La Maternite and St.Bartholomew Hospital
After Blackwell graduated from Geneva, she decided to go to Paris, the center of European medical knowledge to receive more practice to be able to set up her own practice. She wanted to become a surgeon eventually. At La Meternite, a hospital in Paris, her medical degree did not give her an advantage over anyone and she was only allowed to study with young French girls with little education. She found herself relegated to the area of midwifery.("That Girl..")
While there she leaning the eye of a baby that had ophthalmia, a disease that causes blindness. She was contaminated
with this disease in her left eye and lost sight. After visiting a eye specialist in Paris, her left eye was removed as well as her dreams in becoming a surgeon. (Learner)
After Blackwell graduated from Geneva, she decided to go to Paris, the center of European medical knowledge to receive more practice to be able to set up her own practice. She wanted to become a surgeon eventually. At La Meternite, a hospital in Paris, her medical degree did not give her an advantage over anyone and she was only allowed to study with young French girls with little education. She found herself relegated to the area of midwifery.("That Girl..")
While there she leaning the eye of a baby that had ophthalmia, a disease that causes blindness. She was contaminated
with this disease in her left eye and lost sight. After visiting a eye specialist in Paris, her left eye was removed as well as her dreams in becoming a surgeon. (Learner)
But the six months which followed my departure from the La Maternite proved to be a time of great mental suffering, under which a strong physical constitution threatened to give way; for the condition of the affected organ entirely prevented that close application to professional study which was needed. Both anatomical and surgical work were out of the question. |
In 1850, Blackwell heard from a top hospital in London called St.Bartholomew. She moved to London to go study there. The physicians and students there were respectful of her. However the Professor of Midwifery and Disease of Women and children disapproved of women studying medicine and told Blackwell herself that. While at Bartholomew she spent a lot of time "diagnosing disease, watching the progress of cases and accustoming my ear to the stethoscope". After studying there for a few months she felt ready to return and start her own practice.(Binns39)(Boyd121).