Transactions - 1888 Author:Illinois State Medical Society Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: those who are earnestly soliciting contributions for some noble charity, such as hospitals, dispensaries, infirmaries, and asylums. In and of itself this is a... more »ll right, provided the funds collected could be disbursed for the benefit of the deserving poor ; but when we see these charitable institutions filled up largely with persons who ought to be self-supporting, and who would be, if inducements were not held out to them to become pensioners on a sympathetic public, it is time the subject should be investigated, and some system adopted by which these abuses might be remedied. It is surprising how readily persons in fair circumstances can be induced to accept charity from the hands of a generous public. I can speak from no small degree of experience and observation as overseer of the poor. I have known persons in good health, owning and occupying comfortable homes, to demand that costly caskets be furnished, at public expense, for deceased relatives. Others, who were abundantly able to support them, to place their friends in alms-houses to be supported at public expense. I have known the owner of a large two-story blacksmith and carriage'factory, and doing a nice business, to suddenly become a pauper and flee to the city to receive treatment for slight ailments at the expense of the state. Persons from all over the country are flocking to the cities to receive the benefits of free clinics, who should remain at home and pay reasonable fees for treatment. This is simply an abuse of charity which calls loudly for reform. As physicians, before applying a remedy, we try to determine the cause, and frequently when this is removed, no remedy is necessary. In casting about in my mind for the cause or causes of these abuses, I am forced to the conclusion that the medical profess...« less