descended from landowning Lithuanian nobility and members of the Polish intellectual elite. She and her siblings grew up on the large family estate, but to improve their opportunities for education, the family moved to Warsaw in 1873, after leasing the property in Poczujki. Joteyko began her studies with her mother and Madame Perosette, a French tutor. In 1876, the family moved to Smolna Street, near the Sierakowska Boarding School. Joteyko was enrolled there but only attended a for few months because her mother thought the instruction in sciences was inadequate. As the only other schooling option at the time was for Joteyko to attend a government school, which required assimilation of Russian culture, her mother organized private tutoring at home with Polish professors. After seven years of study, Joteyko prepared to take the examination to become a private teacher. Though she spoke four languages and passed her other tests, Joteyko did not pass the Russian language examination. Rather than retake it, she decided to continue her education abroad, as women were banned from studying at the University of Warsaw. Opting to go to Geneva, where her maternal uncle Zygmunt Miłkowski lived, Joteyko enrolled in the University of Geneva in 1886 to study physical and biological sciences. When she arrived in Switzerland, she cut her hair short, wore tailored dresses with a more masculine style, and was rumored to smoke. She met the former high school teacher, Michalina Stefanowska, with whom she established both a personal and professional relationship. After two years of study, Joteyko graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree and briefly returned to Warsaw. In 1889, she and her family moved to Brussels, where Joteyko entered the Faculty of Medicine of the Free University of Brussels. Her father's illness forced the family to return to Warsaw in 1890. Joteyko did not return with them but instead moved to Paris, where Stefanowska was studying physiology. Within a few months, her father died and the family was threatened with bankruptcy. Joteyko left France briefly and went to Saint Petersburg to take the financial matters in hand. She was able to rescue some of the family capital and with her share, she returned to Paris and rented an apartment with Stefanowska. Enrolling in medical studies under Charles Richet at the University of Paris, Joteyko completed her Doctor of Medicine in 1896, receiving the faculty award for her dissertation "La fatigue et