Whitman, a newly arrived medical student in Philadelphia, expresses his satisfaction with the educational advantages of the city:

"Dear Sister,

         I have hardly had till now leisure enough to tell you how I do. I arrived on Friday night of the same week I left home after having spent a day in N. Haven in hearing the lecturers once round there. I am more than satisfied with the advantages here enjoyed for studying medicine. We have very able lecturers & full hospitals - almost every kind of disease that "flesh is heir to" may be seen here & a great many surgical operations - I have already seen 5 or 6 performed. If a man cannot become a well qualified physician here I am sure he could not anywhere in the wide world. There are two schools here, & I suppose in them both 5 or 6 hundred students & take them together. I never saw a finer looking set of young fellows - all is life & animation & ardor both among the students & professors. Medical men here stand on a level with highest, as they ought to do when they are worthy of their profession. But perhaps I have already said too much about doctors to suit your taste - There are a great many good things here beside them - but really I have seen very little except what belongs to my own business. There severl excellent ministers here some of whom I have heard with much interest & I hope advantage. I have heard none whom I like better than Mr. Barns author of Barn's Notes &c.

      When I first arrived I called on cousin Will Whit. He rec'd me very cordially & went with me to find a boarding place & showed me some of the noticeables in the city & invited me to dine with him which did - he is going to the legislature this winter went last also as a Whig. He gave me a long lecture on Homeopathy, he is a believer in the humbuggery & thinks he shall convince me - but. ..."