ELIZABETH BLACKWELL, M.D.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 834, 4 June 1910, Page 10

ELIZABETH BLACKWELL, M.D.

A GREAT PIONEER

The news that comes to-day in a Press Association cable message of the death of Elizabeth Blackwell will hardly cause surprise, for she had reached tho great age of 79 years, but it will cause great regret wherever there are people who know of her brave and brilliant career. Elizabeth Blackwell was tho first wo-1 man to take a medical course, and she did it in spite of difficulties, disadvantages, and opposition that would have overwhelmed a weaker woman, and sho is tor over to be remembered with" gratitude because by her pluck and determination she opened a new sphere of usefulness to other women. Elizabeth Blackwell was born in Bristol, of wealthy parents, but when she was 17 her father, who had emigrated with his family to the States, died, leaving his family almost penniless. Elizabetn and her two elder sisters opened a boarding school. They were thoroughly and liberally educated, and the school was soon full. They kept school for six years, and then for three more years Elizabeth, who was determined to become a doctor, taught at other schouls and studied medicine in her leisure time, till at the'age of, 20 she was ready to enter a medical school. But the Philadelphia school to which she applied rejected her, professing to be shocked at her indelicacy. She was forced to take private lessons with different physicians, buj; sho was determined to obtain both a thorough training and a degree. There already nourished a guild of ignorant ai'd li-' 1 . ed.icated female deckrs, wbf.ee tode was ju'iinor&l, and v.iiosu pracuee v,..J empirical. Only women with diplomas could bar out these pretenders from practice. Miss Blackwell next obtained a list of all the medical schools in the country, and sent to each in turn her application for admission. "Twelve of them promptly rejected her, rebuking her indelicacy oilier presumption. Two colleges considered her request courteously, and that of Geneva, New York, referred the question to the students themselves. They unanimously decided in her favour,, and voluntarily pledged themselves 'individually and collectively , that, should she enter tho college, no word or act of theirs should ever cause her to regret the- step." In 1547 Miss Blackwell entered tho college. She was an extremely shy woman,. a.nd it was only her strong conviction that enabled her to attend those- classes where she found herself the only woman among'soo.men. Sho almost starved lierSelf at- first, so that no change of colour might show the embarrassment she, might'feel during certain lectures, mid she made it her invariable rule to pass in and out to lectures without taking any notice .of the students. At one lecture, a short time after her admission, one of .tho students flung a folded paper from one of the

higher tiers on to her arm. Sho felt instinctively that this note contained some impertinence. Without raising hcjeyes from her note-book,, she continued to write, as though sho had not pereeiyed the paper; and when - sho had finished her notes, she slowly lifted the arm on which it lay, until she had brought it clearly within view of everyone- in the building; then, with a twist of her wrist, let the offensive missile drop on tho lloor. Her action, at once a protest and an appeal, was perfectly understood by tho students, and tho theatre rang with their applause. After that, Miss Blackwell's position in the oollogo was made, and not tho slightest annoyance was ever again attempted by tho students, who showed her thenceforward sincere • kindness and respect. By degrees the interest of her work absorbed all her thoughts, but tho pain sho had suifered convinced her of tho need of a separate medical school for women. Outsido the school her position was a difficult one, boardinghouse keepers ivcro warned against her, boys followed her about the streets, making audible comments on her supposed intentions, and .men,and women stood still to staro at her. But her dignity and quietness induced civility, and when tho professors' wives called upon her the boardiii'ghouse keepers capitulated. - in two years, Elizabeth Blackwcll graduated, and then, armed with introductions, sho went to Paris. Hero she was told that her quest was hopeless, and tho most eminent physicians actually advised her to dress as a man and register a man's name. , That course would never have suited her; She was fighting a battle for women, as well as for herself, and after months of persistence the great hospital of the Maternito admitted her as a resident pupil," 1 and others consented to tolerate her visit. She also succeeded in studying privately under tho ablest professors in Paris. From Paris sho went to London, where she obtained admission to St. Bartholomew's, and the Women's Hospital, and again obtained private instruction. In 1851, after seven years of the severest study, she returned to New York to practice her profession, again to meet with esvorc opposition. Reputable boardinghouscs would not receive a woman doctor, and when at last after paying an exorbitant rent sho secured office room, her landladies sent away patients or failed to deliver messages. Reputable physicians ignored her claims as a fellow-practitioner, and 'intelligent women sneered lit the femalo doctors. But sho refused to be dismayed. In 1852 she delivered a series of lectures to ladies on hygiene and physical development, new subjects for those times, and by degrees she gained a footing. Noxt year she published an excellent treatise called "Tho Laws of Life, Considered with Reference to the Physical Education of Girls," and with an increasing practice she found time to establish a dispensary for women and children, which was designed to benefit patients and educate an efficient body of nurses for the community. So great was tho success of this dispensary that iii four years the doctor added to it a hospital for women, the first medi-

cal charity established by women physi- j cinns ami tho first hospital organised for tho instruction of women in practical medicine. By this time Divßlackwoll had associated with her her younger sister Emily, whoso medical course had been attended with even moro opposition than her own. Tho suggestion of establishing a hospital was bailed with protest, and tho sisters wore told that no one would let a limiso for the purpose, that the law would interfere, that deaths would arouse suspicion, and their certificates would not be recognised; that improPw persons would apply for treatment, fcinli,', 'Si 03 "! o ','* male P'o-aiciniM rW I i f, " ot bo """"tail'"!, and tliat anyhow tliey would never bo able to raise the money. l-nmv,, °/i COl "' St ; a " s an > vone mi S nt have «n,V ? ■ 0S1 " taI was staffed with suit n" P '■ VS,C '- i,,,S and a h "* Td of co »- 2 l'l'.vsidans. jien of the highest standing gave ,t sanction and reputation. In ten years over 50.00U natients »W.ltl. dispensary nd Hospital, 31 students had been retrain " l and nfl *i d i '" tlle Cltv > antl nitio years niter the hospital was opened the Lecture conferred college powers upon lie institution. When the inshtu ion lv ? (I lol, g-Mtablis]ied success, Dr. Wi« B |,clh Ulaekwell went to England \»cio she spent years lecturing adising, and organising, while her sister lemamed in practice in New Vork Miss Blackwcll was a woman of wonderful physical powers and endurance, fcbo was small and fair, with fair hair a voice of extraordinary sweetness,' <md with muscles of iron It is told of h er that when she was quite young, some man visiting at her lathers house asserted that the weakest man putting forth his full strength could overthrowxthe strongest woman. 11,0 family assured him ho was wrong that Elizabeth could lift any one of them. "She couldn't lift me!" said the man, settling himself in his chair, and daring Elizabeth to make the attempt. Deliberately the girl approached him, deliberately lifted him, and setting him on her left arm, wjiile she held him with the other, she bore him three times round the room slowly and triumphantly. It is not recorded what the champion of his sex said when ho rounu himself on the floor, again. •Summing up a short sketch of Dr. Ulackiv-jll-s life, an American writer says: Other women are making a high professional name, other women have toiled faithfully for high professional education, but m their undertaking the. Blaclnvell sisters stood not more for personal success than for woman's right to labour. They chose an ii.tcrdicted and uncongenial calling, pursuing it in the- faco of poverty, suspicion, and misrepresentation, and the projudco which denies opportunity, not more to . vindicate their conscious capacity than to justify woman's right to learning.". , .