Dr. Harriott K. Hunt
Among the first, if not the first, to practise medicine
in this country, was Dr. HARRIOT K. HUNT. Her autobiographical work called " Glances and Glimpses "
is so complete a statement of her struggles, that the reader is advised to peruse it, and excuse the brevity
of this notice. She was born Nov. 9, 1805 ; and her sister, SARAH AUGUSTA HUNT, who was also a
physician, was born Dec. 25, 1808.
Dr. Harriot died at the age of sixty-three, Jan. 2, 1875, in Boston, where she
had spent her useful life. Mrs. Lucy Stone says of her, " She acquired a medical education by private
instruction from Dr. Nott, and commenced a practice nearly forty years ago, which became so successful and
remunerative that she acquired an independent fortune. . . . As soon as she had property to be taxed
she felt so keenly the essential injustice of taxation without representation, that every year; when she paid
her tax, she sent with it to the city treasurer a protest, setting forth the principle that taxation and
representation are inseparable, and protesting against the wrong
done to all women who were compelled to pay taxes, and were yet denied a vote. She continued this practice
more than a quarter of a century, till the end of her life. Her practical example of a successful business
life, always maintained with a cheerful spirit, is a good legacy and lesson to all young women. She will be
missed by many, but especially by those who sought her advice as a physician, and who were helped to
health, as well by her cheerful spirit as by her medicine."
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