The doctor’s bill is almost invariably the last one paid. His practice is generally among the middle classes, people whose intentions are good, but whose incomes are limited. If there is anything left after the rent, and grocery and butcher and other bills are paid the doctor will, 32perhaps, get something on account, but as a rule he doesn’t. This is mainly owing to the fact that the average physician is a poor business man; he does not place an adequate value on his services, and is slack in looking after collections. If pressed by his wife, or some friend, to be more particular in this respect, his almost invariable reply will be: “It would not look well for me to put myself on the same plane with merchants. Mine is a profession, not a trade. Besides, I’m in duty bound to do a certain amount of charity work.” Now charity work is all right in its place. An honest, upright practitioner will never refuse to respond to a call for his services in deserving cases because the payment of his fee is uncertain, but this does not obtain to the extent of virtually making paupers of people who are actually able to pay. And yet this is really what happens when a physician conducts his business affairs in a slipshod manner, and this is what most of them do. There is no excuse or reason for it. But we started in to tell of Nature’s part in the equipment of the successful physician. What is the equipment? The possession of a robust, healthy physique, a sunny, cheerful disposition, and a fair knowledge of medicine, and ordinary business ability. All are essential if real success is to be attained, either in a medical sense, or in the accumulation of a respectable income. Let us take two instances for the purpose of comparison. In one case we have a practitioner with just a fair 33knowledge of medicine, but in the possession of all the characteristics mentioned. His very presence in the sick chamber acts as a tonic to the patient. Then we have a thin, undersized, nervous, dyspeptic physician; dissatisfied with himself and the world generally. He is a thorough master in medicine, and his treatment is more scientific than that of his less learned brother. His presence in the sick chamber, however, has anything but a soothing effect on the patient. On the contrary it irritates him, and the effect of the scientific treatment is nullified. This is not an exaggerated case. There are thousands of just such men in practice. Which practitioner is going to have the greatest meed of success? The answer is easy—the one who cheers and encourages his patient by the magnetism of his presence.