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X.—ELIZABETH BLACKWELL.
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To the Editors of the English Woman's Jo...
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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Transcript
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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.
..(.. 80- )
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X.—Elizabeth Blackwell.
X . —ELIZABETH BLACKWELL . _+-.
To The Editors Of The English Woman's Jo...
To the Editors of the English Woman ' s Journal . My deab Madam , Paris , Feb . 14 th , 1858 .
I regret tliat circumstances should have compelled nie so long to postpone the preparation . of the sketch of the history of my
sisters—Dr . Elizabeth Black well , the first woman -who ever took a medical degree , and Dr . Emily Blackwell , -who has followed in her
steps— -which I have been so often urged by yourself and other friends to bring , more clearly than has yet been done , before the
notice of our countrywomen ; but your last moving appeal upon this subject has just reached me , and shall be responded to without
farther delay . But , before entering upon this task , let me state , distinctly , that
if I have consented to furnish you with the outline of Dr . Elizabeth ' s biography , so frequently asked for by those who ar © desirous of
knowing who she is , how she came to adopt the medical profession , how she obtained her degree , and what has been the result of her
practice as a physician for women and children—questions naturally prompted by the imperfect accounts which have appeared from
time to time in the public prints , but the reply to which necessitates allusion to family and personal details not usually , and under
ordinary circumstances , brought before the public in the life-time of the parties concerned—I have done so because I share the
conviction , so often expressed to me by others , that a knowledge of the facts narrated in the rapid sketch I am about to give you is
essential to a correct appreciation of my sister ' s course , as showing that the aim which she has proposed to herself , and which she has
accomplished under circumstances of more than ordinary difficulty , has been suggested by no love of eccentricity , no craving after
notoriety , but has grown naturally out of the experiences of her life , acting upon a character peculiarly adapted to the work to which
she has thus been led to devote herself , from an unwavering conviction of duty , and an earnest desire to be useful to her sex and to her
kind . And , in the first place , let me correct the very general
misapprehension as to their nationality , to which the fact that my sisters have obtained their medical diplomas in the United States , and are
now practising as physicians in that country , appears to have given rise in England .
As you are already aware , the numerous family to which they "belong—now scattered over three of the four quarters of the globe
—are natives of Bristol , in which city their father , the late Mr .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), April 1, 1858, page 80, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01041858/page/8/
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