The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1886-07-30
A DOCTORS ELECTRIC COLLECTOR.
Ills Clever Plan for Getting Fees
from Patients,

from Patients,
yes, sir, you may depend upon i,
that medicine is the most laborous of
all the professions to follow for livli-
hood The speaker who so dogmat-
cally laid down the law was young
physician who had recently cut loose
from the protecting apron of the hos
pital in which he had been an inferno
for three years, and was now trying to
reconcile the golden glitter of the let
tcrs of his new "shinglc" with the pie
bcian copper which tenanted his purse.
He was clothed in somber not to say
seedy, black, for the professional as
pect of the practicing physician must,
i'll many respects, correspond with that
OF his natural complement, the under
taker The gay hospital surgeon, whose
patients come because they have to,
not from choice, may be as gay of raj
ment rs the flowers that bloom in the
spring, but let him once abandon that
bcnetcent roof 10 branch out for him
self, and his clothes, like his counte-
nance, must bear continual testimony
to his professional decorum. The SOM
Der gentleman, after giving vent to a
sigh over the unpromising state of the
medical market, continues:
at S not the lack of patients: they
come often enough and drag q man
away from a quiet game or out of bed
at midnight to see whining youngste1
that needs only Il local application O,
slipper TO cause immediate conva-
lescence. Oh, we get patients enough
the trouble is they don't pay. You
newspaper men may crack jokes ovcl
tailors' bills in Your funny columns;
tell you the physician was an abuse,!
creditor before men began wearing
clothes. Tho trouble is that IL phv-
sician can't ask 4 patient for fee inn
mediatcly after tho consultation. A
doctor don't like to be q dun. It's
different in England, where the patient
in going out deposits his guinea neatly
wrapped up in paper in some con.
vcnient spot where the physician can
find it later. That saves both the feel
ings and the cash of the doctor, while
here both are apt to suffer- But there's
one man in New York who has beau.
tiful plan for getting his fees at once
gives his advice C. o. d. SO to speak.
He is q well-known specialist who has
just completed a new house uptown.
In this house his office is SO arranged
that patients in going away pass ou,
through an anteroom in which sits .
nurse ready to aid the physician in
case of need. but always on duty as Il
collector. On the walls is an indicator
with dials numbered 5, 10, Is, and Sc
on. Wires connect dials with Il row OF
keys on the physicians desk and the
whole forms an electric circuit. Sc.
the scheme? No? Well, you see, aftc.
a consultation tho physician is moi
obliged to mention, with many huns
and haws. his little bill to his departing
patient. He simply touches q Key and
the departing patient falls q prey tc
| the nurse, who promptly collects S1i
or 800 according to the indicator in the
anteroom. Oh. it's u great plan, bu,
it's n sad commentary on n profession
that can only be mado profitable by tho
| assistance of electricity. BY and by
| suppose each doctors Office will be pro
| vided with one of those mysterious
machines that by n single turn of crank
display 4 dial with the amount of til,
bill contracted, add this amount to pre-
vious receipts, and give duc-bll to tho
| debtor. Iou may have noticed sucl
affairs III certain establishments whcr,
subscriptions are put uH for immediate
use. n.--Neao York Tribune.