The complete and unexplained disappearance of four young boys has occasioned considerable speculation from all quarters. The suggestion that Mrs. Campbell might have harmed her sons was addressed in Tuesday’s testimony taken during the inquiry into her death.
Dr. Sophie Savard Verhoeven, the last physician to treat Mrs. Campbell, contends that her patient did not suffer from puerperal insanity. The medical men on the jury were not all in accordance with this view. In an interview, Dr. Stanton expressed his doubts to the Post.
“Well-brought-up women who become good wives do not break with the habits of a lifetime for no reason. Mrs. Campbell had an excellent husband and a fine home. She was a caring and attentive mother. It is possible that her physicians did not look closely enough to see the evidence of puerperal insanity before it was too late, or that she was unduly influenced in a way not yet discovered.”
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NEW YORK TRIBUNE
Wednesday, May 30, 1883
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Sirs: The coroner’s inquest currently under way in the matter of Mrs. Janine Campbell’s death reveals the true nature of those who campaign for “women’s rights,” and it can be summarized in a few words: they think they know better. In this inquest female doctors have given testimony. They speak in rough terms about unladylike, lewd topics, naysaying their betters simply because they are female and they know better. Nature has decreed a certain division of labor, but they know better. The founders of this great nation set out rights and responsibilities for its citizens, but, the women tell us, they know better. The truth is that gentle, worthy ladies brought up in Christian households have their rights already. Good women have the right to influence the race in the nursery, in the family, in the school, and thus through all the race of life. They have the right to be respected by all the respectable. They have the right to be tenderly loved by all whose love is worth enjoying. They have the right to be protected and provided for by men. Healthy, God-fearing women take pleasure and joy from the rights accorded them by the Almighty. If you doubt the dangers of women’s rights, you have only to observe the way female doctors behave when they are called to give testimony. It is a scandal and a tragedy, for them and for the nation.
A Concerned Physician
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ANNA SAID, “OF course you should sail, Sophie. If the district attorney says you are free to go—”
“Wait,” Sophie said. She paced from one side of Anna’s office to the other. “There was something in the paper this morning that has me worried. Did you see Clara’s letter?”
“I haven’t had much time to read the paper these last few days.” She took the clipping that Sophie handed her and looked at it. Another letter to the editor.
Sirs: In his tireless compulsion to rid the city and state of all material he personally finds distasteful, Anthony Comstock of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice seems never to sleep. We note that in two days he has arrested four people for the sale of obscene literature as well as a printer he suspects of printing such materials, raided a reputable and well-respected art dealer, and impounded paintings by one of the greatest artists now living (again because in his superior opinion, they are inappropriate and immoral). In addition to all this, he serves on a coroner’s jury in the tragic case of a young woman’s untimely death, using that opportunity to insult and attempt—note, Sirs, I say attempt—to bully female physicians.
We find it outrageous that Anthony Comstock is permitted to use the justice system to harass people engaged in lawful business, and worse still, to pass judgment on the way qualified physicians treat patients in crisis. Note, too, that Comstock discreetly looks the other way when one of his colleagues on the board of the Society for the Suppression of Vice manufactures, advertises, and sells the contraceptives he—and the society—finds so personally and morally disgusting. It is high time Mr. Comstock’s antics—in and out of the courtroom—be curtailed.
Dr. C. E. Garrison
Secretary
Association for the Advancement of the Medical Education of Women
Anna looked from the newspaper clipping to Sophie and back again. “I wondered if the papers would allow Samuel Colgate’s name to be printed. Vaseline is the smallest part of what they manufacture, and the papers won’t want to lose the advertising revenue. I realize it’s disappointing—”
“Not that,” Sophie said. “The part about the printer. Comstock has arrested a printer suspected of supplying immoral materials.”
“Oh,” Anna said. “I see.”
“I went to Clara first to see if she had any more information, but she had inquired at the Tombs and couldn’t get a name. Do you think Jack could find out?”
Anna said, “I should think so.”
“I can’t just walk away and leave the Reasons at the mercy of Anthony Comstock.” Her voice wobbled in a way decidedly unlike Sophie’s usual calm appraisal of even catastrophic events.