be. Regimental surgeons have no right to demand a fee from any officer of the regiment or for his family, but Government have passed an order that civil surgeons have a right to remuneration for attendance on the families of civilians. As for native practice virtue alone is often its own reward. The natives are bad payers, and those who make anything of consequence by it, obtain it only by haggling and getting paid in advance, a system that few officers can submit to. Now and then their gratitude is expressed by a bunch of plantains or a fat kid, but that virtue is of a very evanescent character.
At one time, Government prohibited Europeans from receiving fees from natives,but that restriction has now been withdrawn. In most cases, the natives prefer their own countrymen as their medical attendants, and take the advice of European skill only in extreme cases or where they hope to profit by the influence of their medical attendants.
To one not initiated in the customs of the East, the mode of attendance on native ladies of rank must appear very absurd. The doctor is rarely, indeed, allowed to see his fair patient face to face. In most cases, the lady throws the door slightly open and extends her hand through the slit for him to feel her pulse, or in the event of his being admitted into the Harem, the patient lies in bed
