Genre:

Illustration; Notes

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

L S Sambourne, Edwin Linley (1844–1910) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Spielmann, Marion Harry Alexander 1895. The History of "Punch", London: Cassell
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Scientific Practitioners, Natural History, Physiognomy, Electricity, Engineering, Invention, Steam-power, Astronomy, Cosmology, Architecture, Mathematics, Botany, Light, Natural Philosophy, Manufactories, Philosophy, Exploration, Heroism, Hunting

People mentioned:

Carl Linnaeus, Linnaeus (or von Linné), Carl (1707–78) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Johann K Lavater, Lavater, Johann Kaspar (1741–1801) CBD
Close   View the register entry >> Benjamin Franklin, Franklin, Benjamin (1706–90) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> James Watt, Watt, James (1736–1819) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Luigi Galvani, Galvani, Luigi (1737–98) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Nicholas Copernicus, Copernicus, Nicholas (1473–1543) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Christopher Wren, Wren, Sir Christopher (1632–1723) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> George L Leclerc, comte de Buffon, Buffon, Georges-Louis Leclerc, comte de (1707–88) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Roger Bacon, Bacon, Roger (c. 1219–c. 1292) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Matthew Boulton, Boulton, Matthew (1728–1809) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Auguste Comte, Comte, Isidore Auguste Marie François Xavier (Auguste) (1798–1857) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> John Rennie, Rennie, John (1761–1821) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> James Cook, Cook, James (1728–79) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Gottfried W Leibniz, Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm (1646–1716) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Izaak Walton Walton, Izaak (1593–1683) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>

    Surrounding the calendar are a series of vignettes satirizing several topical political and social issues. These include a stereotypical Irishman with a lobster's body and two fish (both with legs) in a scuffle.

Genre:

Regular Feature, Anecdote, Drollery

Subjects:

Veterinary Science

People mentioned:

Jeremy Bentham Bentham, Jeremy (1748–1832) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Ornithology, Animal Behaviour, Nutrition

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Philosophy, Domestic Economy

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Machinery, Amusement

    Shows a barber's shop in which the hairdresser asks a customer, 'Shall I—blow down your neck by machinery, Sir?!'.

Genre:

Editorial Reply, Spoof

Subjects:

Transport, Electricity, Futurism

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Botanical Gardens, Display, Botany

Institutions mentioned:

Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Physical Geography, Nomenclature

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Telegraphy, Electricity, Education, Gender

Genre:

Regular Feature, Anecdote, Drollery

Subjects:

Scientific Practitioners, Domestic Economy

People mentioned:

Isaac Newton Newton, Sir Isaac (1642–1727) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

J T Tenniel, Sir John (1820–1914) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Spielmann, Marion Harry Alexander 1895. The History of "Punch", London: Cassell
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Zoological Gardens, Ornithology, Class

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Agriculture, Invention, Futurism

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Zoology, Reading

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Light, Hunting

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Telegraphy, Internationalism

Genre:

Announcement, Spoof

Subjects:

Natural History, Museums, Collecting, Display

Institutions mentioned:

British Museum (Natural History) British Museum (Natural History)
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Notes, Spoof

Subjects:

Natural History, Education, Human Development

Institutions mentioned:

Zoological Society—Gardens Zoological Society of London —Gardens
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Railways, Charlatanry, Accidents

    Noting the introduction of the block system on the Midland Railway Company's Midland Railway Company
Close   View the register entry >> lines, states that this is 'vastly preferable' to the 'blockhead system', which cut costs and overworked staff, resulting in an increase in the probability of accidents.

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Mental Illness, Education, Scientific Practitioners, Genius

    Laments that Christmas is the 'season of cramming' the stomach and the mind, although the brain (especially the youthful one) cannot take as much cramming as the stomach. Noting the recent death of a student at Royal Military Academy, Woolwich Royal Military Academy, Woolwich
Close   View the register entry >>, states that while there are cures for physical injuries there is none for 'brain fever'. Supports his case against cramming by noting that Francis Bacon (1st Viscount St Alban) Bacon, Francis, 1st Viscount St Alban (1561–1626) DSB ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, Isaac Newton Newton, Sir Isaac (1642–1727) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>, Humphry Davy Davy, Sir Humphry, Baronet (1778–1829) DSB ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, and Michael Faraday Faraday, Michael (1791–1867) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> 'never crammed', and by doubting whether any 'great poet or philosopher' is the product of cramming. Urges Mr Punch to tell 'Education-Councillors and Committee-men' whether 'genius and mediocrity' would 'gain by answering the kind of questions proposed by ordinary examiners'.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Crime, Medical Treatment, Education, Medical Practitioners

    Notes cases of police officers removing apparently intoxicated people to police stations when they should have been taken to hospital because they were really apoplectic and insensible. Regrets that police officers do not have 'medical knowledge', but suggests that if medical practitioners could fulfil roles as policemen then this would reduce the financial burden of providing salaries for medically trained men wanting to practice as doctors.

Genre:

Song, Drollery

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Disease, Medical Treatment

    Song sung by two medical practitioners relishing the prospect of making money from the usual glut of 'Christmas bills'.

Genre:

Announcement, Spoof

Subjects:

Meteorology, Prognostication

Genre:

Song, Drollery

Subjects:

Utilitarianism, Class, Disease, Government

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Telegraphy, Periodicals

Genre:

Regular Feature, Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Religion, Religious Authority, Astronomy, Instruments, Meteorology, Astrology, Prognostication

    Written from the perspective of a slightly illiterate female correspondent writing from Rome during the meeting of the Œcumenical Council Œcumenical Council, Rome
Close   View the register entry >>. She compares the 'Roman Currycombs' with the underground railway in London, and notes that the 'Great Antipathy' 'Mr Rossy' is here (possibly a reference to the actor Ernesto Rossi Rossi, Ernesto (1827–96) WBI
Close   View the register entry >>) although she believes this is 'the same that invented the large telescope in Ireland somewhere (a reference to William Parsons (3rd Earl Rosse) Parsons, William, 3rd Earl of Rosse (1800–67) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>). In a postscript she tells Mr Punch that the 'weather-prophets sat we're going to have a very bad time of it in Rome; but I don't trust their vaccinations. Give me Old Moore Vox Stellarum (1701–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> and Zamiel Zadkiel's Almanac and Herald of Astrology (1836–1900+) BUCOP
Close   View the register entry >>'.

Genre:

Diary, Spoof, Serial

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Health, Disease, Medical Treatment

    Describes how the narrator's doctor, Dr Caspar, unexpectedly visited him while eating breakfast in a restaurant. He grumbles that 'when a Doctor calls upon me, as a patient, suddenly, I generally happen to be looking remarkably well, and all the symptoms that made me send for him [...] have vanished' (28). When his dining companions have left, the doctor examines him with his eye-glass and suspects he has 'rheumatic gout' and advises that he takes the waters and is more careful with his diet. The narrator writes down the doctor's system for recovering in the spa town of Aachen.

