Background and Education. Physician and educator Elizabeth Blackwell was born on February 3, 1821, in Bristol, England. Brought up in a liberal household that stressed education, Blackwell eventually broke into the field of medicine to become the first woman to graduate from medical school in the United States.
â¢ ASSAY (noun) The noun ASSAY has 4 senses: 1. an appraisal of the state of affairs. 2. a substance that is undergoing an analysis of its components. 3. a written report of the results of an analysis of the composition of some substance.
Assay is the quantitative determination of the amount of a component in a sample. Purity is the determination of the impurities in the sample. It can be quantitative, semi-quantitative or qualitative. For example : if you dissolve 4 grams of compound A (with no impurities in it) in 6 grams of water, you get a solution of compound A with 100% purity and 40% assay.