bases his charges upon this feeling of respect for himself and his profession. This axiom should be held in mind in arranging any fee table, and should be insisted upon in our settlements with those who think a doctor's bill should be discounted from one-quarter to one-half. I have often wondered how this right to a discount in a doctor's bill ever got such a firm hold in the public mind. Perhaps the city man cannot appreciate this fact like his country brother. The poor, honest old farmer, part of the bone and sinew of the land, expects the highest cash price for everything that he sells. If anybody has ever heard of one who when ten barrels of corn at $3.50 per barrel comes to $35, offering to take $25 for his bill, he should corral and cage this rara avis. But hundreds of us from the rural districts have been deemed mean and close-fisted and extortionate because we gently insist that $35 worth of professional services rendered are worth $35 and not $25. This is largely our own fault, for so many of us present a bill in one hand and an apology in the other. We collect our bills not as if they were our just dues, but with a half-hearted insistence, inducing our debtor to believe that we have scruples ourselves as to the value of our services, and that a liberal discount from the face of the bill will about bring us to a fair settlement. It will be better for all--for patient as well as physician--to realize that the "science of human duty" implies a duty to oneself as well as a duty to the public, and that a small proportion of the charity of our profession should begin at home. To the young men I would especially give this advice: Having settled on a fair and honest fee for your services, do not depart from this fee. With us, as a rule, prosperity in the form of a numerous clientage comes sooner than to the other professions. You will not long have opened your office before you will be surprised at the number who demand your services. There will be no doubt of the demand, for those who pay the least invariably demand the most. Don't turn them away, for if you properly employ your time, you will gain in experience and occasionally a dollar or two. You will soon be enlightened as to your popularity, for the first pay day will send most of them to another and it is presumed easier man. Many of those who stick will tell you that Dr. ---- never charged but 50 cents a visit, when the regular fee is $1.00. Dr. ---- will vigorously deny this and produce his books to prove his truth. Here is everything plain before you. Every visit is listed at the established figure. You will rarely see his cash book, for then the whole transaction would be plain, and you would discover the simple manner by which in every community some supposedly ethical man is supplanting his truly ethical brother by charging full fees and settling for half.