"Three faces wears the doctor; when first sought,
An angel's and a god's, the cure half wrought;
But, when, the cure complete, he seeks his fee,
The d----l looks then less terrible than he."
EURICUS CORDUS, 1530.
ANCIENT FEES.--LARGE FEES.--SPANISH PRIEST-DOCTORS.--A PIG ON
PENANCE.--SMALL FEES.--A "CHOP" POSTPONED.--LONG FEES.--SHORT
FEES.--OLD FEES.--A NIGHT-CAP.--AN OLD SHOE FOR LUCK.--A BLACK
FEE.--"HEART'S OFFERING."--A STUFFED CAT.--THE "GREAT GUNS" OF NEW
YORK.--BOSTON.--ROTTEN EGGS.--"CATCH WHAT YOU CAN."--FEMALE DOCTORS'
FEES.--ABOVE PRICE.--"ASK FOR A FEE."--"PITCH HIM
OVERBOARD."--DELICATE FEES.--MAKING THE MOST OF THEM.
The great German physician who wrote the above died (as he ought, for
putting so much truth into four lines) in 1538. He, of all physicians of
his day, earned his fees; but it is often the case that the most deserving
get the least reward, and Cordus was not an exception to the rule. A good
physician, or surgeon, is seldom a sharp financier, and _vice versa_. "It
is hard to serve two masters."
Ancient physicians' fees were much larger, considering the difference in
the value of money, than modern.
ERASISTRATUS, in the year 330 B. C., received from General Seleucus, of
Alexander's army, to whom the kingdom of Syria fell at the termination of
the Macedonian conquest, the enormous sum of 60,000 crowns as a fee for
his discovery of the disorder of the general's son, Antiochus. The Emperor
Augustus employed four physicians, viz., Albutus, Arantius, Calpetanus,
and Rubrius, to each of whom he paid an annual salary of 250,000
sesterces, equal to $10,000. Martialis, the Spanish epigramist, who was
born in 40 A. D. says Alconius received 10,000,000 sesterces ($400,000)
for a few years' practice.