Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1905-05-10
DOCTORS IN ENGLAND
THE SCHEMES THEY USE TO GET IN
THE EYE OF THE PUBLIC.
shrc.vd Expcdicnts by Which Lucra-
tive Practices Arc Acquired md by
Which They Dodge the Rule of the
Profession Against Advertising.

A young doctor beginning to practice \
ia terribly handicapped by the rule
under which any medical man who adj
vcrtise.; is expelled from the profes.
sion, says the Leeds Mercury. He
may lie an extremely gifted physician
or surgeon, and yet if he has not cap.
ital 10 buy practice or interest with
the governors of some hospitals he
does not succeed in earning enough
during the first few years to keep
body and soul together.
OF course the result is that all sorts
OF dodges are adopted to cvatle and de-
feat the rule against advertising 1t
is well known in the profession that
reputation and i. large clientele depend
more on the success with which this is
accomplished than on real scientific
ability. A celebrated London surgeon
once admitted to the writer that he
rose to the top of the tree by getting
into his carriage several times month
and driving ut a terrific pace through
d half dozen streets. Sometimes he va
ried this by forgetting to take neces-
sary instrument when visiting patient
and then sending his driver back for 1t
hot haste. Naturally people were much
impressed by the procedure, believing
thnt Surgeon d. must be an excellent
surgeon since he was so often called to
desperate cases.
Another London iEsculapius owes an
income Of 100000 year to an ingen-
ious stratagem, on which he risked the
last couple Of hundred pounds he had
in the world. Having very intelligent
sister who was desirous of helping him.
he explained to her the difficulty of
making n practice by simply putting
brass plate on the door and hanging
out a red lamp and induced her to be
his ;ccomplice In what was not far re-
moved from fraud on the public. Her
part In the plot was to- take drug
which paralyZed her limbs and gave
her the appearance of being in the last
stages Of fatal Illness. Then she was
taken in an ambulance to apartments
In a fashionable west end street, in or
der, so to speak, as forlorn hope, to
place herself under the care of DR.. Y.
DR.. X, her brother, had meanwhile
taken rooms In neighboring street,
put up his brass plate and hired car
riage with spanking pair of horses.
Three times every day he spent an
hour with the invalid, while the car
riage drove up and down the street.
He cleverly managed to have 1t report
ed that his patient had been given up
as hopeless case by all the big med
ical men of London. At the end Of two
months he had cured her, and patients
began to pour into his waiting room.
But the most successful method Of all
is to write popular medical book or d
semimedical magazine article or even
letter to the daily press. One medical
man found that religious poem which
he sent without any ulterior motives
to a widely circulated church magazine
proved better than Klondike gold
mine. It Is also known that the best
paying patients are not the really sick,
but those who Imagine they are.
These foolish people devour dlctiona-
ries of medicine and medical journals,
and no one knows this better than the
pushing doctor In fact, the medical
journals are more extensively read by
the laity than by the medical fraterni-
| ty, and the doctor who can get a clever
article published in one of them is sure
to draw patients. Letters to the news
papers on occasions such as an cpl
demic, the yivisectlon agitation and
the like are equally effective. And no
doubt they would be more numerous
but for the curious fact that the study
of medicine seems to destroy the power
Of writing well.
But probably the best advertisement
a doctor can have is to be employed in
some cause celebre. This is partly the
explanation of the extraordinary spec
tacle now and then witnessed in the
courts Of three or four medical mer
swearing that certain wound coult
easily be self inflicted or that deatf
was undoubtedly due to arsenic, while
three or four more pledge themselves
that the wound could not by any pos
sibility be self inflicted and that ar
senic had nothing whatever to do witt
the death. Great is the scheming tt
get engaged in one Of those trials, 70
the publicity is worth d diamond mine
Still another plan is to get up u hos
pital for the cure Of some special dis
ease. For this purpose several doctor
often club together and with funds o
their own, plus what they can get iron
the charitable public, open hospita
i, for skin diseases or deformities or ail
ments Of any and every organ. Thei
names are not only advertised In tn
press, by circulars and ut all kinds o
| dinners and annual meetings. but ofte
they are put up on large board out
t side the hospital, and they who woul
otherwise remain obscure become "a
nous and get patients from the fou
corners Of the kingdom.
- One Of the most famous ways Of nc
E vertising is the issuing Of bulletin
about the health Of some man Of not,
= Even If he have only a sty in his ey
u the public is kept acquainted with II
r progress. In that case the doctor a
Il ready has nearly all the reputation an
. patients he cares for, but lesser light
: often have their names associated wit
the crack physician, and every bull,
= tin is worth n hundred guineas to then
=, A doctor would give deal to have
u announced in the papers that he he
II returned from well earned holiday
Q Norway or the Mediterranean, IN
it many medical man owes his con
10 Portable income to the friendly editt
l. who says something about him in Il
4 column Of personal news.
Most Of these methods are open on
= to the city practitioner. The men wi
d settle in small towns have to adopt d
W ferent means. Generally they ma
~ use Of all their arts to make frlen
with the ladies'. They try to be We
~ charming at garden parties and h
u Ears, attend church regularly and son
u. times have note brought to them
p the middle of service and hurry awe
le, They endeavor to make themselv