Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1879-10-16
ANECDOTES OF DOCTORS.


Amongst the most honored OF all the
professions is that of Medicine. II is
often also a very lucrative one, espe-
ciaIly if a medical man gains a name in
the beau monde, and, still better, is called
upon to attend royalty. II is said that
William III. during the first eleven
years of has reign, paId the celebrated
DIR. Radcliffe on an average not less
than SIX hundred guineas per annum.
At a more recent date, royalty has
not shown itself ungrateful for medical
services. Mr.. Wadd states in bis .Hem-
Orabiiia that the physicians who attend
ed Queer Caroline had eaclI iive thn4
dred guIneas, and the surgeons three
hundred; and that DR.. Willis was re-
warded for his successful attendance on
King George III. by fifteen hundred per
annum for twenty years, and six hundred
and fifty per annum to his son for life.
The other physicians had, however,
only thirty guineas each visit to Wind
sor, and ten guineas each visit to Kew.
A physicians ordinary fee at the close
of the sixteenth and the beginning of
the seventeenth centuries was ten shil-
iings; but If il happened that has patient
was man of condition, the doctor ex-
pected gold; and, still later, several
pieces OF that coin, from rich patients.
A good story is told of Sir Richard Jebb,
who vas once paid three guineas by a
nobleman from whom he had right to
expect FIVE. The doctor dropped the
coins on the carpet, when servant
picked them up and restored them. But
Sir Richard, instead OF walking of. con-
tInued his search on the carpet.
care all the guineas found 2" asked
bis Iordship, looking round.
"There must be two still on the floor, I"
was Sir Richards answer, "ior have
only three"
The hint OF course was taken, and the
right sum made up.
Another physician, who had been ae-
customed to receive a,three-guinea fee
from an old lady patient, received one
day only two, and had recourse 10 one
part of Sir Richards artifce. and as
suming that the thIrd guinea had been
dropped, through his carelessness, look
ed about on the floor Cor il. The re-
suit, however, was rather disappcint-
ing.
"Nay. nay" said The old lady. with
smile; ''you are not m fault. s'Et is /
who dropped IT."
How much OF "hope deferred Is ex-
perienced by many doctors ia The be-
ginning Of their career, before the guin-
eas become plentiful, is little known by
the public. II is said that the great sur
geon Sir Astiey Cooper, whose income
eventually yarIed from fifteen to over
twenty thousand per annum, earned Eve
guineas the first year, and in hts iilth
his fees only reached hundred pounds.
But the day came when patients waited
| for hours in his anteroOms before they
could obtain al interview with him, and
even then perhaps were compelled %
20 away without consultation. and
for some years one patient alone paid
him six hundred pounds annually for
professional attendance upon him at his
seat near Croydon.
Though there are numerous instances
of large sums being received BY doctors
for successiultr ltreatmento ogtheir patients.
it - rarely that they reap substantial
! benefit, beyond their ordinary fees, in
cases of failure; instances, however, are
known.
A story is told Of French lady who
put herself into the hands Of surgeon
to be bled: The operator used his lancet
so clumsily that instead Of rein. he
cut an artery. This nlishap evenlnaIIy
caused The death Of the lady. With .
mixture Of humsnify and irony. she
made will in which she bequeathsd .
IIfe-annuity of eight hundred liTres TO
the surgeon, on condisinn that he nav-
er again bIed anybody as Ione a. be
lived"