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The South Carolina Medical College was at the height
of its reputation then, and there were over 200 students in
attendance. In addition to Drs Dickson and Geddings
were Drs Holbrook and Shepard, the only two inefficient
professors being Drs Thos Prioleau and Moultrie. Agassiz
too was professor of general zoology, lecturing in the af-
ternoons, but his professorship could not have been a success
under any circumstances, for it was outside of a strictly
medical education, and those who intended to practice phy-
sic after graduation had as much as they could do in be-
coming familiar with the subjects which belonged strictly to the
profession.

After completing the first course of lectures at the summer
school I started at the end of July for my first trip to the
North. My father gave me a plenty of good advice before
leaving, none of which I think was wasted upon me, and
the steamer James Adger bore me safely to New York, full
of pleasant anticipations about my tour. Mr & Mrs James
Rose were fellow passengers, and having known them well
already as intimate friends of both my father and mother, I
had the opportunity of becoming on friendly terms with them
also. We stopped at the same hotel in New York, the Carlton
House, on Broadway, but we parted in a few days, they going
on immediately to Sharon Springs and I going first to West
Point and then to Saratoga. Upon arriving there the United
States hotel, the best at that time, was too full for me to be
admitted, and I was given a room at Congress Hall, which
was only a third rate house. I was feeling quite lonely from be-
ing with out a companion, when I fortunately met my old friend
and schoolmate Burgess Gordon, who was quartered at the
same house. We quickly agreed to continue our travels
together, although he was partly in charge of one of his sisters.
She was actually however in charge of Dr James Moultrie
and his wife, with two other young ladies from Charleston
Misses Mary Mazyck afterwards Mrs Miles, and
Constantia Moultrie, who became Mrs Peter Gourdin. Miss
Gordon afterwards married a Mr Ford from Kentucky.
Young Gordon and I remained four days at Saratoga, and
then went to Sharon Springs. I here met for the first time
my cousin Dr Alexander Wilcocks and his brother in
law Mr Harry McCall. There were quite a number
of South Carolinians at the principal hotel, and after
dinner we were seated together (the men) on the lawn
and we numbered fifteen. One of the guests from SC was a Miss
McDuffie, daughter of a member of Congress, then dead,
who was quite prominent in his day. She was an heiress
and was much courted by the fortune hunters of the
day. So great had been the number of those who had
sought her in marriage, some of whom had offered
themselves at the end of a days acquaintance, that
she was suspicious of every one, and from being nat-
urally a cold person, she had become so difficult to