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ELIZABETH BLACKWELL. S9
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...
without occasional severe trial to her feelings . Aware that the possibility of her going through with such a course depended on her
being able , by her unmoved deportment , to cause her presence there to be regarded , by those around her , not as that of a woman among
men , but of one student among five hundred , confronted only with the truth and dignity of Natural Lawshe restricted herselffor
some time after her entrance into the College , , to a diet so rigid , as almost to trench upon starvation , in order that no involuntary
change of colour might betray the feeling of embarrassment occasionally created by the necessary plain-speaking of scientific
analysis . How far the attainment of a self-command which rendered her countenance as impassible as that of a statue can be
attributed to the effect of such a diet , may be doubtful ; but her adoption of such an expedient is too characteristic to be omitted here .
From her first admission into the College until she left it , she also made it an invariable rule to pass in and out without taking any
notice of the students ; going straight to her seat , and never looking in any other direction than to the Professorand on her note-book .
, How necessary was her circumspection to the prosecution of the arduous task she had assumed , may be inferred from an incident
which occurred during the lecture in the amphitheatre , a short time after her admission . The subject of the lesson happened to be a
particularly trying one ; and while the lecturer was proceeding with his demonstration , a folded paper—evidently a note—was thrown
down by somebody in one of the upper tiers behind her , and fell upon her armwhere it layconspicuously white , upon the sleeve of
, , her black dress . She felt , instinctively , that this note contained some gross impertinence , that every eye in the building was upon
her , and that , if she meant to remain in the College , she must repel the insultthen and there , in such a way as to preclude the
occur-, rence of any _similar act . Without moving , or raising her eyes from her note-book , she continued to write , as though she had not
perceived the paper ; and when she had finished her notes , she slowly lifted the arm on which it lay , until she had brought it
clearly -within view of every one in the building , and then , with the slightest possible turn of the wrist , she caused the offensive
missive to drop upon the floor . Her action , at once a protest and an appealwas perfectly understood by the students ; and , in an instant ,
the amp , hitheatre rang with their energetic applause , mingled with hisses directed against her cowardly assailant . Throughout this
scene she kept her eyes constantly fixed upon her note-book ; taking no more apparent notice of this welcome demonstration than she had
done of the unwelcome aggression which had called it forth . But her position in the College was made from that moment ; and not
the slightest annoyance , of any kind , was ever again attempted throughout her stay . On the contrary , a sincere regard , at once
kindly and respectful , was thenceforward evinced towards her by
VOL . I . H
Elizabeth Blackwell. S9
ELIZABETH BLACKWELL . S 9
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), April 1, 1858, page 89, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01041858/page/17/
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