I In Uemoriam. 
jH 
Ann Preston, M.D. ADDRESS 
IN MEMORY OP 
ANN PRESTON, M. D. 
DELIVERED, BY REQUEST OP THE CORPORATORS AND PACULTY OP THE 
WOMAN’S MEDICAL COLLEGE OP PENNSYLVANIA, 
MARCH 11th, 1873, 
BY 
ELIZA E. JUDSON, M. D. ADDRESS 
IN MEMORY OF 
Ann Preston, M. D. 
It is fitting that we assemble on the eve of the Annual 
Commencement of the Woman’s Medical College of Penn- 
sylvania, to offer a tribute of respect to the memory of one 
who, in life, was so closely identified with its history and 
interests; but, if we have caught the spirit of this meeting 
aright, something more than a formal acknowledgment of 
our appreciation of the public services of one rarely gifted 
is intended. Many here to-night were bound to Dr. Preston 
by no common ties of affection, and mourn the loss, not only 
of a public benefactor, but of an intimate, personal friend. 
Many of you labored with her during a long series of years, 
for the advancement of a common cause, and with sad hearts 
took up the work where her hands faltered. With others 
her name was a household word, and its mention brings back 
to you tender, grateful recollections of days gone by, and 
you realize your loss, as you could not, on that bright April 
day, when we buried her where the birds will sing, and the 
violets blossom above her grave, through all the glad spring- 
times. 4 
We have no flattering eulogium for her whose loss is our 
common sorrow. She needs none. Her life, great in its 
simplicity, was known to you all. They in the end are 
most generous, who from the beginning are most just; so 
“ we can only speak right on, telling you that which ye 
yourselves do know.” 
Times of peace have no historians, and the life of I)r. 
Preston presents few of what men call events, but it natu- 
rally divides itself into two distinct periods. To the first, 
for the better appreciation of the harmony of the whole, we 
apply the term preparatory discipline; to the second, life 
work. The first, while it was fitting her for the peculiar 
responsibilities of the second, had its separate work, faith- 
fully, completely, and harmoniously performed. The second, 
deriving from the first remarkable self-discipline, had its 
own distinct preparation and culture. The first was spent 
in the quiet seclusion of a country home, and has left blessed 
memories in many distant households; the second, amid 
the varying activities of a restless city, and its results none 
can number. Both come to us laden with ripe fruits, and 
wine of rare vintage. 
Ann Preston, daughter of Amos and Margaret Preston, 
was born in West Grove, Chester County, Penns3'lvania, 
December, 1813. In the quiet old homestead where her 
grandfather lived, where her father was born, lived, and 
died, she spent the first thirty-six years of what then pro- 
mised to be an uneventful life. 
Her father was a birth-right member and minister of the 
Society of Friends. A man of unusual ability, enthusiastic 
in the pursuit of truth, faithful to his convictions of right, 
and keenly alive to the wants and interests of others, he 
'was unusually loved and trusted. 
Her mother was an intellectual woman, refined in 
thought and feeling, and delicately appreciative of the beau- 5 
ful in nature and in art. She was of a long-lived family, 
and combined great strength of will with a sensitive nervous 
organization. 
Those acquainted with Miss Preston cannot fail to see 
that she possessed the constitutional traits of both parents. 
The same innate love of truth, sublime faith in the ultimate 
triumph of the right, quick insight into the motives and 
impulses which move men, ready sympathy with suffering, 
rare intellectual gifts, and a delicate constitution combined 
with extraordinary tenacity of life and persistence of pur- 
pose. 
Circumstances rendered her early life one of close appli- 
cation and grave responsibility. The delicate health of her 
mother, and the early death of an only sister, forced upon 
her many of the cares of a large family. Although Amos 
Preston’s government of his household was that of mutual 
love and confidence, it was no light burden that fell thus 
early on the shoulders of his fair, young daughter. 
Six boys in a family—what a picture of restless activity 
and excitement! As we see them to-day they are all grave, 
middle-aged men; but doubtless they once went coasting 
and boating with all the wild enthusiasm of youth, while 
they taxed their sister for the solution of their difficult 
problems, and sought from her the sympathy that ever 
brings healing alike for the headaches and 'heartaches of 
childhood. While she, with an innate love of the humorous, 
which time, and care, and physical suffering failed to destroy, 
and a warm, loving, social nature, found much that was 
congenial in the free, young lives around her. It was an 
inspiration from her childhood days that later in life made 
her write, 
“Sweet gales from Eastern lands may bless 
The sailor, far at sea; 
But of all fragrant gifts of earth, 
The new-mown hay for me,” 6 
It was a vision of her childhood that made her paint in 
perennial green the beautiful June landscape; in softer tints 
the hazy sunshine that rests on hill and streamlet through 
all the dreamy days of Indian Summer; and later still, the 
brown, russet and golden hues that make the forest one 
mighty bouquet, set among the immovable hills. 
Could any one, born and bred in a city, have painted 
the following wonderful word-picture of country child-life? 
It was a chill October morning; the first streakings of day- 
light were just coming up over the Eastern hills, when the 
little family group eagerly hastened to the old chestnut tree, 
where young neighbors were also wont to assemble. How 
musically each gust of wind brought the ripe nuts pattering 
down! 
