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88 ELIZABETH BLACKWELIi.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
To The Editors Of The English Woman's Jo...
the United States , and proceeded to address an application for admission to each , of them in succession .
" I am sending out arrows in every direction , uncertain which may hit the mark" she remarks , in a letter written at this time .
, Her application , though accompanied by a certificate of her having gone through the requisite preparatory study under Dr .
Dickson , was refused by twelve medical colleges . In some cases the refusal was couched in the shape of a homily on the
subordinate position assigned to woman by nature and society , and her presumption in wishing to enter a sphere reserved to the nobler
sex ; or an exposition of the impropriety and indelicacy implied in a woman ' s attempting to learn the nature and laws of her own
physical organization . For several months it appeared as though even her tenacity of purpose would fail to break through the barriers
of prejudice and routine opposed to her on every side . But at length her path , so long obstructed , began to grow clearer .
Among the applications she had made throughout the length and breadth of the United States , one had been addressed to the Medical
College of the University of Geneva , in the State of New York . The Faculty of that Institution , having considered her request ,
agreed that they saw no reason why a woman , possessed of the requisite preparatory acquirements , should not be admitted ; but ,
feeling that the question was one whose decision must rest , practically , with the students themselves—as it would have been easy
for them , if so disposed , to render a place in the amphitheatre untenable by a lady , —they determined to refer the matter to them ,
and , having called them together , left the application "with them for examination and decision . The students , having discussed the
subject , decided unanimously in favour of the new applicant ; and a " Preamble" and " Resolutions" were drawn up and voted hy
them , inviting her to enter the College , and pledging themselves " individually and collectively , that , should she do so , no word or
act of theirs should ever cause her to regret the step . " A copy of these " Resolutions , " accompanied by a letter of
invitation from themselves , _having been transmitted to her by the Faculty was of the entered University on the , she College went -books to Geneva as Ci No in . November 417 , " and threw of that herself year ,
into the study of the various branches of medical learning thus opened to her , with an ardour proportioned to the difficulties she
had had to overcome in gaining access to them . But the position she had striven so hard to attain was not without
certain inconveniences , inseparable from the nature of the case ; and though she had weighed , and was prepared to endure them , for
the sake of the knowledge that she could obtain in no other way , it will be readily understood that a young and sensitive woman could
not find herself placed in so novel a situation , and assist at all the
demonstrations involved in a complete course of medical exposition ,
88 Elizabeth Blackwelii.
88 ELIZABETH _BLACKWELIi .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), April 1, 1858, page 88, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01041858/page/16/
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