Genre:

Notes

Subjects:

Scientific Practitioners

People mentioned:

Joseph Priestley, Priestley, Joseph (1733–1804) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Christopher Wren, Wren, Sir Christopher (1632–1723) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> John Abernethy, Abernethy, John (1764–1831) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> William Harvey, Harvey, William (1578–1657) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Matthew Boulton, Boulton, Matthew (1728–1809) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> James Watt, Watt, James (1736–1819) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Auguste Comte, Comte, Isidore Auguste Marie François Xavier (Auguste) (1798–1857) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Gottfried W Leibniz Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm (1646–1716) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Serial, Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Railways, Light, Reading

Genre:

Serial, Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Electricity, Telegraphy

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Natural Law, Amusement

Genre:

Serial, Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Photography, Light, Technology

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Hunting, Nutrition

People mentioned:

Roualeyn G G Cumming Cumming, Roualeyn George Gordon- (1820–66) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Anaesthesia, Medical Treatment, Comparative Philology

Genre:

Serial, Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Gender, Domestic Economy, Narcotics

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Ethnology, Language

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Time, Instruments, Gender

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Railways, Technology, Amusement

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Electricity, Physiology, Animal Behaviour

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Quackery, Medical Treatment, Agriculture

Genre:

Serial, Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Military Technology, War

Genre:

Reportage, Spoof

Subjects:

Spiritualism

People mentioned:

Daniel D Home Home, Daniel Dunglas (1833–86) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Supernaturalism, Exhibitions, Technology

People mentioned:

John H Pepper Pepper, John Henry (1821–1900) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Institutions mentioned:

Royal Polytechnic Institution Royal Polytechnic Institution
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Serial, Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Supernaturalism, Exhibitions, Technology, Quackery, Astrology

People mentioned:

John H Pepper, Pepper, John Henry (1821–1900) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Henry Dircks, Dircks, Henry (1806–73) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Robert C Smith, Smith, Robert Cross ('Raphael') (1795–1832) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Richard J Morrison Morrison, Richard James ('Zadkiel') (1795–1874) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Medical Treatment, Domestic Economy, Human Development

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Medical Treatment

Genre:

Recipe, Drollery

Subjects:

Medical Treatment

Genre:

Reportage, Spoof

Subjects:

Photography

Genre:

Short Fiction, Drollery

Subjects:

Evolution, Human Development

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Hunting, Agriculture, Extinction, Animal Behaviour, Taxonomy, Commerce

    Discusses the 'Fox-Famine' which reputedly exists in Ayrshire. Worries that if the disappearance of foxes before 'advancing agriculture and civilisation, cannot be arrested, there will soon be no foxes in that division of Scotland'. Upholds the 'utility of foxes', specifically fox hunting, which the narrator praises as 'part of the poetry of the nation' and which accords foxes the status of 'fancy vermin'. Identifies other species as 'fancy vermin', including birds of prey, badgers, polecats, weasels, stoats, and otters, but laments the fact that 'the successors of the old English gentleman have become poulterers, the British fauna, under the name of vermin, are getting exterminated, in order that the greatest possible quantity of game may be sent to market'. Concludes by upholding 'the divinity of the fields and forests, for old Pan, and the fauna at large'.

Genre:

Reportage, Spoof

Subjects:

Steamships, Commerce

    Reports on a plan to 'make a raffle of the Great Eastern Great Eastern, ship
Close   View the register entry >>'.

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Mental Illness, Psychology, Crime, Human Development

    Identifying himself as a 'medical man', the narrrator discusses a report of a young girl who had been remanded in a police station for 'stripping children of their clothes', one child perishing after being stripped of practically every item of clothing. Hopes that the girl will not be punished and suggests that her actions may have been prompted by 'the beauty of the undraped infantine figure' at the Crystal Palace Crystal Palace
Close   View the register entry >>, or a compulsion to clothe the less 'well-cared-for' children, or a feeling of revenge on the children's parents, or the need to sell the clothes in exchange for a Christmas present.

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Spiritualism

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Railways, Telegraphy, Commerce, Environmentalism, Aesthetics, Physical Geography

    Urging prompt action to be taken to stop 'the abominable practice of painting tradesmen's names on all the dead walls about London', points out that 'What with ugly Railway Bridges disfiguring our streets, and Electric Wires like clothes-lines carried along our house-tops, we Londoners have certainly few prospects to be proud of'.

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Meteorology, Prognostication, Cultural Geography

    Noting Robert Fitzroy's Fitzroy, Robert (1805–65) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> claim in the The Times The Times (1777–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> that 'there is usually a day's interval before Irish weather reaches England', blames this delay on the 'mismanagement of the Saxon' and suggests that the English should allow Irish weather to 'start the day before' so that it gets there on time.

Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Crime, Education, Health, Disease

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Railways

    Discusses a notice affixed to carriages of the 'Underground [Metropolitan Metropolitan Railway Company
Close   View the register entry >>] Railway' urging passengers not to open the carriage doors until the train stops at the platform.

Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Nutrition, Human Development, Health, Disease, Patronage, Morality, Religion

    Discusses a Guernsey Star Guernsey Star (1812–1900+) British Library Newspaper Catalogue
Close   View the register entry >> report of Victor M Hugo's Hugo, Victor Marie (1802–85) CBD
Close   View the register entry >> visit to the Hauteville House Hauteville House, Gurnsey
Close   View the register entry >> in Guernsey, where he entertained 'the poor children who, for about two years, have been the constant recipients of his bounty' and treated them to a 'substantial dinner once a fortnight'. The Guernsey Star reports that Hugo claimed that his actions were prompted by medical and scientific inquiry into a supposed correlation between certain diseases associated with the poor (including scrofula and rickets) and a deficiency of 'animal food' in the diet. Hugo adds that his test of this theory in Guernsey 'had been undoubtedly successful', and Punch stresses that providing a child with a meal of fresh meat 'is not a very costly gift', and that such a diet will better prepare them for work. Agrees with Hugo that such provisions are part of Christian duty, and urges the establishment of 'poor children's public dinners'. (24)

Genre:

Advertisement, Spoof

Subjects:

Railways, Environmentalism, Archaeology, Zoological Gardens, Progress

    A series of advertisements, each of which announces events and courses of action made necessary by the encroachment of the railway lines of the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway Company London, Chatham, and Dover Railway Company
Close   View the register entry >>. For example, one advertisement announces that the 'Lord of the Manor of Stonehenge Stonehenge
Close   View the register entry >> wishes to 'inform archaeologists and others' that the 'Druidical remain will be on view until the 1st of April, when it will be put into thorough repair, and converted into an engine-house' for the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway Company, while another advertisement informs the 'animals at the Zoological Gardens Zoological Society of London —Gardens
Close   View the register entry >>' about possible plans to turn their gardens into a coal depot.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Spiritualism

People mentioned:

Daniel D Home Home, Daniel Dunglas (1833–86) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Spiritualism, Religious Authority, Supernaturalism, Miracle, Experiment, Proof

    Discusses news that Daniel D Home Home, Daniel Dunglas (1833–86) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> has been asked to leave Rome unless he discontinues his 'business in the spirit line'. Notes that during Home's interrogation by police officers in Rome, spirits apparently rapped on a nearby table, but Punch requests that such a 'phenomenon' be 'submitted to the inspection of a British Inspector or two', emphasising that in Rome 'the motion of inanimate objects', such as pictures and statues, is 'so ordinary an occurrence'. Notes that the papacy apparently attributes table-moving to an inferior class of spirits, but suggests that Pope Pius IX Pius IX, Pope (1792–1878) CBD
Close   View the register entry >> 'might order an experimentum crucis for the extraction of truth'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Meteorology, Prognostication

People mentioned:

Robert Fitzroy Fitzroy, Robert (1805–65) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Controversy, Periodicals

People mentioned:

John P Edwards Edwards, John Passmore (1823–1911) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Publications cited:

Mechanics' Magazine Mechanics' Magazine (1823–72) Iron: the Journal of Science, Metals, and Manufactures (1872–93) Industries and Iron (1893–99) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Spiritualism, Charlatanry, Religious Authority

Genre:

Extract, Reportage, Spoof

Subjects:

