Anecdotes of the Professional Guinea.

Otago Witness, Issue 2660, 8 March 1905, Page 87

Anecdotes of the Professional Guinea.

X.«ke the late Sir Edward Burne- Jones. Bir "William Jenner, the famous physician, suAvays liked- to be paid in guineas ; ami, aceoiding to- "Ex- Attache-," in an interesting article on "Paying the Doctor,'" he was Xioted for extraordinary skill in discovering, by the relatiVe Aveight of gold, silver, or copper, wh-ather patients attempted to substitute coins of inferior value for the two soAereigns and two shilling's making up the two guineas, it being contrary to etiquette- for the physician to open the papjr eor-taming the fee until after the pat'o.sb li'id left che room. On one occasion, h.iv iapr leociA'ed from a well-known Duchese-Dowag-er an" envelope Avhich he felt contained only tAVo sovereigns, he put on His eya-glasses, and, stooping down, l^egan closely to inspect ,the floor.

"What s have you lost, Sir William?" inthe titled lady. "I am looking for the two shillings you diopped, Duchess," replied the irate doctc-_ -_ iC Sir William Jenner was celebrated f'->r his r kindneSs to ,the poor, and I recall an old guinea, piece Avhich he. wore at his x-ateh- chain,' and attached to Avhich was » pleasant little story. One day he found among his patients in bis consulting room a - humble carpenter. On remarking: t."> tbo man that his disease had, through l-cglect of treatment, made great progress he received the folloAving reply : ".'I have been AA^aiting to see you for Ihiec years, sir.' 'Why, my man, couldn't you afford '.o come sooner 9 ' queried the physician. " *"Oh, yes" answered the carpenter. "Jut I couldn't get a gold guinea piece any ■where [none, had been .coined for more than half a century! and I had heard that you. ~ta!ie i.othing else.'

"Sir William from that time forth wore fl'« guinea in question fastened to his wa'cb chain ; but, though he completely cured • lie patient in the course of eight months, he ae/er took another fee from the poor fellcw «ri«o bad striA-en so hard io find this now rare coin, erA who had Avaited so patientltJ consult him.

"Let me add that physicians in England tie debarred, not by law, but by ctiquetle, from suing- patients for the amount of their bills, which leads so many of them to eonfiuc their jractica to a cash basi=. jn France there is no such obstacle placed in the ivay of the recovery by medical nvii o ? .the amounts due to them.. Indeed, the claims enjoy a priority of all other creditors, save those -of the law.

"Seme of the largest fees received hy 1>1 1 sicians have been those paid by royailv and there are to-day in England a "Knje number of titled families of great weaith •who are indebted for the foundation of th?ir fcituae.s to the gratitude of some monnrc'" for' Tnedical services. Empress Catherine o r 'Itussia, for instance. Avho was mortally afraid of smallpox, presented the English doctor, Thomas Dimsdale, with the sum of f,14".OOO in cash. £2000 more for his tra-'il-img expenses from London to St. Peiers l/urg, the dignity of a Couns&lloi of State and of Hereditary Baron, and- with a life annuity of £800, merely for haAnng A'iceinated her.

"I can recall the late Professor Chareo. ihe great French specialist on all nervour ailments, receiving £2000 for a, single oonEultation by the late- Dom Pedro of Brazil. the visit, howeAer, niA-olving a trip from Paris to Aix-les-Bains, where the Empcor was staying at the time ; and the profes?*.-. ■ ■was reputed to have received- even still larger fees froni thj late Cornelius Yanderbiit.

*'The late Dr Piayfair received for attending the Crown Princess of Rouroania on the occasion of ihe birth of little Prinro Charles a sum of £240.0, all his traA'ellir.ir expenses between London and Bucharest, estimated on a princely pcale ; a jewelled snuff-box ; 'aud the star" of a Grand Officer of the Roumanian Order of ihe Crown. The fpe paid to the eminent physician, a member cf the Italian Senate. Avho brought the infant Princa of Piedmont into !he world the other day was ccnsider.>b3%-large-r, while £10,000 is asserted to K.ve been paid -by the grateful Oznr to the jjriheipal doctor present at the "birth of the CzareAvHch last summer. These Kg fpes are- orly to be explained by the value which, from a dynastic and political point of • vieAV is attached to the hVes. of ihe irieroLers pf *}\a rciznmo, houses of the Old World, th? fate of nat-ons oftentimes dspending thereon."'