Page "Elizabeth Garrett Anderson" Paragraph 9

Though she was now a licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries, as a woman, Garrett could not take up a medical post in any hospital.

So in late 1865, Elizabeth Garrett L. S. A.

opened her own practice at 20 Upper Berkeley Street, London.

At first, patients were few but the practice gradually grew.

After six months in practice, Elizabeth wished to open an outpatients dispensary, to enable poor women to obtain medical help from a qualified practitioner of their own gender.

In 1865, there was outbreak of cholera in Britain, affecting both rich and poor, and in their panic, some people forgot any prejudices they had in relation to a female doctor.

The first death due to cholera occurred in 1866, but by then Elizabeth had already opened St. Mary ’ s Dispensary for Women and Children, at 69 Seymour Place.

In the first year, she tended to 3, 000 new patients, who made 9, 300 outpatient visits to the dispensary.

On hearing that the Dean of the faculty of medicine at the University of Sorbonne, Paris was in favour of admitting women as medical students, Elizabeth studied French so that she could apply for a medical degree, which she obtained in 1870.