BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 9 



I am especially indebted to Dr. William Thomson of 

 Philadelphia for being the first to explain to me the laws of 

 physics, especially of light and refraction; and in the many 

 hours of his brilliant conversations I learned to appreciate 

 the meaning of a scientific life and the possibility that would 

 open up to humanity through the scientific spirit. From 

 Optics my interest ran to Zoology and to the dissection of 

 animals for closer anatomical study than the plates or speci- 

 mens offered. The horror of my friends and acquaintances 

 at this sudden change in my tastes from Art may be readily 

 imagined, but I persevered, and in June of 1882 Mrs. Ma- 

 tilda M. Cohen, the mother of one of my dearest friends, 

 accompanied me to the Woman's Medical College of Phila- 

 delphia and introduced me to the Dean. I had determined 

 to study medicine in order to get- a broader education. This 

 channel seemed the easiest way, as I had not had the special 

 preliminary training for entrance to one or two of the colleges 

 then open to women, and I did not care to spend the time 

 to secure this entrance knowledge. I looked to the Woman's 

 Medical College as the open sesame to the undiscovered 

 lands. 



Upon my introduction to the college I was brought into 

 association with Dr. Emelie B. DuBois, who was the demon- 

 strator of anatomy. I went to her house several times each 

 week during the summer months, studying with her and 

 reciting to her Gray's Anatomy. This study had always a 

 most vivid interest for me, and I awaited with impatience the 

 opening of the dissecting-room in the autumn. I felt that in 

 the demonstrating and lecturing on anatomy I should find 

 my main interest for life, but I was turned aside from this in- 

 tention, as I shall show later on. 



During the first year at college I devoted myself mainly 

 to becoming acquainted with the requirements in anatomy, 

 chemistry, physiology, materia medica, and with practical 

 anatomy by constant dissections. The cadaver had no terrors 

 for me, and the marvelous construction of the human frame 

 was an endless source of interest. There were a number of 

 women then studying at the college who have since become 



