While it is true that very few in any calling “lay by at interest enough to live on,” a very small number of that few do actually retire from active work and live on that interest, and this for two reasons: First, a man in successful professional life is in receipt of an income which enables him to live in luxurious surroundings, gratify tastes and enjoy recreation, which income, considered as interest, would represent a capital sum exceptional even among the results of successful trade, stock gambling or railroad wrecking. Such a man, and he is one of many, could live on what he “has laid by at interest,” if he saw fit to live in less luxury and sacrifice the gratification of tastes which have been cultivated and become necessary to his comfort. He could live on his interest, but he does not care to live in idleness. On the other hand, the conditions of a cultured life are of an ever widening horizon, and it is characteristic of medical men that their intellectual sense is inquisitive, keen, appreciative and alert in their own sphere of action, less satisfied with what is and more anxious for better results, beyond the genius of any other professional life, and this for the distinctive reason that every new discovery in medical science promotes accuracy in the application of medical art. Working becomes a passion with medical men; the more they know the more eager they are to work. This passion is not to “lay by at interest enough to live on.” It is quite in the sentiment of medical addresses to bewail the profession as ill-paid, and that, for a learned and self-sacrificing body of men, its labor and accomplishments are very inadequately rewarded. The exact contrary is, probably, very much nearer the truth. There are many learned men in the profession and there is a wide range of special learning which is the common property of the profession, and all are more or less adept in the use of agencies of the art. There is, likewise, a vast amount of patient and uncompensated care given in the routine of practice, which is a natural outcome of the practice of the medical art. It would be absurd to claim the diploma as representing a liberal education or even high special attainments, as it would be ridiculous to assert that a dispensary patient regularly received the attention given to the German Kaiser or General Sheridan. There are instances of failure and poverty among medical men, but when the doctors in the country stand to the population in the proportion of 1 to 580, the assumption is that they have become needful, each to his 580. Doctors have many book charges that are not collected. Laborers are swindled by their bosses, and every business man meets his unlucky customers; the parish gets behind with its rector. The doctor is no worse off than the rest, and besides he has no salary list, and no accommodation at the bank to make good.