(MEDICINE) BLACKWELL, ELIZABETH The Laws of Life, with Special Reference to the Physical Education of Girls. [Popular and Practical Series No. 2.] New York: Geo. P. Putnam, 1852. 8vo, publisher's grey-green stiff printed paper boards. First edition, uncommon variant, with publisher's advertisements to endpapers. This is the first edition of the first book published by the first woman in the United States to earn a medical degree. Blackwell, rejected from all medical schools to which she applied, finally applied to Geneva Medical College at Geneva, New York, which asked the male student body whether to admit her. Believing it was a joke, they agreed. Blackwell graduated the first in her class and the first woman to achieve a medical degree in America in 1849. Light soiling and few dampstains to upper cover; spine lightly chipped with some loss; minor intermittent foxing primarily affecting endpapers.