The Doctor in History, Literature, Folk-Lore, Etc Part 13

Curiously enough, it is recorded of a British doctor that he once actually took a fee from a _dead_ patient. Entering the bedroom immediately after death had taken place, he observed the right hand tightly clenched.

Opening the fingers, he found in them a guinea. "Ah, that was clearly for me," said the doctor, putting the gold into his pocket.

It may be remembered here, that the Royal College of Physicians, London, was founded by Thomas Linacre, physician to Henry VIII., in 1518; and that the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh was incorporated by Charter of Charles II., November 20th, 1681.

As to the fees paid to physicians, we find that Dr. Edward Browne, the son of Sir Thomas Browne, who became a distinguished physician in London, in his Journal, under the date of February 16th, 1664, records: "I went to visit Mr. Edward Ward, an old man in a feaver, when Mrs. Anne Ward gave me my first fee, 10 shillings."

In a work ent.i.tled "Levamen Infirmi," published in the year 1700, we find that the scale of remuneration to surgeons and physicians was as follows:--"To a graduate in physic, his due is about ten shillings, though he commonly expects or demands twenty. Those that are only licenced physicians, their due is no more than six shillings and eightpence, though they commonly demand ten shillings. A surgeon's fee is twelvepence a mile, be his journey far or near; ten groats to set a bone broke or out of joint; and for letting blood one shilling; the cutting off or amputation of any limb is five pounds, but there is no settled price for the cure."

Till recent times neither barristers nor physicians could recover their fees by legal proceedings against their clients or patients unless a special contract had been made. In the case of lawyers this custom can be traced back to the days of ancient Rome. Their services were regarded as being gratuitously rendered in the interests of friendship and justice, and of a value no money could buy. The acknowledgment given them by clients was regarded as an _honorarium_, and paid in advance, so that all pecuniary interest in the issue of the suit was removed, thus preserving the independence and respectability of the bar.

Equity draftsmen, conveyancers, and such like, however, could recover reasonable charges for work done.

So in the medical profession, surgeons, dentists, cuppers, and the like were always ent.i.tled to sue for their fees; but the valuable services of a consulting physician were of a different kind, not rendered for payment but acknowledged by the grat.i.tude and honour of his patients.

But this code of honour was modified when all medical pract.i.tioners were relieved by the Act of 21 and 22 Vict. 90, which applied to the United Kingdom, and enabled them to recover in any court of law their reasonable charges as well as costs of medicines and medical appliances used. This rule applies to physicians, surgeons, and apothecaries as defined by the statute.

The following information is taken from "Everybody's Pocket Cyclopaedia"

(Saxon & Co.).

LONDON MEDICAL FEES.

"Patients are charged according to their supposed income, the income being indicated by the rental of the house in which they reside. The following are the charges usually made by medical pract.i.tioners:--

----------------------------------------------------------------------- Rentals.

------------------------------------------------ 10 to 25 25 to 50 50 to 100 ---------------------- ---------------- ---------------- -------------- Ordinary Visit 2s 6d to 3s 6d 3s 6d to 5s 5s to 7s 6d Night Visit Double an Ordinary Visit Mileage beyond two miles from home 1s 6d 2s 2s 6d Detention per hour 2s 6d to 3s 6d 3s 6d to 5s 5s to 7s 6d Letters of Advice Same charge as for an Or- dinary Visit Attendance on Servants 2s 6d 2s 6d to 3s 6d 3s 6d to 5s Midwifery 21s 21s to 30s 42s to 105s CONSULTANTS. Advice or visit alone 21s 21s 21s Advice or visit with another Pract.i.tioner 21s 21s to 42s 21s to 42s Mileage beyond two miles from home 10s 6d 10s 6d 10s 6d -----------------------------------------------------------------------

"Special visits, _i.e._, of which due notice has not been given before the pract.i.tioner starts on his daily round, are charged at the rate of a visit and a half. Patients calling on the doctor are charged at the same rate as if visited by him.

"There are about 23,000 physicians and surgeons in the United Kingdom, or one to every 1,600 inhabitants."

