ABSTRACT
A typhus epidemic overran Bellevue Hospital in 1850–1852 and nearly killed Smith. New York’s elite physicians connected such diseases to the living conditions of the city’s arriving immigrants, but solving the problem was not their concern. Smith saw little surgery as a Bellevue house officer, and, after finishing two years on the wards, joined Harris in volunteering at the city’s charitable dispensaries. Having completed further study in Europe, Blackwell was also in New York City and struggling to find patients. Harris moved closer to public health, working at the Staten Island Marine Hospital. Smith followed a conventional professional path. He took a job as a journal editor in 1852, joined medical societies, and was appointed a visiting surgeon at Bellevue in 1855. Blackwell raised money to pursue her mission of bringing women into medicine.