Crime, Mental Illness, Medical Practitioners, Proof

    Reports on various cases of alleged criminal behaviour, most of which include details of medical practitioners' contentious views on the mental condition of prisoners. Dr Cranky Cracker, for example, 'the eminent mad-doctor', insists that William Smasher was 'suffering under hallucination' when he threw a stone through a jewellers' shop window, while in the case of George Flashington, Dr Sneaker Weasel argues that the prisoner was not responsible for embezzling a large sum of money from a bank and denies that he has been bribed for 'giving such evidence'.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Mental Illness, Psychology

    'The Dyspepsia of the Mind'

Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Politics, Anaesthesia, Military Technology, Medical Treatment, Disease, Politics, Internationalism

    This poem describes the state of 'La France', a country whose deep wounds have been causing more pain because her various opiates (which refer to those aspects of French culture which gave it strength) no longer bring relief. For example, she waves away 'La Gloire's morphine' (a reference to the powerful French ironclad La Gloire La Gloire, ship
Close   View the register entry >>) 'for which she used / To crave'. Proceeds to describe her grave financial problems as if they were a severe case of blood loss. She 'doubts whether these douches / Of debt and tax and loan, / Prescribed by her kind doctor, / Were not best let alone', while the doctor warns her of the dangers of having her 'food' dressed 'à la Liberté', and of bursting out of her 'safety-bands'. Notes how 'Europe's M.D.'s' cannot treat her condition (a reference to the unsuccessful attempt by Emperor Napoleon III Napoleon III, Emperor of France (originally Louis Napoléon (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte)) (1808–73) CBD
Close   View the register entry >> of France to organize a European congress) and her own doctor is forced to try alternative remedies including 'De Morny's tonic bitters' (a reference to Napoleon III's counsellor, Charles A K J, Duc de Morny Morny, Charles Auguste Louis Joseph, Duc de (1811–65) CBD
Close   View the register entry >>).

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Quackery, Patents, Language, Medical Treatment, Medical Practitioners, Government, Politics, Public Health

    Discusses a letter in the Daily Telegraph Daily Telegraph (1856–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> from a quack who, evidently alarmed by the prospect of a new clause in the 'New Medical Bill' depriving quacks of property rights to their 'notorious' specifics, upholds the virtues of patent medicines over 'violent remedies' and questions why so many different remedies are needed for 'the one simple object—the correction of the stomach and intestines'. Punch defends the use of a multiplicity of medicines, pointing out that different digestive and other organs of the body need different remedies. Proceeds to discuss the quack's claim that the new legislation reflects the shortcomings of, and the necessity for abolishing, the 'gigantic medical monopoly', and underlines the need to stop fettering those 'who do understand the theory of cause and effect' and understand their remedies. Surmising that the latter is a self-reference, Punch contrasts the rigorous scientific training undertaken by 'regularly educated physicians' to the training in the 'practice of puffery' undertaken by quacks. Concludes by pointing out that medical practitioners 'are constituted guardians of the public health by Act of Parliament' and that when patent medicines are abolished, patients can turn to 'a respectable practitioner' and receive proper treatment.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Spiritualism, Religious Authority

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Psychology, Human Development, Crime

    Discusses Edmund Falconer's Falconer (properly O'Rourke), Edmund (c.1814–1879) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> new drama, which shows that 'solitary confinement for twenty years is a piece of experience that may be laughed at'—a claim that contradicts the belief that such an experience would 'turn a bad man into a savage, and a good one into an idiot'. Relates that the prisoner in Falconer's drama 'regards his punishment as a positively beneficial process' because it 'sharpens the enjoyment of fresh air, and the salutary privilege of exercise'.

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

R T P Pritchett, Robert Taylor (1828–1907) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Spielmann, Marion Harry Alexander 1895. The History of "Punch", London: Cassell
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Technology, Amusement

    Shows the country-house drawing room of an 'ingenious swell' who is having his hair brushed with a circular brush whose spindle is rotated by a giant wheel on the end of a barrel organ.

Genre:

Advertisement, Spoof

Subjects:

Industry, Manufactories, Commerce, Metallurgy

    Offers shares in a company which, inspired by the work of 'certain members of our Scientific bodies', seeks to recover 'the large amount of metal deposited by wear and tear of tires of wheels, horse-shoes, &c., in the Mud of the London streets' for use in such iron manufactures as armour plates and Armstrong Armstrong, Sir William George, Baron Armstrong of Cragside (1810–1900) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> guns. Lists the principle 'veins' discovered by the company, which include '"The Wheal Oxford", running the whole length of Oxford Street'. Notes that because scavengers collect mud from the streets, the company will not require any staff or a need to raise capital, but that there will be prospects of 'enormous' profits.

Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Exploration, Discovery, Controversy

    Discusses the controversy between, on the one hand, John H Speke Speke, John Hanning (1827–64) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> and James A Grant Grant, James Augustus (1827–92) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, and on the other, Charles T Beke Beke, Charles Tilstone (1800–74) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, over the 'Sources of the Nile'. Surprised by the 'heat of bilious ire' among 'scientific minds'. Notes how Beke did 'peck' at Speke 'with such a dogged will' because Speke called Beke 'BIGG'—possibly a reference to the Irish poet, John S Bigg Bigg, John Stanyan (1828–65) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>.

Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Spiritualism, Religious Authority, Miracle, Imposture

    Responding to news that Daniel D Home Home, Daniel Dunglas (1833–86) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> has been ordered to leave Rome, this poem ponders the reasons for the order, suggesting that it was because the 'pictures that wink, / And statues that blink, / Can't stand spirits that rap', and that therefore 'two of a trade can't agree'. Ends by suggesting that 'There's one place like Home, and that's Rome, my dear HOME'.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Railways, Progress

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Aeronautics, Meteorology, Animal Behaviour

    In this letter to Mr Punch's dog, Toby, 'Messrs. COXWELL Coxwell, Henry (Tracey) (1819–1900) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> and GLAISHER'S Glaisher, James (1809–1903) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> aëronautical Dog' recalls the time when they were being instructed in 'Twinkle, twinkle, little star' and boasts that he has 'been up to see the Star that twinkles' and to 'emulate the acrobatic Cow' who 'o'ertopped the Silvery Moon'. Reminds Toby that he and three rabbits went on a journey with Coxwell and Glaisher above the clouds. These animals were taken in order to study the effects of 'low temperature and sudden changes on them'. Criticises the aeronauts for being 'dullards' who fell asleep on the journey and who selfishly deprived him of the rabbits. Proceeds to give an account of how he was kicked and generally maltreated by the aeronauts and of his confusion between 'air' with 'hare'.

Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

War, Military Technology, Steamships, Nationalism, Cultural Geography, Commerce

Institutions mentioned:

Ironside, Ironside, ship
Close   View the register entry >> Keokuk Keokuk, ship
Close   View the register entry >>

    Opens by noting the 'navy of iron' now enjoyed by the 'Yankees', but points out that despite this force they still 'haven't yet taken Charleston', which is being defended by 'Secessia's power' and cannot compete with Alexander A Semmes Semmes, Alexander Aldebaran (1825–85) WBI
Close   View the register entry >> who sweeps its seas. Anticipates the dissolution of the 'menacing overgrown Union' and hopes that 'those that shall rise from its ashes' will be wiser than their predecessors and unite with John Bull. Concludes by ridiculing the strength of the Yankee navy and asking the Yankees to fling its 'brag to the breeze' and 'Commerce restore to the seas'.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Railways, Politics

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Military Technology

    'The "Infant Prince", the six-pounder'.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Astrology

People mentioned:

Richard J Morrison Morrison, Richard James ('Zadkiel') (1795–1874) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Nutrition, Education, Universities

    Responds to news of the death of a Viennese brewer, Anton Dreyer Dreyer, Anton (fl. 1864) PU1/46/5/11
Close   View the register entry >>, and of his son's intention to train at Barclay and Perkins Barclay and Perkins, firm
Close   View the register entry >>. Declares that 'the cause of both sobriety and exhilaration is promoted by whatever tends to the production of good liquor', linking 'bad beer' with excessive drunkenness and maintaining that good beer enlivens rather than stupefies. Defends brewing as a 'scientific art' and the notion that achieving 'a high standard of malt liquor' requires a good education, which Punch believes Barclay and Perkins will provide. For this reason, deems this and other brewers to 'constitute a University of Beer'.

Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Railways, Environmentalism, Engineering, Commerce, Politics, Government, Class

    Opens by describing the action that Englishmen will have to take in order to thwart the advances of 'the emissaries of the Railway Company', and condemns the threat to English homes by 'a society of speculative adventurers, pursuing self-aggrandisement under the pretence of public advantage'. Considers such an invasion to be 'the legalised burglary of the Railway Companies'. Asking whether any means exist for 'averting the imminent destruction of the little beauty which our capital possesses', urges householders in London and its suburbs whose property is under threat to 'get up a petition and present it to the Houses both of Lords House of Lords
Close   View the register entry >> and Commons House of Commons
Close   View the register entry >>'. Bitterly condemns the proposal for 'a railroad cut through Kensington Gardens', an 'impossible' act of 'desecration' that Parliament now seems likely to permit. Thinks it is 'all very well' for the railways to encroach on the property of a 'bloated aristocrat' but 'when the levelling agency of the dumpy level' affects the property of the 'middle classes' then 'Railway aggression is an insufferable nuisance'. Concludes by reiterating the call for a petition.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Superstition, Spiritualism, Religion, Magic, Mental Illness

    Opens by noting that 'to minds not constitutionally incredulous', spiritualist manifestations give foundation to ancient beliefs about witchcraft. Believing spiritualism and necromancy to be 'convertible terms', anticipates the possibility of modern sorcery and Faustian pacts and considers likely equivalents for characters in the myth of Dr Faustus.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Railways, Travel

Genre:

Introduction, Drollery; Advertisement, Spoof

Subjects:

Electricity, Invention, Time, Technology

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Electricity, Telegraphy, Physiology, Medical Treatment, Technology

    Reports that 'Medical men' have stated that some electricity is conveyed to the body when receiving a telegram, and that it is 'a very healthy thing to take a course of telegrams, and their efficacy is increased by the shock which it gives most people to receive a telegram at all'.

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Mental Illness, Hospitals, Amusement, Human Development, Music

    Discusses a report in The Times The Times (1777–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> of the Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum Colney Hatch Asylum
Close   View the register entry >> Christmas party, at which approximately 600 inmates showed great delight in 'Nigger Minstrels' and a 'troupe of Chinese jugglers'. Does not think that it is surprising that the Chinese performers should delight the 'demented and insane', but is puzzled by the fact that the inmates also enjoyed quadrille bands. Concludes by asking, 'What philosopher will dare to propose a solution of this apparent fact in psychology?'.

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Railways, Steam-power

    Written from the perspective of a horse, who reflects on his redundancy in 'these Railway Days', but thinks that 'steam people' are returning to horses since he overhead two railway directors upholding the need for advertising 'Posters' (an archaic word for post-horses) to make railways pay.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Railways, Government

    Discusses news that the new parliamentary session will open with 43 railway directors in the House of Lords House of Lords
Close   View the register entry >>, which Punch thinks will inhibit Parliament in preventing the 'demolition' of London by 'Railway Aggression'. Anticipates the possibility that Londoners will not be able to procure a house without a railway destroying it.

Genre:

Editorial, Drollery

Subjects:

Horticulture, Language

    Responds to a 'Cultivated Horticulturalist' who wants to know 'On what can he graft a [...] slip of a tongue'.

Genre:

Drama, Drollery

Subjects:

Railways, Disease, Medical Practitioners, Medical Treatment, Psychology, Mental Illness

    The drama is set in the consulting room of a 'MR. MAGNEESHER, the eminent M.D.', very close to two railway stations. The action describes the doctor's consultation with several women patients, the first of whom is described as a 'Nervous Patient' who is paralysed by the deafening sound of railway bells. The noise is so loud that the doctor has to mime to a consumptive patient that he wants to use a stethescope, although this procedure is disrupted by further railway noise and vibrations. Concludes with the doctor shaking his fist at the railway stations.

Genre:

Illustration

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

J L 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:

Railways, Accidents, Class

    Shows a nervous looking 'Old Gent' and a smug looking 'Swell' in a railway carriage. The swell replies to the old gent's fears about the apparent speed of the train, by casually pointing out that the train is making up for lost time and is likely to 'smash presently'.

Genre:

Introduction; Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Railways, Environmentalism, Politics

Genre:

Illustration

Relevant illustrations:

wdct. [4]

Illustrators:

R T P Pritchett, Robert Taylor (1828–1907) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Spielmann, Marion Harry Alexander 1895. The History of "Punch", London: Cassell
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Hunting, Amusement, Instruments

    Shows a sequence of images representing the experiences of a group of Scottish deer-hunters who travel to a remote part of the country laden with large boxes of scientific instruments (including a clinometer, telescopes, and a barometer), which they use successfully to fulfil their goal.

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Meteorology, Heat, Instruments, Gender

    Shows a man pretending to read a thermometer hanging in a shop doorway. A woman standing near him, unable to see what he is observing, takes the man's exclamation, 'Quite Thirty, by Jove!', to refer to her age. She replies, 'I'm nothing of the kind, Sir', and scorns his pretending not to see her.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Railways, Environmentalism

Genre:

Regular Feature, Proceedings, Drollery

Subjects:

Steamships, Hospitals, Patronage

Institutions mentioned:

Royal Naval Hospital, Greenwich Royal Naval Hospital, Greenwich
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Mental Illness, Government, Race, Cultural Geography, Human Development

People mentioned:

John H Speke Speke, John Hanning (1827–64) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

    Discusses a letter from Sydney Hodges Hodges, Sydney (fl. 1864) PU1/46/8/4
Close   View the register entry >> to the The Times The Times (1777–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> describing the 'barbarous and disgusting' treatment of the insane on the Isle of Man, a claim confirmed by the Commissioners in Lunacy Commissioners in Lunacy
Close   View the register entry >>. Quotes William C Spring-Rice's Spring-Rice, William Cecil (1823–80) WBI
Close   View the register entry >> reply from The Times, pointing out that the Isle of Man government knew of the neglect of lunatics on the island but were 'taking active measures to build a proper asylum'. Punch is sceptical and wonders why the lunacy commissioners were so late in revealing the sorry state of lunatics to the Home Secretary, George Grey Grey, Sir George (1799–1882) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, given that they have only recently made a 'tardy representation to Government'. Suggests that the reason was either fear of Grey (who Punch thinks must have seemed like a barbarous 'African Monarch') or because the commissioners are like 'African ladies' who are 'fed and fattened and kept doing nothing'.

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Vaccination, Medical Treatment, Human Development

Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Vaccination, Heroism

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Human Development, Animal Behaviour, Hunting

    Written from the perspective of an aristocratic woman, who notes the 'wild-boars' which, owing to the 'late frost', are reported to 'have appeared in great numbers in different country places of France', and that 'hunting-clubs have been established' to kill them. She complains that British frosts have prompted the invasion of 'ladies' sanctum sanctorum' by 'bores'. Drawing an analogy between humans and animals, she laments the way that the frost makes the otherwise tame 'bores' wild, and that 'hunting-clubs' (to which bores typically belong) keep them away from ladies' quarters. Describes how ladies are scared by a 'rush of huge hairy bores', who are white-toothed, long-whiskered, and driven indoors by the hard weather, and who generally cause havoc. She criticises other women for hunting 'bores' and wishes to face them 'on equal terms' and bring them down 'with a dead shot in the heart'.

Genre:

Regular Feature, Proceedings, Drollery

Subjects:

Government, Politics, Railways, Patents, Metrology, Exhibitions, Crime, Mental Illness

    Discusses the collapse of parliamentary bills for railway lines in Brighton and between the east and west coasts of Scotland (the latter proposal being favoured by Punch), and responds to the proposal of Granville G Leveson-Gower (2nd Earl Granville) Leveson-Gower, Granville George, 2nd Earl Granville (1815–91) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> to improve the Patent Museum and Library Patent Museum and Library
Close   View the register entry >>, with the suggestion that the patent system should be abolished altogether. Later questions the 'utility' of William Ewart's Ewart, William (1798–1869) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> 'Permissive Bill in favour of the Metric System', believing that it needs to be implemented more firmly, and reports on the dismantling of the buildings of the International Exhibition International Exhibition (1862), London
Close   View the register entry >>, and on a 'Committee on the Insane Criminals' Bill'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Invention, Technology, Temperance, Spiritualism

    Noting the alleged exhaustion of British 'coal fields', discusses news of a 'French patent for the manufacture of Brandy from Coal Gas', a patent bought by an English firm and which Punch thinks will raise demand for coal. Thinks this also explains why 'OLD KING COAL was a merry old soul', and why coal produces increased inflammation of the cuticle. Suggests that the gas from which brandy is made should be piped into houses, thus enabling the beverage to be delivered 'on tap', but fears for the cause of temperance.