“Regardless of hunger and cold,” she writes, “we bent 
down, and walked round and round, turned over and peered 
under the rustling leaves, ever and anon shaking basket 
and tin. or exhibiting the swelled pocket, in triumph, as we 
passed each other in our busy search. Then came the com- 
paring of successes, and measuring in the old tin cup, and 
plays of ‘hull gull’ and ‘ odd or even,’ and perchance, in 
the generosity of our good fortune, we filled up the tiny cup 
of some aggrieved little one, who had paddled around in his 
bare feet among the pricking burrs, only to find a few 
‘cheats.’” 
Those were exciting times; great energies were ex- 
pended, and gladly, as the day drew to its close, 
“They sat beside the open door, 
And watched, ah all have done, 
That olden beauty, ever new, 
The netting of the nun.” 
Confined somewhat closely at home, her early education 
w as not what is usually called liberal. Her attendance at 7 
school was limited to the excellent one near her country 
home, and a short time spent at a boarding-school in West 
Chester. Her quick perceptive faculties and retentive mem- 
ory enabled her easily to maintain a position at the head of 
her class; and her persistent determination to know the 
reasons of things, often taxed not only the knowledge, but 
the ingenuity of her teachers. “ Gentle and obedient, I 
yet found her a most difficult pupil,” said one who was her 
school-mate, teacher, and life-long friend. “ Pier close cross- 
questioning tested my ability to the utmost, and it was often 
doubtful which would succeed in maintaining her position.” 
She sought not controversy, but she loved truth for truth’s 
sake. 
The neighborhood of her home was one of much in- 
tellectual and moral culture. A valuable public library 
furnished her with well selected reading. A Lyceum and 
Literary Association, of which she was a member, did much 
to cultivate her taste for literature. Her intense love of 
nature, made her its attentive student. Bird, and bee, and 
blossom, the sunny hill-side and dark green wood, each 
taught its lesson well. ’Mid Pennsylvania’s beautiful hills 
and valleys, she studied art as it came from the hand of the 
great Master. With a nature so organized as to be capable 
of continuous growth, this was a culture that widened and 
deepened with every added year. 
Miss Preston, however, never ceased to regret the lack 
of the rigid, mental discipline which she felt that an early 
classical education would have given her. So settled did 
her conviction of its necessity become, that, later in life, 
she commenced the study of Latin, and, as she had leisure, 
pursued it with interest and success. For years it was a 
favorite custom with her, each Sunday afternoon, to read a 
chapter in the Latin Testament. 
She early became interested in the leading philanthropic 8 
questions of that time, and thought and wrote carefully con- 
cerning them. The issues of the present crowd so rapidly 
upon those of the past, that it is with difficulty we can 
realize that ten years ago we were in the midst of a national 
conflict, for national unity and individual liberty. Divested 
of political bias and personal interest, freedom seems so 
undeniably man’s birth-right, that we may well wish to 
forget the scenes of which, for so many years, slavery made 
America the theatre; but for the honor of the nation let 
not the devotion of the men and women who marched in 
Liberty’s van-guard be forgotten. 
So far as known to us, those who have written concerning 
Miss Preston have made little or no mention of her work in 
the anti-slavery cause. Her love of liberty and justice, her 
reverence for human nature, even in its lowliest fortunes, 
allied her in thought and feeling with those who labored for 
the emancipation of the slaves. 
Prior to the convention held in this city, in 1833, which 
organized the American Anti-slavery Society, she had 
become a member of the Clarkson Anti-slavery Society, 
which was formed in the neighborhood of her home. It 
held its meetings quarterly, at different points in Chester 
and Lancaster Counties. As this was one of the first and 
most active of such associations, its meetings called together 
much of the talent of the anti-slavery cause; and those 
were the days, when the eloquence of Garrison, and Phillips, 
and Giddings, roused all lovers of liberty to action, and 
struck fear to hearts made callous by long indulgence in 
injustice. 
Miss Preston enlisted in the work with all the ardor of 
a warm, sympathetic nature, and soon becoming known as a 
forcible writer, it devolved on her to write reports, addresses 
and petitions of the society, some of which are still extant, 
and are models of clearness, strength and simplicity. In 9 
the Lyceum, of which she was a member, the same subject 
not infrequently claimed the service of her pen, to the 
acceptance of some, but to the no small discomfiture of 
others. 
In 1838, she attended the meeting held in this city for 
the dedication of Pennsylvania Hall, a building erected for 
the purposes of free discussion. As is well known, before 
the meetings were concluded, the building was forcibly 
entered by a mob, deliberately set on fire, and burned to 
the ground. She witnessed the conflagration, and, like 
many others, from that terrible night her detestation of the 
cause of so fiendish an outrage, and her determination to 
labor for its overthrow, became deeper and stronger than 
ever. 
In a poem entitled “ The Burning of Pennsylvania 
Hall,” in glowing words, she gave expression to the thoughts 
which that unprovoked act of vandal violence was calculated 
to inspire in every heart not hardened by the influence of 
slave power. This poem was one of two, selected from 
several hundred, for publication in the “History of Penn- 
sylvania Hall.” The Rev. John Pierpont, writing over his 
own signature, was the other successful competitor. 
Although not on the direct line of the Underground 
Rail-road, she did much for the relief and protection of 
those who were fleeing from bondage. An interesting inci- 
dent is related of her in this connection, showing the same 
fearless courage, and wise adaptation of means to ends that 
characterized her later actions. 
