Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Her Contemporaries

1OI)AV, in most countries in the world, there are women practising medicine; I think I am correct in saying that they specialise in every branch; opportunities vary in different countries and even in different parts of the same country. In Australia there is a Flying Doctor Service, carried on by two women who are in general practice; they cover thousandls of miles and deal with all types of emergencies. In the first world war, women worked as civilians in Military Hospitals, and in Auxiliary Medical Services, wearing the uniform and rank marks of whichever women s service they were attached to. In the last world war they wore uniform, and were attached to Battalions and to Military Hospitals as ordinary medical officers and as specialists, they were also attached to the Women's Services, but only after the war were they granted commissions in the regular forces. The advance in the work and status of medical women in our own country and in America, was made possible by the vision, courage and perseverance of three young English women: Elizabeth Blackwell, Elizabeth Garrett, and Sophia Jex-Blake. Ihe story of Elizabeth Garrett would be incomplete without some mention of Elizabeth Blackwell and Sophia Jex-Blake; they were very different in disposition, but their aim was the same, to open the door of Medicine as a profession to women.