It has been my privilege to know several doctors intimately. Our family doctor when I was a boy in Paisley, was Dr. Kerr, a man far in advance of his day. He was the means of introducing a pure water supply to the town of Paisley, always strenuously urging the importance of sanitary matters and good drainage, when such things were then but little understood, and greatly neglected. Shortly after the water had been introduced to the houses, from Stanley, an old man--who had been accustomed to purchase water from a cart which went through the streets selling it from a barrel--on being asked how he liked the new water, replied indignantly, "Wha's going to pay good siller for water that has neither smell nor taste?"

On one occasion, an elderly gentleman, who was slightly hypochondriac, consulted Dr. Kerr about his clothing, saying that he regulated the thickness of his flannels by the thermometer. Dr. Kerr, losing patience, said, "Can you not use the thermometer your Maker has put in your inside, and put on clothes when you are cold?"

Dr. Kerr's son and a.s.sistant, whom we then called "the young doctor," died a few years ago in Canada, over eighty years of age. No man could possibly have been more considerately kind, gentle, and tender-hearted. On one occasion, in 1841, when, in typhus fever, I was struggling for my life, he sat up with me for three whole consecutive nights, and brought me through. He ever kept himself abreast of the science of the day, and devoted his abilities and energies, _con amore_, to the benefitting of men's souls as well as their bodies.

Another model village and country doctor, also an intimate friend of my parents, Dr. Campbell of Largs, I knew very well. Good, genial, and accomplished, he was a perfect gentleman, and equally at home dining with Sir Thomas Brisbane, or drinking a cup of tea at some old woman's kitchen fireside. He read the _Lancet_, and tried all new medicines, and repeatedly, when going to London, at his request I procured the most recent instruments for him. He was intimate with Dr. Chalmers, Lord Jeffrey, Lord Moncrieff, Lord Cardwell, etc. In telling me of experiments with Perkin's metallic tractors, and that the same results were obtained with wooden ones, showing the power of imagination, he gave me a recent curious ill.u.s.tration. He had lately had the old fashioned little panes of gla.s.s taken out of the windows of his house, and plate gla.s.s inserted.

His mother, who did not know of the change, calling one afternoon, sat on an easy chair, close by the gable window, knitting. On suddenly looking round she said, "Oh John, I've been sitting all this time by an _open_ window," and forthwith she began to sneeze! She actually took cold, and even afterwards could scarcely be persuaded that it had _not_ been an open window, for she said she felt the cold! The doctor told me of an old maiden lady who consulted him, and who, when he prescribed in a general way, insisted on knowing exactly what ailed her. He said she was only slightly nervous, and would soon be all right. This did not at all please her, and she at once loudly protested--"Me nervous! There is not a nerve in my whole body!"

A West India merchant, one of his patients whom I knew, he also told me, one day said to him, "Doctor, for forty years I never knew I had a stomach, and now I can think of nothing else!"

At the cholera time Dr. Campbell was laid down by the disease. The fact spread like wildfire over the village, and, at once, prayer-meetings for his recovery were called by the public bellman, meetings of _all_ the different denominations, including the Roman Catholics (Dr. Campbell was a Free Church Elder), and there were truly heartfelt rejoicings in the whole district over his recovery.

I once asked him how he managed to get in his fees, since he never refused to visit when sent for. He said that one year, from curiosity, he kept an account of his gratuitous visits, and it ran into three figures; but he never took the trouble to note them again, as it served no purpose.

Many years ago he went to his rest, and, at his request, during his last illness, I paid him a farewell visit.

There are few finer descriptions of the country doctor than that contained in Ian Maclaren's "Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush," a book which speaks directly home to every true Scottish heart.

Dr. Campbell, in his large-hearted and genial Christian charity, scientific research, and philosophical acquirements, always reminded me of Sir Thomas Browne, "the beloved physician" of Norwich.

The following pleasing incident, relating to a medical man, came under my own notice. I often visited a country minister, an intimate friend, a learned man, and a genius, the quaint originality of whose observations often reminded me of Fuller, the Church historian, or Charles Lamb.

