Medicine: C. O. D.

U. S. physicians are proud of the fact that they donate one million dollars’ worth of free medical services to the needy every day and never refuse to help anyone, whether he can pay or not. Last week Southern physicians gasped as they heard of a bold infringement of this humanitarian code. Five of the eight doctors serving the 3,000 souls of Atmore, Ala., and five of their colleagues in cotton-growing Escambia County printed an advertisement in the Atmore Advance warning Escambia County’s prospective mothers that henceforth they would demand cash on delivery. The ad: “We wish to take this means of letting the public know that … all obstetrical (labor) cases will be done on a strictly cash basis.”