Show PROFESSIONAL EARNINGS Comparative Advantages of the Law Medicine and the Clergy The law Is probably the most profitable profit-able of the socalled learned professions profes-sions There are more and larger prl7es to be gained by an acute and eloquent dlnciplc of the legal art titanth arc open to the medical man or the minister In this country and Great Britain the incomes of the foremost advocates and of attorneys In lucrative lucra-tive practice for the most part overshadow over-shadow the yearly earnings of the best known physicians and surgeons and to a still greater extent those of our spiritual advisers Occasionally one I hears of very largo fortunes being left by prominent doclors Sir William I Gull Sir Andrew Clarke Dr Pepper and Sir William Jenner arc cases In point but these arc exceptions ant sums accumulated by medical men cannot bo compared either in number or magnitude to the colossal amounts amassed by members of the legal l Crt Cr-t Vhen however the average Incomes of these thrcu classes aerage community are considered their relative I rela-tive j KBltlon in Great Britain and the United States will be found to differ Viewed thus In the United Kingdom the clergyman i at the top of thc list the lawyer second and the doctor last I whlle here th lawyer or doctor gets a I bel larger share of the loaves and llshcs and the minister has to be content with the crumbs I The average income of a physician In large cities on this continent may I be placed at 2000 In the smaller towns at SJ500 and In the rural districts at It 7S1200 Two or three New York phys clans arc said to make over 100000 a 10000 year five or six about 550000 but the average Income I although rather high er than in Chicago and In other Ameri can large cities does not greatly ex ceed 2000 yearly The minister aver ages in ihe city perhaps 1200 and In the country certainly not more than 5SOO yearly As regards living expenses both the lawyer and minister have an advan tage over thom professional brother In Now York for YOi1 example oJllce accom oHce modation suitable to a physician Is I very dear In a good neighborhood Costing not loss than 70 or S80 a month which with board nnd lodging and fnd JOdglnS an other necessary disbursements will 1 represent a sum of 120 monthly a 12 monUl sufficiently weighty burden for a strug gling youthful practitioner to bear The young minister lint no rent to pay while the legal neophyte can regulate his outlay in this respect according Icsec to the according length of hli purse Nevertheless the lot of the medical beginner compared with that of a pas tor In a like situation has Us He situaton his Is compen sations He Is at least more or less In dependent The minister on the con trary Is as u rule permitted I lo rmlte exer else his own will but to n limited de gree and often is IC dopmefl of OQnu to go through a I lifetime of toll ICetmc tol mihsfrvlent to the caprices of censorious elders and tc cons An excellent description of the or trials of an American Amellcf n country minister and the fnd various unpleasantnesses wllli ii which he liar to contend at thc hands of his congregation is given in the Damnation of Theron Ware the best novel written by the late Harold Fred eric ericWhen When all is said that can be said the first few years of medical practice are years of arduous effort full o1 disil 1 lusionment and disappointment The late I Sir Andrew Clarke told Dr Oslir L From the vantage ground of more than forty years of hard work 1 can say that I have striven ten years for bread L ten years for bread and butter and twenty years for cake and ale The trulh undoubtedly is and especially In Ina America that the opportunities for a physician I to obtain adequate compensation compen-sation for his services arc yearly becoming > be-coming less This is not due to any deterioration in i the quality of the presentday prac titioner or an evidence of falling oft in medical or surgical skill The fact Is ii refutable that the medical profession In I this and In all civilized countries stands on a higher plane in the matter of training and than tralninJ knowledge e ever before The reason for the decrease in medical incomes is indubitably almost wholly owing to the more eager competition com-petition among regular practitioners to hospital and dispensary abuse and to the lamentable increase In quackery The supply ct medical men Is greater than time demand the market Is Hooded i I and the most potent remidy we inn i suggest for this evil is As has been I I many times advised In the Modloal lice 1 ord that a uniform high standard of medical education should be established I in every State Medical e5tablshed |