ber, on the other hand, that excessive fees are
nothing else than theft; for theft consists in getting possession of
another's property without just title. The following rules of Dr. Ewell
are sensible and fair:

"The number of visits required must depend upon the circumstances of
each particular case, and the physician is regarded by the law as the
best and proper judge of the necessity of frequent visits; and, in the
absence of proof to the contrary, it will be presumed that all
professional visits made were deemed necessary and were properly made.

"There must not be too many consultations. The physician called in for
consultation or to perform an operation may recover his fees from the
patient, notwithstanding that the attending physician summoned him for
his own benefit, and had arranged with the patient that he himself would
pay." (This, of course, does not mean that the practitioner has a right
thus to shift the burden of pay from his own shoulders.) "Where a
medical man has attended as a friend, he cannot charge for his visit.
Where a tariff of fees has been prepared and agreed to by the physicians
of any locality, they are bound by it legally as far as the public are
concerned (that is to say, they cannot charge more than the tariff
rates), and morally as far as they themselves are concerned" (p. 5).

In these rules Dr. Ewell regards chiefly what conduct the courts of
justice will sustain. It is evident that the Doctor is never entitled to
run up his bill without any benefit to his patient; where there is no
service rendered at all, there can be no claim to compensation. Still it
is not necessary that actual benefit has resulted to the patient; it
suffices for the claim to the fee that measures have been taken with a
view to such benefit. Even when no physical advantage can reasonably be
hoped for from the visit, the consolation it affords the patient and his
friends may render those who are to bear the expense fully willing that
it should be often repeated and, of course, charged on the bill.
Provided care be taken that they understand the situation, no injustice
is done them. "_Scienti et consentienti non fit injuria_" is a good
moral maxim.

II. We have said that the rights conferred on the physician by the state
are conditioned on his performing certain duties. He owes the same
duties to his patients in virtue of the contract, explicit or implicit,
that he makes with them by taking the case in hand. Unde