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 