Genre:

Reportage, Drollery

Subjects:

Astrology, Prognostication, Publishing

People mentioned:

Richard J Morrison Morrison, Richard James ('Zadkiel') (1795–1874) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Mental Illness, Government

    Discusses William C Spring-Rice's Spring-Rice, William Cecil (1823–80) WBI
Close   View the register entry >> reply to Punch's criticism of his actions in regard to the inadequacy of provision for lunatics on the Isle of Man (see Anon, 'Inhumanity in Man', Punch, 46 (1864), 74). Spring-Rice claims that the Commissioners in Lunacy Commissioners in Lunacy
Close   View the register entry >> drew George Grey's Grey, Sir George (1799–1882) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> attention to the problem in November 1861, much earlier than Punch had suggested. Punch thinks this response calls for an apology to Grey because the implication that the Isle of Man lunatics are in the same condition now as they were in late 1861 makes Rice's claims 'a joke' at Grey's expense.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Animal Husbandry, Animal Development, Breeding, Language

    Announcing the formation of a committee by the Royal Agricultural Society of Ireland Royal Agricultural Society of Ireland
Close   View the register entry >> 'to inquire into the causes of the deterioration in the breed of Irish horses', suggests that the same committee should investigate the 'more important matter' of the 'preservation of Irish Bulls' (a self-contradictory statement)—an 'invaluable species' which deserves to be encouraged for its laughter.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Transport, Nationalism, Animal Behaviour, Nationalism, Animal Behaviour

    Discusses a speech on the Suez Canal Suez Canal
Close   View the register entry >> made by André M J J Dupin Dupin, André Marie Jean Jacques (1783–1865) WBI
Close   View the register entry >> who, according to the Debat Debat (cited 1864) PU1/46/9/6
Close   View the register entry >>, claimed that England had tried to stop the engineering construction through 'envious' diplomacy and although the country had once 'frightened all the world' it was now 'frightened at everything'. In response, relates an anecdote of Georges Cuvier Cuvier, Georges (1769–1832) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>, who ironically accepted the definition of a crab as a 'red fish that goes backwards' with the slight reservations that crabs are neither red, nor fish, nor walk backwards. Punch similarly accepts Dupin's account of England, with the reservations that it 'is not envious, never desired to frighten the world, and is now not in the least frightened'.

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Homeopathy, Crime

Genre:

Regular Feature, Proceedings, Drollery

Subjects:

Government, Politics, Military Technology, Steamships, Nutrition

    Reports on the 'smart debate' raised by William R S V Fitzgerald Fitzgerald, Sir William Robert Seymour Vesey (1816/18–85) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> on 'those unfortunate rams' of John Laird Laird, John (1805–74) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> (i.e. the ironclads built by Laird for the Confederate government, but seized by the British Government following Union diplomacy). In the debate, Lord Robert A T G Cecil Cecil, Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1830–1903) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, Hugh M Cairns Cairns, Hugh McCalmont, 1st Earl Cairns (1819–85) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, and Spencer H Walpole Walpole, Spencer Horatio (1806–98) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> 'went at the iron ships hammer and tongs'. Notes that Thomas Baring Baring, Thomas (1799–1873) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> pointed out to Laird's defenders that the iron ships were intended for the president of the Confederate states, Jefferson Davis Davis, Jefferson (1808–89) CBD
Close   View the register entry >>.

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Education, Mathematics, Palaeontology, Geology, Chemistry, Pneumatics

    The candidate asks Punch for advice on the complicated questions that he has to answer for 'the next Staff College Entrance Examination'. He then presents a sample question which parodies the incomprehensibility of military examination papers and consists of an incongruous mixture of assertions about mathematics, palaeontology, geology, chemistry, and pneumatics.

Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Manufactories, Aeronautics, Politics, Government

    Responding to a report of leading statesmen moving 'for papers' in the Houses of Parliament Houses of Parliament
Close   View the register entry >>, the poem describes the widespread use of exported Japanese paper. Notes its use in building construction, in political debates, and in Michel J de Montgolfier's Montgolfier, Michel Joseph de (1740–1810) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> balloon, but warns of its fragility and combustibility.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct. [10]

Illustrators:

D M Du Maurier, George Louis Palmella Busson (1834–96) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Spielmann, Marion Harry Alexander 1895. The History of "Punch", London: Cassell
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Human Development, Animal Behaviour, Religious Authority

    Describes the various styles of beards worn by the clergy. Stresses that the 'Barbarine Movement is altogether the property of the [Anglican] Establishment', while Dissenters shave 'in gloomy silence'. Several of these beard styles make the wearers look like various animal species. For example, there is 'the Turkeycock', in which the beard is 'brought down in the shape of a turkeycock's jowls', 'the Gibbon, a very becoming fringe, suggested by that amiable species of ape', 'the Lynx', which 'is most appropriate for preachers of the Boanerges class', and 'the Goat', which is 'merely the under beard brought over the cravat'. (98) The illustrations show clergymen wearing various styles of beard.

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Spiritualism, Charlatanry, Methodology

    The narrator opens by declaring his interest in 'spiritual phenomena' and his attempts to 'obtain an experimental knowledge of the hitherto, to me, invisible and inaudible world', and then explains that during an investigation of an allegedly haunted house, he saw the disembodied 'head of a lady' whose utterances suggested some 'fearful crime'. He presents 'Depositions of Credible Witnesses', most of whom are untutored female domestic servants in the house who offer indecisive evidence for the alleged apparition.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

[Trident], pseud.  [Henry R Howard] Howard, Henry R (fl. 1853) Spielmann 1895
Close   View the register entry >> Spielmann, Marion Harry Alexander 1895. The History of "Punch", London: Cassell
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Electricity, Instruments

    The initial letter of the article forms part of an illustration showing a deep-sea diver ascending a rope-ladder that hangs from a buoy to the sea bed. Near the diver is a huge electric eel which approaches some Leyden jars and other electrical instruments on the sea bed.

Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

War, Military Technology

    Reflecting on the persistence of wars across the globe (notably the recent Prussian-Austrian war against Denmark), notes that 'Science, which we hoped was given / That mortals Nature might subdue, / Is taxed for bolts that, farthest driven, / May crush their fellow, flying true; / And armour to defend the sides / Of the strong ship that keeps the sea'.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct. [10]

Illustrators:

D M Du Maurier, George Louis Palmella Busson (1834–96) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Spielmann, Marion Harry Alexander 1895. The History of "Punch", London: Cassell
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Human Development, Animal Behaviour, Religious Authority

    Similar to Anon, 'As Clerum', Punch, 46 (1864), 98–99, this describes fashions which give humans the appearance of animals. The author describes women's hairstyles that require the use of animal parts or are shaped to look like animals. She notes the French fashion for beautiful coiffures made of the tails of monkeys, pigs, donkeys, and foxes, as well as the paws of cats and lions. She then proceeds to gossip about mutual friends who have such ornithological names as Jane Effie Goldfinch and Mrs Crowbill. The illustrations show women wearing animal parts, or with their hair shaped like animals.

Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Politics, Heat, Light, Instruments, Amusement

    Reflecting on Benjamin Disraeli's Disraeli, Benjamin, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield (1804–81) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> aggressive parliamentary tactics, this poem opens by pondering the nature of the 'stuff' of 'the undertaker / Of the unsavoury trade of / Opposition firework-maker'. It then describes the construction of fiery parliamentary speeches as if they were fireworks. They are constructed from such unsavoury ingredients as 'inferences and fictions', and 'Steel-filings epigrammatic / And salt for burning blue [a reference to the traditional colour of the Conservative Party]', but 'Any paper a case will make / And any stick a handle', while the 'party' can supply 'cold water' for making 'Wet powder' fireworks. Having described the ascent and descent of the 'firework', notes that parliamentary fireworks 'Are warranted perfectly harmless'.