Reprinted:

Burnand 1871 Burnand, Francis Cowley 1871. More Happy Thoughts, 2nd edn, London: Bradbury, Evans & Co.
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Regular Feature, Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Invention, Nutrition, Meteorology, Medical Treatment

    Droll observations on literary sources of invention. Begins by claiming that the 'original inventor of steel-pens was the founder of Pen-Sylanvia', and claims that 'Not the least useful of the "Century of Inventions" was the celebrated Worcester Sauce, first devised by the Marquis in a dream, while attending the festival of the Three Choirs Worcester Music Festival [Three Choirs Festival]
Close   View the register entry >> in the city from whence he and his condiment derived their title'. Claims that the name of Charles Macintosh Macintosh, Charles (1766–1843) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> will be immortal 'so long as it continues to rain', that Edmund Spenser Spenser, Edmund (1552?–1599) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> invented 'another article of dress', and that in the library at Apothecaries' Hall Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London—Apothecaries' Hall
Close   View the register entry >> there is a 'manuscript account, in cipher' in Samuel Pepys's Pepys, Samuel (1633–1703) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> hand 'of his discovery of Pepsine during a long walk in the country'.

Genre:

Diary, Spoof, Serial

Subjects:

Health, Medical Treatment

    Describes the narrator's visit to the spa town of Aachen and in particular his tasting of the mineral waters. He likens the latter to the 'water at the Polytechnic Royal Polytechnic Institution
Close   View the register entry >> [...] after it has been flavoured by an experimental blowing up of the Royal George under water, by the Diving Professor, or some other scientific gentleman connected with the establishment' (35).

Reprinted:

Burnand 1871 Burnand, Francis Cowley 1871. More Happy Thoughts, 2nd edn, London: Bradbury, Evans & Co.
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Nutrition, Electricity, Electrochemistry, Health, Time, Human Development

    Discusses news that a 'French savant' has discovered a way of artificially ageing wine by electricity. Suggests that 'stingy people' will be 'ready purchasers of "choice electro-crusted port", or "fine old cheap voltaic claret"', but warns that the premature ageing of wine might have a similar effect on the drinker.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Chemistry, Language

    Responds to news of a chemical test for the poisonous content of hair-dyes and other compounds.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Religious Authority, Religion, Railways, Transport

Genre:

Reportage, Spoof

Subjects:

Observatories, Astronomy

Institutions mentioned:

Royal Observatory, Greenwich Royal Observatory, Greenwich
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Physics, Experiment, Pollution

    'Down with the Dust'—a reference to Tyndall's recent experiments on the dust carried by the air.

Genre:

Regular Feature, Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Religion, Religious Authority, Astronomy, Observatories, Instruments, Meteorology, Astrology, Prognostication

    Written from the perspective of a slightly illiterate and confused female correspondent writing from Rome during the meeting of the Œcumenical Council Œcumenical Council, Rome
Close   View the register entry >>. She tells Mr Punch that she is 'promised an introduction to Father Sickly [the astronomer Angelo Secchi Secchi, Angelo (Pietro Angelo) (1818–78) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>], who is the Great Astonisher here, as MR. HIND Hind, John Russell (1823–95) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> is at home. FATHER SICKY has a Conservatory ever so high up, and a magnificent stethescope for what my niece's husband calls Sky-entific matters. He has got a machine for stopping the earth's motion. FATHER SICKY (not a nice name) is spoke of here with much reference as the Great Astonisher, because of his star-telling denouncements'. Later she mistakenly insists that Galvin, 'the discoverer of galvanism and other eccentricities', participated in the Reformation, thus conflating Luigi Galvani Galvani, Luigi (1737–98) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> and John Calvin Calvin, John (1509–64) CBD
Close   View the register entry >>.

Genre:

Diary, Spoof, Serial

Subjects:

Health, Medical Treatment, Sanitation

    Continues the account of his visit to the spa town of Aachen. Notes the language problems he encountered on his first visit to the baths, especially the German attendant's confusion of 'dirty' and 'thirty' when referring to the water's purity and temperature.

Reprinted:

Burnand 1871 Burnand, Francis Cowley 1871. More Happy Thoughts, 2nd edn, London: Bradbury, Evans & Co.
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Railways, Sound, Music

    Discusses the proposal to give railway whistles a musical pitch. Believes this will be welcomed by 'excruciated travellers' and 'tortured householders' who live near stations, but hopes this will not be 'a pretext for raising the fares'.

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct. [6]

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:

Natural History, Animal Behaviour, Music, Instruments

    Shows a large beetle which, on closer inspection, proves to be a cellist dressed in a tailcoat, with the coat-tails resembling beetles' wings. The illustrations show the musician opening the cello case and playing the instrument, as if it were the attack of one beetle on another. They show the Scraper (cellist) opening the 'cocoon' (cello case) of the Rumbler, which is tempted out of the cocoon by 'a bit of rosin'. The Scraper seizes the Rumbler, 'ties its long wiry antennae to its tail' (attaches the strings of the cello from the tuning pegs to the tailpiece), twists its mandibles (tunes it), and 'throttles' the insect (grabs hold of the fingerboard). In the end, the Rumbler 'falls back on its exhausted antagonist', while a Screecher (i.e the cello bow) 'gazes on the Prostrate Giants of the Insect World'.

Genre:

Regular Feature, Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Vaccination, Discovery, Publishing, Invention, Photography

    Notes the controversy over whether William Shakespeare Shakespeare, William (1564–1616) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> was vaccinated—a controversy caused by the discovery of a manuscript in which John Radcliffe Radcliffe, John (1650–1714) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> recalled being told by a relative of his grandfather's nurse that Shakespeare owed his preservation 'from the dangerous and disfiguring malady then so rife in England' to a cow. Notes that this cow was subsequently 'treated with the greatest respect' and that facsimilies of the Radcliffe letter are to be reproduced by the 'chromophotolithotintotypoxylographic process'.

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Pollution, Physics, Gas Chemistry, Experiment, Health, Amusement

    The spoof letter-writer asks his correspondent, Smith, whether his wife knows about John Tyndall's Tyndall, John (1820–93) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> claim that pure alpine air can be brought into the 'chamber of an invalid' by cotton wool. Rejoices at this news because it implies that they will not have to take their wives to Switzerland 'when their health requires recruiting'. Suggests that when his wife requires pure alpine air, he will simply 'get a respirator made of cotton wool' and allow his invalid wife to breathe as much pure air as she needs. Adds that she can gain exercise by ascending Primrose Hill or St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral
Close   View the register entry >>.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Military Technology, Invention, Controversy, Experiment, Political Economy, Spiritualism

    Invites the alleged rapping 'sperrits' to reply to William Palliser Palliser, Sir William (1830–82) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> who wrote to The Times The Times (1777–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> complaining about the expense of the controversy over pointed chilled shot (Palliser's invention) and shot of flat-headed steel. Criticizes the fact that so much public money has been spent on 'unnecessary experiments' and wonders where the 'increasing cost of projectiles stop?'.

Genre:

Diary, Spoof, Serial

Subjects:

Health, Medical Treatment, Darwinism, Philosophy

    Continues descriptions of the narrator's visit to the spa town of Aachen. During his tedious experience of bathing he has a 'Tremendous Happy Thought', a 'Theory of Origination' that 'will astonish COLENSO Colenso, John William (1814–83) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, upset DESCARTES Descartes, René Du Perron (1596–1650) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>, and scatter Darwinian Darwin, Charles Robert (1809–82) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> theories, and perhaps create an entire revolution in philosophy and science'.