During the absence of her father and mother, who were 
attending a Friends’ meeting, at some distance from home, 
a fugitive slave woman was forwarded to their house. Miss 
Preston concealed her in a closet in the garret, fed and 
made her comfortable, and waited, we may imagine, with 10 
no small degree of interest the time of her removal to the 
next station. 
One morning a man came running with the information 
that the slave-catchers were in the neighborhood. llis 
house, the point at which the woman was last concealed, 
was being searched, and they would be there next. To 
Miss Preston s question as to what she should do, he replied 
that she must devise her own expedients, as he could not 
remain to advise or assist, but must hasten on and arouse 
the neighborhood, to assist in the rescue. 
Miss Preston was alone, but with great coolness and 
forethought she locked the woman into the closet, went to 
the pasture, caught a horse, harnessed him to the carriage, 
then hastily dressing the woman in her mother’s plain shawl 
and Quaker bonnet, carefully adding the two veils often 
worn by plain Friends when riding, she started with her in 
the direction from which the slave-catchers were expected, 
with the ostensible purpose of attending meeting, it being 
Sunday morning. 
Soon the slave-hunters came in view, riding rapidly 
towards them, came close to the side of the carriage and 
peered curiously in; but seeing only a young girl and an 
apparently elderly woman, in the dress of a plain Friend, 
leisurely going to meeting, they rode rapidly on, to continue 
their search elsewhere. The great danger was past; Miss 
Preston carried the woman to the house which had been 
recently searched, where she was comparatively secure. 
She eventually reached Canada in safety. 
We can but admire the ready forethought which devised 
the plan, the cool courage which executed it successfully, 
and the shrewdness which suggested taking the route from 
which the enemy were expected, and finally going to the 
house they had just searched. 
Although she regarded the cause of emancipation as 11 
having the first claim on her time and energies, she yet 
found leisure to do much in support of the temperance 
movement. In 1848 she was elected Secretary of the Tem- 
perance Convention of the women of Chester County. The 
following year, by order of the Convention, she prepared a 
memorial to the Legislature, asking for the enactment of a 
law prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors as a bever- 
age, at least within the limits of Chester County. She was 
one of the three delegates sent to Harrisburg to present it. 
The memorial was able, but they failed at that time in 
securing the object desired. 
To become identified with an unpopular cause was more 
of a sacrifice for Miss Preston than it is for most persons. 
Sensitive to public opinion, she greatly desired the approval 
of those she loved and respected. Approbation was not 
distasteful to her, and public censure not to be lightly in- 
curred. It is only in view of these facts that we can fully 
appreciate the integrity of purpose that made her whole life 
one of opposition to wrong and injustice, and often to popular 
opinion. 
Thus, with heart alive to questions of reform, and hands 
busy with home cares, she was, year by year, developing 
into mature womanhood. She lacked the system and 
manual dexterity essential to complete success in physical 
employment. Housekeeping, with its monotonously recur- 
ring cares, was not to her the satisfying occupation it is to 
some women; but love sanctifies the humblest office, and 
lends a constant charm to the cold, hard name of duty. 
Miss Preston was closely attached to her friends and 
kindred. Her love for her father was strong, deep and 
unchanging; for her mother, less even, but at times more 
intense, concentrated, even impassioned in its tenderness. 
Nowhere else did the sun shine so brightly—nowhere else 
were the songs of birds so sweet as around her childhood 12 
home. Years afterward, when the cares and responsibilities 
of public life weighed heavily upon her, she often looked 
toward it as a haven of repose. 
We count that man blest whose youth was guarded, 
refined and enriched by the love of a pure, noble-minded 
woman. Miss Preston’s ready sympathy with the interests 
and pursuits of her brothers gave her great influence over 
them, and to-day they regard their lives as richer and better 
for the precept and example of one so loyal to purity and 
truth. 
Amid these more practical duties she was cultivating a 
refined taste for literature. Her writings evince purity of 
sentiment that found many appreciative readers, and justify 
the belief that, had she at that time devoted herself to 
literature, instead of subordinating her talent in that direc- 
tion to other and more practical aims, she might have 
attained to eminence as a writer both of prose and poetry. 
From earliest childhood she jxissessed the ability to 
express her thoughts with grace and facility. “I think she 
could not have been more than ten or eleven years old,’’ 
writes an elder brother, “when she surprised me one day by 
showing me a few verses she had composed, written on the 
slate which we jointly used in writing and arithmetical 
exercises. Of course, they were not very profound in 
thought or finished in style, and I can now recall only two 
or three of them, but I then thought them a most wonderful 
production.” 
In the year 1848 she published a small book of poems 
for children, entitled “Cousin Ann’s Stories,” designed to 
convey useful moral lessons. Several of these poems, repub- 
lished in school books, and declaimed by nearly all the 
children in the land, have become classic in child literature. 
Many of her poems manifest that ideality, so character- 
istically her ow n, which in later years lent an indescribable 13 
charm to the sternest realities of her life. The following 
poem, suggested by the statement of Wendell Phillips, that 
“ God never permitted us to form a theory too beautiful for 
His power to make practicable,” illustrates this point, as 
we with our clnmsy prose could not:— 
“THE IDEAL IS THE REAL. 
We make this life a mournful, empty dream, 
And stones for bread we give, 
And know not that the soul’s realities 
In its Ideals live. 
