Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Light, Technology, Charlatanry, Superstition, Progress, Commerce, Chemistry

    Under the subtitle 'Cant in 1809', attacks the 'ridiculous project' for illuminating London streets with 'what is affectedly called "Gas"', and the support that the project has commanded among Englishmen. Resists the proposal to make John Bull pay for illumination by 'an invisible something (or nothing)', which is likely to be poisonous and spread disease, and to cause explosions. Claims that the use of gas will damage the trade of oil merchants and will force 'gas associations' to invade the 'Englishman's house'. (1)

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Mathematics

People mentioned:

Euclid Euclid (fl. 295 BC) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Regular Feature, Reportage, Drollery

Subjects:

Pollution, Public Health, Sanitation, Politics, Government

    Reports on the alarming stench caused by 'that old offender, Father Thames', and on the roles played by the Metropolitan Board of Works Metropolitan Board of Works
Close   View the register entry >>, dock and gas companies, and the Chief Commissioner of Works. Adds that while 'remedial measures' were desired by both Houses of Parliament Houses of Parliament
Close   View the register entry >>, 'nothing was done', and that Goldsworthy Gurney Gurney, Sir Goldsworthy (1793–1875) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> should no longer be responsible for the health of Members of Parliament, 'as his reservoir of air in the Star Chamber Court was now poisoned'.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Representation, Pollution, Public Health, Disease, Analytical Chemistry, Microscopy

    Describes a picture of the Thames to be painted by Edward W Cooke Cooke, Edward William (1811–80) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>. Notes that in representing the river 'as faithfully as possible', 'chemical analysis' had revealed that Thames water was in fact 'an artificial compound of pestiferous ingredients'. The picture is also to include the pollution produced by factories.

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

[John Leech] Leech, John (1817–64) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Pollution, Public Health, Disease

    Subtitled '(A Design for a Fresco in the New House of Parliament)', shows a bank of the Thames with factories in the background. On the left, the allegorical figure of London looks on with some consternation as four figures emerge from the river: a disgusting-looking 'Father Thames', and gruesome figures representing 'Diphtheria', 'Scrofula', and 'Cholera'.

Genre:

Reportage

Subjects:

Public Health, Charlatanry, Commerce

Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

Pollution, Disease, Government

    Based on a poem by Alfred Tennyson Tennyson, Alfred, 1st Baron Tennyson (1809–92) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, considers the heating of the Thames on its way to the sea and wishes that its stink would poison 'A Bishop, Peer, or M.P.' Expresses good wishes to those boys who play and swim in the river and considers the 'touch of a despot's hand / To the works of a Board [Metropolitan Board of Works Metropolitan Board of Works
Close   View the register entry >>] that is nil'. Ends by asserting that he will never be struck dead by the 'appetite' of the river's stink.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Medical Treatment, Quackery

    Argues that the need for medical reform is illustrated by dubiously worded handbills from three medical practitioners: Dr Boden Boden, Dr (Physician) (fl. 1858) PU1/35/1/7
Close   View the register entry >>, who offers a machine for curing deafness, Drs Phillips (father and son) Phillips, Dr (Surgeon) (fl. 1858) PU1/35/1/7
Close   View the register entry >>, who puff their 'miraculous' 'PHYSIOPATIC or NATURAL system of medicine', and James Greer Greer, James (purveyor of vegetable pills, of Glasgow) (fl. 1858–59) PU1/35/1/7, PU1/36/12/4
Close   View the register entry >>, who advertises his 'Genuine Hygeian Vegetable Pills'. Goes on to extract from and analyse Greer's advertisement, which calls for legislation to make his Scottish Hygeian Institution Scottish Hygeian Institution, Glasgow
Close   View the register entry >> the equal of other medical colleges, and argues that God can 'work miracles by [the apparently humble] Dr. Greer' much as He 'wrought superhuman miracles by illiterate men'. Punch concludes by pointing out that the claims made in all these advertisements 'may be denied' and regarded as 'impudent lies', and calls on William F Cowper Cowper, William Francis, 1st Baron Mount-Temple (1811–88) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> and other 'framers of medical bills' to be cautious in withdrawing the British public's protection from quackery.

