MY DEAR FATHER,--You will, I am sure, be delighted to learn that I have
gained the twenty-ninth honorary certificate for proficiency in anatomy
which you will allow is a very high number when I tell you that only
thirty are given. I have also the satisfaction of informing you that the
various professors have given me certificates of having attended their
lectures _very diligently_ during the past courses.
I work very hard, but I need not inform you that, with all my economy, I
am at some expense for good books and instruments. I have purchased
_Liston's Surgery_, Anthony Thompson's _Materia Medica_, Burns and
Merriman's _Midwifery_, Graham's _Chemistry_, Astley Cooper's
_Dislocations_, and Quain's _Anatomy_, all of which I have read carefully
through twice. I also pay a private demonstrator to go over the bones with
me of a night; and I have bought a skeleton at Alexander's--a great
bargain. This, when I "pass," I think of presenting to the museum of the
hospital, as I am under great obligations to the surgeons. I think a
ten-pound note willl clear my expenses, although I wish to enter to a
summer course of dissections, and take some lessons in practical chemistry
in the laboratories with Professor Carbon, but these I will endeavour to
pay for out of my own pocket. With my best regards to all at home, believe
me,
Your affectionate son,