These are the stars that shine within its night, 
The angel ones it sees, 
And evermore, unconsciously, it learns 
Its possible from these. 
There are no limits to the Real, 
Save those that bound the pure Ideal. 
The thoughts of beauty dawning on the soul 
Are glorious Heaven’s gleams; 
And God’s eternal truth lies folded deep 
In all man’s lofty dreams. 
’Twas first in Thought’s clear world that Kepler saw 
What ties the planets’ bound; 
And through long years he searched the spheres, and there 
The answering law he found. 
Men said he sought a wild Ideal; 
The stars made answer,—it is Beal. 
Paul, Luther, Howard—all the crowned ones 
That star-like gleam through time, 
Lived boldly out before the clear-eyed sun 
Their inmost thoughts sublime. 
These truths, to them, more beautiful than day, 
They spoke to quicken men; 
And deeds at which the blinded gazers sneered 
They dared to practice then, 
’Til they who marked their young Ideal 
In meekness owned it was the Real. 
Thine early dreams, which come like ‘shapes of light,’ 
Come bearing prophecy; a 14 
And Nature’s tongues, from leaves to ‘ quiv’ring stars,’ 
Teach loving Faith to thee. 
Fear not to build thine eyrie on the heights 
Where golden splendors lay, 
And trust thyself unto thine inmost soul 
In simple faith alway; 
And God will make divinely Ileal 
The highest forms of thine Ideal.” 
Changes in her family relieved Miss Preston of many of 
the responsibilities that had rested upon her for years, and 
enabled her to turn her attention more directly to intellectual 
pursuits. At this time she was engaged during a portion of 
several years in teaching school, an occupation for which she 
proved herself eminently qualified. 
While her course for the future was still undetermined 
information reached her of the proposed opening of the 
Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania. The subject 
engaged her thoughtful attention, and commended itself to 
her judgment as meeting a vital want in society. The 
justification of this cause is now complete. The time for 
argument is past. The decision to study and practice 
medicine now involves only the question of personal interest 
and fitness. Then the experiment was untried. Many 
doubted its expediency, some questioned its rightfulness. 
The thoughtful must wait to consider, and the thoughtless 
and unprincipled hesitated not to condemn. 
Having decided for herself that the study and practice of 
medicine were both right and womanly, and adapted to her 
moral, mental and physical constitution, she accepted the 
work without hesitation, but not without discouragements. 
It is evident that she came to this decision without any 
premonition of the work that was before her. Her simple 
statement, “ I have only followed as I have been led,” told 
the whole story of her beautiful life. 
The College opened in the fall of 1850, under somewhat 15 
favorable auspices, with a full corps of Professors. Insti- 
tutions, like individuals, learn discretion by experience, and 
it is not impossible, that the attitude assumed by the young 
College, of necessity defensive, may have, in some instances, 
induced the opposition with which it contended. 
While this is possible, it is an undeniable fact, that as 
soon as a new idea assumes tangible form, claims recognition 
as a living truth, it inevitably meets opposing forces. Often 
suspicions, jealousies and animosities are not wanting. Wise 
men and honorable women give their voice against it, for 
prejudice warps the minds and mars the character of many 
of the best of men, calumniates the motives of founders of 
institutions, the most disinterested and benevolent, and in 
time past, followed with persecution and death, those who 
dared to stand out in the full light of heaven and declare 
the liberty of the human soul. 
Miss Preston was one of the first applicants for admission 
to the college as a student. For some time previous she had 
been pursuing the study of Physiology and Hygiene, with 
the intention of fitting herself as a popular lecturer on these 
subjects. She graduated at the first annual commencement, 
at the close of the session of 1851-2. 
With the doors of all hospitals closed against them, the 
early graduates obtained clinical advantages with the greatest 
difficulty, “some in other cities and across the ocean, some by 
long continued efforts in various ways at home.” Dr. Preston, 
feeling that her attainments were still insufficient for the 
life-work she had chosen, remained in attendance upon 
lectures at the College during the entire winter after her 
graduation. With the Spring, came the urgent request that 
she accept the chair of Physiology and Hygiene then vacant. 
To this after much hesitation, on account of what she re- 
garded as her unfitness for the work, she at last consented. 16 
Thus at the age of thirty-nine, she entered upon the great 
work of her life. 
Prior to this, she had commenced delivering popular 
lectures, a work she continued for some time during a 
portion of each year, speaking in New York, Baltimore, 
Philadelphia and many smaller cities and towns, being often 
invited to re-visit the same place. Believing that Phy- 
siology should be to all an open book, her lectures to women 
embodied a faithful exposition of such hygienic laws as are 
based on physiological facts and sanitary experience. They 
were attended by large and intelligent audiences, and doubt- 
less did much to introduce better hygienic measures into 
many homes. That they met a want in society is attested 
by the fact, that those who listened to them years ago, still 
speak of her with unabated enthusiasm. 
They also introduced her to the public, thus greatly 
aiding her in obtaining a medical practice, many of those 
who listened to her lectures becoming her patients. Delicate 
health compelled her to decline obstetrical cases, night calls, 
and finally to limit her professional work mainly to an 
office practice. 
