Again, I could control my patients and the other inmates, although our students and servants dressed hastily and were ready to obey commands in case of need. Fortunately for us, the wind blew the flames in the opposite direction from our house, and I trusted in this fact. Had I had the experience of the Chicago and Boston conflagrations, I would not have trusted to the wind nor perhaps have been able to control a family of nearly forty heads. Such is the blessing of youthful inexperience! But the strain of anxiety on these two occasions was tremendous, and I was laid up each time for a couple of days with a severe sick headache. Visitors interested in women physicians came from all parts of the United States as well as from England, but especially from Boston. I was often at the same time amused and pained when disappointment was expressed over the smallness of our hospital, and we had to take great pains to explain our out-door department work. From the very beginning, I had instituted record books in which the name, age, residence, occupation, diagnosis and treatment of every individual case were written--of those who were in the hospital, those who came to the dispensary clinics, and those who were attended at their homes. These books revealed to the visitors our activity, and they were admired also by our professional brethren. No such records then existed in their dispensaries but were introduced after our example, primitive as it was in those years. However, having such records saved us a great deal of annoyance in many ways, as we offered them for inspection to all whom they concerned; and they protected us against any accusation of carelessness, ignorance or malpractice of any kind. It was the same with the prescriptions given when the medicines were not provided by us. I insisted that every one who wrote a prescription should sign her name, if not also the name of the patient. As my name was so long, I have always signed _M. E. Z._ CHAPTER XXII _Dr. Blackwell goes to England for vacation--Dr. Zakrzewska’s health suffers under increased strain--Goes to Boston for vacation--Is there urged to become professor of obstetrics in the New England Female Medical College, and to establish a hospital for this college--Accepts offer and removes to Boston. (Twenty-nine years of age: 1859.)_