Genre:

Regular Feature, Proceedings, Drollery

Subjects:

Education, Military Technology, Government

    Reports on the government's successful campaign to establish a Royal School of Naval Architecture Royal School of Naval Architecture
Close   View the register entry >> at South Kensington, to which Punch adds the suggestion that 'Arrangements are to be made for launching the vessels into the basin in the Horticultural Gardens Royal Horticultural Society—Gardens, Chiswick
Close   View the register entry >>'. Later notes news of an imminent 'grand trial of the rival guns, ARMSTRONG Armstrong, Sir William George, Baron Armstrong of Cragside (1810–1900) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> v. WHITWORTH Whitworth, Sir Joseph, 1st Baronet (1803–87) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>', and therefore suggests establishing a 'School of Naval Gunnery'. Proceeds to explain the progress of a 'Bill for testing Chain Cable, so as to ensure the safety of vessels at anchor'. (104)

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Railways, Accidents, Crime

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Human Development, Animal Behaviour, Evolution, Religious Authority, Religion

    Noting that 'The essential sameness of Man with Gorilla has lately been urged with much vehemence by some gentlemen who perhaps in their own persons afford the strongest proofs of it', considers a 'plausible argument in its favour' to be the 'monkey's tricks' played by the Anglican monk Joseph L Lyne Lyne, Joseph Leycester ('Father Ignatius') (1837–1908) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> ('Brother Ignatius'). Notes that, according to a report in The Times The Times (1777–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >>, Ignatius and his brethren are in the habit of walking muddy and snow-covered streets wearing only 'rough sandals'. Suggests that if Ignatius had done this in Rome, Pope Pius IX Pius IX, Pope (1792–1878) CBD
Close   View the register entry >> would probably not have 'put him into a cage and exhibited', but he would have been 'shut up by the Inquisition'.

Genre:

Letter, Spoof; Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Mathematics

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Telegraphy, Steamships, Cultural Geography, Progress

    Believes that 'Electric telegraphs and steam-boats have apparently done little for our friends across the Channel in the matter of improving their acquaintance with Great Britain', and presents evidence for this from the Daily Telegraph Daily Telegraph (1856–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> whose Paris correspondent reports some gross misconceptions of English behaviour.

Genre:

Introduction, Drollery; Report, Spoof

Subjects:

Animal Behaviour, Music, Nutrition

    Introduces two 'short paragraphs' from the 'French Papers' which describe an encounter between 'A well-known Naturalist' and a singing fish, and a hard-boiled egg which attacked its eater.

Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Government, Politics, Public Health, Sanitation, Disease

    Introduces 'CENTRALISATION' as the great bogie of that the 'great guardian of Vestrydom's Ark', Bumble (the parish beadle from Charles J H Dickens's Dickens, Charles John Huffam (1812–70) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Oliver Twist [Dickens, Charles John Huffam] 1838. Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress, 3 vols, London: Richard Bentley
Close   View the register entry >>). Centralisation is 'rolled / From under the vestry-room table' when, in the face of 'Vested interests' thwarting 'some long-standing brazen-faced job', 'a zealous Reformer, or Minister bold, / Takes the bull by the horns'. Describes the hostility between Bumbledom and Centralisation, notably when 'BUMBLEDOM [...] Hands Paup'rism o'er to starvation, / Or has lifted its heel to spurn Misery aside' and faces the poor law board inspectors who are the 'minions of CENTRALISATION!'. Bumbledom is also made responsible for neglecting the need to make sewers, stop 'a foul trade', to drain, sluice and mop 'Some plague-smitten court', and to purify 'Some fever-nest', and is represented as saying 'Hands off with your CENTRALISATION!' and solving these problems with self-government. The author's support for centralisation is confirmed in his conclusion which has Bumbledom upholding 'risk and no CENTRALISATION!'.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Mathematics, Amusement

    'How many squares make a round?'

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Steamships, War, Commerce, Government

    Opens by attacking 'private ship-builders' of Britain, who 'have the power, by an evasion of the law', to supply 'vessels of war to the enemies of people' with whom Britain is currently at peace, but points out that 'it is intolerable that any foreign nation should be empowered to limit the business of any British ship-builder' (this is a reference to the controversy over John Laird's Laird, John (1805–74) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> attempted sale of ironclads to the Confederate government). Advises the Prime Minister, Henry J Temple (3rd Viscount Palmerston) Temple, Henry John, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (1784–1865) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, to force through legislation that compels the 'sale of any vessel of war' which the government thinks 'proper to buy at a fair valuation'. Supports its argument by noting that the power thus conferred on the government is that enjoyed by 'money-grabbing' railway companies, and the greater efficiency that the Royal Navy Royal Navy
Close   View the register entry >> would gain through additions from private dockyards.

Genre:

Regular Feature, Proceedings, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Railways, Government, Environmentalism, Metrology, Progress, Futurism, Heat, Light, Telegraphy, Engineering, Military Technology, War, Nationalism, Cultural Geography

    Reports on the defeat of several proposals for new railways in London, an announcement made by a contented Granville G Leveson-Gower (2nd Earl Granville) Leveson-Gower, Granville George, 2nd Earl Granville (1815–91) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, and notes that railway companies are to be 'compelled to work together', thus reducing travel confusion. Later notes the acceptance of the 'London Railways Report', the contents of which were detailed by Thomas Milner-Gibson Milner-Gibson, Thomas (1806–84) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>. Joseph Paxton Paxton, Sir Joseph (1803–65) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> gave 'strong reasons' for preferring some of the rejected lines to the accepted one, but the House of Lords House of Lords
Close   View the register entry >> agreed with Edward H Stanley (Lord Stanley) Stanley, Edward Henry, 15th Earl of Derby (formerly styled 'Lord Stanley') (1826–93) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> in supporting the recommendations of the report. (120) Later reports on the debate on a 'Bill permitting people to use the Metric System', and anticipates how 'Posterity' with its 'complete and scientific metric system will smile at the reluctance with which we listened' to those who ridiculed such innovations as gas, locomotives, penny postage, and the electric telegraph. Hopes posterity will not be harsh on Punch for its idea of a 'Tunnel to America' even though it has 'one to France'. Later notes the 'unsatisfactory' trials of William G Armstrong's Armstrong, Sir William George, Baron Armstrong of Cragside (1810–1900) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> 'monster' gun, although Lord Clarence E Paget Paget, Lord Clarence Edward (1811–95) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> insisted that Britain led France 'in the matter of guns'.

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Military Technology, Instruments

    Shows a number of men on a firing range, one of whom realises that the reason for his lack of success at firing his small-bore rifle is because he has mistakenly rammed the cartridges down the long telescopic sight attached to the rifle barrel.

Genre:

Drama, Drollery

Subjects:

Pharmaceuticals, Chemistry, Amusement, Language

Genre:

Regular Feature, Proceedings, Drollery

Subjects:

Accidents, Industry, Manufactories, Government, Patronage

    Reports on the aid given to victims of the 'awful catastrophe at Sheffield' (which was flooded when the Dale Dyke Dam Dale Dyke Dam, Low Bradfield
Close   View the register entry >> in Low Bradfield collapsed), including substantial monetary donations from the town's armour-plating manufacturer John Brown Brown, Sir John (1816–96) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>. Notes that Robert Rawlinson Rawlinson, Sir Robert (1810–98) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, 'an engineer connected with the Home Office Home Office
Close   View the register entry >>', is to 'discharge his duty' in this grave matter.

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Crime, Machinery, Force, Instruments

    Discussing the recent House of Commons House of Commons
Close   View the register entry >> vote against the amendment of the Mutiny Bill, insists that the 'Act of Parliament which limits Courts Martial and Colonels to fifty lashes, omitted to provide that they should be administered by a flogging machine, graduated to act with a certain power, or that the force of the drummer's arm should be limited to a stated sum by a dynamometer'.