She spent the winters in the city, lecturing at the College, 
attending to her practice, and the many duties, that even 
then devolved upon her; but a portion of every summer 
was spent with her parents in West Grove. These summer 
vacations were the yearly Sabbaths of her life, looked for- 
ward to with joyful anticipation. She loved the old time 
places and associations, and the old time friends were never 
forgotten. If they were poor or unfortunate, by her gentle 
kindness she ever recalled the brighter dreams of bygone 
days. She realized that God’s sympathy, the sympathy 
that meets our human wants, is sent through human souls. 
It was during one of these long summer vacations, that 
the following amusing extract from her journal was penned: 17 
“ Two ideas I have had of the perfection of physical 
pleasure. One was eating strawberries and cream, which 
have always seemed to me akin to the nectar and ambrosia 
of the gods; the other was sailing in a little boat, away 
down, down a smooth stream. During the past week I 
have had my full satisfaction of both, and find them closely 
allied to vanity and vexation of spirit.” 
Her journal, kept at irregular intervals from the time 
she was twenty-three years old, contains much that is beau- 
tiful in thought and expression. No one can read it, without 
being impressed by the purity and integrity of its author. 
It reveals the child-like faith that was the result of deep 
experience; and tells the tale of a life-long joy, that was as 
well a life-long sorrow; but it is no mission of ours, unbidden, 
to enter the inner temple of any human soul. 
Each year, the absolute necessity for clinical instruction, 
in connection with the didactic teaching of the regular college 
course, was becoming more and more apparent. All suc- 
cessful work was crippled without it. True, some sought 
and obtained hospital advantages in New York, and others 
in Boston, but the need was still imperative. At that time, 
for a woman to gain admission, as a medical student, to any 
hospital in Philadelphia, was impossible. There was no 
alternative; if the College hoped to increase its influence, 
we might almost say maintain its existence, a hospital, “one 
of whose objects should be the education of women as 
Physicians,” must be founded. 
To obtain a charter, raise funds for defraying necessary 
expenses, find competent women willing to serve as Mana- 
gers, and skillful physicians who would act on a Consulting 
Board, was no inconsiderable work; but added to this was 
the difficulty of a woman’s obtaining the requisite experience 
which would fit her for the responsible position of Resident 
Physician. To this end, with equal devotion to the cause, 18 
one of the two women then members of the College Faculty 
left family and friends to spend a year in the Maternite 
Hospital at Paris, and the other remained to work with 
untiring zeal at home. 
Dr. Preston’s efforts were nobly seconded by many 
liberal, true-hearted men and women ; but so highly do the 
Managers of the Woman’s Hospital value the work she, at 
that time, performed in its service, that in their last Report 
we find the following statement:—“ To her efforts more 
than to all other inlluences may be traced its very origin.” 
She said in speaking of it, “ I went to every one who I 
thought would give me either money or influence.” 
When, at length, the Hospital was opened for the recep- 
tion of patients, her joy was that of one who, having lal)orcd 
and waited, was permitted to enter into fruition. She was 
appointed a member of its Board of Managers, Corresponding 
Secretary, and Consulting Physician—ollices she held until 
the time of her death. 
Thus the years wore on until the ever-memorable Spring 
of 1861, when the lowering war-cloud, which for years had 
sullenly hugged our whole Southern horizon, suddenly as- 
sumed gigantic proportions, and, ere we were aware, war’s 
wild tempest was upon us. All minor ambitions and inter- 
ests gave place to the excitement of the hour. In the 
pursuit of the art of war, the arts of peace were forgotten. 
Educational institutions languished. The fate of our College 
was but the common fate of all. 
For Dr. Preston this was an especially trying hour. 
During eight years, marked by many changes in the Faculty, 
and memorable in College history only for the discourage- 
ments, opposition, and pecuniary embarrassment encoun- 
tered, she had stood faithful at her post. 
The labors of the preceding Winter, which had been 
unusually fatiguing, her ready sympathy with suffering, and 19 
intense interest in the affairs of the nation, combined with 
anxiety for the future of the institution, whose prosperity 
was so dear to her heart, would, doubtless, have been a 
heavy drain on her powers of endurance; but added to this 
was the care and anxiety of long-continued and serious ill- 
ness in her family. Her mother suddenly became almost 
helpless from paralysis. With filial tenderness Dr. Preston 
remained with her, and ministered to her wants, during all 
the weary suspense of that first Summer of the war. 
With the Fall came the question of discontinuing lec- 
tures. So ruinous to the prospects of the College did Dr. 
Preston regard this step, that she earnestly urged their 
continuance, even if there should be but one paying student. 
She yielded, however, to the decision of the majority, and the 
College was closed for the session of 1861-62. It was at this 
time that the following extract from her journal was penned: 
“Oct. 8th, 1861.—I have been sad for my country, be- 
cause it is so slow to learn the wisdom which would bring 
prosperity; sad for my disabled mother and desolate home; 
sad in the prospects of the Institution to which I have given 
so much of my time and strength, for there now seems no 
possibility of success; and I fear that, after all these years 
of toil, we may be doomed to succumb to the weight of 
opposition. But even now, when the burden of this disap- 
pointment is heaviest, there is consolation in the conviction 
that this labor has not been wasted—that, perchance, it is 
the needful preliminary to a more prosperous endeavor— 
that no true, right work like this can be in vain, although 
it may be regarded by the world as a failure. To-night the 
inward encouragement is, do thy best; work where the work 
opens; applauded or condemned, speak and write thy grand- 
est inspiration, thy noblest idea, and sing hosanna, for thy 
work has been no failure, and the Everlasting will preserve 
it, and attest it forever.” 20 
During the entire Winter she remained by the bedside 
of her sick mother. Spring found her over-worked, languid, 
and with no power of recuperation. A long and extremely 
painful attack of acute articular rheumatism completed what 
over-work and anxiety had commenced. Complete prostra- 
tion, mental and physical, terminated in brief intellectual 
aberration. This Dr. Preston ever regarded as the delirium 
of extreme exhaustion and innutrition. 
