The reporter did not approve of this decision, and so appended the following graphic note: “Let us see how this thing works. We will take as an illustration an almost every-day occurrence arising in the country. A. B. is taken suddenly and seriously ill in the night time, and sends to his neighbour, C. D. living in the next house to his, to have him go after the doctor as soon as he can, for he is in great pain and distress. C. D. jumps out of bed without hesitation, and hastily dresses himself, and goes out to his barn and takes a horse from the stable, and not waiting to put on a saddle or bridle, jumps on to the horse with the halter only, puts him at full speed for the doctor’s office, some two or three miles distant. On arriving there he finds the doctor absent from home, but his clerk is there, and C. D. at once says, ‘Tell the doctor to call on A. B. who has been taken suddenly sick; tell him to come as soon as possible.’ In accordance with this message the doctor calls upon A. B., and prescribes for and attends him professionally for several days. After a reasonable time the doctor sends in his bill to A. B. and it not being paid as soon as the doctor desires, he calls on C. D. and requests him to pay the bill. C. D. with perfect astonishment, asks why he is to pay. |35| The doctor informs him that he made himself liable to pay the bill because, when he delivered the message, he did not tell the clerk that he came for the doctor by the request of A. B. nor that he acted as agent of A. B. in delivering his message. Well, says C. D. the fact was I did go at the request of A. B. and merely acted as his agent in delivering the message, and I will swear to these facts if necessary. The doctor insists that it will do him no good if he should give such testimony, for the law is settled on that point, as just such a case has recently been decided in New York under just such a state of facts, where the jury, in the justice court, found a verdict for the doctor for the amount of his bill, and, on appeal by the defendant to the general term of the New York Common Pleas, that court unanimously sustained the verdict of the jury, and affirmed the judgment of the court below. Well, says C. D. ‘If that is the law I think I will wait awhile before I go after a doctor again as an act of neighbourly kindness.’” This case was decided as late as March, 1873.