At first the study of medicine appealed only to earnest women who felt a decided calling in that direction and who really thought to benefit their sex by acquiring information which would serve others through their advice. Very few, if any, of these first women combined with this idea that of vindicating their rights as Women. It was no easy matter at that time to become a doctor of medicine. The great obstacle, want of schools, sifted out the weaker elements; and those who succeeded in obtaining teachers and in being admitted into the colleges then open to women were, as you will conceive, possessed of unusual perseverance and firmness of purpose. But soon there appeared among the candidates for medical honors another purpose, the desire to gain these honors through simple study during a prescribed course without any laborious work. The first suggestion of this came through some men physicians who, becoming alarmed at the movement and perhaps conscious of their own mediocrity, felt instinctively that there was danger of their being overshadowed by women, who are by nature sympathetic and more caretaking in sickness. These raised the cry of “competition.” Many women believed the cry was caused by alarm at a real danger, that of the women making money of which the men desired to retain a monopoly, and they imagined that a new field especially adapted to their sex was opened--one in which, with a short course of technical study, they could more easily and rapidly than in other vocations open to them acquire a name and abundant means of support, if not a fortune. The laity then awoke to this movement, and that portion of them whose head and heart were interested in the “rights” of women began to establish schools and colleges for the purpose of educating women physicians. And in a short time such institutions sprang up in several cities. After years of struggle and gradual improvement, the Philadelphia medical school for women (Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania) has acquired deserved value when judged by the standard of men’s schools. And the Drs. Blackwell were later compelled to open a medical school in connection with the Infirmary (Woman’s Medical College of the New York Infirmary), in order to stem the flood of inferior physicians which was pouring forth, especially in New York, from schools which were far below mediocrity. Thus to-day, of all the institutions open to women for medical study, only these two and the University of Michigan even try to reach the standard of medical education necessary to compare favorably with that of the men. I say, _try_ to reach that standard. By this, I do not wish to imply that the teachers and professors in these schools are always less capable than those in the male schools. No, the fault is in the students themselves, and so it will be for some time to come. Here, allow me to state why this is so and has been so for many years.