Gradually she regained her health and former mental 
vigor, and by mid Winter had so far recovered as to be able 
to resume her work in the College, “ lecturing,” as she ex- 
pressed it, “ with as much ease and concentration of thought 
as ever.” In the ten years that followed she did much of 
the best work of her life. 
The war was still in progress, but alternate victory and 
defeat had taught the people fortitude and self-control. 
They pursued the quiet avocations of peace, in strange jux- 
taposition with the danger and tumult of civil war. 
The Woman’s Hospital, then in successful operation, 
gave to the College a new impetus; but its prospects were 
still far from flattering. The class was small, the difficulty 
of obtaining suitable Professors great, and their compensation 
of necessity limited ; still there were a few brave hearts that 
never faltered. 
In 1866 Dr. Preston was elected Dean of the Faculty. 
In 1867 she wrote her ever-mernorable reply to the preamble 
and resolutions adopted by the Philadelphia County Medi- 
cal Society, to the effect that they would neither offer 
encouragement to women becoming practitioners of medi- 
cine, nor meet them in consultation. To the honor of the 
profession, be it said, that many of its ablest members re- 
fused to be bound by the action of the Society. 
So calmly and completely, point by point, Dr. Preston 
met and answered the arguments put forth by the Society, 21 
and then so fully vindicated the cause of woman, that no 
reply was attempted. Clear, concise, and powerful, this 
was, in many respects, the ablest of her literary productions, 
and we regret that we have time only for its closing para- 
graphs. She writes:— 
“ Ours is the post of restful duty—the place assigned to 
us, as we believe, in the order of Providence, and we can do 
no other than maintain it. 
But, on behalf of a little band of true-hearted 3'oung 
women who are just entering the profession, and from whose 
pathway we fain would see impediments and annoyances 
removed, we must protest, in the sacred name of our com- 
mon humanity, against the injustice which places difficulties 
in our way,—not because we are ignorant, or pretentious, 
or incompetent, or unmindful of the code of medical or 
Christian ethics, but because we are women.” 
In 1867 Dr. Preston was elected a member of the Board 
of Corporators of the College. Soon after this the munifi- 
cence of Isaac Barton, and the generosity of others, relieved 
the College of the pecuniary embarrassment under which it 
had hitherto labored, and enabled it to add much to its 
facilities for usefulness. The constantly increasing size of 
the class gave evidence that the cause of the medical educa- 
tion of women was taking secure hold on the confidence of 
the public. The opening, about this time, of several of the 
leading hospitals of the city for the admission of women to 
clinics, made it an era in College history. 
If to any one it should seem that, in speaking of the life 
of Dr. Preston, we have given undue prominence to the 
College, we can only say that to speak of one, and not of 
the other would be impossible, since, for the last twenty 
years, they have been inseparable. 
To students and recent graduates this retrospect of Col- 
lege history has surely not been in vain. “ The lines are 22 
fallen unto us in pleasant places,” and it is with difficulty 
that we can realize the price that has been paid for that 
which we so quietly enjoy. The fact that our Alma Mater 
has come up through much tribulation should make 11s all 
the more faithful to her interests, and jealous of her honor. 
I)r. Preston possessed many qualities which especially 
fitted her for a pioneer in an unpopular cause. Many per- 
sons fail of accomplishing the good they desire on account 
of the blundering way in which they attempt it. They 
do a good deed in an unwise, impolitic manner, and then 
comfort themselves with the thought that they are suffering 
persecution for righteousness’ sake, when the truth is, they 
are only reaping the direct and legitimate results of their 
own imprudence. There have been more martyrs to man’s 
indiscretion than to his conscience. 
With wide tolerance for differing opinions, just and 
generous judgment of men and things, an almost intuitive 
perception of the good that is latent in each opposing party, 
Dr. Preston combined an honest and most hopeful insight 
into the progressive movements of the times, with the calm 
assurance of one who had reached “ the post of restful duty.” 
True to her motto, that “only those can sustain others who 
are themselves self-sustained,” she was hopeful under the 
most depressing circumstances, patient under rebuffs and 
reverses, and often gained by gentle persistence what others 
would have lost by noisy controversy. 
She combined much natural talent for teaching, with 
rare interest and enthusiasm in her subject, and while im- 
parting instruction gave much pleasure to her hearers. Who 
of all those who listened to her lectures will ever forget the 
artlessness with which she folded her arms on the desk in 
front of her, and leaned earnestly forward, as she lost self- 
consciousness in her interest in the subject which she was 
presenting? If, at times, her teaching lacked system, it was 23 
doubtless attributable to the absence of early systematic 
training. More than most persons, she. required the stimu- 
lus of attentive listeners. Eloquent at times, she could not 
resist the depressing influence of an unappreciative audience. 