Reprinted:

Burnand 1871 Burnand, Francis Cowley 1871. More Happy Thoughts, 2nd edn, London: Bradbury, Evans & Co.
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Exploration, Cultural Geography, Animal Behaviour

    Denies claims that David Livingstone Livingstone, David (1813–73) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> is to be 'cut up and burnt for a wizard' by 'Congo witchfinders'. Believes he will survive this ordeal as he survived the 'Mavite marauders'.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Death, Medical Practitioners, Physiology, Vitalism, Controversy, Politics

    Notes that the claim of Dr Pinel (possibly Philippe C H Pinel Pinel, Philippe Charles Honoré (b. 1828) WBI
Close   View the register entry >>), that guillotined heads 'may live three hours after being severed', has been ridiculed by the Lancet Lancet (1823–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >>, which points out that the deoxydisation of the blood and the shock would kill the head sooner. Urges Pinel to ask the Conservative party if 'a party may not live three months without a head'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Electricity, Invention, Politics

Institutions mentioned:

Houses of Parliament Houses of Parliament
Close   View the register entry >>

    Presents an extract describing the invention by 'Somebody in Germany' of a 'machine for enabling men in Parliament to vote as quick as lightning'. Thinks that the machine will 'save much loss of time' in voting but suggests that it would be improved if it enabled parliamentarians to vote from their homes. Notes that this would shorten speeches.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Disease, Death, Nutrition

Publications cited:

Demerara Colonist Demerara Colonist (cited 1870) PU1/58/7/1
Close   View the register entry >>

    Alarmed by news of a large number of deaths aboard a 'coolie immigrant ship, from Calcutta to Demerara'. Notes that some of the immigrants died from scurvy, 'a disease that is impossible, if the Government regulations as to provisions are observed'. Explains that the disease was caused by 'bad' lime juice and blames this on the 'immigration agents, inspectors, and protectors of immigrants at Calcutta' as well as 'the owners who bought the bad lime-juice'.

Genre:

Diary, Spoof, Serial

Subjects:

Health, Nutrition, Medical Treatment, Discovery

    Describes further remedies prescribed by Dr Caspar to improve the narrator's health, and later details his experiences in a vapour-bath. While bathing, he becomes aware of 'myriads' of ants near the bath which prompts him to ponder the story of Robert the Bruce Robert I, King of Scotland (Robert the Bruce) (1274–1329) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> and the spider. He then remember that Galileo Galilei Galilei, Galileo (1564–1642) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> 'made a scientific discovery about the pendulum while watching a church-lamp during a stupid sermon'.

Reprinted:

Burnand 1871 Burnand, Francis Cowley 1871. More Happy Thoughts, 2nd edn, London: Bradbury, Evans & Co.
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Politics, Charlatanry, Natural History, Design, Creationism

    Begins with an extract from the Pall Mall Gazette Pall Mall Gazette (1865–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> describing corruption at a recent election in Bridgewater, Somerset. Following the 'revelations brought about by the Bridgewater Commission', the writer insists that 'there can be no doubt that, for illustrations of design in the natural history of Electioneering, as in that of Creation, we cannot go to a better source than the "Bridgewater Treatises" Chalmers, Thomas et al. 1833–36. The Bridgewater Treatises on the Power, Wisdom and Goodness of God as Manifested in the Creation, 12 vols, London: William Pickering
Close   View the register entry >> between bribers and bribees in that now indignant and immaculate borough'.

Genre:

Reportage, Spoof

Subjects:

Railways, Nutrition

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Utilitarianism, Class, Nutrition, Health

    Begins with two long extracts describing the lavish winter clothes that are currently in fashion. Proceeds to a contrasting extract describing the tragic story of John Sutton Sutton, John (1816/7–70) PU1/58/8/2
Close   View the register entry >>, an unemployed wheelwright from London who died from starvation and exposure to the cold on his way to a workhouse. Regrets that this is 'one of four inquests in the same coroner's district on the same day, ending in the same concise verdict'. Notes that the guardians at St Pancras Poor Law Union St Pancras Poor Law Union
Close   View the register entry >> were exasperated by their medical officer giving certificates describing the starvation of paupers. The writer suggests that guardians let their paupers starve in order to reduce poor-law rates.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Physical Geography, Mapping, Societies

    Reports on a 'gentleman' who has bet £500 that the earth is 'not rotund' and that this has been accepted by a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society Royal Geographical Society
Close   View the register entry >> and will be umpired by the editor of 'an old established London paper'. Suggests that the latter is the Globe Globe (1803–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >>.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Astronomy, Observation, Measurement, Government, Patronage

    Notes the appropriateness of the fact that on Valentine's Day, Queen Victoria's Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and Empress of India (1819–1901) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> 'gracious message to her loving Commons House of Commons
Close   View the register entry >>' instructed them to provide for the Venus transit expedition of 1874. Adds that besides the 'public grants' needed for the 'CAPTAIN COOKS Cook, James (1728–79) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>, SIR JOSEPH BANKSES Banks, Sir Joseph (1743–1820) DSB ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, and SIR JOHN HERSCHELS Herschel, Sir John Frederick William (1792–1871) DSB ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> to carry on', there will be the 'annual transit of Venus'—the passage of love-letters through the post.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Microscopy, Instruments, Pollution, Analytical Chemistry, Religious Authority, Politics, Charlatanry, Utilitarianism

    Begins by describing the researches of George Sigerson Sigerson, George (1838–1925) WBI
Close   View the register entry >> of the Royal Irish Academy Royal Irish Academy
Close   View the register entry >>, who used a microscope to analyse the foul constituents of city air and the more beneficial components of sea and country air. Suggests that a more powerful microscope could 'detect in the air its subtler qualities—say the proportions of weariness, worldliness, and worship, that make up the air of Church; or the elements of patriotism and pomposity, vanity and verbosity, the filaments of red tape, and the dry rust of precedent, that blend in the air of the House of Commons House of Commons
Close   View the register entry >>'. Upholds the value of analysing these and similarly unsavoury elements of the air above Exeter Hall Exeter Hall, Strand
Close   View the register entry >> and around the guardians of St Pancras Poor Law Union St Pancras Poor Law Union
Close   View the register entry >>.

