Getting Started in Medicine

Elizabeth did not grow up with a burning desire to study medicine -- in fact, she abhorred the very idea. She did, however, yearn for an absorbing occupation -- something greater than her ordinary life and her music and language studies. It was at this key interval that a lady friend suggested the idea of studying medicine to Elizabeth. This friend was suffering from a very painful disease -- which she ended up dying from -- and told Elizabeth that she thought if she could have been treated by a female doctor, her "worst sufferings would have been spared her." Elizabeth writes in her autobiography that she responded by adamantly declaring her abhorrence of everything connected to the field of anatomy and medicine. "The very thought of dwelling on the physical structure of the body and its various ailments," she writes, "filled me with disgust."  The idea stubbornly remained in her mind, however, and she finally decided to write to several physicians to ask their opinions. Their responses all agreed: it was a very good idea, certainly, but quite impossible at the time.

Far from discouraging her, this daunting response only added fuel to her thoughts. She explains her reasoning in her autobiography: "If an idea...were really a valuable one, there must be some way of realising it. The idea of winning a doctor's degree gradually assumed the aspect of a great moral struggle, and the moral fight possessed immense attraction for me." This attraction eventually overcame her initial repugnance, as well as her sometimes-overwhelming doubts, until Elizabeth determined resolutely to study medicine. However, she lacked the funds to support an official study, and so she took a temporary position in North Carolina as a music teacher. There, she could save money for goal, and also study informally under the guidance of the school's principle, Reverend John Dickinson, a former doctor.

Elizabeth struggled with the uncertainty brought on by so immense a struggle before her. In her new home at Dickinson's parsonage, she stood in her room all alone, and was overcome with sheer terror over what she was undertaking. She cried out to God in despair, unable to handle the fears. She writes in her autobiography that "suddenly, overwhelmingly, an answer came": a brilliant yet invisible presence seemed to fill her being, and the joy and power that came from it completely eradicated her previous fears. Never again would she wonder if she was doing the right thing. No matter the doubts and obstacles that she faced, and no matter how insignificant her efforts seemed, she knew absolutely that she was headed in the right direction. Before pursuing an official medical course, however, Elizabeth also studied under John's brother, Samuel Dickinson of South Carolina, a prominent physician.

Samuel Dickinson's home, where Elizabeth lived and studied for a time