BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 13 



otherwise have had from the Woman's College had I attended 

 the night classes. 



The previous spring, Dr. William H. Parrish became my 

 private preceptor in medical studies, and three evenings during 

 the week I spent at his office in recitation and in explanations 

 of medical subjects. Dr. Parrish was at that time the profes- 

 sor of anatomy in the Woman's Medical College. He offered 

 me opportunities for seeing operations and special cases. I 

 saw him perform the Porro- Mueller operation, which had at 

 that time not been so often done. During January of my sec- 

 ond year at the Medical College, I had an accident to which 

 may be attributed the ill health which has more or less attended 

 me all the years up to the present time. I had driven with Dr. 

 Parrish on one cold day in January from his office on Pine 

 Street to the old Blockley Hospital. I was much fatigued by 

 my work, and probably more susceptible in consequence to the 

 evil odors of the ward, which we visited together to see a pa- 

 tient whom I had seen him operate on a few days before for 

 fibroid tumor. Without any warning, I fainted, and falling 

 backward down a step, struck the side of my head on a marble 

 hearthstone. The result of the accident was serious, for the 

 articulation of the jaw was crushed and the bony ring of the 

 ear injured; concussion of the brain followed, and internal dis- 

 placement of the pelvic organs. 



It was some hours after my return to consciousness be- 

 fore I was able to be taken home. Dr. Parrish spent the day 

 by my side, and I was confined to my bed for three or four 

 weeks before I was able to lose the constant dizziness which 

 followed the fall. Even years afterwards, suddenly turning 

 the head on the pillow towards the injured side would bring 

 on dizziness. Three attacks of peritonitis in following years 

 were the outcome of my Blockley expedition. The disturb- 

 ance to the nervous system which also attended the fall, forced 

 me to give up such close application to my work as I had pre- 

 viously given. I decided to spend four years over my medical 

 course instead of the three I intended to follow, but owing to 

 continued ill health I gave up the attendance at lectures and 

 clinics for the less exacting scientific work where I could con- 



