Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/190

 BLACK WELL

BLACKWELL

and unmanageable set, who had given the faculty and town much trouble. The letter was referred to the students for de- cision, and the announcement was re- ceived with most uproarious demonstra- tions of favor and extravagant speeches. The faculty received the unanimous vote of approval with evident disfavor, but admitted the lady student. On Miss Blackwell's appearance in the lecture- rooms some weeks later the class was transformed by magic into an orderly body of students, and this continued throughout the term. Professors and students showed her every courtesy, and she was never molested after a few un- successful practical jokes. The outside public, however, greatly disapproved of her, and she was considered by them to be either a bad woman or insane.

She graduated in 1S49. The event caused a considerable stir in England as well as in America and "Punch" gave her some complimentary verses. In London and Paris where she next studied Dr. Blackwell made many valued friends including Lady Byron and Florence Nightingale. While a resident at La Maternite in Paris, Dr. Blackwell had the misfortune to contract a purulent ophthal- mia, which cost her six months illness and the sight of one eye. In 1851 she return- ed to America and began practice in New York with her sister Emily who had gain- ed her medical diploma in 1854 at the Cleveland Medical College. But it was still considered highly scandalous for a woman to be a doctor. Patients came slowly and socially she was ostracized. She even had difficulty in renting a re- spectable consulting-room. One landlady who sympathized with her lost all her other lodgers by taking her in and Eliza- beth finally had to buy a house with bor- rowed money. The first time she called in consultation a man physician — a man eminent in the profession — he walked about the room exclaiming it was an extraordinary case, that he was in great difficulty; at first she was puzzled, for though the case of illness was severe, it was not unusual. At last she compre-

hended that he referred not to the patient but to the situation: could he without loss of professional dignity act as a con- sultant to a woman physician! He fin- ally decided he could and became a firm friend of the woman physicians.

Not being allowed to practice in the ex- isting dispensaries, she started a little one of her own in 1S57, and, with her sister, Emily, and Dr. Marie Zakrzewska, found- ed the New York Infirmary for Women and Children. This was the first hospital conducted wholly by women, and met with strong opposition.

When the Civil War broke out Dr. Blackwell called a meeting to discuss the providing of trained nurses, and from this meeting grew the National Sanitary Aid Association. She also anticipated modern developments by organizing the services of sanitary visitors in the slums of New York.

In 1865 the Woman's Medical College of New York Infirmary was founded, Dr. Blackwell occupying the chair of hy- giene. When Cornell opened its medical department, the college was merged with that at Cornell.

After having established the New York Infirmary and College, feeling that perhaps she could do more for the effort in England she returned there in 1869. She took a house and began practice in London where she identified herself with the Medical Woman Move- ment, Woman's Suffrage and with Mrs. Josephine E. Butler in her seventeen years war against state regulation of vice. In a short time her health failed, she could not stand the London climate, she travelled on the continent for a year or two and they bought a house at Hastings, living there until her death May 31, 1910, at the age of eighty-nine. During her life at Hastings she kept up her London connections and interests and by her pen aided the movements in which she was interested.

Her most important book was "Coun- sel to Parents on the Moral Education of Children," 1876, which has been trans- lated into French and German.