WOMEN IN MEDICINE AND SURGERY 303 



After spending some time abroad studying in the great 

 hospitals of Europe, Miss Blackwell started the practice of 

 medicine in New York City. At first, as she declares in 

 her autobiographical sketches, it was "very difficult, though 

 steady, uphill work. I had, ' ' she tells us, ' ' no medical com- 

 panionship, the profession stood aloof, and society was dis- 

 trustful of the innovation. ' ' 



The aloofness of the profession arose from a dread of 

 successful rivalry, and the men did not wish to encourage 

 "the invasion by women of their own preserves. " "You 

 cannot expect us/' one of them frankly admitted to her, 

 "to furnish you with a stick to break our heads with." 



But, undeterred by opposition, Miss Blackwell continued 

 her work, daily making converts to the new movement and 

 receiving substantial aid, as well as sympathetic coopera- 

 tion, from many people, both men and women, prominent 

 in society and public life. In 1854 she started a free dis- 

 pensary for poor women. Three years later she founded 

 a hospital for women and children, where young women 

 physicians as well as patients could be received. These 

 were the humble beginnings of the present flourishing insti- 

 tutions known as the New York Infirmary and the College 

 for Women. And in less than ten years after her gradu- 

 ation, Miss Blackwell saw the new departure in medical 

 practice successfully established, not only in New York, 

 but also in other large cities of the United States. In 

 1869 the early pioneer medical work by women in America 

 was completed. 



"During the twenty years which followed the gradua- 

 tion of the first woman physician, the public recognition 

 of the justice and advantage of such a measure had stead- 

 ily grown. Throughout the northern states the free and 

 equal entrance of women into the profession of medicine 

 was secured. In Boston, New York and Philadelphia spe- 

 cial medical schools for women were sanctioned by the 



