Elizabeth Blackwell,[56] one of those noble women who, braving the servile conventionalisms of the world, with right and reason, morality and religion on their side, have triumphed over prejudice and bigotry, by firmly establishing themselves as female physicians[57]--in "an appeal on behalf of the medical education of women," after referring to the establishment and opening of medical schools for women in Philadelphia, Boston, and other towns of the United States, in the nine years since "the first woman was admitted as a regular student to a medical college, and graduated with the usual honours," says:--"In all these places public opinion has expressed itself heartily in favour of the action of the colleges. The majority of the female graduates have entered upon the practice of their profession, and many of them have already formed a large and highly respectable practice. The intense prejudice which at first met the idea of a female doctor, is rapidly melting away. If further evidence were needed of the vitality of the new idea, and its adaptation to a real want in the community, it might be found in the character of the practice which has come to those physicians now most firmly established. Intelligent, thoughtful women, of calm good sense, who appreciate the wide bearing of this reform, and foresee its important practical influence, have been the first to employ the new class of physicians in their families, and encourage them with their cordial approbation." Dr. Dickson says, in "The Destructive Art of Healing:"--"One of the greatest obstacles to the progress of medical truth in England, is the employment of surgeon-apothecaries as midwives--almost entirely monopolizing the practice of medicine by the influence which they have gained over the minds of our women; these people will countenance no physician who does not prescribe large quantities of useless, and too frequently deleterious medicine. "The ladies of this country should take a lesson from the American ladies, who not only prefer midwives of their own sex, but actually employ female physicians. Female modesty and morality alike require that the diseases of women should be attended to solely by women; and all through the United States you now meet with regularly-bred female physicians, most of them having the degree of M.D. from a university, and many of them being in the enjoyment of large and lucrative practice.