Genre:

Regular Feature, Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Philosophy, Political Economy, Gravity, Natural Law, Discovery,

    Describing the artefacts of the famous, considers the emotions felt when one handles the toothpick which Alexander Pope Pope, Alexander (1688–1744) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> was said to have bequeathed to John Arbuthnot Arbuthnot, John (1667–1735) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, and which is now kept in the College of Dentists, Glasgow College of Dentists, Glasgow
Close   View the register entry >>. Similarly, contemplates the thoughts that pass through the mind when handling the 'penwiper' that Thomas R Malthus Malthus, Thomas Robert (1766–1834) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> used on the day he completed Malthus 1798 Malthus, Thomas Robert 1798. An Essay on the Principle of Population, as it Affects the Future Improvement of Society: With Remarks on the Speculations of Mr. Godwin, M. Condorcet, and Other Writers. London: J. Johnson
Close   View the register entry >> or 'NEWTON'S Newton, Sir Isaac (1642–1727) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> tobacco-stopper, formed out of a fragment of the apple-tree under which he was sitting in September, when the Yorkshire codling [a variety of apple] fell at his feet, and unfolded to him his grand discovery of the laws of good society'. Later notes how Joseph Banks Banks, Sir Joseph (1743–1820) DSB ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> and Joshua Reynolds Reynolds, Sir Joshua (1723–92) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> found Edmund Burke Burke, Edmund (1729/30–97) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> in his Wolverhampton villa 'feeding his turkey poults with Indian corn, at luncheon time'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Astronomy, Observatories, Scientific Practitioners, Controversy

    Notes Urbain J J Leverrier's Le Verrier, Urbain Jean Joseph (1811–77) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> dismissal from the Observatoire de Paris Observatoire de Paris
Close   View the register entry >>—an event suggesting that Leverrier's 'star is clearly not in the ascendant'.

Genre:

Diary, Spoof, Serial

Subjects:

Health, Medical Treatment

    Continues the narrator's description of the language problems encountered while taking vapour baths in Aachen.

Reprinted:

Burnand 1871 Burnand, Francis Cowley 1871. More Happy Thoughts, 2nd edn, London: Bradbury, Evans & Co.
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Engineering, Transport, Politics, Charlatanry

    'The Voter's Breeches-Pocket'—a reference to the bribery practised at a recent election in Bridgewater.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Telegraphy, Meteorology

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct. [2]

Illustrators:

[George L P B Du Maurier] 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:

Railways, Transport, Engineering, Invention, Aeronautics

    Responding to Fowler's proposal for a railway across the English Channel, this shows two ludicrously impractical solutions to the problem of spanning this stretch of water with a railway. The first shows a steam locomotive and carriages supported on either side by huge canvas wings that appear to be able to flap and thus allow the invention to fly across the channel. The second invention shows a steam locomotive and carriages ploughing away from a coast, closely following the waves, suggesting a railroad built on the sea. Parodying engineering language, the caption asks why a train should not be 'made to run so fast that by mere virtue of its acquired impetus acting on the squared of the distance, multiplied by the hypotenuse of the inclined plane, &c, &c, &c'.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Force, Language, Magnetism, Electricity, Mesmerism

    Includes the interpretation of 'Persicos odi, puer, appartus' as 'Scientific. Apparatus, an apparatus, persicos, for dispersing, puer odi, the pure Od force'.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Medical Treatment, Quackery

    Savages an advertisement for hair restorer, a dubious product which may contain lead or some other poison.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Photography, Philosophy

    Claims that 'one of the greatest improvements in photographic portraiture can be traced back' to 'DES CARTES Descartes, René Du Perron (1596–1650) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>'.

Genre:

Diary, Spoof, Serial

Subjects:

Anatomy, Publishing, Metaphysics

Reprinted:

Burnand 1871 Burnand, Francis Cowley 1871. More Happy Thoughts, 2nd edn, London: Bradbury, Evans & Co.
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

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

Subjects:

Animal Development, Breeding, Representation

    Shows a stable in which an artist paints a portrait of an energetic-looking horse based on a real, but somewhat tired looking horse which a young stable lad holds nearby. The caption indicates the kind of horse which the painter aims to represent: 'In truth he was a noble steed, / A Tartar of the Ukraine Breed, / Who looked as though the speed of thought / Were in his limbs'.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Politics, Government, Class, Scientific Practitioners

    Urges 'hand-working men who aspire to Parliamentary representation of their class' to be 'very careful in their choice of fighting-ground' if they wish to retain 'the sympathy and support of the head-working men in their struggle'. Criticises them for putting forward a working man's candidate in a Maidstone by-election where John Lubbock Lubbock, Sir John, 4th Baronet and 1st Baron Avebury (1834–1913) DSB ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> was standing in the Liberal interest. Presents an extract from the Spectator Spectator (1828–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> praising Lubbock as 'an able banker, an accomplished economist and financier, a man of the widest and deepest scientific culture, a thorough physiologist, a good geologist, an original writer on prehistoric times'. Emphasises the rarity of these qualities in the House of Commons House of Commons
Close   View the register entry >> and warns working men that if they hinder the progress of such statesmen as Lubbock they will 'make way for the fox, while the lion and the bear are worrying each other'.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Politics, Government, Railways, Travel

Genre:

Dialogue, Drollery

Subjects:

Railways, Politics, Accidents, Class

    Consists of a dialogue between two working men, William Putty and James Filer. They discuss John Bright's Bright, John (1811–89) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> proposal to establish cheap working-men's trains, a proposal to which railway companies agreed provided that workers did not 'demand more compensation [for accidents] than a hundred pound a head'. They discuss the reasons why companies do not invest in railway safety and note Bright's claim that accidents on railways do not arise from 'intentional neglect'—a phrase that they try but fail to understand. They conclude by agreeing that what they need are 'trains intentionally made as safe as ever they can be'.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Railways, Accidents

    Presents an extract from the Observer Observer (1791–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> describing the proposal by the directors of several railway companies to introduce into Parliament Houses of Parliament
Close   View the register entry >> a bill to limit the liability of their companies for personal injury sustained by a railway accident. Proceeds to consider railway insurance and insists that only foolish people would insure their lives with the railway companies, although 'every prudent person' would insure 'his limbs and living body'. Suggests establishing a tariff of premiums that depend on the organ to be insured.

Genre:

Drama, Drollery

Subjects:

Photography, Crime

Genre:

Regular Feature, Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Natural History, Scientific Practitioners, Zoology, Controversy

    Claims that although Georges L Leclerc, comte de Buffon Buffon, Georges-Louis Leclerc, comte de (1707–88) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>, and Georges Cuvier Cuvier, Georges (1769–1832) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> were 'professors in the same university, living in the same street, and employing the same laundress, [they] ceased to speak to each other for sixteen years and a half, after having been on terms of the closest intimacy, in consequence of a difference that arose between them at a social tea-party as to the average width of the stripes on the male Zebra'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Chemistry, Commerce, Measurement, Metrology, Religion, Religious Authority, Matter Theory

    Discusses an extract describing the French government's refusal to take base coin from Rome on the grounds that 'the inexorable logic of chemistry' has demonstrated that 'the Roman lira is only worth ninety-one centimes, and not a hundred'. Ironically siding with Pope Pius IX Pius IX, Pope (1792–1878) CBD
Close   View the register entry >>, the writer argues that if 'the logic of Chemistry is inexorable, the logicians are excommunicable [...] Chemistry may also persevere in demonstrating that a given object is composed mainly of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon—elementary substances. Chemistry be—anathema!'.

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

L S Sambourne, Edwin Linley (1844–1910) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Spielmann, Marion Harry Alexander 1895. The History of "Punch", London: Cassell
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Animal Development, Animal Behaviour, Education

    Shows a conversation between two bank clerks, one of whom, Gibbon, has rather simian features. The other clerk asks Gibbon whether he has seen the performing monkeys, to which he replies: 'Yes! By Jove, it's wonderful. I believe they'll get monkeys to talk and write soon'—thus implying that monkeys could do the work of bank clerks.

Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

Pollution, Public Health, Crime

    Begins with an extract explaining a recent court case between the Attorney General, Robert P Collier Collier, Robert Porrett, 1st Baron Monkswell (1817–86) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, and representatives of the Corporation of Leeds Corporation of Leeds
Close   View the register entry >>, who were charged with polluting the River Aire. The poem questions the decision of the Vice-Chancellor of the Court of Chancery Court of Chancery
Close   View the register entry >>, William M James James, Sir William Milbourne (1807–81) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, to lay the defendants ''neath injunction, pointing out that 'If to poison the Air with Leeds smoke be trade's function, / Why shouldn't it poison the Aire with Leeds sewage'.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Railways, Accidents, Causation

    Notes that a government inspector involved in awarding damages for injuries sustained during an accident on a line of the Great Northern Railway Company Great Northern Railway Company
Close   View the register entry >> argued that some accidents to carriages were caused by '"freaks" which it was impossible to explain by scientific means'. Thinks that a 'more positive' cause of railway accidents is freaks of management.

Genre:

Reportage, Spoof

Subjects:

Religion, Homeopathy

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Industrial Chemistry, Commerce, Pollution, Nutrition

    Begins by describing how the rising prices of 'all sorts of oils and greases' has been caused by claims made by chemists that such raw materials can be turned into food. Believes another 'triumph of Chemistry' that surpasses the 'extraction of Champagne out of petroleum' is the transformation of Thames mud into butter. Thinks this will enable John Thwaites Thwaites, Sir John (1815–1870) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> to 'turning to account the hundreds of thousands of tons of sewage now poured weekly from the pumps at Abbey Mills Abbey Mills Pumping Station, Stratford
Close   View the register entry >>'.

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct. [6]

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:

Entomology, Animal Development, Human Development, Evolution

    Shows three pairs of scenes, each depicting how caterpillar-shaped humans suffer a dreary existence during the day, but enjoy an exciting life during the evening when they have developed into butterflies. The first pair shows a clerk turning into the 'Music-Hall Moth, or Nocturnal Cad-Fly', the second shows a workman turning into 'The Six-Footed Narcissus, or Scarlet Sesquipealian', and the third shows a girl suffering a tedious life reading and playing the piano becoming the 'Girl of the Period Butterfly (Puella rapiduta)'.

Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

Railways, Travel, Heat

    Laments the refusal of railway company directors to provide passengers with foot-warmers—a decision prompted by shareholders' fears that such a move would prove too expensive.

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Gender, Medical Practitioners, Government

    The writer informs Mr Punch of a recent meeting at London in which Dr Drysdale Drysdale, Dr (fl. 1869) PU1/57/15/2
Close   View the register entry >> spoke on 'Medicine as a Profession for Women' and urged ladies to petition the government to introduce a bill to allow women to gain a license to practice medicine. Notes Emily Faithfull's Faithfull, Emily (1835–95) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> argument that there should not be any opposition to this move as it would allow women to 'return to a work which was essentially womanly', and Elizabeth Garrett's Anderson (née Garrett), Elizabeth (1836–1917) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> warning that women must 'become proficient in the healing art' and 'devote many years to perseverance and study' before they can enter the medical profession. Points out that the need for 'perseverance and study' will prevent most women from entering the medical profession and thus preclude any need for opposition to the movement. However, the author argues that women should be encouraged to enter 'every secular profession' for which they may be qualified, including law, the army and chimney sweeping. Insists that 'Women are no more unfitted to practise medicine than they are to practise music. True we have no female HANDELS Händel, Georg Friedrich (1685–1759) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, MOZARTS Mozart, (Johannes Chrysostom) Wolfgang Amadeus (1756–91) CBD
Close   View the register entry >>, and BEETHOVENS Beethoven, Ludwig van (1770–1827) CBD
Close   View the register entry >>. Neither are we likely to have a female HARVEY Harvey, William (1578–1657) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>, HUNTER Hunter, John (1728–93) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>, or ABERNETHY Abernethy, John (1764–1831) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>. Women do not originate things. But it is quite possible we may have a female SYDENHAM Sydenham, Thomas (1624–89) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>, HALFORD Halford (formerly Vaughan), Sir Henry (1766–1844) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, or even a female COOPER Cooper, Sir Astley Paston, 1st Baronet (1768–1841) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>'. Believes medical science might help 'leaven' women and thus end advertisements for corsets, 'low dresses in high life and high latitudes', death from bronchitis and consumption, and 'domestic quackery'. Points out that while the medical profession would be a 'resource' for a 'clever girl' who wishes to 'live single' and to have a 'soul' and 'body' of her own, it would not debar her from matrimony. On the contrary, such a woman would be attractive to a medical man, and to a non-medical man who wants advice about his illnesses.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Industry, Sanitation, Education, Libraries, Religion, Commerce, Progress

    Introduces a long extract from an unspecified source, describing the great benefits enjoyed by workers in Joseph E Schneider's Schneider, Joseph Eugène (1805–75) WBI
Close   View the register entry >> ironworks in Creusot. The extract praises its decent accommodation, gardens, streets, running water, free schools for children and adults, broad ranging educational curriculum (including languages and scientific subjects), nurseries for children, a well-stocked school library, two Catholic churches, facilities for Protestant worship, decent wages, a savings bank, and lower crime rates than average. Suggests that these facilities are better than those provided by 'the greatest and best-managed English iron-works'.

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Mental Illness, Hospitals, Crime

    Draws the attention of George H Whalley Whalley, George Hammond (1813–78) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> to the recent case of a patient in a lunatic asylum who was kneed, kicked, and knocked to death by his two 'keepers'. Urges that asylums and convents ought to be inspected 'as they ought to be, not at set and stated times, and by blind, owlish boards of guardians, but by paid, haphazard visitors, whose pay should be increased for every fault detected'.

Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

Zoology, Human Development

    Written from the perspective of a woman writing about her 'loved one', describes the behaviour of the 'social Zöophyte', a creature that lives ''neath of social waters, / 'Mid ocean's wildest cells', 'nestling' in 'the abysses / With fast and foolish whirl'. Notes that other men and women ignore him in their pursuit of 'faster swains', but that he moves slowly among them 'mute as a quiet fish', and is an 'April Fool'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Philosophy, Religion, Comparative Philology, Natural History, Politics, Government

    Argues that the solution to the 'Irish problem' may lie in the work of Emanuel Swedenborg Swedenborg, Emanuel (1688–1772) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>, who describes certain 'evil uses' or foul creatures (notably serpents and frogs) which can be used to 'injure man' but can help absorb 'malignities'. Explains that unfortunately St Patrick Patrick, Saint (373–463) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> killed off all the vipers in Ireland and thus removed one of the 'evil uses' which could remove such 'malignities' as 'Fenian journalists and sympathisers with Fenians', 'agrarian assassins, and incendiary priests'. Accordingly, thinks that the government should reintroduce adders, toads, and frogs into Ireland in sufficient numbers as to reduce the 'malignities'.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Nutrition, Philosophy, Health

    Explains some of the principal ideas presented in Caplin 1870 Caplin, Jean François Isidore 1870. The Philosophy of Rheumatism and Gout, and a New Method of Radically Curing Those Distressing Maladies, Without the Use of Internal Medicine, London: Trübner
Close   View the register entry >>. Points out that the follower of the philosophy of rheumatism and gout enunciated in the book 'always walks about a great deal to equalise his circulation, and to work off in vapour the superfluities which a philosophical turn, generally combined with a predilection for good living, is apt to introduce into the bodily system'.

