The work for us is in America, and nowhere else. I therefore feel extremely glad to find that some of the most prominent men in New York have taken up the matter; they have published a circular asking the public to give fifty thousand dollars which is to be invested, and the interest of which is to go for scholarships in one of the great New York medical schools, for the use of such women as are able to meet all the demands for a preparatory education. This is the best plan after all, both here and abroad, and the best you can do is to learn all you can so as to come home well prepared to enter the ranks as a practitioner. Every well-educated woman works more for the cause of her fellow beings by doing well herself rather than by meddling and trying constantly to help others. For the next few years, I shall make this my working principle and after that, I shall see what is best to be done next. ... You are very much mistaken if you think Vienna or Berlin better than the Paris Maternité for real knowledge. For instance, in Berlin, no student, not even a male, is permitted to perform “version” or do anything in the way of an operation. In Paris, every midwife gets her case of “version.” In Vienna, only the male students get “versions.” And both there and in Berlin the men take the places close to the beds and the women have to stand on the outskirts; While in Paris no man stands in the woman’s way. ... I felt very sorry that you were so homesick during the holidays. I really missed you more than I ever missed anybody before. I hope you will be at home next Christmas. ... I sent Miss ---- on Christmas Eve a little ivory bookmark, beautifully cut, Swiss work; it can be used also as a paper cutter though it is very weak. ... I am not seeing Miss ---- since she came home. I think my friendship, or rather hers, is over, since she cannot convert me. * * * * * _Roxbury, February 20, 1863._ It seems to me an eternity since I wrote to you last, and the cause of it is that I was very sick and unnaturally busy. I delivered my lecture on January 20th. and the Hospital got some fifty dollars profit. I had been extraordinarily busy and had the house full of patients in Roxbury. Besides, I was short of help at the Hospital which worried me very much. The consequence was that I got really sick, gave up practice entirely for a week, and when I did not get better, I packed my bundle and went to New York on a “spree.” Now, is it not curious that what we wanted to do for so long, namely, to take a journey together, was realized with Miss ----. She volunteered to take care of me, and consequently went with me and we had a real good time, at least as far as I could have it, being really sick and blue.