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Pollution, Sanitation, Public Health

    Argues that humans should be able to tolerate the Thames if fish can live in it, and attacks the plan of Joseph Paxton Paxton, Sir Joseph (1803–65) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> to deodorize the sewers with lime on the grounds that whitebait would be killed. Concludes by calling for 'no more abuse of the gentle River'.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Pollution, Public Health, Disease, Medical Treatment, Government

    Describes a rumoured government 'Smelling Expedition' to gauge the quality of the Thames, an expedition which consisted of politicians who had written their wills. They were allegedly accompanied by surgeons and 'every medical appliance to relieve them' of the effects of the stench. Speculates on ways of honouring such 'brave smellers'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Botany, Imperialism

    Describes the announcement at the Bombay Geographical Society Bombay Geographical Society
Close   View the register entry >> of a 'specimen of the Walking-leaf from Java'. Considers that the species was originally in France and 'took French leaf, and walked off', and that 'cutting one's stick' derives from the properties of the leaf—viz. that it '"cuts its stick" and walks away'.

Genre:

Regular Feature, Reportage, Drollery

Subjects:

Pollution, Public Health, Sanitation, Government

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Representation, Gender

    Notes that the 'MASTERMAN Testimonial' includes three female figures representing science, commerce, and industry, but explains why science should be represented as a man.

Genre:

Illustration

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

[John Leech] Leech, John (1817–64) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Disease, Pollution

    Subtitled 'Your MONEY or your LIFE!', shows a cloaked skeleton, the allegorical figure of death, rowing on a filthy river Thames.

Genre:

Reminiscences, Spoof

Subjects:

Pollution, Public Health, Sanitation, Government, Politics, Futurism

    The reminiscences of an old parliamentarian evidently written late in the nineteenth century. He describes the 'mighty, deadly, subtle, and irresistible' enemy of the Thames that had been 'increasing upon us for years' and which Members of Parliament Houses of Parliament
Close   View the register entry >> kept trying to 'do something' about. Describes some of the measures taken to disinfect and deodorize the building, but these had little effect on the 'subtle poison'. (18) Proceeds to describe the 1889 session, when the Thames stench had become so bad that politicians were leaving in droves for healthier climes, eventually forcing Parliament to close.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Telegraphy, Technology

    Astonished by the rate at which letters can be sent via David E Hughes's Hughes, David Edward (1829/31–1900) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> 'printing telegraph', observes that 'ladies might object to corresponding through such a channel', because they would not like to be 'wire-drawn', and that it would ruin penny-a-liners. Believes that the wire will destroy the 'imaginative profession' of those who report on 'vegetable and meteorological phenomena'. Ends by pointing out that penny-a-liners might be saved because of a break in the cable chain.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Disease, Sanitation, Pollution, Government, Commerce, Public Health

    Noting the battle over who should pay for the 'purification of the Thames', warns that Father Thames may force Englishmen to pay by the appearance of cholera, by which time it will be too late to argue over the 'pestilential tax'. Observes that it is only when the disease is 'at our thresholds' that we regret the 'accumulation of filth' on the river bed.

Genre:

Proceedings, Spoof

Subjects:

Pollution, Sanitation, Public Health, Disease, Analytical Chemistry, Light, Commerce, Nutrition, Agriculture

    Summarises the views of several fictional investigators hired to 'inquire into the unpleasant state of the river Thames'. The investigators include chemists, gas engineers, and medical practitioners, who all offer their analyses of the toxic gases and offer ways of utilising the sewer gases. For example, Mr Meter of 'the Economical Gas Company' contemplates using sewer-gases as artificial lighting, Professor Blowpipe, 'Professor of Chemistry in the University of Smithfield' challenges this view with a chemical explanation, Mr Wiseacre doubts the possibility of using the gases to make soda water, Sir Simon Sage challenges the possibility of using them as fertilisers, 'PETER BLACK, M.D., F.R.S.', judges workers employed on the Thames to be 'more healthy than ordinary labourers', and Mr Sump and Mr Pump disagree over the effectiveness of deodorisation.

Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Telegraphy, Technology, Accidents, Scientific Practitioners, Expertise, Monstrosities

Institutions mentioned:

Atlantic Telegraph Company Atlantic Telegraph Company
Close   View the register entry >>

    Opens by describing the motionless state of the Atlantic telegraph cables on the ocean bed, but then observes that the cable 'Has a second time failed [...] And why, the sages are wholly unable [...] to explain'. Notes that this is to be expected of sages 'Being out of their depth when they get where [the cable] lies'. Concludes by arguing that the failure of the cable is plain 'to the simple'—it is due to 'The [Sea] Serpent enormous' who 'Cuts the Cable right through with teeth sharp as a knife'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Mental Illness, Medical Practitioners, Hospitals

People mentioned:

Forbes B Winslow Winslow, Forbes Benignus (1810–74) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

    Discusses a trial in which a medical expert witness describes the defendant's mania connected with drinking gin.

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Disease, Medical Treatment, Medical Practitioners, Quackery, Politics

    Begins by describing how his apoplexy, an ailment which he believes is brought on by excessive use of the brain and eating, is relieved by resting his brain and stomach, and exercising. Wonders how a doctor would treat him if the latter technique fails to relieve apoplexy, a dilemma prompted by his reading of an article in The Times The Times (1777–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >>, outlining the use of bloodletting and of quaffing brandy and water as rival treatments of apoplexy. Goes on to question how the proposed medical bill will distinguish between qualified and unqualified practitioners for administering such treatments. In a postscript agrees that 'PROFESSOR GULLOWAY's' pills (an allusion to Thomas Holloway Holloway, Thomas (1800–83) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>) and other quack medicines should be destroyed.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Pollution, Analytical Chemistry

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Medical Treatment, Medical Practitioners, Politics, Government, Commerce, Quackery

    Ironically applauds the clause in the medical bill 'now passing through Parliament Houses of Parliament
Close   View the register entry >>' obliging medical practitioners to pay a compulsory registration fee at a rate set by the proposed General Medical Council General Medical Council
Close   View the register entry >>. Warns that this clause will allow the council to increase the fee to such a level as might drive poor doctors out of practice. Urges that if the fee is not to be punitive, it should be fixed at a shilling, and observes that this is quite high enough a price to pay for enabling a medical practitioner to 'maintain a lawsuit against any patient who will not or cannot pay him his bill' and to obtain the practice of any neighbouring quack disqualified by the legislation.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Pollution, Public Health, Disease, Sanitation, Government

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Pollution, Public Health, Sanitation, Disease, Government, Politics

    Argues that Parliament Houses of Parliament
Close   View the register entry >> appears to care more for itself than 'the health of other people', a claim based on the fact that the Houses of Parliament have been furnished with deodorising and other sanitary features. Notes that these measures were taken at the public expense, but Punch points out that it might be because Members of Parliament believe that 'Heaven will help those [...] who help themselves'. Attacks MPs for wasting public money in this way and then opposing the idea of cleansing the Thames on the grounds that it is costly.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Pollution, Public Health, Disease, Sanitation

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Telegraphy, Technology, Accidents

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Quackery, Medical Practitioners, Periodicals, Pharmaceuticals

    Criticises a morning newspaper for upholding the value of Thomas Holloway's Holloway, Thomas (1800–83) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> pill, a position which might induce a 'fool' to take the pills. Proceeds to another extract in which Holloway's pills are praised as 'miracle-working', but which Punch thinks contains 'not one word of truth'. Doubts whether the newspaper could know that the pills have the curative effects that they claim, and berates 'that portion of the press' that publishes testimonials in support of Holloway's pills.

Genre:

Illustration

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Pollution, Sanitation

    Shows an aged Father Thames reclining on a pipe which channels water into a river. Standing near Father Thames is a man who holds his nose with one hand and a brush dripping with lime in the other. In the background stands Mr Punch.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Meteorology, Nutrition

    Reports on the consequences of a shower of toads which fell on Manchester during a thunderstorm.

Genre:

Regular Feature, Reportage, Drollery

Subjects:

Narcotics, Pharmaceuticals, Government, Politics

    Reports on the opposition of chemists and druggists to the 'Sale of Poisons Bill', and the discussion following the complaint of William S Best (2nd Baron Wynford) Best, William Samuel, 2nd Baron Wynford (1798–1869) Cokayne 1910–59
Close   View the register entry >> that the public health bill 'gave no remedy against the Manufacturers who carry on their filthy and noxious trades' on the south bank of the Thames (42).

Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Disease, Pollution, Manufactories, Government, Politics

    On their journey to their 'annual white-bait lark', the cabinet meet the 'grisly form' of Father Thames who is covered with slime and whose mouth pours 'fetid stench and sulphurous flames'. He points out that Father Thames has accelerated other parliamentary legislation but complains that statesmen have given him up, thus forcing the poison from the Metropolitan Board of Works Metropolitan Board of Works
Close   View the register entry >> to flow in his veins.

Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Pollution, Sanitation, Chemistry, Agriculture, Scientific Practitioners

    Tells Michael Faraday Faraday, Michael (1791–1867) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>, 'of Chemists first', of the desperate need to cleanse the Thames and asks whether chemistry can help. Suggests that the slush be used as manure and in the manufacture of 'Sweet essences', but stresses that it simply wants a river that is clean rather than sweet. Adds that the Thames might provide a local source for guano and therefore for fertiliser. Concludes by drawing attention to the shortcomings of conventional means of cleansing rivers and so asks Faraday to 'Do what thou can'st, if science can'.

Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Nutrition, Military Technology, Invention

    Discusses Alexis B Soyer's Soyer, Alexis Benoît (1810–58) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> invention of a device for enabling soldiers to prepare finely-cooked meats and vegetables, an invention that Punch thinks will strengthen the insides of the British soldier and thus give him 'a stomach for the fight'

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Animal Behaviour, Botany, Politics, Government

    Attacks a comparison between on the one hand, the behaviour of the plants of Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew
Close   View the register entry >>, and of the animals in the Zoological Society Gardens Zoological Society of London —Gardens
Close   View the register entry >>, and on the other, and the behaviour members of Parliament Houses of Parliament
Close   View the register entry >>. Punch considers plants and animals much less unruly than statesmen.

Genre:

Proceedings, Spoof

Subjects:

Quackery, Medical Practitioners, Medical Treatment, Government, Homeopathy

    Proceedings of a meeting of the fictional 'Charlatan's Institution' to discuss ways of opposing the new medical bill. The chairman draws attention to the clause in the bill which penalises those who falsely claim to be medical practitioners, a claim which meets with general disapproval. Proceeds to describe the more articulate responses. These include Dr Billwall, who denies the possibility of proving that somebody is a doctor and asks for the Act to be 'dashed', Mr Corners, who rejects any legislation that would interfere with his 'bills—either those which they stuck up or those which they stuck in', and the inarticulate Dr Jones, who praises Robert Grosvenor (1st Baron Ebury) Grosvenor, Lord Robert, 1st Baron Ebury (1801–93) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> for allowing them to 'take whatever name or title they chose'. In conclusion, members of the meeting resolve to complement Ebury with a box of 'homeopathic globules'.

Genre:

Regular Feature, Reportage, Drollery

Subjects:

Telegraphy, Government, Politics

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Telegraphy, Progress, Internationalism, Monstrosities

Institutions mentioned:

Atlantic Telegraph Company Atlantic Telegraph Company
Close   View the register entry >>

    Argues that the recently laid Atlantic telegraph supports the well-known claim that 'JONATHAN was descended in a straight line from JOHN'. Adds that the channel of communication will help 'keep the members of a great family constantly alive in each other's affections'. Observes that the shipping firms of Mr Collins Collins, Mr (fl. 1858) PU1/35/7/2
Close   View the register entry >> and Samuel Cunard Cunard, Sir Samuel (1787–1865) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> were considered too slow for sending messages. Believes that now the 'Union is again restored' and Britain and America now have family ties, but hopes the sea serpent does not 'snap those ties asunder'.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Mathematics, Politics, Charlatanry

Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Military Technology, War

Genre:

Serial, Novel, Spoof

Subjects:

Aeronautics, Amusement

Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Pollution, Agriculture, Commerce, Nutrition, Engineering, Public Health