Genre:

Reportage, Spoof

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Medical Treatment, Charlatanry, Commerce

People mentioned:

Galen Galen (129/30–199/200) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Sanitation, Hydropathy

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Agriculture, Hunting, Cruelty, Class, Education, Morality

    Insists that 'There are some men whose dispositions are wondrously modified by those of the animals with which they are peculiarly conversant', and that 'the agricultural mind' tends towards 'prejudice and stupidity', owing to its exposure to pigs. Supports this latter claim by discussing an extract describing a meeting of the Shipley Sparrow Club Shipley Sparrow Club, West Sussex
Close   View the register entry >>, West Sussex, which announced its collection of thousands of bird's heads and resolved that it would continue 'notwithstanding all that Punch and other anti-birdkillers have said'. Believes that the club takes pride in persisting in its 'brutal endeavour' and suggests as more apt names the 'Goose Club' or 'Caterpillar Club'. Concludes by arguing that killing the destroyers of vermin that ravage crops is 'suicidal' on the part of farmers, and thus indicates the similarity between agriculturalists and pigs.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Medical Treatment, Language

    Notes that 'Pillory was not originally 'a place where an offender was obliged to take medicine, though whoever was placed therein, undoubtedly had a dose of it'.

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Medical Treatment, Medical Practitioners, Human Development, Politics, Crime, Commerce

Publications cited:

Bicester Herald Bicester Herald (1855–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >>

    Addressed to John B Parry Parry, John Billinglsey (1798–1876) WBI
Close   View the register entry >>, the judge in the case of W G Walker Walker, W G (fl. 1864) PU1/46/14/5
Close   View the register entry >> versus Thame Poor Law Union Thames Poor Law Union
Close   View the register entry >>. Walker, a medical district officer for the Thame Poor Law Union, had sought remuneration from his employers for his attendance in 'seven cases of childbirth'. The board denied payment of his claim and Walker sought clarification as to whether he had to 'attend to the orders' of the 'overseers' in such cases. The narrator criticises the judge's assessment of which midwifery cases count as being of 'sudden and urgent necessity' (as opposed to 'ordinary' cases), which are the only ones for which the judge thinks the Thame Poor Law Union are 'liable' to pay Walker. Notes Walker's protest that he is not able to ascertain beforehand whether he is to get paid for a midwifery case, and wonders how severe a case has to be before the judge considered it urgent, and points out that most cases prompting the call 'Run for the doctor' would not be considered urgent by the judge. Concludes by discussing the harsh attitude of a jury towards a doctor who, having inadvertently allowed a pauper patient to die, claimed that he was following the judge's incorrect assumption that the case was not sufficiently urgent to demand the doctor's attention.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Accidents, Mathematics, Political Economy

People mentioned:

Thomas R Malthus Malthus, Thomas Robert (1766–1834) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>

Institutions mentioned:

Royal National Lifeboat Institution Royal National Lifeboat Institution
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Narcotics, Race, Travel, Exploration, Cultural Geography, Physiology, Human Development

    Declaring to Mr Punch his aversion to smokers, the narrator notes that according to an account of the Wahabites of Arabia given by William G Palgrave Palgrave, William Gifford (1826–88) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> at the Royal Geographical Society Royal Geographical Society
Close   View the register entry >>, this 'sect' consider tobacco smoking to be 'the most deadly and abominable of all sins'. Thinks that smokers should be regarded in the same way as murderers, and argues that owing to their abstinence from smoking, the Wahabites 'display more taste in their street-architecture than Londoners can boast of', and show greater tolerance towards 'travellers who visit them' and 'those who differ from them in religion'. He suggests that this is because 'As men become dyspeptic, they grow dogmatic and churlish'.

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Nutrition, Narcotics

    Shows a 'Swell' talking to a 'Corpulent Cabman' who has declined the swell's advice to procure some beer on the grounds that 'follerin MR. BANTIN'S adwice for corpulence' (a reference to Banting 1863 Banting, William 1863. Letter on Corpulence: Addressed to the Public, [London]: printed by Harrison and Sons
Close   View the register entry >>) he should drink claret instead.

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Force, Energy, Palaeontology, Steam-power, Work, Physiology, Political Economy, Nutrition

    Acknowledges Mr Punch's knowledge of the 'Conservation of Force' and the notion that the solar force is 'conserved in the Coal Fields', which are the remains of 'pre-Adamite tree-ferns' that 'extracted and appropriated' the carbon from the atmosphere. Goes on to acknowledge Mr Punch's awareness of the fact that coal permits the 'light and heat' of the sun to be 'reproduced' but stresses the warnings of 'scientific men' about the exhaustion of coalfields. Upholds the need to 'economise force' and, comparing the stomachs of convicts to the furnaces of steam-engines, argues in favour of exploiting the 'muscular exertions of every convict' which is currently only being wasted 'on the prison air'. Suggests that convicts should be 'employed in pumping atmospheric air into iron cylinders furnished with valves', the 'force put into the convicts in the form of meat and vegetables' being stored in a measurable quantity of 'compressed air', itself being used to supply 'motive power'. Suggests the possibility of other ways of 'bottling convict labour'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Vaccination, Human Development

Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Development, Geology, Human Development, Time, Progress, Cultural Geography, Homeopathy, Medical Treatment, Steamships, Military Technology, Transport, Music

    From the perspective of the remote past, as described in Lyell's text, looks forward to more recent events such as Hercules joining 'his club'. Also notes the absence of various aspects of contemporary life; for example, 'No globules then / Up to Number Ten / Could be purchased at MR EPPS Epps, John (1805–69) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>', 'No plated ships / Had left their slips / With an enemy's force to cope', 'No LESSEPP'S Lesseps, Ferdinand, vicomte de (1805–94) CBD
Close   View the register entry >> canal Suez Canal
Close   View the register entry >> / Raised a sad cabal / On account of its unpaid Fellahs', and 'No BABBAGE Babbage, Charles (1792–1871) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> as yet / Was made to fret / By the notes of a hurdy-gurdy'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Crime, Invention

    Discusses a report in the Lombardia Lombardia (1859–1900+) SBN
Close   View the register entry >> of Milan of an invention to thwart pickpockets: an iron trap placed in a coat pocket. Hopes that the invention is 'a fact' and anticipates that catching pickpockets in this way will 'soon become a common occurrence.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Supernaturalism, Religion, Animal Behaviour, Spiritualism

    Discusses remarks made in a lecture by Frederic W Farrar Farrar, Frederic William (1831–1903) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> at the Anthropological Society Anthropological Society of London
Close   View the register entry >> (a version of which was published as Farrar 1864 Farrar, Frederic William 1864. 'On the Universality of Belief in God, and in a Future State', Anthropological Review, 2, ccxvii-ccxix
Close   View the register entry >>), in which he argued that the 'existence of some unknown power was not sufficient [...] to prove belief in a Supreme Being', owing to the fact that 'even animals' are conscious of 'some superior unseen power'. Draws attention to Farrar's report of a dog who refused to enter a wood because it was haunted, and recommends this case to the Spiritual Magazine Spiritual Magazine (1860–77) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >>, not least because it suggests genuine 'spiritual perception' by the dog. Concludes, however, by suggesting that the dog was either 'supernaturally sagacious' or heard talk of the haunted wood.

Genre:

Regular Feature, Proceedings, Drollery

Subjects:

Religious Authority, Medical Practitioners, Government

People mentioned:

Alfred Smee Smee, Alfred (1818–77) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

[Trident], pseud.  [Henry R Howard] Howard, Henry R (fl. 1853) Spielmann 1895
Close   View the register entry >> Spielmann, Marion Harry Alexander 1895. The History of "Punch", London: Cassell
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Specimen Trading, Collecting, Climatology

    Shows a somewhat disappointed-looking woman watching the delivery of a large bison to her door step, a delivery following her recent membership of the Acclimatisation Society Acclimatisation Society, New South Wales
Close   View the register entry >>.

Genre:

Regular Feature, Proceedings, Drollery

Subjects:

Military Technology, Steamships, Government

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Human Development, Animal Behaviour, War, Class

    Describes the 'dis-gusting' sight of the carriage door of George G Leveson-Gower (3rd Duke of Sutherland) Leveson-Gower, George Granville William Sutherland, 3rd Duke of Sutherland (1828–92) ODNB, s.v. Leveson-Gower, George Granville
Close   View the register entry >> being 'torn in peeces [...] by the beestly mob, drored together to welcum GENERAL GARIBALDI Garibaldi, Giuseppe (1807–82) CBD
Close   View the register entry >>, wich I beleeve he have no reglar Kommishun, honly a specie of gorilla hofiser'—an allusion to Garibaldi's status as a guerrilla soldier (166).

Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

Environmentalism, War, Politics, Heroism

    The poem addresses a snob 'Who tore branches from the Wellingtonia Giganta Planted by GARIBALDI Garibaldi, Giuseppe (1807–82) CBD
Close   View the register entry >>, in the grounds of the Poet Laureate'. Strongly condemning the action, the poet apostrophizes: 'Oh, might the twigs that thou hast stol'n / Burgeon to life anon, / And twist themselves into a rod, / With Punch to lay it on! [...] May every needle of the pine / That thou away hast torn, / Within the pillows of thy bed / Become a separate thorn!'.

Genre:

Regular Feature, Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Railways, Progress, Human Development, Psychology, Time

    Noting the claim that 'a time may come when SHAKESPEARE Shakespeare, William (1564–1616) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> will cease to prove attractive', considers the arguments that railways seem to 'have made people less patient than they were at public places of amusement, and less tolerant of anything approaching to longwindedness, which some of SHAKESPEARE'S characters are clearly rather given to'. However, the author does not fear the 'bad time [...] when SHAKESPEARE will be sneered at as being too slow to keep pace with the age'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Natural History, Comparative Philology

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Music, Environmentalism

People mentioned:

Charles Babbage Babbage, Charles (1792–1871) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Regular Feature, Proceedings, Drollery

Subjects:

Prognostication, Religious Authority, Astronomy, Government

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Medical Treatment

Genre:

Song, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

[Trident], pseud.  [Henry R Howard] Howard, Henry R (fl. 1853) Spielmann 1895
Close   View the register entry >> Spielmann, Marion Harry Alexander 1895. The History of "Punch", London: Cassell
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Human Development

    Shows a scene from William Shakespeare's Shakespeare, William (1564–1616) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> A Midsummer Night's Dream, in which Bottom the weaver has developed the head of an ass and is experiencing a fantastic dream.

Genre:

Drama, Drollery

Subjects:

Mining, Metallurgy, Genius

    To celebrate the tercentenary of the birth of William Shakespeare Shakespeare, William (1564–1616) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> this 'Elisabethan Masque' features a hymn sung by poets and playwrights from all ages and nations. The hymn praises Shakespeare's brain 'as continent all mines containing, / That breeds all metals without waste or waning, / Red, gold, pale silver, brave brass, iron strong— / The dross of word-play, quip and crank and rhyme— / The rude and heavy matrix of thy time— / The ore wherein thy bedded mental lay, / As diamond in rock, or gold in clay'.

Genre:

Regular Feature, Proceedings, Drollery

Subjects:

Military Technology, Steamships, Politics, Government

People mentioned:

John Laird Laird, John (1805–74) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Meteorology, Race, Cultural Geography

Genre:

Regular Feature, Proceedings, Drollery

Subjects:

Metrology, Government

    Responds to news that the 'Metric System is effectually opposed' with the observation 'Dulness carries it', and notes that 'all that is to be done at present is to legalise contracts in which the weights and measures mentioned are metric weights and measures'. Adds that 'Dreadful nonsense was talked' and that members of Parliament Houses of Parliament
Close   View the register entry >> were confused between metres as units of length and poetical metres. (198)

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Engineering, Transport, Nationalism

People mentioned:

Ferdinand, vicomte de Lesseps Lesseps, Ferdinand, vicomte de (1805–94) CBD
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Astronomy, Representation

Genre:

Regular Feature, Proceedings, Drollery

Subjects:

Medical Treatment, Patronage, Government

    Notes Frederick Peel's Peel, Sir Frederick (1823–1906) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> introduction of 'a Bill enabling the QUEEN Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and Empress of India (1819–1901) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> to grant a lease for 999 years to the College of Physicians Royal College of Physicians
Close   View the register entry >>, in Pall Mall East'. Punch hopes that 'long before that lease shall run out [...] the world will have learned to do without physicians, of any kind'.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Nutrition, Animal Development

    Insists that 'STOUT, Porter, or other Beer, is the most proper tipple with oysters; since Nature herself often shows us the Oyster and the Purl, coexisting in the same shell'.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Prognostication, Ornithology, Breeding

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Mathematics, Language

    Describes a friend who 'converses solely in mathematical language', and gives examples of his speech. For example, he addresses 'communications to his cousin, Ensign A., of the Fifth, "n sin⁵a"'. Explains his ability to read and smoke at the same time with the answer that 'he was one of those men who considered that the pipe and cymbals (symbols) harmonised'.

Genre:

Song, Drollery

Subjects:

Music, Environmentalism, Scientific Practitioners, Government

    Praising Michael T Bass's Bass, Michael Thomas (1799–1884) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> introduction of a parliamentary bill for the abatement of street music, notes the lack of sympathy from magistrates for the 'scholar whose brain o'er his volumes reels, / Or a BABBAGE Babbage, Charles (1792–1871) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> abstracted among his wheels'.

Genre:

Introduction, Drollery; Drama, Drollery

Subjects:

Medical Treatment, Politics

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, War

    Noting the small number of British soldiers engaged in active service, puzzles over an advertisement for temporary Army Army
Close   View the register entry >> surgeons, placed in The Times The Times (1777–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> by James B Gibson Gibson, Sir James Brown (1805–68) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, Director-General of the Army Medical Department Army Medical Department
Close   View the register entry >>. Argues that the advertisement has been prompted by a 'surgeon-famine in the Army', caused by regulations which place educated medical practitioners in a subordinate position to 'a lad who is possibly a contemptible puppy'. Thinks that practitioners who do apply for these temporary positions must be engaged in 'unprofitable' practices, and anticipates the resentment felt by a 'gallant young officer' towards a surgeon who is not a snob but has been hired through an advertisement. Noting Charles North's North, Charles Napier (1817–69) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> statement that there had been six applicants for two hundred Army surgeon positions, hopes that, should he be injured in battle, Prince George (Duke of Cambridge) George (George William Frederick Charles), Prince, 2nd Duke of Cambridge (1819–1904) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> will be treated by one of these applicants.

Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Disease

    Written by 'a Sensitive Londoner, with a tendency to Dyspepsia and a hatred of Conventionalism, Poetry, and other Humbug', the poem laments the dearth of May months answering 'the poet's description'. Ignoring the seasonal effects of the weather 'on health and digestion' and forgetting the existence of such common afflictions as rheumatism, wonders 'what are the joys of May, / As known in London'? (220)

Genre:

Regular Feature, Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Extinction, Comparative Philology

    Considers that a theatre critic who 'writes anything that is not complimentary, will soon be as rare a creature as the Dodo or a Phoenix', although he believes that such a creature is 'not yet quite extinct'.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Amusement, Animal Behaviour

    Mr Punch's predictions for the imminent Derby horse race, containing his assessment of contemporary events as if they were horses. He spots 'Guerilla' who 'if you'd called him Gorilla, I shouldn't put a monkey on him', while 'Signalman' is not to be 'seen at his post', and 'Jack Frost is out of place in May, and won't be in a place at the finish'.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Disease, Cruelty, Human Development, Politics, Government

    Laments the evasion of the parliamentary act 'of twenty years ago' prohibiting the employment of young boys as chimney sweeps. Discusses an attempt by the 'Master Sweeps of the City of York' to stop employing young boys and girls in this capacity, pointing out that 'besides its nastiness, and its obvious cruelty, it is the cause of a malignant disease—for which see COOPER'S Cooper, Samuel (1780–1848) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Surgical Dictionary Cooper, Samuel 1809. A Dictionary of Practical Surgery, London: John Murray
Close   View the register entry >>'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Metallurgy, Mining

    Reports that 'the great metallurgist' John Percy Percy, John (1817–89) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> 'has aroused a revolution in the Mining Districts' by 'shattering' a 'system' with a 'thundering Bomb'.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Anatomy, Museums, Language

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Ornithology, Collecting

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Railways, Transport, Gender

    Shows three women standing before a manhole in the pavement, to which a notice 'The Underground [Metropolitan Metropolitan Railway Company
Close   View the register entry >>] Railway' appears to be pointing, and from which a figure emerges with a lamp. The 'Old Lady' remarks that 'I'm sure no woman with the least sense of decency would think of going down that way to it'.

