One common consequence of this mode of thinking is, that, by a single fatal case in practice, all the former success of the practitioner is overlooked, at least for a time; from which it follows that various medical advisers are sure to replace one another often in those families where death is a frequent visitor. We seldom meet in families that shyness or reserve in divulging bodily ailments which can render them reluctant to change their family physician; and no physician, though specially entrusted with a patient, can be sure that others of the profession do not, at secret interviews, tamper with his peculiar treatment. This baneful custom leads to professional jealousies and mutual distrust. We believe many families countenance it from motives of consideration for the doctor _ostensibly_ in trust, whose self-love they propose to spare by this clandestine practice, when they think a more open manner of proceeding would be repulsive to his feelings. There is, however, another very obvious reason which lends its influence to this furtive system of visiting the sick; and it is, that by this means the opinion of several advisers may be had at comparatively little expense. Should only two individuals be called to meet at the bedside of the patient at an appointed hour to consult on his case, the meeting is a _bonâ fide_ junta, and each member of it is entitled to his four or four and a half dollars; whereas the single visits are only valued at one dollar each, and such detached visits are in many instances not paid by the sick, but by the friends at whose request the professional calls are made. Here then is great economy; eight opinions (and if the patient be poor, so that he is only expected to pay a half dollar fee for a detached visit, _sixteen opinions_) may be procured for the standard price of two when given in consultation; and custom, as well as reason and prudence, require that several opinions should be taken in cases of hazard and difficulty. Owing in a considerable degree to the comparative poverty of the present times, medical juntas are by no means so frequent as they used to be; but yet it is a common saying on serious occasions, where the assistance of more than one medical adviser is thought necessary, that more is seen by four eyes than by two.—“_Mas se ve con cuatro ojos que con dos._” By multiplying skill according to this rule, a score of eyes may be assembled in one junta to search into the patient’s obscure malady, so as to point out the cause and the remedy; or, if there should be no other alternative, let him die according to rule. CHAPTER V. Condition of Slave population, and its influence on the family economy and moral sentiments of the European race.