    Asks 'sewage' why it pollutes rain and urges it to take its rainfall to the river and its sewage to the soil. Explains that by channelling its 'daily sewage' in 'modest tubes' rather than 'monstrous tunnels' to meadows it will purify 'Your rain-brooks', feed cows, fertilise soil, and make profit for farmers. Stressing the amount of dairy produce that could be made from this use of sewage, considers it a waste to throw 'A thousand pounds a day' into 'the German Sea'. The key focus of the poem, however, is an attack on Joseph W Bazalgette Bazalgette, Sir Joseph William (1819–91) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> and his Metropolitan Board of Works Metropolitan Board of Works
Close   View the register entry >> for building expensive sewage tunnels that will overflow on 'rainy days', and lose valuable sewage and leave rivers 'stinking'. Calls on rate-payers to cry 'SEWAGE TO SOIL AND RAIN TO RIVER' and to demand 'Pipes and profit'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Mental Illness, Meteorology, Superstition, Natural Law, Supernaturalism, Spiritualism, Belief, Photography, Lecturing

    Responds to news of a man who ejected a needle from his body (without having known how it got there). Expects to hear news of somebody who 'had been throwing crooked pins off his stomach without being aware of ever having bolted them', and suggests that the man may have taken the needle inside him during a fit of 'temporary insanity'. Focusing on the story of a shower of toads, suggests that it might rain cats and dogs too, and that the toads 'are real wonders that cannot be satisfactorily accounted for on natural principles like photographs and electrotypes and electric telegrams'. Adds that such stories are 'calculated to nourish a pleasing thought that the supernatural is not all humbug' and to 'encourage the expectation that we shall one day have a genuine ghost appearing regularly in public at certain times, and perhaps delivering lectures on spiritualism at a scientific institution'. Concludes by noting that this would 'dumfound the intelligence of the nineteenth century', although it 'may have much the same reason for disbelieving in ghosts as the intelligence of other centuries had for believing in them'.

Genre:

Song, Drollery

Subjects:

Telegraphy, Technology, Engineering, Internationalism, Commerce, Political Economy, War, Religious Authority, Cultural Geography, Progress, Publishing

Institutions mentioned:

Atlantic Telegraph Company Atlantic Telegraph Company
Close   View the register entry >>

    An adaptation of 'Yankee Doodle Dandy', this song celebrates the connection between Britain and America by the Atlantic telegraph cable. Notes that the 'mighty job' was accomplished 'In spite of wind and weather' and has produced a cable from which 'the cause of Freedom gains'. Affirms that 'In firm amalgamation' with 'brother JONATHAN [...] we Anglo-Saxons can [...] whip creation' and better fight 'the Soldier and the Priest'. Adds that by combining forces, the nations can 'preserve from fetters. / A no small some [sic] of human mind, / In science and letters'. Expects the advancement of a 'Free Press' in both countries and that the cable will quickly resolve 'broken peace' and enable trade in 'corn and cotton'. Concludes by reiterating the power of the telegraph to make Britain and America 'Siamese Twins' and to 'Drive all tyrants frantic'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Telegraphy, Technology, Engineering, Internationalism, Cultural Geography, Domestic Economy

Institutions mentioned:

Atlantic Telegraph Company Atlantic Telegraph Company
Close   View the register entry >>

    Likens the Atlantic telegraph cable to a 'wedding-ring' joining Britain and America, a union that has 'long been ardently desired'. Playing on the analogy between telegraphic and marital connection, notes 'many and great obstacles' that 'had to be surmounted', that 'the course of love as usual did not run quite smoothly' and that 'it long seemed doubtful if the splice could be effected'. However, believes that the union has now been 'successfully accomplished' and goes on to describe the six-day ceremony in celebration of this engineering feat. Concludes by noting that Britain and America 'have both henceforward unity of interest, and must go hand in hand in all they undertake'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Pollution, Public Health, Education, Schools

    Discusses the proposal to move Christ's Hospital Christ's Hospital
Close   View the register entry >> to the countryside owing to the effects of 'sulphuretted hydrogen' in Newgate Street. Later notes claims that the health of boys at the school is 'remarkably good', which suggests that its sanitary condition 'has much improved' since the days when it was notorious for ringworm and other disorders.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Steamships, Accidents

Institutions mentioned:

SS Leviathan SS Leviathan
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners

    Reports on the dwindling employment opportunities for medical practitioners caused by the 'continued fine weather'. Claims that doctors will sing in the streets of their lack of work and wonders how they will find the two guineas which the medical act requires them to pay for compulsory registration.

Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Pollution, Agriculture, Public Health, Disease

    Imagines 'MECHI' (a reference to John J Mechi Mechi, John Joseph (1802–80) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>), who stands 'upon a turbid river's bank', lamenting the fact that the 'phosphates' in the river are 'going to the sea' instead of being use to fertilise soil and thus to make 'riches'. Mechi thinks that ammonia is the 'sweetest [...] of all things flowing here' and instead of 'flying off to scent the thankless air', would like to see it 'to a proper acid wed' and 'then my fallow fields should form thy bridal bed'. Points out that 'mother Earth', which gave birth to the chemicals, will be left 'barren', and that 'while we had cesspools, we had you, we had manure'.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Astronomy, Telegraphy

    'The projected telegraph line from Alderney to Cowes'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Telegraphy, Heroism

Institutions mentioned:

Atlantic Telegraph Company Atlantic Telegraph Company
Close   View the register entry >>

    Puns that a peerage should be given to 'ALDERMAN WIRE' (a reference to London alderman David W Wire Wire, David Williams (1801–60) WBI
Close   View the register entry >>) as the 'fittest memorial' to the laying of the Atlantic telegraph.

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

J L, pseud.  [John Leech] Leech, John (1817–64) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Spielmann, Marion Harry Alexander 1895. The History of "Punch", London: Cassell
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Collecting, Botany, Natural History

    Depicts several men and women, facing away from the viewer, who are bending down on a beach in search of marine specimens. The consequence of their pose is that from distance, the bent figures resemble the objects they seek—shells.

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

J L, pseud.  [John Leech] Leech, John (1817–64) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Spielmann, Marion Harry Alexander 1895. The History of "Punch", London: Cassell
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Telegraphy, Internationalism, Politics

Institutions mentioned:

Atlantic Telegraph Company Atlantic Telegraph Company
Close   View the register entry >>

    In the foreground John Bull is seen on a cliff, holding one end of the Atlantic telegraph, lengths of which coil around his body. The other end of the cable is being held on the distant American cliff by Jonathan, the personification of the United States of America. In holding each end of the wire, John Bull and Jonathan manage to sink a vessel containing a classical god of the sea (probably Poseidon). John Bull tells Jonathan to 'Hold fast' to which Jonathan agrees. The caption refers to the belief that the telegraph will destroy tyranny and despotism (see, for example, Anon, 'The Anglo-Saxon Twins: Connected by the Atlantic Telegraph', Punch, 35 (1858), 72).

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Mental Illness, Psychology, Hospitals, Medical Treatment

    Discusses a report of a ball for inmates at David Skae's Skae, David (1814–73) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> lunatic asylum, near Edinburgh (a reference to the Royal Edinburgh Asylum Royal Edinburgh Asylum
Close   View the register entry >>). Draws attention to the claim that the inmates danced with 'peculiar propriety, decorum, and grace', but argues that this is not 'wonderful', since 'Dancing is the natural expression of at least certain forms of insanity'. Gives examples of animals and humans who dance during states of delirium. Referring to a book which proposed to treat the insane by inducing them to make sketches while their hands were being guided by spirits, suggests that the insane should dance so that 'insanity may run out at the tips of their toes'. Recommends using dancing as 'the main treatment' in lunatic asylums.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Agriculture, Nutrition

    Discusses Jean L A de Quatrefages de Bréau's Quatrefages de Bréau, Jean-Louis-Armand de (1810–92) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> report to the Académie des Sciences, Paris Académie des Sciences, Paris
Close   View the register entry >>, which claims that the silkworm disease can be cured by treating mulberry leaves with sugar.

