ABSTRACT

During those last weeks in Edinburgh Sophia managed to combine her studies and the canvassing of political support in London. Elizabeth Garrett Anderson disapproved of this latest development. On 23 August The Times published Sophia’s reply. She began by denying that the cause was lost in Britain. In recent years women had gained access to the excellent medical classes of the extramural schools of Edinburgh, and had been taught in that city’s Royal Infirmary. One of the politicians who supported Sophia’s approach was the Home Secretary, Mr Robert Lowe. Mr Lowe, whose electorate was the University of London, was impressed by a petition he received from 471 graduates of that university. Sophia had left Edinburgh and was observing these developments from a distance. Sophia was not just a passive observer of these Parliamentary events. Observers might have wondered why so many men felt themselves threatened by the presence of just one woman.