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

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:

Anthropology, Societies, Gender

    Shows a husband and wife relaxing before a fire in their parlour. The wife combs her hair and asks her husband where he has been that night. He explains that he has 'spent a most instructive evening with the "Anthropological Society Anthropological Society of London
Close   View the register entry >>"'—an organisation whose name and activities his wife misunderstands.

Genre:

Illustration, Satire

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

J T Tenniel, Sir John (1820–1914) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Spielmann, Marion Harry Alexander 1895. The History of "Punch", London: Cassell
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Education, Mathematics, Government, Politics

    Shows William E Forster Forster, William Edward (1818–86) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, chairman of the Board of Education Board of Education
Close   View the register entry >>, sitting in a room before a group of children. Several clergymen and other officials stand or sit near him. He tells the children that having been 'gravely and earnestly considering whether [they] may learn to read' he is happy to tell them that 'subject to a variety of restrictions, conscience clauses, and the consent of your vestries—you may!'.

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

L S Sambourne, Edwin Linley (1844–1910) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Spielmann, Marion Harry Alexander 1895. The History of "Punch", London: Cassell
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Animal Behaviour, Steam-power, Machinery

    The text is preceded by an illustration showing a tortoise escaping from a hare owing to a tricycle undercarriage and steam-powered body; a smoke-stack juts out from its shell.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Meteorology, Gas Chemistry, Politics

    Suggests that there is 'some constant cause existing whose agency maintains the chronic disaffection of Ireland' and thinks it might be 'a predominance of O'ZONE'.

Genre:

Reportage, Spoof

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Religious Authority, Medical Treatment

Genre:

Literary Notice, Drollery

Subjects:

Quackery, Medical Treatment, Religion, Charlatanry

    Points out that the recently published volume entitled Revelations of Quacks and Quackery Courtenay, Francis Burdett 1865. Revelations of Quacks and Quackery: A Series of Letters, by "Detector" reprinted from "The Medical Circular", London: Bailliere, Tindall and Cox
Close   View the register entry >> 'does not include Apocalyptic Sketches Cumming, John 1848. Apocalyptic Sketches; or, Lectures on the Book of Revelation: Delivered in the Large Room, Exeter Hall, in 1847–48, London: Hall & Co.
Close   View the register entry >> by DR. CUMMING Cumming, John (1807–81) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>'.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Railways, Accidents

    Denies reports that the train carrying Prince Edward Edward VII, King of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British Dominions Beyond the Seas, Emperor of India (1841–1910) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> and Princess Alexandra Alexandra [Princess Alexandra of Denmark]Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the British dominions beyond the seas, and Empress of India, consort of Edward VII (1844–1925) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> 'narrowly escaped a collision' because 'proper precautions' are taken to ensure that this does not happen to the royal train. Suggests that it is 'liberal of Railway Companies not to charge ordinary passengers by Royal Trains extra for safety'.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Surgery, Light, Invention, Medical Treatment, Morality

    Discusses news that a Russian surgeon, Dr Milio Milio, Dr (surgeon) (fl. 1870) PU1/58/13/1
Close   View the register entry >>, has invented a means of illuminating the interior of the body by electric light. Anticipates the moral and medical uses to which the instrument will be put, including the 'detection of ill feelings, and bad workings of the brain'. Believes that the diascope will reveal the 'black heart' of the criminal, the sham of the snob, and the deceit of the swindler.

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

L S Sambourne, Edwin Linley (1844–1910) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Spielmann, Marion Harry Alexander 1895. The History of "Punch", London: Cassell
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Mathematics, Gender

    Shows a complex set of geometrical figures which together form a picture of a woman smoking a cigarette and propping herself up with a walking stick. The caption invites the reader to prove that several of the angles (notably those in the woman's narrow waist) are 'absurd'.

Genre:

Reportage, Spoof

Subjects:

Politics, Invention, Machinery

    Announces that a machine for 'facilitating vote by ballot' is now on show. Explains how the machine allows only one voter to enter an 'iron house' at a time, where the voter is presented with 'All the pros and cons for the different candidates' by machinery. The machine then hands him some money to pay for his vote and forces him to put his voting slip or 'pill' into the receptacle in which he has just been paid to put it. The voter is then 'taken out, by machinery, escapes the hands of an infuriated, or simply inquisitive mob, by machinery, goes home, by machinery, and spends his money like clockwork, and lives happily ever afterwards—by machinery'. Adds that on hearing news of this invention some 'Waxwork Gentlemen' residing in Madame Tussaud's Waxworks Madame Tussaud's Waxworks
Close   View the register entry >> 'applied to be admitted to the privilege of electors'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Utilitarianism, Class, Disease, Medical Treatment

    Reports that the guardians of the St Pancras Poor Law Union St Pancras Poor Law Union
Close   View the register entry >> propose to appoint a dentist to inspect the teeth of its Workhouse St Pancras Poor Law Union Workhouse
Close   View the register entry >> paupers. Suggests that the 'grinders of the aged poor in the St Pancras Union will henceforth be in a great proportion artificial, and manufactured of porcelain', and points out that applications for the post should be submitted on April Fool's Day.

Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Telegraphy, Electricity, Politics

Genre:

Annoucement, Spoof

Subjects:

Societies, Cell Biology, Physiology, Physical Chemistry, Botany, Breeding, Lecturing

    These notices include 'A Lecture on the use of Protoplasms (hot) in all cases of syncope and measles' to be given at the 'Royal Idiotic Institute', 'a Discourse on Abnormal Absorption in the Vacuum of Fermentation' to be held at 'Colwell Hatchney College' (Punch's parody of Colney Hatch Asylum Colney Hatch Asylum
Close   View the register entry >>), and a lecture near the South Kensington Museum South Kensington Museum
Close   View the register entry >> on 'Sea Botany, with Inquiries into the best mode of rearing Ocean Currants'. The latter announcement also contains the advice 'Don't come, if you don't like. Cakes, buns, and tea always hot. Lots of fun when everyone's gone. Ask for Professor S.: a shilling to the policeman will do the trick. Great larks. Bring your own candle'.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Nutrition, Invention, Domestic Economy

    Annouces the invention of 'the Norwegian Self-Acting Cooking Apparatus' which enables pap and gruel teas to be 'kept hot for an indefinite period' and nurses to nap instead of 'watching the hob'.

Genre:

Reportage, Spoof

Subjects:

Gender, Pollution, Public Health

    Reports that Mrs Malaprop (a reference to the character in Richard B Sheridan's Sheridan, Richard Brinsley (1751–1816) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> play, The Rivals Sheridan, Richard Brinsley 1775. The Rivals: A Comedy, London: John Wilkes
Close   View the register entry >>) has responded to news that women can act as commissioners of sewers with the comment that 'she knows a great many poor seamstresses who would be very glad if ladies could give them work at better wages than they are now earning'.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Cruelty, Animal Behaviour

    Reports that the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Close   View the register entry >> has stopped the 'Islington Bull-fighters' from carrying out their activities. Hopes that the society can also curtail the Gun Club Gun Club
Close   View the register entry >>.

