Morning journal and courier., 1894-06-05
THE PAY OF DOCTORS.

what should doctor be patds Is quee- tion that has interest for all who must have doctor and for the doctor himself. The general notion among those who pay doctors is, we suppose, that they should not be paid any more than they are paid, and large reduction in doctors charges would be welcomed by those who pay them. On the other hand the doctors do rot feel that their charges are at all un reasonable, and they do feel that they are obliged to give away more of their labor and sktll than the members of any other profession. To be cure, thsy are rewarded for this by being occasionally called noble and g h. erous, and once in g while some poor human being is honestly grateful for their nobility and generosity. But nobility and generosity do not butter paIsnips, and when a noble and generous doctor sees an ignoble and selfish lawyer win lawsuit involving half a million dollars and charge four hundred thousand for his services he Is apt to feel that the lawyer Is more suited to his environment than he (the doctor) is to his.
 It would be hard to explain why the cus- tom is for lawyers who save the property of men to get such big fees for doing 1t, and for doctors, who gave the lives of paen, to get such comparatively small fees for puts the case strongly in the North Ameri- can Review, when he ssys: No one ques- tions the fact that saving a mans life is ordinarily matter of more importance to him than winning lawsuit involving 8 million, or even twenty million, dollars; and yet the lawyers in the one case would doubtless receive many thousands of dol lars, perhaps running up into the millions, while the physician in the other would be considered exorbitant in his demands if he placed the pecuniary value of his services at paltry frac. ton of the sum cheerfully given to the legal advisers. The tourist captured by Sicilian brigsnds does not hesitate tc give twenty thousand dollars under the threat that failure to do so will surely re suit in the smputation of his nose. Ht would give ten times as much, if he had 1t, to save himself from 50 horrible a mu
 tilation. But should surgeon, by skill
 full operation, preserve the same organ O
 the same tourist from the destructive in
 huence of injury or disease, tn. probabil ity ia that, should he fix his monetar, compensation at SO large a eum as fv
 hundred dollars, he would be regarded a
 almost ss much @ robber ss the Sicilisl
 brigands, and that even many of his fel
 low.practitioners would look at him witt
 that degree of envy which the obtaining o
 such fee would be likely to excite.
 "All that . mau hath will he give for hi
 life," saith the Scripture, and yet when
 man has been snatched from the very jaw
 of death by the skill and faithful attentio
 of 8 good doctor he is spt to greatly unde,
 estimate the value of his life and by his r.
 caption of the doctors bili throw doubt o , the Scripture. Good doctors as rule sl net paid tenth part of what their wor lis worth, though occasionally one (
 them becomes able to charge rich or roy, , people big fees and get them. We thin there would be justice in an enlargemer [ iof the fees of doctors, but those Wh think there wouldn't needn't fear. It vi