Southern sentinel. [volume] (Plaquemine, Parish of Iberville [La.]) 1848-1858, 1853-07-09
PLAQUEMINE. PARISH OF IBERNILLE LAy JULY 8, 1888.
PHYSICIANS Bills.

The Boston Journal publishes an address Of
Physician from which we make the following
extract:
''Another thing which does much to degrade
| the profession and embarrass its members, is
| the universal, indiscriminate and unlimited
credit which attends the practice of many ply
siceans. The compensation is so meagre and
so tardy, that physicians as class are poor, if
we except those who have acquired property by
other than professional means Such ought
not to be the case. Every well educated ply
sician has made large investment of capital
in his preparation for practice, and when his
| arduous, irksome and responsible duties are
required, the capital and those services ought
to afford him q fair and prompt remuneration
In general, there can be no good reason why
the bills of physicians should not be settled as
often and readily as the bills Of grocers, but
chers or taors; and such physicians as let their
bills lie year after year, without presenting
them for settlement, not only injure them
selves, but disparage the profession generally.
The public are not so much to blame in this
particular, as those physicians who set such
practices, and as the fault is mainly our own,
so the remedy is in our hands. If physicians
generally would set themselves to work to cor
regular settlements, they would soon find
themselves better off, their services held in
higher estimation, and their patients better
pleased. The physician may be sufficiently
charitable and indulgent, and at the same time
make all reasonable and seasouable collections;
but if he gives the public to understand that he
considers his services Of little value, he will
have no reason to complain if that public adopt
the same opinion. Every practitioner should
endeavor to make his services really valuable,
to satisfy his employers that they are so, and
demand a reasonable compensation for them
If he fails to do this, he is 4 poor physician. 1t
is notorious that considerable share OF the
business of most physicians is never paid tor;
and the public appear to think that it is the
boundcn duty Of all physicians to 60 at every
beck and call, regardless of compensation, and
whoever refuses to do so is thought to be
remiss in duty and unmercful.
This mistaken notion has existed so long
that it seems to have become a settled princi>
pie in public opinion, and at this time probably
more than onetourth of all the medical service
done in New England is never paid for at all,
and some practitioners never collect onehat OF
their charges. Consequently many practi
toner, who has abored hard all his life, leaves
his family with little more than mass Of un>
settled accounts, which had they been paid as
they should have been, would have made a
good estate. This condition of things is very
wrong Many who never pay their ply sician,
pay all other debts punctually; and those who
are absolutely unable to pay, should be proyi-
ded for by the public. Physicians are under
no more legal or moral obligations to labor for
nothing, than any other class of men; and this
the public should be made distinctly to under
stand. With most other men, the evening Of
a well-spent life is rendered more comfortable
by relaxation and retirement from business
The merchant or the mechanic often retires in
independence, surrounded by all the comforts
of life, to recline upon beds of down and enjoy
that repose which the infrmites of declining
years demand. Not so with physicians. The
more eminent the man, the more urgent the
calls for his services. AS his physical powers
decline, his labors increase. Nothing but a
total disability is sut1icisent to excuse him.
And when his trembling limbs can no longer
endure fatigues, watchings and privations,
when he is literally worn out, he is given up
and set at naught; and though he may "still
live" he is soon forgotten. Once his smile
gave hope, his sadness despair; now, "none is
so poor to do him reverence" He descends to
his grave unhonored and unwept No matter
how eminent or how important have been MS
services No matter how many anxious days
and sleepless nights he has endured in the cause
of humanity. No matter how many years of
of unrewarded labor he has spent, standing be-
tween his patients and their last enemy. The
winds of winter pass over him, and he is re-
membered no more. Not so with clergymen
and statesmen. They are venerated in life
and eulogized in DEATH; some friendly angel
records their merits in gold, and they are en-
balmed in history.''