Although of limited means, the Rev. Robert Winning, of Eaglesham, was ever hospitable; if he knew of any poor student, he would invite him to the manse for a month, on the plea that he would help to prepare him for his examination in Hebrew and Greek. The old manse servant, also an original, was paid a sum of money as compensation for refusing tips from visitors.

One day, seeing an advertis.e.m.e.nt of a new book in a magazine I was reading, Mr. Winning remarked to me, "Andrew, I wish you would buy that book, _cut the leaves_, and lend it to me to read!"

One evening a message reached him from the village inn, saying that a doctor had come to an urgent case, which required him to stay over night, that there was no room in the inn, and asking if the minister could give him a bed. His wife, knowing the house was full, asked her husband what they should do. His reply was, "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Give him a room, though we have to sleep on the floor." He was accordingly hospitably entertained.

Some time after, the minister took ill. The medical guest heard of it, went to see the local doctor, and, with his consent, visited the minister twice a week, from a distance of nine miles, and for a period of some four months, till his death. When the widow afterwards sent for his account, he said there was none, for it had been more than discharged on the first evening he had spent at the manse.

Dr. Stark, of Glasgow, who attended my family for years, was a skilful pract.i.tioner, but eccentric. He generally made light of trifling ailments, but was most energetic when aroused by any appearance of danger. I knew of his being suddenly called in to see an old lady who was far gone in an advanced stage of cholera. He at once asked to be shown over the house, looked at the different fireplaces, but as none of them suited his purpose, he went to the kitchen, threw off his coat, took out the range, made a fire in the recess that would have roasted an ox, had the old lady carried down in blankets and placed before it, worked energetically with her the whole night, and brought her through. In a similar way he once stayed over night and saved the life of one of my boys. One day I called at his house, and, finding him with a bad cold, eyes red and watery, throat husky, said, "Doctor, if you found me so, you would prescribe placing the feet in hot water and mustard, warm gruel, medicine, and going to bed! Physician, heal thyself!" The doctor's Shakespearian reply was, "Do you think I am such a fool as to take physic?"

Once when accompanying me to the coast to visit one of my children, there was a heavy sea on, and the steamer, on approaching the pier, rolled alarmingly, and was close on a lee sh.o.r.e. A strange lady on board, in terror, laid hold of the doctor, a tall, stalwart man, saying, "Oh! sir, are we going to the bottom?" On which he said, dryly, "Behave yourself, if you are going there, you are going in good company!" which odd answer rea.s.sured and caused her to laugh.

In speaking of a Greek gem representing Cupid and Pysche, one day, when driving in Wigtonshire with the late Dr. David Easton, a medical friend, he said I had not given the correct p.r.o.nunciation of the names. Always willing to learn, I asked to be put right; whereupon, the doctor gravely informed me that I ought to have said--Cupped and Physic!

I have spoken of the kindness of medical men, such as Dr. Garth Wilkinson, to clergymen, artists, and literary men. I add one more expression of grat.i.tude, which is a good modern instance:--

When at St. Helens, in Jersey, during his last illness, my friend Samuel Lover, the genial poet and artist, wrote the following lines to Dr. Dixon, his friend and physician. I first copied them some years ago from Lover's MS. note-book, kindly lent me by his widow when I was engaged in the preparation of his life. Such cordial tributes are a good physician's most highly-valued fees:--

"Whene'er your vitality Is feeble in quality, And you fear a fatality May end the strife, Then Dr. Joe d.i.c.kson Is the man I would fix on For putting new wicks on The lamp of life."

From the many varied facts and incidents adduced in these pages, it will be seen that, in anxiety or sorrow, the good family doctor is a true and sympathetic friend, whose services can never be paid by gold.

Next to religion, nothing is more precious or comforting than the sympathy of those who know and fully understand our sufferings, for, as my old favourite, Sir Thomas Browne, to whom I ever revert with renewed pleasure, truly and beautifully says:--"It is not the tears of our own eyes only, but of our friends also, that do exhaust the current of our sorrows, which, falling into many streams, runs more peaceably, and is contented with a narrower channel."

Ye Ende