Genre:

Proceedings, Spoof

Subjects:

Technology, Commerce, Charlatanry

    Reports a meeting of 'this excellent Society', which is dominated by wives and daughters of City speculators and whose aim is to 'discourage speculation, and restrain papas and husbands from blindly running into it' and to use 'female influence' to dissuade 'gentlemen from venturing their money in insecure "securities"'. Various women support the association by relating woeful stories of their husband's imprudent financial dealings. For example, Mrs Seedie laments the fact that her husband lost money by investing in such schemes as the 'Sunbeams out of Snowballs Steam Extraction Company', which caused his money to melt 'as quickly as the snowballs would have done' and in the 'General Oceanic Highway Company, which was started for the purpose of lighting the sea, by means of gaslamps placed in it a hundred yards apart', a scheme that 'succeeded only in making light the purses of those who were investors in it'. Later Mrs Flashley tells of her husband's rash investments in the disastrous 'North and South Pole Junction Atmospheric Railway Company', the 'Popgun and Pegtop Foreign Manufacture Company', and the 'Submarine Anemone Steam Propagation Company'.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Military Technology, Accidents, Manufactories, Crime

    Discusses correspondence in The Times The Times (1777–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> from 'A SURGEON TO A LONDON HOSPITAL' and 'A VOLUNTEER' who discuss the dangers of using 'cheap percussion caps', ammunition that has removed the eyes of rifle users. Punch links the faulty caps to their 'cheap' composition, but thinks this is 'too much of a piece with the reckless rascality prevalent amongst the present race of commercial men to excite any wonder', although it wonders why 'the officials' who supply ammunition to volunteers have allowed this to happen

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Nutrition, Breeding

    Noting that a 'Court of Aldermen' will soon be deciding whether to promote the breeding of salmon in the Thames, explains that the discovery of whitebait inside salmon found in the mouth of this river turns the matter into a choice between salmon and whitebait.

Genre:

Reportage, Drollery

Subjects:

Animal Husbandry, Breeding, Narcotics

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Ethnology, Controversy, Physiognomy, Phrenology, Human Development

    Lamenting the inability of 'philosophers' to discuss 'skulls' 'without the intercourse of abuse', discusses a paper 'On Empirical and Scientific Physiognomy' given by Cornelius Donovan Donovan, Cornelius (c. 1820–72) DNBS
Close   View the register entry >> at the Ethnological Society Ethnological Society of London
Close   View the register entry >>. Donovan is reported to have ridiculed some remarks by SIR DAVID BREWSTER Brewster, Sir David (1781–1868) DSB ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> respecting the 'system of LAVATER Lavater, Johann Kaspar (1741–1801) CBD
Close   View the register entry >> in contrast to that of GALL Gall, Franz Joseph (1758–1828) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> and SPURZHEIM Spurzheim, Johann Christoph (1776–1832) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>', and Punch goes on to note how Donovan's paper was ridiculed by George Busk Busk, George (1807–86) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> and James Hunt Hunt, James (1833–69) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, and 'another gentleman' who condemned the work of George Combe Combe, George (1788–1858) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> admired by Donovan as 'one of the most trashy publications on a scientific subject which had ever appeared'. Concludes by identifying Mr Punch as 'a decided phrenologist', owing to his 'fine forehead' and someone who believes a 'violent antiphrenologist' has a 'bad' head.

Genre:

Regular Feature, Proceedings, Drollery

Subjects:

Military Technology, Steamships, Commerce, Government

    Reports on the government's purchase of the 'Liverpool Steam-Rams' which were built for the Confederates, and the proposed reforms to the Royal Naval Hospital, Greenwich Royal Naval Hospital, Greenwich
Close   View the register entry >>.

Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

War, Military Technology, Race, Cultural Geography

    Describes the atrocities committed by King Glele Glele, King of Abomey (fl. 1858–89) WBI
Close   View the register entry >> of Dahomey and compares him to King Wilhelm I Wilhelm I, Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia (1797–1888) CBD
Close   View the register entry >> of Prussia, in respect of the 'savage attack' of Prussia on Sönderborg in Denmark. Ponders the differences ''tween Dahomey's dark sons, / And your Prussians; the negroes have no needle-guns' and 'Great and grave is the peril wherein the world stands / From the weapons of science in savages' hands'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Human Development, Race, Animal Behaviour

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Medical Treatment, Commerce

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Music, Environmentalism, Medical Treatment, Medical Practitioners

    'Because he's going to remove the grinders'—a reference to Michael T Bass's bill to ban organ-grinders.

Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Spiritualism, Religious Authority, Supernaturalism, Miracle, Charlatanry

    Describes Daniel D Home's Home, Daniel Dunglas (1833–86) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> ban from Rome, a measure reflecting Pope Pius IX's Pius IX, Pope (1792–1878) CBD
Close   View the register entry >> abhorrence of Home's 'contraband' 'spirits'. Concludes by explaining that if Home were to 'get / Up some apparition like that of Salette, / Or cause a Madonna to wink' then he and his spirits might be able to remain in Rome.

Genre:

Reportage, Spoof

Subjects:

Railways, Language

    A spoof report on a proposed railway between the 'Subterranean Metropolitan Metropolitan Railway Company
Close   View the register entry >> and the Charing Cross-the-Thames [a reference to the South Eastern Railway Company's South Eastern Railway Company
Close   View the register entry >> new Charing Cross Bridge Charing Cross Bridge
Close   View the register entry >>] Railways'; a line that 'will be called, "The Under-and-Over-Line"'.

Genre:

Regular Feature, Proceedings, Drollery

Subjects:

Agriculture, Statistics, Government

    Reports on James Caird's Caird, Sir James (1816–92) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> 'able speech in favour of his proposal for the collecting and publishing Agricultural Statistics', a proposal that has proved successful (250).

Genre:

Instructions, Spoof

Subjects:

Education, Mathematics, Chemistry, Botany, Astronomy, Geology

    A proposed daily schedule for a pupil at Eton College Eton College, Berkshire
Close   View the register entry >>, punishingly designed 'to prevent any Boys from "leaving Eton, in such a state of ignorance as reflects no credit upon the School"'. It includes such prescriptions as '6 a.m.—Rise. Get two propositions of Euclid Euclid (fl. 295 BC) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> by heart while washing, and solve two algebraic equations, settled overnight, while dressing', '6.—Tea, to be taken during a Lecture on Natural Science'. This is probably a response to the Report Report of the Royal Commission on Public Schools: Report of Her Majesty's Commissioners Appointed to Inquire into the Revenues and Management of Certain Colleges and Schools and the Studies Pursued and Instruction Given Therein, House of Commons Parlimentary Papers, Session 1864, [3288], 20, 1–956
Close   View the register entry >> of the Royal Commission on Public Schools Royal Commission on Public Schools
Close   View the register entry >>.

Genre:

Proceedings, Spoof

Subjects:

War, Medical Treatment

    Describes the case of 'two disreputable foreigners, Francis-Joseph Charles Hapsburg Franz Joseph I, Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary (1830–1916) CBD
Close   View the register entry >> and Frederick-William Louis Hohenzollern Wilhelm I, Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia (1797–1888) CBD
Close   View the register entry >>', who were charged with 'assault and highway robbery with violence' on Christian Glucksbourg Kristian IX, King of Denmark (1818–1906) CBD
Close   View the register entry >>—a reference to the invasion of the Danish duchies of Schleswig and Holstein by Prussia and Austria. Reports that the victim 'was still unable to move without crutches, and complained of severe internal injuries, causing serious intestinal damage', afflictions prompting his doctors to recommend 'amputation' (i.e. the relinquishment of Schleswig and Holstein). (252)

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Ethnology, Race

Institutions mentioned:

Ethnological Society Ethnological Society of London
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Supernaturalism, Technology, Invention

    Adapting lines from William Shakespeare's Shakespeare, William (1564–1616) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Macbeth, reports as a 'New Reading from Shakespeare by PROFESSOR PEPPER Pepper, John Henry (1821–1900) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> the quotation: 'Is that DIRCKS Dircks, Henry (1806–73) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> that I see before me?'.