had been trained in the old Italian school by Maestro Corn. Mrs. Rolph trained Clara in singing from her fifth to her twelfth year. After the death of the mother, Clara's musical education was continued under the late Henry Derwort, who tried to persuade her to go on the stage in grand opera, but respect for her dead mother's wishes kept her from an operatic career. She next studied with Mr. Chad wick, a teacher of ballad and English song. Her next instructor was Mme. Arnault, a pupil of Bordogni, who prepared her for her debut on the concert stage. She took lessons in oratorio music from George Loder, and also studied with Mrs. Edward Loder. In her first musical season she had the principal parts in "The Seven Sleepers," "Waldenses." "Judas Maccabanis," "Lobgesang " and Spohr's "Last Judgment " ; afterwards in " Elijah," " Athalie" and "Stabat Mater," and in classical concerts from Gluck, Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn and Wagner, with a full repertoire of the best Italian composers. She gave in New York City and other places a remarkable series of vocal recitals, comprising portrayals of the best compositions, planned and executed by herself, with no assistance beyond piano-forte accompaniment. Mme. Brinkerhoff was the soprano of Grace Church at the time of her marriage, and sang the full Christmas service on the morning of her wedding day. She was married to C. E. L. Brinkerhoff on 25th December, 1848, and has one child, Charles Kolph. She has sung in concerts in many cities of the United States and abroad. In 1861 she visited Europe, where she received much flattering attention. Among the acquaintances she made there was that with Auber, who admitted her as an auditor to all vocal classes in the Paris Conservatoire, where she made a critical study of the different methods pursued in training. In Paris she was urged to sing in grand opera, but refused. As a singer she is master of the methods of the English, French, German and Italian schools. Her voice is a rich soprano with a range of nearly three octaves. She lives in New York City, where she gives much of her time to teaching. Besides her talents and accomplishments as a singer, she is a composer, and she is the author of a number of songs. She inherited the literary talent of her mother, which has found expression in her romance, "Alva Vine " She nas lectured before the polytechnic section of the American Institute.
BRINKMAN, Mrs. Mary A., homeopathic physician, born in Hingham, Mass., 22nd February, 1845. She is of an old New England family, which has produced some of the ablest and best men and women that have given its high character to Massachusetts She is a woman who seems predestined by training, education, acquired knowledge and natural endowments to exert a wide and beneficent influence upon our time by the application of the truths of physiology to the physical welfare of women. This is shown alike by her lectures, her medical writings and her contributions to current literature She received only such educational advantages as were common to New England girls of forty years ago, but her quick intelligence and the enthusiasm with which she entered into her studies early marked her as one who would become an intellectual adornment to any society. On arriving at womanhood she visited Europe, where she devoted herself to study and travel. It was at that time her thoughts were first turned to the study of medicine. Believing that women physicians were demanded by the times, she determined to adopt the medical profession, not only as a means of livelihood, but also because it would enable her to do her part towards the physical regeneration of society. Soon after returning to this country, in 187 1, she entered as a student the New York Medical College and Hospital for Women. At her graduation, three years later, she was chosen the valedictorian of her class, and her medical thesis, which was a part of the final examination, was published in the "North American Journal of Homeopathy" and attracted considerable attention. After receiving hur diploma, she continued to take instruction in the clinical department of the hospital, under private tuition, but was almost immediately chosen instructor in diseases of children. From that time she continuously occupied one or another of the college chairs, averaging for half the year two lectures a week. In 1876, while retaining her professional chair in the Women's Medical College, she was appointed physician to the New York Dispensary for Women and Children, and later, to the college dispensary, and in those positions she did active service for several years.
MARY A. BRINKMAN.
The work was without compensation, but in doing it Dr. Brinkman was ministering to the poor of her own sex and also, as she believed contributing to form a public opinion which would open more avenues of usefulness to women. In 1881 she was chosen professor of diseases of women (gynaecology) in the New York Medical College and Hospital for Women. The trustees were slow to award the honors of the profession to women, even in a woman's college, and Dr. Brinkman was among the first to hold such a position. She filled it with success until forced by ill health to resign it, in 1889. Meanwhile she held other positions of honor and usefulness, being appointed, in 1886, visiting physician on the medical staff of the New York College for Women, and in 1880 consulting physician to the hospital. She has done a vast amount of gratuitous work for the needy, and in every possible way has labored to improve the condition and advance the cause of women, with a
