Constance Stone

Emma Constance Stone (4 December 1856 — 1902) was the first woman to practice medicine in Australia and played an important role in founding the Queen Victoria Hospital in Melbourne.

Stone was born in Hobart. She was forced to leave Australia to study medicine since the University of Melbourne would not admit women into the medicine course. She graduated from the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, and was awarded her MD from the University of Trinity College, Toronto. She went on to London where she worked in the New Hospital for Women and qualified as a licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries.

In 1890 she became the first woman to be registered with the Medical Board of Victoria.^[1] Her sister Clara Stone followed her into medicine, she had been allowed to study in Australia and was one of two women who graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1891. Constance and Clara went into private practice together and both worked at the out-patients' dispensary in La Trobe Street.^[2]

In September 1896 eleven of Melbourne's women doctors decided to found the Victorian Medical Women's Society and the Queen Victoria Hospital for women. Construction of the hospital was funded by a jubilee shilling fund appeal, it officially opened in July 1899.

Death

In 1902 she fell ill with tuberculosis and died, aged 45. Her husband and daughter, who also became a doctor, survived her.

References

1. ^ Women Tasmania. Dr (Emma) Constance Stone (1856-1902)
2. ^ Penny Russell, Stone, Emma Constance (1856 - 1902), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 12, Melbourne University Press, 1990, pgs. 98-100

Persondata
Name	Stone, Emma Contstance
Alternative names
Short description	Australian physician and feminist activist
Date of birth	4 December 1856
Place of birth	Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Date of death	1902
Place of death