ABSTRACT
More than 90 years after Sir Almroth Wright (1861-1947) generalized about women in a letter to the London Times, it is easy to dismiss his views with amused disdain. Why revisit the remarks of someone dubbed “Almost Wright” (Holroyd 164) or even, from the point of view of a reactionary medical profession, “Almroth Wrong” (Shaw, “Almroth” 716)? Wright’s reputation waned, however, not just because conservative physicians and researchers ignored his theories, disliked his experiments, or mistrusted his liaisons with the pharmaceutical industry. Even his sympathetic biographer admits that he was outspoken, uncompromising, combative, and prone to personal antagonisms (Colebrook, Almroth 123, 134-5). Similarly, since women in England now have the vote as well as more educational and professional options, it is tempting to ignore rebuttals of Wright’s views by May Sinclair (1863-1946) as obvious, or at least as dated.1 Why also revisit the opinions of a woman whose considerable reputation as a writer had its ups and downs, faded during the last decades of her life, and was eclipsed for decades after her death?2
