Page:Lives of British Physicians.djvu/305

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PARRY. 283 2391. 55.; of 1785, U3l. lOs.; of 1786, 552^. 9s.; of 1787, 755/. ^6s. ; of 1788, 1533/. 15^. From the tenth year of his practice, the amount rapidly increased, and appears to have varied from 300/. to above 600/. per month. Of one day, the receipts for separate attendances were fifty guineas. That Dr. Parry's emoluments might have •been still more considerable appears from an im- portant fact, which is also deducible from the same source, and which should be kept in mind by those who would, in other respects, follow his meritorious example. In the year 1805, besides a continued service at public charities, he had given private attendance to 30,000 indigent persons in the city of Bath and its neighbourhood. At the commence- ment of his career he had laid down a principle, to which he rigorously adhered, never to spare his own pains, nor to refuse his assistance in cases where pecuniary compensation could not easily be afforded. A table, in his own handwriting, gives a long list of those persons from whom he inva- riably refused to take fees. It is greatly to be lamented, that, in the medi'^al profession, the power of recording and of comrnu- nicating the results of experience is diminished ex- actly in proportion to the increased opportunities of observation. In the multiplicity of his daily engagements, the eminent practitioner cannot find the requisite leisure for arranging his facts and opinions in such a manner as may best conduce to the pubhc benefit, or to the estabhshment of im- portant principles. This regret must, in a great degree, be connected with the circumstances in which Dr. Parry was placed. It becomes, how-