Until very recently it has been difficult, if not quite impossible, for a woman to obtain a complete medical and surgical education, either in this or in any other country. That she possesses the talent, and should by instruction secure the fitness to successfully treat the delicate cases of her own sex, is to us a matter of plainest common sense; yet such has been the prejudice of the medical fraternity and of the world at large, that for ages she has been debarred from the halls of the medical college, and from the operating theater at the hospital. A growing desire to enter this wide field of usefulness has been evinced by the female sex for the last fifty years, and is becoming more and more contagious as opportunities in this direction are afforded. Something more than twenty years ago, Misses Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell managed to press their way through a medical course, and graduated at a medical college in Cleveland. Several years were subsequently spent in the prosecution of these studies in Europe, after which they returned, and with the aid of a few friends founded the first medical charity conducted by female physicians, and the first hospital in the world, for the instruction of women in medicine and surgery. The Institution was incorporated in December, 1853, under the general act of 1848, with a board of eighteen trustees, among whom stand the names of H. Greeley, H. J. Raymond, Charles A. Dana, Elizabeth Blackwell, etc. Their first movement was to open an infirmary or dispensary in a single room near Tompkins square, with a capital of fifty dollars, to be attended three times a week by Doctor Elizabeth Blackwell. Three years later, reinforced by the return of Doctor Emily Blackwell from Europe, and by Marie E. La Krzewska, a lady of medical attainments, a hospital department was added. This last, step was taken amid many fears and doubts on the part of sundry trustees and friends of the lest, through the prejudice of the public, the death certificates signed by a woman should not be recognized by the authorities, and the means necessary to defray the expenses of the enterprise should fail. But the faith of woman discovered light ahead and pressed on. The names of several distinguished practitioners were secured as a consulting board, and in the fourth year the infirmary was by the State and city placed on the list receiving governmental assistance, which official recognition was considered more valuable than the financial aid secured. In 1862 a subscription was started, which resulted in the purchase of the four-story brick building, twenty-six by seventy feet, situated at No. 128 Second avenue. The building cost $17,000, but the improvements and other changes have since doubled its market value The society in addition to about $1,000 annually received from the State, has recently received $10,000 from the city, which has enabled it to remove the mortgage on its property and to lease for a term of years the adjoining building, thus greatly enlarging its accommodations. During the first five years that the infirmary was located on Second avenue, 31,657 sick, persons were treated, the greater portion being out-door patients. On account of their limited accommodations, but 640 were received into the house, 353 for the practice of midwifery, only five of whom died, an average of one per year. The small percentage of deaths estabishes the capacity of woman to successfully conduct a hospital. Their business is rapidly increasing, as no less than 6,413, were treated or supplied with medicine during 1869. More than one hundred have been received into the house annually for several years past, the majority being obstetrical cases, though all other patients in the general practice are treated. The poor are furnished gratuitously with medicines, and visited at their homes by the physicians.

The instruction of young women for nurses, and for the practice of medicine, had been from the first a leading feature in the Institution, yet the managers desired to make satisfactory arrangement with some medical school for the graduation of their students, and thus avoid the necessity of establishing a separate college. Failing to complete such arrangements, an application to the Legislature for a college charter was made in 1865, and in due time granted. The course of study is rigid, lasting three years, and requiring the students to be present in the Institution at least eighteen months during that time. The faculty of professors and lecturers, like the board of trustees, is composed of males and females. Fifteen or twenty students taking the regular course have been in attendance since the organization of the college, besides other ladies who have simply attended lectures. An educational fund amounting to $100,000 has been called for, to which appeal the late Chauncey W. Rose, whose name is connected with so many benevolent undertakings, responded with a donation of $5,000. The fund at this time amounts to above $30,000. The annual expense of the Institution had not exceeded $7,000 up to the period of opening the second building, and five hundred dollars have never been received in any year from pay patients. The society performs a work of great charity among the poor, administering in times of greatest need to hundreds of widows, and to others who by desertion or deception are rendered equally forlorn, and richly deserves the unstinted support of the benevolent. All honor to this pioneer college of female physicians.