, 1885-11-28
ACHES AND AILMENTS.
EXPENSES FOR FAMILY MEDICAL
SERVICES AN IMPORTANT ITEM


lscisnfihs Ame '-,ti
Expenses for medical service, form an
important item in thu family account OF
the artisan and the w~orkingman \
growing family has many aches and all
ments. which, not being understood.
seem the more serious hence the physi-
c an aud his bill.
There is reason to believe thai not onco
in five times when the physician is called
10 attend Que Of these families is his
presence required. A simple remedy
that the more intelligent would quickly
have bethought themselves Of Is pre
scribed by the physician. and the pain is
stopped But his bill goes on. The
items increase and multiply, and his sew
ices. like good seeds sown in the ground.
bring forth their fruits in their season,
his crop ripening at the end of the year.
nbappily, the physician has no regular
system Of prices. Sometimes a poor
family Is charged only 81 for a single
visit, but usually SO. and operations. even
of the most simple description, are often
charged for according TO what the patient
is supposed TO be able to pay.
SYSTEM or CHARGES.
The apothecary may also be regarded
ms an unknown quantity. The wind. we
are told. is tempered 10 the shorn lamb.
but the apothecary knows no such merci
full rule. He gets what he can, and in
the getting has little regard apparently to
what the article costs him. Those familiar
with the market price of drugs aud
simples have often been panied and sur
prised to see him charge 60 cents and
even 81 for what could scarcely have cost
him 50 much as a shilling.
This indefinite system of charges is a
serious matter to the w~orkingman with a
T,nfIVT 10 a raak hra.Irr, c,t =. a.. -.
ii costs him 50 for a physician, and per.
haps 10 or 50 cents for medicine; and if
Mary Jane be suddenly taken with chills,
several visits and prescriptions are pre-.
sumably required, which between physi-
clan and druggist mayhap cost the poor
man a weak's earnings.
Attempts have been made to protect the
w%orkingman with a family from these
impositions. Some of the w%orkingmen's
clubs connected with the churches employ
skillful and reputable physicians, who
give their services to members at nominal
prices.
A DOLLAR A MONTH.
The most successful attempt thus far to
protect poor families is perhaps that of
the directors Of the New York hospital,
who have established an out patient dis.
pensary. where, for a fee of only 81 a
hf - PCOA ANIL may AaNC lWtlNG
consultations during the same period. the
prescriptions that are made up costing
from ~ TO 20 cents extra The physi.
clans employed at the hospital. where all
consultations take place. are. in all cases.
the most skillful practitioners in the city,
the medicines and drugs are the best, and
the prescriptions carefully compounded
Experience has shown That this system
is much to be preferred to that of the
public dispensary. because the dollar a
month fee keeps away the malignerer and
the tramp, and. better still. does much 10
remove the feeling of aims taking. which
it has been found is so repugnant to
many worthy and deserving people as TO
keep them away from the public dis.
pensary.
1t is much to be regretted hat this
outpatient department Of the New York
hospital has excited the open hostility
among a certain class of the medical pro
f%ession, who. forgetting the advantages
it oilers to the poor. seem inclined to look
only 10 the fees which are lost to the ply
stefan.