Page:Women of distinction.djvu/339

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WOMEN OF DISTINCTION.
267

CHAPTER LXVII.

VERINA H. MORTON, M. D.

This young physician, to say the least, has many good reasons to be proud of her accomplishments and hopeful for a bright future. It is quite probable yet that she, with her many professional sisters, will hush in silence the often and repeated statement that the practice of medicine "tends to destroy the womanly qualities" of females who enter the profession as regular practicing physicians. The statement is certainly without foundation when applied to all female physicians. There may be exceptions in the cases of both sexes. The exceptions on either side are rare in proportion as prejudice recedes and justice comes to the front.

The Brooklyn Times, June 27, 1891, had the following to say of our subject:

Brooklyn's youngest colored physician, Dr. Verina H. Morton, of Gold street, graduated in 1888 from the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, the best medical college for women in the country. She belongs to the regular school and has been practicing medicine, until recently, under her maiden name of Harris, in Mississippi, where she was resident physician of Rust University at Holly Springs, and also gave talks on health topics to the industrial school connected with the university. She was the first woman physician of either color to register in that State.

She was married last August to Dr. W. A. Morton, also a young colored physician, who has been in practice a little over a year, and came to Brooklyn and registered here this spring. She has made a good start already in this city, her very first patient being a German lady. She has been surprised at the number of calls she has received in the