I have never met with any serious difficulties in attending to my practice at all hours of the night, yet unpleasant annoyances from unprincipled men were not infrequent. Some well-dressed man would walk by my side on Broadway, saying in a low voice, 'Turn down Duane Street to the right;' or whilst waiting for a horse-car at midnight by the City Hall a policeman would try to take my hand; or a group of late revellers would shout across the street, 'See that lone woman walking like mad!' But with common sense, self-reliance, and attention to the work in hand, any woman can pursue the medical calling without risk.
The heat of a New York summer also was at this time very trying to an English constitution. A letter to my sister in 1853 exclaims:—
Oh, dear! it is so hot I can hardly write. I was
called this morning to Flushing to see a sick child, and
then attended my dispensary, the thermometer varying
from 86 to 90 in the house, and it stood at 102 in some
rooms down town. Walk as deliberately as I would, it
made my brain seem too large for my head. Flushing
reminded me of the Sahara; it lay breathless under a
cloudless sky, leaden with
haze.
In relation to mischievous gossip it is written:—
These malicious stories are painful to me, for I am
woman as well as physician, and both natures are wounded
by these falsehoods. Ah, I am glad I, and not another,
have to bear this pioneer work. I understand now why
this life has never been lived before. It is hard, with no