Genre:

Extract, Reportage, Spoof

Subjects:

Chemistry, Military Technology

    Describes some of the manuscripts collected by this commission, including 'A complete series of the great Lord Chatham's Pitt, William, first Earl of Chatham ('Pitt the Elder') (1708–78) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> washing bills, extending from 1769 to 1776', and 'the report of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire unto the chemical composition of the matches found on the person of GUIDO FAWKES Fawkes, Guy (1570–1606) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, signed by the Chairman, ROGER BACON Bacon, Roger (c. 1219–c. 1292) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>' (144).

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Education, Politics, Crime, Mental Illness, Neurology, Physiognomy, Phrenology, Human Development, Reading, Religion, Morality, Music

    Discusses the ways in which the case of William Mobbs Mobbs, William (1849/50–1870) PU1/58/14/4The Times, 14 March 1870, p. 11d
Close   View the register entry >>, an agricultural labourer hung for murder, bears upon the question of a fourth R to be established after the standard three Rs of reading, writing, and arithmetic. Emphasises that the Illustrated Police News Illustrated Police News (1864–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> description of Mobbs (with a 'short, narrow forehead and small head, and great thickness about the base of the skull') shows that he was a 'brutal idiotic type'. Insisting that 'whatever may be thought' about the 'reality' of phrenological organs, 'it is undeniable that their names express mental realities' and are handy for 'talking about the mind and its dispositions'. Accordingly describes how Mobbs's faculty of 'Language' had been developed so as to enable him to read, but his education in 'Individuality' and 'Eventuality' had been through reading 'tales of murder', which had in turn developed his 'Destructiveness'. Emphasizes that the three Rs may have given Mobbs the powers of 'Construtiveness', 'Form', 'Size', and 'Number', but these would have made 'no difference' to 'his self-culture of "Self-Destructiveness"'. Argues that Mobbs lacked the fourth R—religion—which cultivates and strengthens those sentiments (including 'Veneration', 'Marvellousness', 'Hope', and 'Benevolence') which differentiate man from the gorilla, the pig, and other beasts. Assesses the claim of John Russell (1st Earl Russell) Russell, Lord John, 1st Earl Russell (1792–1878) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> that hymn-singing in schools will be sufficient for this task and wonders whether rate-payers would be willing to pay for 'the needful organ and organist' to teach religious sentiments. Concludes by suggesting that the fourth R could be taught 'through the faculties of "Time" and "Tune"'.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Gender, Medical Practitioners

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery, Serial

Relevant illustrations:

wdct. [4]

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:

Zoological Gardens, Animal Behaviour, Zoology

    Represents some of strange behaviour of animals at the Zoological Society Gardens. These include a 'Terrific Encounter in the Aquarium between the Lobster and the Jack', an ostrich having its head locked into a hole at night because it is so used to hiding it in the sand during the day, an elephant with a trumpet bell on the end of its trunk (a 'Study of the Elephant in the Act of "Trumpetting"'), and a pig and an elephant, 'distant blood relations', 'turning up their noses at each other'.

Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

Medical Treatment, Quackery

People mentioned:

James Morison Morison, James (1770–1840) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Spiritualism, Religion, Heat, Miracle

    Discusses a report in The Times The Times (1777–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> that Palma, an Italian 'Estatica' or 'medium', has announced that Nicholas P S Wiseman Wiseman, Nicholas Patrick Stephen (1802–65) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> has come out of purgatory. Wonders whether this suggests that the papal authorities recognise the mediumship of Palma but not that of Daniel D Home Home, Daniel Dunglas (1833–86) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, whom they banished from Rome for being a sorcerer. Playing on the word 'palm', describes some of the spiritualistic feats performed by Home using his palms, notably his handling of hot coals. Suggests that Home 'might be conceived to be able to handle fire himself, however, by means no more occult than a sort of chemical palmistry, but anyhow surpasses anything that we have heard of PALMA'. Describes Home's apparent ability ot elongate his body but warns 'Never believe half of what you hear'.

Genre:

Reportage, Spoof

Subjects:

Mental Illness, Politics

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Gender, Politics, Domestic Economy, Human Development, Animal Behaviour

    Discussing Fawcett's recent lectures on the 'Electoral Disabilities of Women' (a version of which was published as Fawcett 1872 Fawcett, Millicent 1872. Electoral Disabilities of Women, London: Trübner & Co.
Close   View the register entry >>), the writer attacks her criticism of the separate spheres of action of men and women. Insists that 'in parcelling life into two great fields, the one inside, the other outside the house-doors, and in creating two beings so distinct in body, mind, and affections as man and women, the Framer of the Universe must have meant the two for different functions'. Insists that 'a similar distinction runs through the whole animal kingdom' and that 'so long as the masculine creature keeps aloof from the domain of the feminine, and leaves to her the nursing and rearing and training of the family, and the ordering and gracing of the home, there lies a tremendously strong presumption against the wisdom of the feminine entry on the masculine domain of business and politics'. Concludes by considering the enfranchisement of women, arguing, 'if Nature had meant you for the franchise, you would have had it long ago'.

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

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:

Gender, Medical Practitioners, Reading

    Shows a sickroom in which a man lies in bed and is attended by his wife. At the foot of the bed, a nurse is seen engrossed in a book. The wife asks who gave the book to the nurse and the husband replies that he did, which prompts his wife to chastise him, since he 'knew how important it is that she [the nurse] shouldn't go to sleep!'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Gender, Education, Universities, Chemistry, Controversy

    Begins by insisting that 'Whatever we may think of the ladies' claims to electoral privileges, there can be no question as to their full right to the spoils of victory when they face our selfish sex in fair fight, and beat us'. Proceeds to describe the case of Mary E Peachey Peachey, Mary E (fl. 1870) PU1/58/16/2
Close   View the register entry >> who was one of the top four chemistry students and scholarship winners at the University of Edinburgh University of Edinburgh
Close   View the register entry >>. Notes that her claims have been resisted by the chemistry professor Alexander C Brown Brown, Alexander Crum (1838–1922) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> and by the university itself, who emphasise that since Peachey was taught in a separate class she is not entitled to the scholarship. Relishes the fact that Titus Salt Salt, Sir Titus (1803–76) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> has complained to The Times The Times (1777–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> about this case and has proposed starting a fund to support Peachey.

Genre:

Drama, Drollery

Subjects:

Crime, Photography

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Military Technology, Crime, Government

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery, Serial

Relevant illustrations:

wdct. [6]

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:

Zoological Gardens, Animal Behaviour, Zoology

    Shows the strange behaviour and feature of some animals at the Zoological Society Gardens. These include the 'Raked-Shovel-Mouthed Wild Boar' (shown with a shovel for a snout), two kiwis sitting on a large egg (the egg is so large that 'it takes two kiwis to hatch it'), and four illustrations of a hedgehog stealing an apple.

