教會歷史
先驅者婦女和醫學


「先驅者婦女和醫學」,教會歷史主題

「先驅者婦女和醫學」

先驅者婦女和醫學

在18和19世紀,婦女經常一起工作來提供醫療照護。她們治療一些常見的小毛病、疾病和創傷,協助分娩,並分享自製的藥物,包括藥膏、糖漿、藥草茶飲、軟膏、貼布和敷料。1在現代醫學達到高治癒率之前,許多人不信任醫生,都是依賴草藥和信心來治病。2早期的後期聖徒也像當時的美國人一樣,在自己的社區中形成一個非正式的醫療網,依賴彼此的醫療照護,以及彼此的祝福和祈禱。

在納府,教會領袖很重視派蒂·薛森斯和琪娜·韓庭頓等助產士,從實務經驗而來的智慧、同情心和信心。這些婦女被按手選派為醫治者,她們提供照顧、施用藥物、指導其他助產士,以及執行醫治的祝福。31851年7月,猶他的婦女組織了女性健康議會。這個議會支持百翰·楊妻子瑪麗安·安吉爾的母親,也就是助產士菲碧·安吉爾,擔任第一任會長,另外兩位助產士擔任她的諮理。該議會在市裡19個支會中的多數支會裡,都指定一位婦女來「照顧貧困者」。4

1870年代,內戰之後的醫療方法已有進步,再加上鐵路使得猶他與國內其他地區更緊密連接,於是教會領袖開始思考聖徒可以用哪些方式在美國東部接受專業教育。此時,百翰·楊會長已對醫療科學更有信心,並試著將信心的醫治與之結合。5他請伊莉莎·舒和慈助會協助,促成婦女接受了正規的醫師訓練,在當時的美國,極少婦女享有這樣的教育機會。61873年,伊莉莎·舒向猶他奧格登的慈助會婦女徵求義工,她說:「現在,這裡的姊妹哪些人有遠大的抱負,也了解此項需求,並為了錫安的緣故,投身於這項學習〔?〕」7

德撒律醫院外觀

鹽湖城的德撒律醫院,約攝於1857年至1900年。

婦女們響應了這項號召。1877年,羅曼妮亞·普瑞特成為第一位從醫學院畢業的後期聖徒婦女,當時的細菌學理論幫助了醫療從業人員更有效地預防和對抗疾病。8其他婦女也效法羅曼妮亞的榜樣,學成後回到家鄉,然後教導產科和家庭照顧方面的課程。有些婦女,如猶他海侖的愛瑪·林哲昆斯,被正式按手選派為助產士,由當地的慈助會支付她們訓練費用。91882年,慈助會在鹽湖城成立了德撒律醫院,那裡的病人可以得到受過訓練的醫生所給予的治療,也可以接受醫治的祝福。10隨著醫學持續不斷進步,猶他的聖徒就像當代的美國人一樣,越來越尋求專業的醫療照護。

相關主題:醫治慈助會教會學校

註:

  1. See Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785–1812 (New York: Random House, 1991), 11–12, 47, 61–66.

  2. See Z[ebedee] Snow, in “Speeches Delivered at the Assembly of the Council of Health, on Ensign Peak,” Deseret News, July 24, 1852, vol. 2, no. 19; Christine Croft Waters, “Pioneering Physicians in Utah, 1847–1900” (master’s thesis, University of Utah, 1976), 14, 16.

  3. Jonathan A. Stapley and Kristine Wright, “Female Ritual Healing in Mormonism,” Journal of Mormon History, vol. 37, no. 1 (Winter 2011), 7–8 note 18, 14–15; Steven C. Dinger, “‘The Doctors in This Region Don’t Know Much’: Medicine and Obstetrics in Mormon Nauvoo,” Journal of Mormon History, vol. 42, no. 4 (October 2016), 65–67; Carol Cornwall Madsen, “Faith and Community: Women of Nauvoo,” in Susan Easton Black and Charles D. Tate Jr., eds., Joseph Smith: The Prophet, The Man (Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, 1993), 232.

  4. Part 2: 1854–1866,” in Jill Mulvay Derr, Carol Cornwall Madsen, Kate Holbrook, and Matthew J. Grow, eds., The First Fifty Years of Relief Society: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women’s History (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2016), 177–234.亦見主題:醫治;Phoebe M. Angell, “Seek to the Lord for Wisdom,” in Jennifer Reeder and Kate Holbrook,eds., At the Pulpit: 185 Years of Discourses by Latter-day Saint Women (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2017), 27-28.

  5. See Lester E. Bush Jr., Health and Medicine among the Latter-day Saints: Science, Sense, and Scripture (New York: Crossroad, 1993), 93–96.See also Lou Mueller, “Divine Duty: Midwifery in Southeastern Utah at the Turn of the Century,” Blue Mountain Shadows, vol. 17 (Summer 1996), 51–62; Thomas W. Simpson, American Universities and the Birth of Modern Mormonism, 1867–1940 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2016), 11–25.

  6. See Simpson, American Universities, 18–19.See also Matthew J. Grow, “Liberty to the Downtrodden”: Thomas L. Kane, Romantic Reformer (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009), 143–48.

  7. Eliza R. Snow, Discourse, August 14, 1873,” in The First Fifty Years of Relief Society, 380–88.

  8. See Jessie Del Macdonald Clawson, “Pioneer Physicians,” in Museum Memories, 9 vols. (Salt Lake City: International Society Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 2010), 2:67; Simpson, American Universities, 17; Judith Walzer Leavitt and Ronald L. Numbers, eds., Sickness and Health in America: Readings in the History of Medicine and Public Health (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1997), 8.

  9. See Clawson, “Pioneer Physicians,” 49–96; “Emma Anderson Liljenquist, Reminiscences of 1887, in ‘The Story of My Life,’ circa 1948 (Excerpt),” in The First Fifty Years of Relief Society: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women’s History; Simpson, American Universities, 18–23.For more on medical classes, see “Report of Deseret Hospital Dedication, July 17, 1882,” in The First Fifty Years of Relief Society, 497–506.

  10. Report of Deseret Hospital Dedication, July 17, 1882,” in The First Fifty Years of Relief Society, 497–506;亦見主題: 醫治