One who knew her well says:— 
“ I found her ready to accept the demonstrated facts of 
physiological science, and without superstition or bigotry; 
not suspicious of ulterior or final results, provided only it 
was the light of truth that fell across her pathway. Liberal 
and advanced in her views and culture, her teaching as 
Professor of Physiology to women embodied a fair and faith- 
ful exposition of the science as now understood by the 
medical profession.” 
Her introductory lectures and valedictory addresses, now 
a part of College History, are, many of them, especially able. 
The last, delivered three years ago, is replete with beautiful 
thoughts and wise suggestions to those going forth on a dif- 
ficult mission. 
In practice Dr. Preston was successful. Keenly alive to 
the wants of the sick and suffering, she was unusually loved 
and trusted. She approached the bedside of the lowliest of 
“ God’s suffering ones ” with a pleasant word and gentle 
touch that brought healing. The unfortunate instinctively 
sought her as one who would at least give them sympathy 
in their hour of extremest need. 
Those who knew Miss Preston in youth describe her as 
small, lithe, artless, and graceful. As we remember her, 
she was below medium height, with delicately moulded form 
and features. At fifty-eight her beautiful brown hair showed 
scarcely a trace of silver. In her face, the lines that indi- 
cated strength of will and firmness of purpose were delicately 
blended with those which revealed refinement of feeling and 
purity of thought. In her manner there was a child-like 
artlessness that was above all art; in her presence, an inde- 24 
scribable charm that lent to the real much of the beauty and 
grace of the pure ideal. 
Life, to her, was something more than the dull routine 
of duty; and humanity more than the result of an inflexible 
law. She was a close student of nature, human and external, 
and it needs not that one of deeply thoughtful mind he 
passionate, in order to divine all the secrets of passion. 
Oidy those to whom it was given to see the under current 
of her life, realized to the fullest extent, her love for purity, 
truth, and goodness; yet with this extraordinary appreciation 
of the beautiful in character, she neither despised nor con- 
demned the weaknesses that make so large a part of human 
lives. 
For years Dr. Preston was an inmate of the household 
of one of whom she ever spoke in terms of affectionate 
remembrance; but never marrying, she had long looked 
forward, with pleasure, to making a home for herself. In 
18G4, she gathered around her a pleasant family circle. 
Several years later she writes : 
“ I live in my own home, and am surrounded by many 
comforts. The need for airy rooms, pleasant outlooks, and 
quiet, comfortable chambers seems more imperative as we 
grow older. I do not live with my kindred, hut my home 
is often brightened by the presence of my brothers, and 
their children love to come to my city dwelling as to a pleasant 
place. Some dear friends live with me in harmonious rela- 
tions, and do much to make this an orderly home circle.” 
Composed of men and women following different pursuits, 
and interested in different lines of thought and action, with 
wide tolerance for differing opinions, and full liberty of 
thought and expression, this family offered rare social attrac- 
tions. Each member contributed to the general interest, 
that which was ripest and best in his or her thoughts and 
experiences. Thus their intercourse did not take on the 25 
narrow bias, which often characterizes that of persons 
following a single profession. Of this, Dr. Preston had the 
keenest appreciation. She held that persons of true culture, 
never publish their special callings in common conversation, 
and often expressed regret that there was a tendency among 
those pursuing any profession, to become so entirely engrossed 
in its interests that they lost sight of the broad fields of cul- 
ture that must ever lie outside of the most liberal profession. 
Nowhere was the rare charm of Dr. Preston’s life more 
beautifully manifested than in this home circle. Mentally 
and morally so strong to do and bear, yet personally so child- 
like in her dependence upon others; courageous and hopeful 
where strong men faltered, she was one of the gentlest and 
most affectionate of women; and proved it no Utopian 
dream, that a woman may be both strong and womanly. 
During the spring of 1871, she was again visited with 
acute articular rheumatism. Her recovery was slow and 
incomplete. With the opening of the college session in 
the fall, however, she resumed her usual duties, but per- 
formed them with less than her accustomed vigor. Work 
exhausted her as it had not formerly done. It soon became 
evident that her health was rapidly failing. A renewed 
attack of the disease followed, less severe, however, than 
that of the preceding spring; and her friends entertained 
sanguine hopes of her recovery. She became so far conva- 
lescent as to be able to walk around her room and see a few 
friends. 
It was at this time that u with fatal facility” for overwork, 
she prepared the Annual Announcement for the College 
session of 1872-3. It was the last work of her life, per- 
formed slowly and painfully; but so clear, strong and forcible 
were its statements, so brave and hopeful was its spirit, that 
in reading it, no one would suspect the frailty of the hand 
that penned it. 26 
It is feared that this exertion brought on the relapse 
which terminated in complete nervous prostration, from 
which she died April 18, 1872. 
When Dr. Preston’s will was published, the friends of 
the College and Hospital, found that both institutions had 
been remembered. Ever the friend of women dependent on 
their own exertions, her bequest to the College is character- 
istic, and will prove a blessing to many who are striving to 
open up for themselves the way to a broader and more com- 
plete culture. We quote from the will:— 
“My manikin, instruments and medical books I desire to 
have given to the Corporators of the Woman’s Medical Col- 
lege of Pennsylvania, for the use of medical students. 
“ After my debts are paid, and a sufficient sum becomes 
available, I desire one thousand dollars to be paid to the 
Managers of the Woman’s Hospital of Philadelphia, as a 
part of the endowment fund of that institution. 
