"Let that maire be brought before me" said
I, with a haughty indignation. "Let me tell
him in a few brief words what I think of his
heartless cruelty——But no, I was forgetting—
I am here incog. Be careful, my good man, that
you do not mention what I have so inadvertently
dropped; remember that I am nobody here; I
am Number Five and nothing more. Send the
unfortunate creatures, however, here, and let
me interrogate them. They can be easily found,
I suppose?"

"In a moment, sir. They were in the Platz
just when I served the pheasant."

"What name does the man bear?"

"I never heard a name for him. Amongst the
company he was called Vaterchen, as he was the
oldest of them all; and indeed they seemed all
very fond of him."

"Let Vaterchen and Tintefleck, then, come
hither. And bring fresh glasses, waiter."

And I spoke as might an Eastern despot
giving his orders for a "nautch;" and then,
waving my hand, motioned the messenger
away.

POOR LAW DOCTORS.

A PARAGRAPH, interesting to medical men,
has been recently going the round of the papers.
It relates to fees. Dr. Radcliffe got, it is said, five
hundred guineas for curing a noble earl of what
is commonly called stomach-ache; also, one thousand
guineas for attending the infant Duke of
Gloucester when in fits from teething. A Dr.
Dimsdale netted twelve thousand pounds sterling;
besides five hundred a year for life for
going to Russia to inoculate the Empress
Catherine. Nor must Sir Astley Cooper's
twenty thousand a year be forgotten, nor the
thousand-pound note which a grateful patient
rolled up in his nightcap and threw at the bluff
surgeon as a graceful way of paying a fee.

These stories represent the medical art as a
wonderfully money-making calling. But there
is a reverse to the picture. There are a thousand
poor doctors to every rich one. A man has
spent a small fortune—perhaps his all—in qualifying
himself, and then takes a small country
practice, with the bait of poor-law doctor attached.
His first step is to ascertain what the
duties of this office entail, and he finds them to
consist of attendance upon all people within
the district who require medical relief and cannot
afford to pay for it; of provision of all such
medicines as may be needed; of informing the
relieving officer of any poor whom he may attend,
with, or without an order; of personal
attendance at all the meetings of the "Board,"
to whom also he must make returns of all his
proceedings. To these slight duties, may be
added, the necessity of keeping on general good
terms with the members of the Board and the
relieving officer—which he will find to be very
essential. Say, that a parish patient is considered
by the doctor to require meat and wine,
and that he appends such recommendation to
the note for relief; the relieving officer is not
bound to obey the recommendation, and a fruitful
source of bickering is opened: especially as the
latter personage generally has the ear of the
guardians, and takes care, in such cases, to represent
the transaction as a piece of parochial
extravagance, upon which his parochial vigilance
has acted as a salutary check.

In England and Wales there are three thousand
three hundred and ninety-nine medical
men holding appointments under six hundred
and sixty-three unions: who, according to returns
made in 1857, attended every pauper in
the country afflicted with all the ills that flesh
is heir to, at the rate of fivepence-halfpenny
per case!

In a pamphlet published by Mr. Griffin, of
Weymouth: a medical man, who has been long
and zealously struggling to obtain for poor-law
doctors a more generous recognition of their
services by the government: there are the following
cases, quoted here at random. The union
of Epsom contains one thousand patients, and
involves journeys of five miles on the part of the
medical officer to visit many of them; he is remunerated
with the magnificent salary of twenty-
six pounds, being at the rate of sixpence a case.
Fortunate Galen! Perhaps the guardians of the
Epsom union imagine that he is sufficiently paid
by living near Epsom Downs; it is to be hoped
that the doctor is also a bit of a racing character,
and manages to make out his income by
a neat book on the Derby. Cheltenham cannot
afford to give more than sixpence a case, while
merry Islington pays a doctor for looking after
four thousand patients, at the munificent rate
of threepence a case! Halstead offers fivepence,
and the medical officer of that union has to travel
six and a half miles to gain his salary of ten
pounds for attending four hundred and fourteen
patients.

On the other hand, it is fair to state that some
unions pay much better; for instance, Elham
offers twenty-eight pounds for eleven patients—
a perfect Dorado for the doctor.

Vaccination forms an important part of the
Union medical officer's duties, for which he is
paid extra. There has been a great outcry
lately at the apparent inability of vaccination
to prevent small-pox; and government occasionally
reminds the vaccinators of the extreme
care and caution which they should
exercise in the superintendence of it. Perhaps
it is not to be wondered at that small-pox gains
ground when we consider how much the doctor
is paid for vaccination. The fees are one shilling
and sixpence a head for every case under
two miles' distance, and two shillings and sixpence
a head for every case above two miles' distance.
What has the medical man to do for this
majestic sum? He has to vaccinate a child: an
operation which in itself is simple, but which,
nevertheless, demands a certain amount of care
and attention; he has to keep a watch over
his little patient, and, on the eighth day, to
visit it again and see that the pustules have
duly appeared; finally, if the case is successful,
he has to give a certificate of the due perform-