BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
i3 
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 Blocldey 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- 
