... In ten weeks from to-day, I shall start on my Western tour, and I suppose you will start by that time for the United States. My health is very good. I am better than I have been for thirty years and a great deal better than when I went to Europe five years ago. Nevertheless, I look forward to a five months’ vacation with a great deal of pleasure and feel sure that it will add years of health to my life. The Hospital work goes on well. I suppose Dr. Call informs you of the different legacies we have received. Even if they are not yet handed over to the treasurer, we can now be sure of the solidity of the institution as far as money is concerned. Now comes the professional standard and the question as to whether in the course of time women as physicians will prove themselves to be organizers and creators or simply handmaids. So far we cannot boast of much originality among our corps of women. However, we can feel sure that all the women physicians of the Hospital are above the average of the men physicians. Genius, after all, is rare. Apropos of sister Rosalie. It occurred to me that you with your usual generosity might think of her and bring with you some present for her. Now I honestly beg of you not to do any such thing, because the poor thing is sick and tired of all the bric-a-brac and vases which she has received, in spite of our not sending out invitations. Last Sunday morning when I called, she showed me a whole closet full of stuff which she had packed away in the attic because it is beyond human thought and possibility to place these things and take care of them in her little house. When I told her in consolation that she might use these things as presents again in the course of time, she replied in her usual way, “No, I shall never inflict them on people. If I make presents, I shall give flatirons.” My nephew Herman is engaged to be married to a young German-American lady who visited me for a week. She is handsome, an accomplished singer and pianist, a good housekeeper, and a sensible woman. We are very happy about his choice and feel grateful to her that she selected him. On the 22d at twelve o’clock, I shall give a great lunch party to the students and doctors. About fifty people will come, I hope. The snowdrops in Washington Street are in bloom since the 9th. In line with her questioning in this letter of the achievements of medical women of the then present date, is her estimate of the quality of the women students of the later times as compared with those of the earlier days. She writes: