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ELIZABETH BLACKWELL. 91
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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...
study of medicine , until a very recent period , she pursued a system . of self-denial in every branch of personal expenditure so riid that
it would be hardly credible to those who had not -witnessed g its details , and involving privations that only her exceptional
temperament could have enabled her to undergo . Her arrangements were invariably made on the most inexpensive scale ; she put up with
. the simplest accommodations , dressed with more than Quaker plainnesswent about on foot in all weathers to the utmqst limit of
, her strength , and resolutely denied herself everything , without exception , that it was possible for her to do without . Her refusing
herself a little bottle of eau de Cologne , which she could have bought for fourpence-halfpennyand to whichbeing very fond of scents
, , , she happened one day to take such an especial fancy that she was haunted for years with occasional visions of that same little bottle
was in accordance with the invariable rule she had marked out for , herself . Acts of rare generosity on her part towards others during
this period might be cited ; but with regard to herself—although additional resources were placed at her disposal by her relatives in
England—her self-denial was inexorable ; every farthing thus economized being regarded by her as so much gained for the
exigencies of future study , and treasured accordingly . Such having been her inode of action from the beginning of her student ' s career ,
¦ stud it was y drew not without towards an its almost close , she heroic compelled effort that herself , as to her purchase course o a f
handsome black silk dress for the grand affair of her graduation . In a letter written at that timeshe says , — " I am working hard for
, the parchment , which I suppose will come in due time ; but I have still an immense amount of dry reading to get through with and to
beat into my memory . I have been obliged to have a dress made for the graduation ceremony ; and meanwhile it lies quietly in my
trunk , biding its time . It is a rich black silk , with a cape , trimmed with black silk fringeand some narrow white lace round the
neck and cuffs . I could not , avoid the expense , though a grievous one for a poor student ; for the affair will take place in a crowded
church ; I shall have to mount to a platform , on "which sits the President of the University in gown and triangular hat , surrounded
by rows of reverend professors ; and of course I can neither disgrace womankindthe College , nor the Blaokwells , by presenting myself
, in a shabby gown . " In January , 1849 , the ceremony in question took place , as just
described . The church was crowded to suffocation ; an immense number of ladies being present , attracted from every point of the
compass , from twenty miles round , by the desire to witness the presentation of the first Medical Diploma ever bestowed on a woman ;
and among the crowd were some of her own family , who had come to Geneva to be present on the occasion . When the preliminary
ceremonial had been gone through , with , and various addresses had
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Elizabeth Blackwell. 91
ELIZABETH BLACKWELL . 91
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), April 1, 1858, page 91, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01041858/page/19/
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