Secondly, I see in the _British Medical Journal_ (which I shall try to send you) a notice that Miss Garrett had ‘by special order of the minister’ been admitted to the first examination for M.D. [in Paris] and had passed it in the presence of a crowded audience with very great _éclat_. That woman certainly has great power of study and work, hasn’t she? By the bye, you would have been interested at the scene in which I noticed this paragraph. I was sitting yesterday morning at Sir James Simpson’s breakfast table, between him and his wife, and he passed the paper to me.... He was, of course, quite favourable to my application, and I am to breakfast with him again tomorrow and hear what he will do about it.[50] He is going off to Rome for a trip this week, but I am very anxious that he should vote in my favour first. He is so unreliable that I do not know how to make sure of his doing it though,—very likely he’ll be at the other end of Edinburgh when the meeting is held. I told him that you remembered him and always spoke of his kindness to you. I am not quite sure whether he recalled it. He spoke highly of Dr. Emily Blackwell.” Footnote 50: To the irreparable loss of the women students, Sir James Simpson died in the spring of the following year. A few days previous to this an unobtrusive little note of no small import appears in the diary: “8.30 p.m. at Begbie’s met Campbell Smith, who walked home with me. Older and more quiet than I had expected. Kindly.” The favourable impression was mutual, if one may judge from the letter that follows: “30 Royal Circus, 21st March, 1869. DEAR MISS BLAKE, I left your MS. yesterday with Mr. Findlay of the _Scotsman_. I think he will give you some help. If nothing be in the _Scotsman_ tomorrow, and whether or not, you may call for him at the office. He will be happy to see you. He said so, and said further that you needed no note of introduction. The review of your book appeared on 18th Nov., 1867, and you will see that also in the pile when you call. Faithfully yours, J. C. SMITH.”