Elizabeth Blackwell - part III

June 14, 2010

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Elizabeth Blackwell's admittance to the &#&medical college&#& created uproar. When they discovered that she was serious, both students and townspeople were horrified and Elizabeth had to face their criticism. She did not surrender and lately most students became friendly, impressed by her ability and persistence. Finally her attitude earned the respect of most of her peers.

Elizabeth Blackwell graduated first in her class on 23 January 1849, from New York's Geneva &#&Medical College&#&, becoming, thereby, the first woman in America to earn the M.D. degree; the first woman doctor of medicine in the modern era. Her graduation was highly publicized on both sides of the Atlantic.

The same year, Elizabeth Blackwell went to Europe, where she studied briefly in Paris, France and trained at La Maternite with special reference to obstetrics. During this medical training she caught a serious eye infection. Her eye had to been removed and replaced with a glass eye.

She also studied in 1850 and 1851 at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, in London. During her permanence in London she became acquainted with several leading literary and scientific figures of that country.

In the autumn of 1851 she returned to New York City, where hospitals and dispensaries uniformly refused her association. She was ignored by medical colleagues as well as mistrusted by patients. No one wanted to see a female doctor. She lived her first years there with a discouraging feeling of loneliness and isolation.

Elizabeth was forced to rent her own house and to live in the attic to be able to use the main rooms where she began her practice. Little by little see women and children began to visit her in her home. After she treated each patient they would spread the word about how good she was, and soon lots of people were coming to see her. Gradually she gained for her the confidence of all classes and the co-operation of physicians. The Quakers were first to receive her; and among them she had always maintained a most desirable position. As she developed her practice, she also wrote lectures on health, which she published in 1852 as "The Laws of Life"; with Special Reference to the Physical Education of Girls.

Less than two years later, in 1853, with the help of her friends, Blackwell opened the one-room New York Dispensary for Poor Women and Children in a slum area of Manhattan.