EARLY PRACTICE OF MEDICINE BY WOMEN. 201 



of the patients, and the new-comers, and of these last there is at least 

 one livins: in the town. In the midst of her usefulness she was re- 

 moved by death, and it became a great inquiry, ' AVho will take the 

 place of Granny Johnson ? ' " This question was answered in the person 

 of Mrs. Huldah Beach, daughter of Aaron Loomis, Jr., more success- 

 fully than was anticipated. Mrs. Beach became as celebrated in her 

 calling as Granny Johnson, and continued to attend to her professional 

 duties until an advanced age. She was a woman of remarkably fine 

 personal appearance and decided dignity of carriage, yet marked kind- 

 liness of manner. Her intellectual strength and ability were percepti- 

 ble to every one, and she in consequence commanded great respect in 

 all classes of society, and won the confidence of the people so that but 

 few calls were made on any other physician in her specialty, on the 

 western side of the town. She also rode as far as Winchester, Goshen, 

 and Litchfield. 



Dr. Orcutt, whose " History of Torrington " has furnished us with 

 these particulars, remarks in this connection, " Many have imagined 

 that, in the practice of medicine by women, a new era has arrived, but 

 in this there is only a ' restoration of the lost arts.' " 



Our allotted task is completed, yet we can not close this address 

 without a brief survey of the pi-esent period, in which the facilities 

 afforded women in all branches of learning contrast strongly with the 

 formerly wellnigh insurmountable impediments and obstacles. 



Women desirous of acquiring medical knowledge are no longer 

 obliged to disguise themselves in male attire like Agnodice the Athe- 

 nian, nor are practitioners liable to suffer the penalties of the law for 

 their works of benevolence and charity. In 1880 the young woman 

 with aspirations for intellectual culture finds open to her such excel- 

 lent training-schools as Holyoke, Wells, and Rutgers, such- noble insti- 

 tutions as Vassar, Smith, and Wellesley. Does she not shrink from 

 contact with her brothers, she may gain entrance into many universi- 

 ties, either expressly founded in a liberal spirit, as Oberlin, Cornell, 

 and Ann Arboi-, or which have yielded to the steady pressure of pub- 

 lic opinion, and now open their doors more or less widely to the gen- 

 tler sex. To enumerate the latter would be tedious and unprofitable ; 

 suflice it to say that even venerable and aristocratic Harvard has lately 

 joined the number, and our own Columbia, should her President's 

 views prevail, will not be slow to follow. 



The young woman who seeks intellectual training of a more tech- 

 nical character, with a view to adopting a professional career, will find 

 many avenues opening up with constantly increasing privileges and 

 facilities. The student in art, thanks to the philanthi-opy of our ven- 

 erable citizen, Peter Cooper, can, without incurring expense, acquire 

 a knowledge of designing or of wood-engraving which will hardly fail 

 to secure for her a competence. The student in biology will receive 

 her share of attention at a summer school of science on our Atlantic 



