before Claudius Caesar, amongst other arguments in favour of receiving fees, it was forcibly urged," sublatis studiorum pretiis, etiam studia peritura;" and that, in consequence, the prince "capiendis pecuniis posuit modum, usque ad dena sestertia, quem egressi repetundarum tenerentur."

A precise and invariable modus, however, would be injurious both to the barrister and the Physician, because the fees of each ought to be measured by the value of his time, the eminence of his character, and by his general rule of practice. This rule, with its antecedents, being well known, a tacit compact is established, restrictive on the claims of the practitioner, and binding on the probity of the patient. Law cannot properly by its ordinances establish the custom, which will and ought to vary in different situations and under different circumstances. But a court of judicature, when formally appealed to, seems to be competent to authorize it if just, and to correct it if unjust. Such decisions could not wholly change the honorary nature of fees; because they would continue to be increased at the discretion of the affluent, according to their liberality and grateful sense of kind attentions; and diminished at the option of the Physician to those who may from particular circumstances require his beneficence.

From the Roman code the established usage in different countries of Europe relative to Medical fees has probably originated. This usage, which constitutes

Annal. xi. 5, 7.

common law, seems to require considerable modification to adapt it to the present state of the Profession. For the general body of the Faculty, especially in the united kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, are held in very high estimation on account of their liberality, learning, and integrity n; and it would be difficult to assign a satisfactory reason why they should be excluded from judicial protection, when the just remuneration of their services is wrongfully withheld. Indeed a Medical practitioner (one especially who is settled in a provincial town, or in the country,) may have accumulated claims from long-protracted and often expensive attendance; and his pecuniary acknowledgements may be refused from prejudice, from captiousness, from parsimony, or from dishonesty. Under such circumstances considerations of benevolence, humanity, and gratitude, are wholly set aside; because, when disputes arise, they must be suspended or extinguished, and the question at issue can

n of this truth it has been my duty and inclination to offer several proofs, of unquestionable authority, in different parts of the present work. Two additional ones now occur to my recollection, which I shall here insert. Mr. Pope, writing to Mr. Allen concerning his obligations to Dr. Mead and other Physicians, about a month before his death, says: "There is no end of my kind treatment from the Faculty. They are in general the most amiable companions and the best friends, as well as the most learned men I know."-The Rev. Dr. Samuel Parr, in a letter, with which he honoured me in September 1794, thus expresses himself:-"I have long been in the habit of reading on Medical subjects; and the great advantage I have derived from this circumstance is, that I have found opportunities for conversation and friendship with a class of men, whom, after a long and attentive survey of literary characters, I hold to be the most enlightened professional persons in the whole circle of human arts and sciences."

alone be decided on the principles of commutative

justice.

NOTE VIII. Chap. ii. § 30. p. 65.

Public worship; scepticism and infidelity.

THE neglect of social worship, with which Physicians have been too justly charged, may be traced in many instances to the period of their academical education, particularly in the Universities, where young men are permitted to live at large, and are subject to no collegiate discipline. Sunday, affording a recess from public lectures, is devoted by those who are ardent in study to a review of the labours of the past week, to preparations for Medical or scientific discussions in the societies of which they are members, or to other pursuits, belonging to their Profession, but unconnected with Religion. The idle and the gay in such situations are eager to avail themselves of opportunities so favourable to their taste for recreation, or to their aversion to business and confinement. In each of these classes, though actuated by different principles, there is much danger that devotional impressions will be gradually impaired for want of stated exercise and renewal; and a foundation will thus be laid for habitual and permanent indifference in future life to Divine services, whenever Medical avocations furnish a salvo to the mind, and a plausible excuse to the world, for non-attendance on them. This coldness of heart, this

moral insensibility, should be sedulously counteracted before it has acquired an invincible ascendancy. No apology should be admitted for absence from the stated offices of piety, but that of duties to be performed of immediate and pressing necessity. When the church is entered with just views, it will be found that there is a sympathy in religious homage, which at once inspires and heightens devotion; and that to hold communion with GOD in concert with our families, our friends, our neighbours, and our fellow citizens, is the highest privilege of human nature. But, with a full conviction of the obligation of public worship, as a social institution founded on common consent, and en-joined by legal authority; as a moral duty connecting us by the most endearing ties with our brethren of mankind, who are joint dependants with ourselves on the pardon, the protection, and the bounty of God; and as a debt of general homage to our Creator, Benefactor, and Judge; yet there may subsist in a devout and benevolent mind scruples respecting doctrines and forms, sufficient to produce an alienation from the sacred offices of the temple. Such doubts, when they originate from serious enquiry, and are not the result of fastidiousness or arrogance, have a claim to tenderness and indulgence; because to act in contradiction to them, whilst they subsist, would be a violation of sincerity, amounting in some cases to the guilt of hypocrisy. But in a country where private judgement is happily under no restraint, and where so great a diversity of sects prevails, it will be strange if a candid

and well-informed man can find no Christian denomination, with which he might accord in spirit and in truth. Sir Thomas Brown, in the statement which he has given in his "Religio Medicio," seems to have allowed himself on these points very extensive latitude:-“We have reformed from them, [viz. the Papists,] not against them; ...... and therefore I am not scrupulous to converse and live with them, to enter their churches in defect of ours, and either pray with them or for them. I could never perceive that a resolved conscience may not adore her Creator any where, especially in places devoted to His service; where, if their devotions offend Him, mine may please Him; if theirs profane it, mine may hallow it ...... I could never hear the Ave-Mary bell without an elevation, or think it a sufficient warrant, because they erred in one circumstance, for me to err in all,—that is, in silence and dumb contempt: whilst therefore they directed their devotions to her, I offered mine to GoD, and rectified the errors of their prayers by rightly ordering my own."

But authority much more respectable than that of Sir Thomas Brown may be adduced in favour of the spirit of catholicism in Christian communion. Mr. Locke, a short time before his death, received the Sacrament according to the rites of the Church of England, though it is evident from his writings that he dissented from many of her doctrines. When the office was finished, he told the minister, “that he wa

• Pt. i. § 3.