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Dr. Louise Southgate was not only one of the first female physicians in
Northern Kentucky, but also an ardent scholar, suffragist, and advocate
for young girls. Although she was born at a time when none of these things
were common for women, she was born into a family that expected no less.
Dr. Southgate received her
medical degree in 1893 from the Laurel Memorial College, now the
University of Cincinnati Medical School.
According to the stories that have
survived in the Southgate family, however, Southgate finished her
studies in Europe
because she was not able to perform an autopsy in the U.S.
Cadavers were male and it was not considered proper for a woman
to work on them. While
completing her studies in Europe, Southgate learned a great deal about
the work of a man who she greatly
admired, Louis Pasteur, the originator of germ theory and the process of
pasteurization. A page from
her diary reflects her interest in Pasteurs ideas, ideas that were
not accepted by many scientists of his time or even of hers.
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