The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1875-07-30
Opinion of the Press.


TO the American reader the list OF
names seemed mainly to include Ger.
mans, and IL had a somewhat foreign
and remote aspect. But among those
names there was one of an American
woman, young and of singular promise,
OF whom one of the most eminent sur
geons in Boston said Had she lived
she would have been sure to stand In
time among those, at the head of her
profession. The usual weapons of ridi-
cule would have been impotent against
woman who had reached that supreme
position which Susan Dimock would
certainly have attained" She was born
in North Carolina in 1S47, and in 1861
Miss Zakrzewska, we'll known as a most
thoroughly trained and successful physi-
clan and surgeon in Boston, received a
letter from the young Carolinian of four
teen, stating that she had always pre-.
ferrcd medical and surgical books to all
Others, and asking advice and directions
in fitting herself for the practice of the
profession. Mis- Zakrzewska replied as
if to "a ftnciful girl, and thought Of the
matter no more. But the glrl herself
quietly continued her studies, and her
family having left the State during the
war, and being settled in Massachusetts,
she applied to Miss Zakrzewska five
years afterward-at the age of nineteen
to enter the New England Hospital
as student Twice she applied for ad
mission to the medical school of Har
ward University, but was refused Yet
her genius for the profession she had
chosen was so evident, her qualifications
so remarkable, that her teachers and
friends advised her to enter some Euro.
pean school, for which her general &C.
complishments and knowledge of Ian.
guages peculiarly fitted her. She went
accordingly to the University of Zurich,
and, after studying for three years,
graduated with high honors, and then
went to Vienna and Paris, devoting her.
self especially to surgery. At Vienna
a noted German physician said to an
American friend that he had always
thought lightly of women as physicians,
but that he had seen a young American
woman in the school whose intelligence,
devotion, and aptitude were such that
he began to feel that he was wrong.
In 1872 she returned TO Boston, and
became resident physician and surgeon
at the New England Hospital for Wo.
men and Children As the surgeon
whose words we have quoted said, " 1t
was not merely her skill, ---- but also
her nerve, that qualified her to become
a great surgeon. | have seldom known
one at once so determined and so self
possessed. Skill is Il quality much
more easily found than this self.control
that nothing can furry In her work
she was thoroughly conscientious and
self-ieliant, and so gracious aud accom-
plished and attractive that the most
skeptical could not escape the percep.
ton that woman could be mistress of
the medical and surgical profession, yet
with ali the charm of the lady abso.
lutely untouched, as a man may be alb
solutely master of the same profession,
yet be still the gentleman. Students
and patients were deeply attached to
her. Nor is this wonderful, for she had
the wise and profuse sympathy which is
the key of the heart Il wish you,"
she said in one of her lectures in the
training schools for nurses, " OF all my
instructions to remember this when
you 60 to nurse a patient, imagine that
it is your own sister before you in that
bed, and treat her in every respect as
you would wish your own sister to be
treated Nor did she permit any stu.
dent to be present as a mere spectator
at the treatment of patients, and this
rule was uniform with the poorest as
With the richest patients. Miss Dimock
had asked FIVE months leave of absence
to visit some friends in Europe, as a
necessary relaxation before entering up
on another term of three yeas service.
With young friend of her own age -
a daughter of Colonel W. b. Greene, Of
Boston, of rare character and accom-.
plishment, and with all that life offers
the young and beautiful and fortunate
to live for-she sailed upon the Sch,Her,
and her body alone was found. 1t was
brought home and buried in Boston.
The pail was held by the most eminent
of the surgeons of the city, and the
Rev James Freeman Clarke spoke with
afectionate and tender eloquence of the
dead He read a letter which stated
that when last seen Miss Dimock was
kneeling on the deck praying aloud,
and, as she knelt, sea broke over the
vessel and swept her, with group near
her, out Of human sight or aid When
she was taken from the water her face
wore peaceful, even happy expires.
sion. The inhabitants of the island
were touched by its sweet repose, and
the body was presently strewed with
flowers by compassionate men and wo.
meD,-Even the rude fisherman who
bore tue body to the steamer which
brought it home felt the same influence.