On a winter day in 1902 the newspapers in New York City printed a story that provoked a storm of controversy—for the first time in the history of the United States, a woman was allowed to intern in a hospital, a position that entitled her to practice medicine on equal terms with men. For Emily Barringer, a slender, attractive woman in her mid-twenties, the appointment was the climax to eight years of diligent study and sacrifice. She had no way of knowing that it also marked the beginning of what was to become a trying ordeal.