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  • rooms in an apparently respectable house in York

Place, on the front door of which the house agent allowed me to place my name. I soon found, however, that my doctor's sign was intended to conceal the dubious character of the occupier of the house, and I had unconsciously walked into a trap! But friends came to the rescue and compelled the cancelling of the lease with which I was entangled. I then established myself at No. 6 Burwood Place, where the commencement of a promising medical practice was soon formed.

I eagerly entered upon the varied and intensely interesting social life now opened to me.

My long-cherished conviction of the supreme importance of the medical profession as the great conservator of health constantly deepened.

In 1870, being invited to address the Working Women's College, I took as the subject of my discourse 'How to Keep a Household in Health.' This lecture laid down rules of health for the guidance of poor women in the management of their households, and was welcomed by the audience. One person present, however, sent a slanderous account of this lecture to the 'Pall Mall Gazette,' and I was overwhelmed by the receipt of anonymous letters, and letters from persons in all classes of society, requesting medical advice on the most important and delicate subjects—subjects which are only suitable for the confidential counsel of the physician's consulting-room, where alone advice adapted to each individual case can be judiciously given. I mentioned this experience of