Observations on the arrangements connected with the relief of the sick poor : addressed in a letter to the Right Honourable the Lord John Russell / by John Yelloly.

John Yelloly

Date:: 1837

Credit: Observations on the arrangements connected with the relief of the sick poor : addressed in a letter to the Right Honourable the Lord John Russell / by John Yelloly. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$i ll \] SICK POOH. ness, without his conjugal or parental solicitude being exercised, to inquire whether justice could be done them on the terms offered; and if he made a contract, and at the time of illness and anxiety had the least idea of its not being sufficiently liberal, there is no reason to imagine, that a considerate husband or father, would suffer the letter of an engagement to interfere with making such an alteration in the terms of it, as might insure to his family every exercise of skill and attention, of which the practitioner employed by him was capable. In a question of mere property, there can be no doubt what would be the procedure ; and that a cow doctor or a horse doctor would be desired to do every thing possible for the recovery of a sick animal, by the most efficient curative pro¬ cesses, without reference to the expense. I may remark, too, that when slavery existed in our colonies (now, to the honour of our nation, fortunately abolished for ever), feelings of interest and humanity united in procuring every possible attention to the health of the unfortunate subjects of it, which the most liberal and efficient medical arrangements could produce. But there is, I presume, a feeling common with guardians and parish officers, that if a medical gentleman can once be induced to make a contract for parochial attendance, on terms ever so unfavourable, he will execute his duties conscientiously and efficiently. To the credit of the profession, I believe that the exertion will always go beyond the remuneration, and very often far beyond it; but this must have a boundary, and it does not appear to me humane to the patients, or proper to the practitioner, to make it the interest of the latter to be as sparing as possible of his medicines, and particularly of the more expensive descriptions, and of every medicinal assistance which it requires much time or trouble to impart.* It may * It is impossible to expect that the ill-paid practitioner will employ the more powerful and expensive medicines in the execution of his contract; as for example, quinine, Peruvian bark, iodine, sarsaparilla, castor oil, citric acid or lemon juice, tinctures, or aromatics; and he has therefore the continual temptation before him$