The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1879-10-15
ANEcpoTEs a OF DoCToRs.

I" ANECDOTES'0 OF DOCTORS.
Amongst the most honored Of all
the professions is that of Medicine
1t is often also very lucrative one,
especially if a medical man gains a
name in the beau monde, and, still
better, is called upon toattend royal
ty. 1t is said that William Ill. dur
ing the first eleven years Of his reign
paid the celebrated DR.. Radcliffe on
an average not less than six hund-
red guineas per annum.
AT a more recent date, royalty has
not shown itself ungrateful for medi.
cal services. Mr.. Wadd states in his
Memorabilia that the physicians who
attended Queen Caroline had. each
five hundred guineas, and the sur
geons three hundred; aud that DR..
Willis was rewarded for his success
fuf. 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
Windsor, and ten guincas each visit
to Kew. A,physician's ordinary fee
at the close of3tbe Sixteenth and the
Degifining of : he ssntaehth. CEN,
.turies was ten shfllings; butifit hap
pened that this patient was a man of
condition, the doctor expected gold;
and, still later, several pieces of that
coin, from rich .patients. A good
story is,told Of SirRichard Jebb, who
was once. paid three guineas by a no.
'bleman. from whom he had a right to
expect FIVE. The doctor dropped the
coins on the, carpet, when u servant
picked them up and restored them.
But Sir Richard, instead of walking
of, continued his search on the car
pet.
"Are al the guineas found?" asked
his lordship, looking round.
"There must be two still on the
floor" was Sir Richards answer, "for
I have only three"
The hint of course was taken and
the right sum made up.
Another physician, who had been
accustomed to receive three guinea
fee from an old lady patient, receiv-
ed one day only two, and had re-
course to one part of Sir Richards
artifce, and assuming that the third
guinea had been dropped, through
his carelessness, looked about on the
floor for it. The result, however, was
rather Disappointing.
"Nay, nay" said the old lady, with
smile; ''gou are not in fault. 1t is
l who dropped it."
How much of "hope deferred" is
experienced by many doctors in the
beginning of their career, before the
guineas become plentiful, is little
known by the public. 1t is said that
the great surgeon, Sir Ashley Cooper,
whose income eventually varied
from fifteen to over twenty thousand
per annum, earned five guineas the
first year, and in his fifth his fees on
ly reached a hundred pounds. But
the day came when patients waited
for hours in his anterooms before
they could obtain an interview with
him, and even then perhaps were
compelled to go away without con-
sultation. And for some years one
patient alone paid him six hundred
pounds annually for professional at
tendance upon him at his seat near
Croydon.
Though there are numerous instan'
ces Of large sums being received by
doctors for successful treatment of
their patients, it is rarely that they
roapsubstantial benefit, beyond their
ordinary fees, in cases Of failure; in.
stances, however are unknown.
Astory is told of French lady
who put herself into the hands of a
surgeon to be bled; the operator used
his lancet so clumsily that instead of
a vein, he cat an artery. This mis-.
hap eventually caascd. the death of