“The interest of four thousand dollars, I desire to be 
used annually and perpetually, to assist in the medical edu- 
cation of one good, capable woman, who may not otherwise 
possess sufficient means to pursue medical studies. The 
Corporators of the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania 
shall select, from names that may lx? proposed, the person to 
receive this assistance; but if one of my nieces should incline 
to attend medical lectures, she shall take precedence of other 
applicants. 
“ The interest of this four thousand dollars to lx? paid 
annually, to the Corporators of the College, until the sale of 
my house, after which I desire the principal to be paid to 
the Corporators of the Woman’s Medical College, provided 
they will receive it for the purpose named, and keep it as a 
separate fund, sacred to the one object.” 
To the cause of woman, her work and example were 
invaluable. Her personal character was so high, her ability 27 
so great, her judgment so accurate, her nature so truly 
feminine, her success as a physician so universally acknow- 
ledged, that her life was an unanswerable argument against 
those who would exclude women from the medical profession. 
In attempting to form a just estimate of Dr. Preston’s 
part in the work of placing the medical education of women 
on its present thorough basis, we have met many obstacles. 
Others became identified with the work earlier. To Elizabeth 
Blackwell must ever belong the honor of taking the initiatory 
step, and doubtless she has become more widely known than 
any other. 
Faithful and courageous, Dr. Preston yet shrank from 
public exhibition and criticism. 
The fact that her educational life was so closely associ- 
ated with that of other educators, renders it difficult to 
decide, in any particular result, how much was due to her 
agency, and what part she should share with her associates. 
The Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, was the 
first ever chartered for its purpose. Tlie number of its 
graduates exceeds that of any similar institution. Its 
present class is the largest of its kind in the world. As we 
have narrated, Dr. Preston early became identified with 
the institution, and for nineteen years was Professor of 
Physiology and Hygiene, for six years Dean of the Faculty, 
and for four years Member of the Board of Corporators. 
Philadelphia has long been the acknowledged medical 
centre in America; a conservative city fostering a conserva- 
tive profession. While it is true that “ the names of those 
who supported our Hospital and College, are largely the 
names of those of whom Philadelphia is justly proud, 
as representatives of her intelligence, respectability and 
moral worth,” it is probable that in no other city in the 
Union would the medical education of women have met 
such bitter, persistent, determined opposition. The fact 28 
that, year by year, under such circumstances, the Collego 
has steadily and securely gained ground in the profession, 
has added to its facilities for thoroughness in study, has 
extended its requisitions for graduation, and without ostenta- 
tion become well and favorably known at home and abroad, 
proves the inherent vitality of the cause it represents, and 
the faithful, untiring devotion of its defenders. 
The early advocates of the medical education of women, 
sought neither self-aggrandizement nor pecuniary advantages. 
They were sustained by the belief that the cause they 
advocated was established in the inevitable fitness of things, 
and in the necessity of society; and that the movement 
belonged to the revolutions which never go backward; but 
they contended with the opposition of a profession justly 
conservative in its acceptance of innovations, although 
often unjustly illiberal in its methods of testing the fitness 
of that which is new, and asserting the infallibility of its 
ancient prerogative. 
Dr. Preston entered upon the work on the eve of that 
reactionary period which comes alike to all institutions and 
reforms, but more especially to those which run counter to 
old and long established opinions. Professional ostracism 
and public censure are powerful weapons in the hands of 
unprincipled opponents, and it proves no unfaithfulness to 
our cause, that during the first years of the existence of the 
College, there were frequent changes in the Faculty and 
Board of Corporators; but it renders more apparent the 
faithfulness of the few, who since its inception have labored 
for the advancement of its interests. 
During a long period of years, during the dark days of 
the College, Dr. Preston made its interests her interests, its 
honor her honor, shrank not from its obloquy, shared its 
pecuniary embarrassments, labored to increase its advantages 
and elevate its standard of scholarship. 29 
We have no desire to over-estimate the results of her 
labors, or undervalue those of others, but we believe that 
the facts justify the statement that she has done more than 
any other person for the advancement of the medical educa- 
tion of women. 
With failing health and declining years, she had realized 
for some time that she must soon relinquish to others the 
active work of teaching; but her life was just ripening into 
glad fruition—the hopes of years were being realized, the 
future looked bright and hopeful, and she anticipated a 
serene old age of peaceful content. But she was permitted 
to look over into the promised land; saw opened up for 
women broad avenues to useful knowledge; heard the sig- 
nificant creaking of College and Hospital doors long closed 
against them; saw time-honored universities welcoming them 
to their fullest privileges and highest honors; saw the Col- 
lege, whose interests were so near her heart, taking secure 
hold on the confidence of the public. But she died when 
the experience of her years would have added much to the 
wisdom of its counsels; when the confidence the public re- 
posed in her acknowledged worth and ability would have 
extended and strengthened its influence; when the presence 
of one so widely-known and universally respected, growing 
old so beautifully in its service, would have added much to 
the dignity of its name. 
Doubtless, to many here to-night, with the pain of the 
personal loss, comes the feeling that Dr. Preston died before 
her life-work was finished ; but, year by year, slowly and 
painfully, we are learning the lesson that human limitations 
are not for God,—that whatever is bears ever His warrant 
for its being,—that out of infinite resources He is able to 
compass all finite ends,—that the call given to any human 
being to come up higher is His seal upon the work accom- 
plished.