There had been an outbreak of cholera…

1866 CE

There had been an outbreak of cholera in Britain in 1865, affecting both rich and poor, and in their panic, some people forget any prejudices they have in relation to a female doctor.

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

In the first year, she tends to three thousand new patients, who make ninety-three hundred outpatient visits to the dispensary.

Elizabeth Garret had finally taken her exam with the Society of Apothecaries in 1865 and obtained a license to practice medicine, the first woman qualified in Britain to do so (apart from the woman passing herself off as Dr. James Barry).

On the day, three out of seven candidates had passed the exam, Elizabeth with the highest marks.

The Society of Apothecaries had immediately amended its regulations to prevent other women obtaining a license.

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.

Therefore, in late 1865, Elizabeth Garrett L.S.A. had opened her own practice at 20 Upper Berkeley Street, London.

At first, patients were few but the practice has gradually grown.

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

Elizabeth, after an initial unsuccessful visit to leading doctors in Harley Street, had decided to first spend six months as a hospital nurse at Middlesex Hospital, London in 1860.

On proving to be a good nurse, she had been allowed to attend an outpatients’ clinic, then her first operation.

She had attempted to enroll in the hospital’s Medical School and was refused but was allowed to attend private tuition in Latin, Greek and materia medica with the hospital’s apothecary, while continuing her work as a nurse.

She also employed a tutor to study anatomy and physiology three evenings a week.

Eventually she was allowed into the dissecting room and the chemistry lectures.

Gradually, Elizabeth had become an unwelcome presence among the male students who in 1861, presented a memorial to the school against her admittance as a fellow student.

She had been obliged to leave Middlesex Hospital but she did so with an honors certificate in chemistry and materia medica.

Garrett had then applied to several medical schools, including Oxford, Cambridge, Glasgow, Edinburgh and the Royal College of Surgeons, all of which had refused her admittance.

Meanwhile, she had privately obtained a certificate in anatomy and physiology.

In 1862, she had finally been admitted for private study by the Society of Apothecaries.

During the next three years, she had continued her battle to qualify by studying privately with various professors, including some at the University of St. Andrews, the Edinburgh Royal Maternity and the London Hospital Medical School.