Having qualified initially with the Triple Qualification (LRCPE, LRCSE, LRFPSG), she took her MBChB (Bachelor of Medicine) degree in 1896, achieving first-class honours in every subject in the curriculum, passing all her professional examinations in the shortest time possible, and being awarded the Arthur Scholarship.

Three years later, she took her MD (Doctor of Medicine), winning a gold medal for her thesis on the comparative anatomy of the auditory nerve.

In 1901 along with Elsie Inglis she was involved in setting up The Hospice on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, a maternity hospital specifically for the care of working class women.

[6][7] In 1905, for family reasons, she left her practice in Edinburgh and emigrated to Denver, Colorado in the United States.

[1][6] She died of acute cerebral meningitis on 22 March 1906,[1] in Denver, and is buried in that city's Fairmount Cemetery.