# Woman of the Century/Anna Manning Comfort

​COMFORT, Mrs. Anna Manning, doctor of medicine, born in Trenton, N. J., 19th January, 1845. In her childhood Miss Manning's parents removed to Boston, Mass., where she received her academic education. An early liking for the studies of anatomy and physiology was discovered by her aunt, Mrs. Clemence Lozier, M. I)., the founder and for twenty years the dean of the New York Medical College for Women. Miss Manning entered Dr. Lozier's office as a student. Dr. Lozier's large and generous hospitality brought to her house many of the leading reformers of the time, and from intercourse with them Miss Manning drew much of that sympathetic inspiration and breadth of view which marked her persona lily in later years. She was a member of the first class in the New York Medical College for Women. At the graduating exercises of that class speeches were made by Henry Ward Beecher, Horace Greeley, Henry J. Raymond and Hon. S. S. Cox in behalf of enlarging the sphere of woman's activities, and especially on her entering the domain of medicine. At that ​time the opposition to women students, which almost amounted to persecution, was manifested to tin- first class of lady students, among other things, by the rude treatment they received From the men ANNA MANNING COMFORT. students and even from some of the professors while attending the clinics in Bellevue Hospital. After graduation Miss Manning began the practice of her profession in Norwich, Conn., being the first woman graduate in medicine to practice in that State. By her strong personality and her professional success she soon won a large and important patronage in Norwich and eastern Connecticut. She there strongly espoused, in the press and otherwise, the cause of woman suffrage and of woman's equality with men in all moral, social and civil relations. In 1870 she removed to New York City, where she successfully practiced her profession, was appointed lecturer in the college from which she graduated, and was elected a member of the newly founded society of Sorosis. In New York Dr. Manning met the gentleman whom she married in 1871, Prof. G. F. Comfort, L.H.D., the distinished scholar in linguistics and art criticism, who came the founder and 'lean of the College of Fine Arts of the Syracuse University. In 1872 they removed to Syracuse, where Dean Comfort entered upon his work in the newly established university in that city. Dr. Comfort relinquished her medical practice for some years, till her children had grown beyond the need of a mother's constant cares. On resuming practice she confined her work to gynecology, which had before been her chief department, and in that field she has achieved success and distinction. In 1874 Dr. Comfort wrote "Woman's Education and Woman's Health," in reply to Dr. Clarke's "Sex in Education," in which he attacked the higher education of woman. In 1887 and 1801 she traveled extensively in Europe, where she visited many important hospitals and medical institutions. Her tastes and accomplishments are varied and versatile; she has marked histrionic powers, and could have achieved distinguished success as an artist, musician or actor, or on the lecture platform.