The married women physicians of the West, with protection and sympathy at home, and encountering abroad only a good-natured laxity of prejudice, were in a favored position compared with their colleagues in Philadelphia, Boston, and New York. At the time that the tiny New York infirmary was opened (1857) the name of “woman physician” had become a by-word of reproach, from its usurpation by a notorious abortionist, “Madame” Restell. So wide a stain could be diffused over innocent persons by a single evil reputation, that it was difficult for Drs. Blackwell and Zakzrewska to obtain lodgings or office room; their applications were refused on the ground that their business must be disreputable. Scarcely more than fifty years had elapsed since the practice of obstetrics at least was entirely in the hands of women: yet the recollection of this had so completely faded away, that the women who now renewed the ancient claim to minister to the physical necessities of their sex, were treated as reprobates.[72] The little group of women who nevertheless dared to face this opprobrium, contained collectively nearly all the elements necessary for success, although in no one member of the group were these united. Instinctive enthusiasm for the science of life, instinctive predilection for medical practice, enlightened resolve to elevate the intellectual capacity and enlarge the practical opportunities of women,—the habit of progressive philanthropy,—personal interest in the pursuits of the nearest friend, the husband; literary training, exceptional among the uncultivated physicians of the day,—the tradition of centuries in the discipline of the practical European midwife,—all these were representative, and certainly none could have been spared. What was most conspicuously lacking was systematic education, which might have enabled the medical students to judge more critically of the medical education which was offered them. However, even without adequate intellectual preparation, there was a complex representation of interests which sufficiently showed that the enterprise was no isolated eccentricity, but sprang from roots widely ramifying in the permanent nature of things, and in the changing circumstances of the day.