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Surgery, Accidents, Medical Practitioners, Medical Treatment, Expertise

    Shows a young dentist, whose medical diploma prominently adorns his surgery wall, approaching a patient from whom he has just removed a tooth. The dentist points out that he 'must have made some mistake: there's nothing the matter with this tooth. Never mind, try again!'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Steamships, Pollution, Sanitation, Public Health, Commerce, Agriculture, Controversy

    Suggests that the SS Leviathan SS Leviathan
Close   View the register entry >> be 'maintained as a kind of sewer-vessel, for the purification of the Metropolis'. Recommends that on filling the vessel, it should then dump its contents in the 'middle of the ocean', and then return to be filled again. Believes this plan will help the ship out of its precarious financial situation and 'effectually sink all the disputes now raging as to the best system of drainage'. Adds that means might be found for turning the rich sewage into 'profitable account for agricultural purposes'.

Genre:

Introduction, Drollery; Proceedings, Spoof

Subjects:

Pollution, Sanitation, Government

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Nutrition, Health, Crime, Commerce

    Discusses a report of a legal case in which a medical witness argued that a man had died owing to inadequate intake of animal food, and in which the Chief Baron of the Exchequer, Jonathan F Pollock Pollock, Sir Jonathan Frederick, 1st Baronet (1783–1870) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, suggested that the vegetarian diet of policy holders should be taken into account by insurance firms. Thinks the judge's remarks are a salutary warning to those 'deluded and infatuated' vegetarians who 'bring themselves to untimely graves', but points out that most judges are far from being vegetarians.

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

C K, pseud.  [Charles S Keene] Keene, Charles Samuel (1823–91) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Spielmann, Marion Harry Alexander 1895. The History of "Punch", London: Cassell
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Subjects:

Amateurism, Natural History, Hunting

    Shows two fisherman, here represented as 'First Tourist (Zoological)' and 'Second Tourist (Piscatorial)', meeting in a room containing a stuffed fish. The 'First Tourist' describes to the 'Second Tourist', in formal natural historical terms, which marine specimens he has found in the district, whilst the 'Second Tourist' simply wants to know 'What bait did you use, now?'.

Genre:

Extract, Spoof

Subjects:

Telegraphy, Technology, Engineers

    An extract from the Morning Advertiser Morning Advertiser (1792–1900+) Waterloo Directory
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Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Telegraphy, Technology, Gender

Institutions mentioned:

Atlantic Telegraph Company Atlantic Telegraph Company
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    Noting that the Atlantic telegraph cannot transmit more than 'five words a minute', suggests that ladies should 'imitate this great economy in verbal expenditure' because gentlemen would thereby pay more attention to them and their words would, 'as in the case of the Atlantic telegraph[,...] go a great deal further'.

Genre:

Announcement, Spoof

Subjects:

Mesmerism, Prognostication, Railways

Institutions mentioned:

Zoological Society—Gardens Zoological Society of London —Gardens
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Genre:

Song, Drollery

Subjects:

Mathematics, Education

    Explains a geometrical proposition to his bride, which concludes with him noting that 'Equal angles, so to term them, / Each one opposite its brother! / Equal joys and equal sorrows, / Equal hopes, 'twere sin to smother. / Equal—oh divine extatics— / Based on HUTTON's mathematics!' The last is a reference to Hutton 1798 Hutton, Charles 1798. A Course of Mathematics in Two Volumes: Composed, and More Especially Designed, for the Use of Gentlemen Cadets at the Royal Military School, Woolwich, 2 vols, London: G. G. and J. Robinson
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Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Telegraphy, Language, Race, Morality

Institutions mentioned:

Atlantic Telegraph Company Atlantic Telegraph Company
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    Discusses the grammatical infelicities in a message sent by the Atlantic telegraph. Considers the 'frequent omission of verbs, prepositions, articles, and pronouns' to be 'as remarkable as it is cheering', and to indicate that the author is black. Believes the employment of a black man on the Atlantic telegraph 'will afford a practical proof of the essential humanity of the African race' and of the American's recognition of their duty towards them.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Mental Illness, Religion

    Noting the public attention 'towards the subject of insanity', discusses a Neue Preussische Zeitung Neue Preussische Zeitung (Kreuz Zeitung) (1848–1900+) COPAC
Close   View the register entry >> report of the 'violent and frantic language' of some Jesuit missionaries, language which Punch thinks medical men would ascribe to mental illness. Expresses concern tha