Your article (Secret transgender Victorian surgeon feted by Historic England, 25 July) incorrectly stated that the first Caesarean section was not performed in Britain until 1833. In fact, the first recorded attempt at C-section took place in 1737, performed by Edinburgh surgeon Mr Smith. The patient, Mrs Paterson, died along with her baby. The first successful C-section in the British Isles was performed in either 1738 or 1739 by an Irish midwife called Mary Donally. The patient, Alice O’Neal, survived. Despite this remarkable success, Donally was dismissed by male writers of the 18th and 19th centuries as an ignorant woman who simply got lucky.
Female medical practitioners have all too often been overlooked by both their contemporaries and later historians, and sadly your article about Dr James Barry continues in this unfortunate tradition. Using the term “transgender” misrepresents the reasons why Barry chose to disguise herself as a man: it was not because she suffered from gender dysphoria in the modern sense, but because women were barred from entering the medical profession.
The first British woman permitted to qualify as a doctor, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, was born almost 50 years after Barry and faced a great deal of opposition from her male colleagues. It would have been impossible for Barry to practise as a doctor if she had not disguised herself as a man. While it is wonderful to see Barry honoured by Historic England, I am sorry to see the history of female doctors misrepresented. The misogyny of the medical profession, as well as the bravery of those women who fought for access to medical training, should not be forgotten.
Louise Perry
Oxford
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