CHAP. XXII.

AS my practice increased, my drugs decreased. At the expiration of eighteen months, I found my phials, galli|pots, and purse, empty; and my day book full of items. To present a doctor's bill, under seven years, or until my patients died, in which I was not nigh so fortu|nate as my brother functioners, was com|plete ruin to my future practice. To draw upon my father, who had already done for me beyond his ability, was still worse. I had often heard the southern states spoken of, as the high road to fortune. I Page  152 was told that the inhabitants were im|mensely opulent, paid high fees with pro|fusion, and were extremely partial to the characteristic industry of their New Eng|land brethren. By the advice of our at|torney, I lodged my accompt books in his office, with a general power to collect. He advanced me a sum sufficient to pay my traveling expenses; and, with my books and surgeon's instruments, I sat out, in the stage, for the southward; con|demning the illiberality and ignorance of our own people, which prevented the due encouragement of genius, and made them the prey of quacks; intending, af|ter a few years of successful practice, to return in my own carriage, and close a life of reputation and independence, in my native state.