239-2}}</ref> This was a controversial decision, which led to accusations of a fixed appointment.<ref name=":1" /> A year later, though, it was acknowledged as a great success, and said that "A fair field and no favour should be given to a competent lady candidate".<ref name=":7">{{Cite book |last=Brock |first=Claire |url=http://archive.org/details/britishwomensurg0000broc |title=British women surgeons and their patients, 1860-1918 |date=2017 |location=Cambridge, U.K. |publisher= Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-316-91192-1}}</ref> In 1877, Atkins took the Licence of the King and Queen's College of Physicians in Ireland when they began to admit women, qualifying alongside Sophia Jex-Blake and Edith Pechey.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/sim_the-womans-journal_1877-09-08_8_36 |title=The Woman's Journal 1877-09-08: Vol 8 Iss 36 |date=1877-09-08 |publisher=Out-of-copyright |language=English}}</ref>
Atkins was an early member of the Association of Registered Medical Women (ARMW), formed in 1879 in response to the British Medical Association's refusal to admit women doctors.<ref name=":0" /> At that time, 14 women were on the medical register in Britain, all of whom were invited to join the Association.<ref name=":0" /> Fellow members included Elizabeth Blackwell, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, Sophia Jex-Blake, Annie Reay Barker, Annie Clark, Matilda Chaplin-Ayrton, Eliza Macdonogh Frikart, and Eliza Walker Dunbar.<ref name=":0" />
Atkins began working at the New Hospital for Women (later the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Obstetric Hospital), where she remained for a number of years.<ref name=":2" /> Her colleagues there included Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Annie de la Cherois.<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal |last=Scharlieb |first=Mary |date=November 1924 |title=Obituary |url=https://wellcomecollection.org/works/dj43wa8e/items?canvas=339 |journal=The Medical Women's Federation Newsletter |pages=57 |via=Wellcome}}</ref> She also acted as lecturer on the Diseases of Women at the Women's School.<ref name=":5" /> Atkins resigned from the New Hospital for Women in 1888, due to her unheeded concerns about Garrett Anderson's surgical proficiency.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Geddes |first=JF |date=2010-09-01 |title='Too high a percentage of failures'? Cover-up at the New Hospital for Women |journal=Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine |volume=103 |issue=9 |pages=348–351 |doi=10.1258/jrsm.2010.100064 |issn=0141-0768 |pmc=2930920 |pmid=20807990}}</ref><ref name=":7" /> Edith Pechey was appointed her successor.<ref name=":6" /><ref name=":0" />
Following her resignation, Atkins moved from Hanwell to Northwood, into a house built for her.<ref name=":2" /> There, and from consulting rooms in Upper Gloucester Place in London,<ref name=":5" /> she continued in private practice.<ref name=":2" /> This work, wrote ''The BMJ'', "engaged her powers and absorbed her interest, to the great advantage of her patients' health (she was most successful in her practice) and to the acquisition of more than her share of devoted friends (she was much beloved)".<ref name=":2" /> Mary Scharlieb described Atkins as "an excellent physician and was able to bring to her patients' service those powers of vision and sympathy without which the greatest professional skill and knowledge are comparatively useless."<ref name=":5" /> ''The BMJ'' wrote that Atkins was "very human, very kind", adding that:<blockquote>She possessed an open mind, nimble in its workings; and if she suffered at times from depression, at other times she could be very gay, delighting her company by her lively sallies. She was quite fearless in the expression of her mind and in the practice of her principles, wheresoever these might lead.<ref name=":2" /></blockquote>
== Death == Atkins died at home in Northwood in 1924.<ref name=":2" /> ''The BMJ'' reported that it had been "her wish that her death should not appear in tho obituary columns of the papers, and so it came about that the event escaped the notice even of those among those circle of her intimate friends".<ref name=":2" />
In an obituary for the Medical Women's Federation, Mary Scharlieb wrote of Atkins:<blockquote>She was a woman who never courted publicity and was fully satisfied by her own consciousness that she had done her best and that her best was adequate. Apparently all her energies were given to the practice of Medicine, for none of her colleagues are aware of her having published books, pamphlets or papers. She did not speak in public but devoted all her surplus energies to the primitive and excellent occupation of gardening. I think amongst her claims for consideration among her colleagues and the students were her habitual graceful hospitality and her lovely roses.<ref name=":5" /></blockquote>In a 1995 paper for the History of Anaesthesia Society, E.T. Mathews wrote that Louisa Atkins "should be remembered as one who overcame exceptional difficulties to achieve her place in the profession."<ref name=":6" />
== References == <references />
{{DEFAULTSORT:Atkins, Louisa}} Category:1842 births Category:1924 deaths Category:19th-century British women medical doctors Category:20th-century British women medical doctors Category:20th-century British medical doctors Category:University of Zurich alumni