HN10/351/Cooper2

Letter from J. Lister Wright of 4 Lennox Mansions, South Parade, Southsea to Mrs. Cowper-Cooper… 'This is a business letter, so please pardon the formality. My charges for my patient at 36 are the same as those for my patients at 34, 37 & 38 that is I charge one guinea for 3 visits - some of my patients being in small houses I charge one guinea for 4 visits, & even a nominal fee to those in poor circumstances, besides which I have many gratuitous bills. With regard to the attendance of you, I find that, including Mr. Burrows, I paid you 37 visits between the dates mentioned - two in bet: the last on the Thur 5th & four in Nov: on your return from town. I will send you details if you desire it. It does not follow that because, I do not absolutely write a prescription for patients every time I visit them, that it is not a professional visit - in fact I may say that I never pay my patients any visits that are not professional except such as are obviously not so & the usual courtesy visit following hospitality of course, such as I have found you in response & your kind invitation to go & see you in the evening, or when you have caught me in passing to ask me a question or tell me some news I w[oul]d not dream of considering professional. I cannot remember the visits I pay, there is no necessity as I enter them daily, but I do remember the circumstances of those I paid you in Nov:, for they were the last I connected with your return from town, where I saw you very unwell, and consequently I wrote you advising you to return home as soon as you were able, for I feared that you would be stranded there for the winter. Under the circumstances and considering how ill you been & looked I should have shown much indiffference to your welfare, if after your long absence I had not paid you a few visits to assure myself that you were going on well & prescribe for you if necessary. That you are under another doctors call is news to me - I am pleased to say that most of my patients, where they have the misfortune to need medical attention when away from home call me in, if necessary on their returns'.

8 Jan 1910

From: 1910 To: 1910

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doctor, treatment, general medical profession