Clara A. Swain, M.D. | Page 4

that she would herself study medicine when she should go to America for change and rest. In the meantime she was instructing a class of the older girls in the orphanage in physiology and hygiene, both in English and the vernacular, with the hope that some time they might have regular medical training. She talked with native gentlemen and with English officials of the great need for intelligent medical treatment for the women and children of the country, especially for those who live in seclusion, and of her hope that a lady medical missionary might be sent to India. A native gentleman so thoroughly approved of the idea that he offered to defray all the expenses of a medical school or class if a lady physician could be sent from America to take charge of it.
Mrs. Thomas's letter of appeal to Mrs. J.T. Gracey, a former missionary, for her assistance in the matter, led Mrs. Gracey to inquire at the Philadelphia Woman's Medical College if a suitable person could be found among the graduates, who would accept a call from the Woman's Union Missionary Society of America to go as a medical missionary to India. Miss Clara A. Swain, M.D., was named as one fitted by both professional acquirements and Christian character for such a position. It required much thought and prayer on Dr. Swain's part before she could signify her acceptance of the call, and during the three months of delay in giving her answer the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which she was a member, was organized. Naturally she preferred to go under the auspices of her own denomination, and the Union Missionary Society gracefully and generously accepted her decision.
Confident that she was obeying the call of God, she set about her preparations for the long journey before her in a cheerful spirit, answering the demurs of her friends with, "It is God's call. I must go." She was greatly cheered when she found that Miss Isabella Thoburn, whose brother (now Bishop Thoburn) had been some years in India, was to be her traveling companion. They sailed from New York November 3, 1869, and arrived in Bareilly January 20, 1870, during the annual conference of the Methodist Mission.

APPOINTMENT TO BAREILLY
The two ladies, whose previous slight acquaintance had ripened into warmest friendship during their weeks of journeying together, had hoped that they might be associated together in mission work, but it was not so to be. Miss Thoburn was appointed to educational work in Lucknow, and Dr. Swain found that she was to remain in Bareilly. This appointment gave her the opportunity to begin her medical work at once, for there were not only the girls' orphanage, for which Mrs. Thomas had so long desired efficient medical help, but scores of Christian women who could not go to the city hospital. In addition to these, there was the class of fourteen intelligent Christian girls that had for two years been receiving excellent preparatory training from Mrs. Thomas, who had fully believed that her prayer for a lady doctor would be answered and that these girls would yet have the opportunity for the study of medicine. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas were well acquainted with several of the wealthy and influential natives of the city, and Mrs. Thomas welcomed the opportunity to introduce her doctor friend to these homes.
There was no lack of patients for the new doctor; for in addition to her work in the orphanage and her medical class, calls to native homes in the city became more and more frequent. At the end of the first six weeks after her arrival in Bareilly, Dr. Swain's note book recorded one hundred and eight patients. Her report to the conference, after a year of such service as she had never dreamed of, gave the number of patients prescribed for at the mission house as twelve hundred and twenty-five, and of visits to patients in their homes, two hundred and fifty.
The young women of the medical class were gaining practice and experience by caring for the sick in the orphanage and the Christian village, and sometimes accompanying Dr. Swain to visit her city patients, and they were also becoming proficient in compounding and dispensing medicines. This class, begun March 1, 1870, was graduated April 10, 1873, having passed an excellent examination before two civil surgeons and an American physician, from whom they received certificates entitling them to practice in all ordinary diseases.

THE NAWAB'S GIFT
The need for a dispensary and hospital became daily more imperative, and it was opportunely met in the munificent gift of the Nawab of Rampore, who owned an estate adjoining the mission premises in Bareilly. The Hon. Mr. Drummond, the commissioner of the Northwest Provinces, was interested in mission work, especially in the