New Year’s Day, 1859, was a very cold one, bleak winds prevailing after a snowstorm. A number of invitations were extended to us by friends, who did not simply array their houses for callers bringing their congratulations in Dutch fashion and receiving the customary refreshments. I decided to accept the hospitality of Mrs. and Mr. Booth in Williamsburg, the home of our friend and companion, Mary L. Booth, while the rest of the household was treated to a dinner of roast goose which kind patrons had provided. We never could have thought of such luxuries ourselves, nor on Thanksgiving Day nor Christmas, either. However, we never suffered for the want of them--they always appeared in due time on these holidays. This furnishes proof that it is a pleasure to be kind and that there are more good people in the world than we may realize. If only one half of humanity could be brought into absolute contact individually with the other half which is neglected, degraded and discouraged, there is no doubt that we would witness the same equalization in the large cities as that which prevails in the country towns and villages. Not that there is no difference of subsistence in these latter, but the absolute poverty is not to be found in them as we find it in the former. Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell now went to England for a vacation and to visit old friends. Her absence caused an increase in work and responsibility, as Dr. Emily and myself had to divide the work which she had done in the dispensary. This increase was just the little more which I could not bear, and the sick headaches returned so often and with such violence that I had to relinquish a good deal of supervision to my head nurse, and finally I was obliged to keep to my bed for a whole week. When they were visiting the Infirmary, the Boston friends of woman’s medical education, of whom I have spoken, had kindly asked me to visit them. So I concluded to take a short vacation in February, placing my senior students in charge of the medical work, under the supervision of Dr. Emily Blackwell. My visit to Boston, towards the last of February, was exceedingly interesting. I found that Mr. Samuel E. Sewall, as well as his associate directors of the _New England Female Medical College_, had been anxious to add a clinical department to their purely theoretical school. And outside friends, who had become interested in me personally as well as in my plans to aid the education of medical women by training them in practical work, also were anxious that I should change my place of residence from New York to Boston and accept the position of organizer of this clinical department.