Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to WomenBlackwell, Elizabeth
History
Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women
Blackwell, Elizabeth
Blackwell, Elizabeth, 1821-1910; Women physicians -- United States -- Biography
No further difficulty ever afterwards occurred.
_December 4._—Dr. Webster sent for me to examine a case
of a poor woman at his rooms. ’Twas a horrible exposure;
indecent for any poor woman to be subjected to such a
torture; she seemed to feel it, poor and ignorant as she
was. I felt more than ever the necessity of my mission.
But I went home out of spirits, I hardly know why. I felt
alone. I must work by myself all life long.
_Christmas Day._—Bright and gay with sleighs. The lake
looks most beautiful, the mist rising from it in arches,
the sky a brilliant blue, and the ground covered with snow.
I received my Christmas Annual with great joy; and having
purchased 25 cents’ worth of almonds and raisins, I had
quite a cosy time reading it.
_Sunday, January 16._—A most beautiful day; it did me good.
The text impressed itself on me—‘Thou wilt keep him in
perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee.’ I felt happy
and blessed. Ah! if the Almighty would always shine on me,
how strong I should be! ‘The Lord God is a sun and shield;
the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He
withhold from them that walk uprightly.’
The behaviour of the medical class during the two years that I was with
them was admirable. It was that of true Christian gentlemen. I learned
later that some of them had been inclined to think my application for
admission a hoax, perpetrated at their expense by a rival college.
But when the _bona-fide_ student actually appeared they gave her a
manly welcome, and fulfilled to the letter the promise contained in
their invitation.
My place in the various lecture-rooms was always kept for me, and I
was never in any way molested. Walking down the crowded amphitheatre
after the class was seated, no notice was taken of me. Whilst the
class waited in one of the large lecture-rooms for the Professor of
Practice, groups of the wilder students gathered at the windows,
which overlooked the grounds of a large normal school for young
ladies. The pupils of this institution knew the hour of this lecture,
and gathered at their windows for a little fun. Here, peeping from
behind the blinds, they responded to the jests and hurrahs of the
students. ‘See the one in pink!’ ‘No, look at the one with a blue
tie; she has a note,’ &c.—fun suddenly hushed by the entrance of the
Professor. Meanwhile I had quietly looked over my notes in the seat
always reserved for me, entirely undisturbed by the frolic going on
at the windows.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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