"New Haven is equally as attractive as it was during my college life and I feel more at home here than in any other place in the United States during the present summer so far.I have become acquainted with the professional men of the city from whom I have received many favors and many of whom I hope to regard as my future friends.Through their influence I have had an opportunity of treating a number of patients, which is no small advantage to me in my studies.I confess I am so much attached to the city I should like to make it my home if it were practicable, but it is so much crowded with physicians that there is no room for me.In reply to your question as to what pleasure it afforded me to receive my diploma, I can very readily say that it was far from affording me anything like a thrill of pleasure to look back upon my acquirements.I rather felt as a tired traveller might be supposed to feel when, having exerted himself to reach the top of the first peak on a mountain, he has only secured a position where he can see Alpine peaks towering to the skies, which he must scale before his journey is ended.I very many times have felt as though I was not a particle wiser since I graduated than before I first left home, yet I suppose I may claim more than this for myself without being thought vain or arrogant, but what advantage either myself or others are to reap from it remains to be seen.I hope I am better prepared to spend the remainder of my life more profitably than I was before, with higher aims and in possession of greater capacity for enjoyment myself and of doing good to others.I cannot yet tell when I shall get my medical degree, yet if fortune favors and I get along with my studies pretty well, it will not be longer than fourteen months.I would like to arrange my plans to leave for home as soon as I get through, but it is so long beforehand that I do not think about it yet.
"I shall have a short vacation of a few weeks, commencing with August 1st, when I should like to be at home, but I do not deem it best for me to go this summer.I shall probably go into the country 'round.I shall probably return to Philadelphia early in October and spend the winter there, which will end my residence in that city, unless I should remain longer to attend the hospital and see more practice than I could otherwise.