The doctor's duty to the state : essays on the public relations of physicians / by John B. Roberts.

  • Roberts, John B. (John Bingham), 1852-1924.
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The doctor's duty to the state : essays on the public relations of physicians / by John B. Roberts. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    and worschip of the craft in helping and releuying the nede of pore men of the saim felowschipe. The greater value of the English penny at the time these sums were furnished the poor brothers of the Fra- ternity made the assistance of a real one. In order to show the value of even a small legacy M'hich I trust you are going to put in yonr wills to-mor- row for the benefit of this Association^ I wish to point ont to you the result of such legacy by Eobert Ferbras, citizen and Barber-Snrgeon of London in 1470, who gave or bequeathed (it is not certain whether it was given before his death or left in his will) two freehold honses in the Parish of St. John to the Company in trust to divide one moiety of the surplus receipts, after the repairs, among poor members of the Corporation of Barber-Surgeons in London. This provision made over four hundred years ago is to this day distributed by the officers of the corporation among twenty-eight members and their widows. Do you not, therefore, see the amount of good that can be accomplished if each mem- ber of this Society will do as did the barber-surgeon in the fifteenth century, whose name otherwise would prob- ably have been lost to us. I have made these quotations to show that even in the earliest times professional men found that the income derived from practice was not to be depended upon, that they knew it was a vocation bringing in no large remuneration, and that a warm feeling for their colleagues compelled them to do what lay in their power for those members of their profession who fell into pecuniary distress and left their families without a proper income.