156 The Evolution of Medical Science. 



it. Diphtheria frightens still more, thus assuring the 

 doctor's presence oftener, and 168 in a million die.* It is 

 thus with every disease : the fewer it kills, the more people 

 fear it ; because, if they did not fear it, they would play 

 the fool, and give it a chance to kill more people. 



If bakers, grocers, dry-goods men, carpenters, tailors, 

 and members of all other lines of business, gave as much 

 of their labor in charity as doctors do, poverty would 

 instantly be wiped from the earth. Nearly one-half of 

 their time and labor is given freely to the poor, without 

 money and without price. All dispensary work is free. 

 All hospital work is free. All that apply to the Society 

 for Improving the condition of the Poor, are treated free. 

 Every physician known to this lecturer has many families 

 that from year to year are treated free. No one can be 

 sick in any city in America, however poor, and not get 

 medical care if he asks for it. Doctors do sometimes re- 

 fuse to take special cases, because of the legal restrictions 

 and responsibilities that, like Damocles' sword, hang over 

 their heads. Such cases will be received in the dispensa- 

 ries and hospitals, so that none need suffer. Let every 

 other person, in all occupations, give nearly half his time 

 and labor to the poor, and what a revolution it would work. 

 Like a pair of Siamese Twins, Altruism and Medicine 

 have always been linked together. The majority of the 

 devoted heroes of science have been medical men. They 

 suffered and died to redeem the race. 



*New York World, quotation from St. James Gazette, Feb. 5, 1890. 



