BLACKWELL, ELIZARETTI (1821—). The first woman ever obtained a medical di ploma in the United States. She was horn in Bristol, England. Ciremnstances induced the family to emigrate to New York, and they after wards went to Cineinnati. Miss Blackwell in 1838, with two elder sisters, opened a boarding milord, which soon had a large attendan•e. She, however, chafed at the limitations which society had imposed on women. At length, in 1844. the school was given up, Miss Illaekwell determining to become the medical apostle of her sex. After three years' further work as a teacher, during which time she devoted the whole of her leisure to the study of medical and anatomieal books,she went to Philadelphia, where she applied in vain for admission into the medical schools. Failing this, she entered on a course of private anatom ical study and dissection and of midwifery, with Professor Allen and Dr. Warrington of Philadel phia. After strenuous efforts, she at last. obtained admission to Geneva Medical College, Geneva. N. Y., in 1847. From this college she graduated with the highest honor in 1849. During the two years of her study, she conducted herself with a propriety and discretion that gained for her the esteem and respect of all her fellow-students. Iler 'brilliant example,' as the president called it, had stimulated them to greater effort, and their gen eral conduct and attainments were better than usual. Shortly after her graduation, she visited Europe, in order to prosecute further her medical studies. In Paris she was told that it would be impossible for her to gain entrance to the schools or hospitals there, unless she adopted male at tire: a suggestion repugnant to her taste, and to the great object she had in view—that is, the recognition of female physicians. After much
perseverance, she was at length admitted into the Materniti_;, and was permitted to visit other hos pitals. After studying at Saint Bartholomew's Hospital, and the Woman's Hospital, London, she returned to New York in 1851, and there estab lished herself in practice. At first difficulties were thrown in her way by the refusal of physi cians to meet her in consultation; but these were overcome, and she was soon established in excellent practice. In 1852 she delivered a series of lectures to women. on health and physical de velopment, and published a work entitled The Laws of Life, Considered with Reference to the Physical Education of Girls; and in 1853 estab lished the New York Infirmary for Women and Children, which proved so successful that she was induced, in cooperation with her sister Emily, to found, in 1868, The Woman's Medical College of the New York Infirmary. In 1868 she settled in London, and became connected with the Women's Medical College there. Tier published works in clude: Counsels of Parents on the Moral Edu cation of their Children in Relation to Sex (1879): Corruptions of Neo-Jlalthusia»ism: the Influence of in the Medical Profession (1890) and Pio»eer Work in Opening the Medi cal Profession to Women (1895).