Quotation by Harriot K. Hunt

The prevailing idea ... is, that the doctor is to cure the disease. It is not so. The doctor and the patient together, are to cure or mitigate the disease. They must be coworkers. In order to be so, there must be the ... the most cordial sympathy and frankness between them. It is rarely that this can be so between a male physician and a female patient. Therefore, the female physician, is the physician for the female patient.... In a few years the medical profession will be equally shared between men and women; public opinion is fast tending to bring this about.