THE DOCTORS.

Globe, Volume VI, Issue 606, 29 May 1876, Page 2

THE DOCTORS.

To the Editor of the Globe. Sir, —In your issue of Saturday I was pleased to observe a few remarks commenting upon the apparent treatment that Dr Townend is supposed to have received at the hands of his medical colleagues ever since he commenced practice here. I earnestly hope Dr Campbell did not belie himself when he said that no professional jealousy existed in the matter; still that may not expel doubts from certain minds, but it is quite apart from this that I would speak. Ever since Dr Townend commenced practice here, the adaptation of his service to the income of a large body of our community is what few will care to deny ; and who but the labouring class can thoroughly estimate the benefits resulting from such wise and humane principles ? Have the doctors fees ever undergone the same evolution as the labourers wages here ? Not to the best of my knowledge : hence the fact, that some sixteen medical gentlemen appear to be the recipients of a remunerative income in a small city like Christchurch, even granting the fact that it is said to be somewhat unhealthy. I have known men to become members of benefit societies with little higher motives than that of evading tne “doctor’s family bill,” where, as had the doctors fees been more in ratio to their income, they might have remained free agents in their selection, and thereby been enabled to procure the services of a medical gentleman at any hour. Others have borne their troubles until a late and unseasonable time, while some are driven to seek advice and medicine from respectable chemists, &c.