He practised some time in Newburgh, New York, and in 1854 went to Cincinnati, where he was appointed professor of surgery in the Medical College of Ohio, a position he held at the time of his death.
Although a brilliant and fascinating lecturer at all times, it was in the hospital theater he was in his native element. Outside of his own field he was a timid speaker and it is told of him that at a large gathering of medical men he refused to speak, although urged, until one of those present referred to an operation that is classical, giving the credit of its initiation to an English surgeon. Blackman was on his feet in an instant. For ten minutes he blazed forth like a meteor.
The roar of applause that greeted him when he sat down showed how neatly he had been entrapped.
In October, 1861, he was appointed brigade surgeon on Gen. Mitchell's staff, being present at the battles of Shiloh and Pittsburg Landing. He was for a short time on the Ohio State Medical Board for the army and was present at the battle of the Wilderness.
Dr. Blackman was a large contributor to medical literature. At one time he was editor of the Western Lancet, and afterwards one of the editors of the Cincinnati Journal of Medicine.
He translated and edited "Vidal on Venereal Diseases" and "Velpeau's Operative Surgery." He was author, in conjunction with Dr. C. A. Tripler, army surgeon, of a "Hand-book on Military Surgery." He did not leave any original work of great importance, although for several years he was engaged on a work on the "Principles and Practice of Surgery." At the time of his death he was occupied with the Hon. Stanley Mathews on a work entitled "Legal Liability in Surgical Malpractice." For many years he was on the staffs of the Commercial (later Cincinnati) and the Good Samaritan Hospitals.
In the spring of 1856 Dr. Blackman did an ovariotomy at my father's house, in Covington, Kentucky, removing a twenty-two pound cyst which had previously been repeatedly tapped. Forty years later the lady was still sounding his praises as the greatest of surgeons.
In the season of 1866–7 he twice did Amussat's operation—artificial anus—for cancer of the rectum. One of these patients lived several months.
In 1855 he married Agnes Addington of New York and had two sons and a daughter. He died at Avondale, Cincinnati, July 17, 1871.
Blackwell, Elizabeth (1821–1910)
Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to receive a medical degree, was born in Bristol, England, February 3, 1821, the daughter of Samuel Blackwell, a sugar refiner of progressive ideas and prepossessed in favor of American institutions. In 1832 he settled in New York with his family, and being the only man in America who then understood the process of refining sugar by the use of vacuum plans, he was in a fair way to make a fortune. But his refinery was burned, and in 1838 he moved to Cincinnati, partly with the hope of introducing the cultivation of beet sugar, and thereby dealing a severe blow at slavery by making the slave-grown cane-sugar unprofitaable. But he died soon after, leaving his family dependent upon their own exertions. The mother and the three oldest daughters opened a school and Elizabeth's uncommon strength of character showed itself in her good discipline. The family continued their anti-slavery work and threw themselves ardently into the movement for the higher education of women.
When the brothers were old enough to go into business the school was given up, and Elizabeth went to Henderson, Kentucky, to teach a district school. She astonished the southern ladies by her courage in taking long walks through the woods when they were afraid of negroes and the savage dogs which abounded.
She was led to turn her attention to medicine through the severe illness of a woman friend. Medicine in itself was not attractive, but she believed there was need of women physicians. She wrote to several physicians about her plan and their replies were that the idea was good, but impossible. In 1845 she went to teach at Asheville, Nova Scotia, in the school kept by the Rev. John Dickson, who had previously been a doctor. Here she studied medicine privately, earning money by teaching. In 1847 she went to Philadelphia, studied anatomy under Dr. Allen, and applied for admission to each of the four medical colleges of that city, but in vain.
Applications to the large medical schools of New York also proving unsuccessful, she sent requests to twelve of the country colleges. Geneva consented. The medical class there of 150 students was composed of a riotous, bois-