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

L S Sambourne, Edwin Linley (1844–1910) 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, Ornithology, Anatomy, Animal Behaviour

    Shows a woman profusely clad in bird's feathers strolling along a pier.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Societies, Display, Geology, Animal Behaviour, Cruelty

    Notes that at a recent meeting of the Royal Society Royal Society of London
Close   View the register entry >> there was a display of the sharp granite pieces used in mending London streets. Considers these to be 'Instruments of Horse-Torture in the Nineteenth-Century'. Hopes that the next meeting of the society will include a display of 'a fragment of the heart of a Vestryman', which is hard enough to allow horses to traverse hard granite streets. Also hopes this will lead to the indictment of vestrymen for their cruelty.

Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

Environmentalism, Industry, Pollution, Human Development, Progress

    Responding to proposals to enclose the New Forest, Hampshire New Forest, Hampshire
Close   View the register entry >>, the poet expresses the hope that he will die before mammon reigns 'sole master' and the 'Flowers and verdure all have fled'. Believes the 'blithe and blooming' land of 'Merry England' is fast becoming a 'Land of Philistines' with 'factory chimneys' and model farms. Thinks that if advocates of the enclosure were turned into 'forms of sordid swine' they would appreciate 'that Hampshire forest fair'. Wonders whether 'Business men of pudding head' have pondered William Shakespeare's Shakespeare, William (1564–1616) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> value, and laments that 'drear and sooty' England will no longer be able to grow 'a race of nobler men'. Concludes with further morose reflections on the ill-effects of 'a great progressive nation' on the woodlands.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Zoology, Breeding, Animal Development, Animal Behaviour, Menageries

    Discusses a Daily Telegraph Daily Telegraph (1856–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> article on the appearance of an alligator in the River Thames. Anticipates other exotic aquatic phenomena including a hippopotamus, crocodile, sharks, whales, swordfish, dolphins, and sea-serpents. Points out that the alligator had escaped from a menagerie and turned out to be a 'gentle lizard'.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Astronomy, Vaccination, Human Development

    Claims that 'MRS. CHITTERBY says she knows all about the Spots on the Son, for her little CHARLEY has just been vaccinated, and is doing beautifully'.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Disease, Medical Treatment, Language

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Hunting, Zoology, Animal Behaviour, Specimen Trading, Evolution, Animal Development, Darwinism

    Presents an extract concerning the discovery by a waterman of an alligator in the River Thames. The creature was taken to the specimen trader, Johann C C Jamrach Jamrach, Johann Christian Carl (1815–91) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, who was told by a police constable that he had no right to detain it. Punch thinks it idle to inquire how the alligator crossed the Atlantic or to 'speculate on the probability that it escaped from some vessel importing it for MR. JAMRACH, or for the Zoological Society Zoological Society of London
Close   View the register entry >>'. Speculates that the alligator might be 'a development of a water-eft [a form of newt]', arguing that if Charles R Darwin's Darwin, Charles Robert (1809–82) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> 'theory is right, the wonder is that we do not rather frequently find such a small novelty turn up as that of an alligator in the Thames'. Finally suggests that it may have developed from 'the inner-consciousness of an unusually imaginative penny-a-liner'. Finally reveals that the creature was a lacert (lizard) that had escaped from Jamrach's collection.

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

L S Sambourne, Edwin Linley (1844–1910) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Spielmann, Marion Harry Alexander 1895. The History of "Punch", London: Cassell
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Amusement, Zoology

    Shows a woman wearing a female lion's head as a headress. The caption suggests that this is a 'Grand Sensation for Tawny-Haired Beauties'.

Genre:

Regular Feature, Proceedings, Drollery

Subjects:

Military Technology, Invention, Controversy

    Notes the 'quarrel' over the dismissal of Edward M Boxer Boxer, Edward Mourrier (1822–98) WBI
Close   View the register entry >> (formerly of the laboratory at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich Royal Arsenal, Woolwich
Close   View the register entry >>), which ended with the 'ventilation of the alleged wrong done to a gentleman whose military inventions have been valuable' (181).

Genre:

Drama, Drollery

Subjects:

Gender, Amusement, Health, Disease, Medical Practitioners

    Describes a meeting of 'fine ladies' at 'Phillis's Rooms' to discuss the alleged injurious effects of tight-lacing. Most of the ladies are passionate advocates of tight-lacing and would rather have tight waists than follow their doctor's advice. Miss Lovelace, for example, claims that tight-lacing has given her headaches and fainting fits although she discarded her doctor's warnings and 'obeyed her dressmaker'. Miss Gasper asks what doctors could know about tight-lacing given that they do not wear tight stays, while Mrs Bonpoint, whose doctor had warned her that tight-lacing produced a 'fatty something of the heart which often had proved fatal', says that she 'would rather die a martyr than dress out of the fashion'—a remark that is met with applause. Other women complain of the effects of the fashion on the complexion and the appetite, while still others complain that it makes horse-riding and waltzing difficult.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Transport, Engineering, Cultural Geography, Nationalism, Cruelty, Government

    Condemns the state of the roads in England and in particular in London. Noting that these roads are composed of 'shingle and broken granite', contrasts this situation with that in France where, according to a report in the Chamber of Agriculture Journal Chamber of Agriculture Journal and Farmer's Chronicle (1868–81) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >>, roads are free from mud in the winter and dust in summer and horses are not forced to grind down the broken stone used in roads. Believes that if 'foreigners' had the same standard of roads as the English they would 'curse the Government' instead of Bumbles (a reference to the parish beadle in 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 >>). Asks why Bumbles do not 'send steam-rollers about their highways to crush the granite, flints, and pebbles with which they pave them, into soft powder'; but this would require a rise in the rates. Suggests that keepers of horses and carriages could pay a 'horse and carriage rate' for smoothing roads.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Hospitals, Public Health, Education, Government, Futurism

    A list of predictions including, 'Somebody will live to see Christ's Hospital Christ's Hospital
Close   View the register entry >> removed into the country', 'Somebody will live to see the streets of London properly cleansed', and 'Somebody will live to see every child in the land educated'.

Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

Progress, Electricity, Steam-power, Commerce, Religion

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Superstition, Crime, Spiritualism

Genre:

Regular Feature, Proceedings, Drollery

Subjects:

Gender, Politics, Government

    Notes Lyon Playfair's Playfair, Sir Lyon, 1st Baron Playfair of St Andrews (1818–98) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> support for a bill to extend the franchise to women, and believes that 'as a philosopher' he knows 'what women are made of' (190).

Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

Gender, Politics, Government, Human Development, Evolution, Darwinism

    Responding to the recent parliamentary debate on John Bright's Bright, John (1811–89) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> bill to remove the 'Electoral Disabilities of Women', this poem describes the thoughts of a 'strong-minded Fair-One' who sat in the gallery of the House of Commons House of Commons
Close   View the register entry >>. She remarks that although women must sit 'like caged birds' in the 'ladies' pen [...] Our fate is fore-cast, by Darwinian selection— / To the floor of the Commons to rise from the pen! / When once we are "Ladies" confessed "of Election"— / Pretty "Lords of Creation" you'll be, you poor men!'.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Gender, Domestic Economy, Machinery

    'A Good Wife'.

Genre:

Regular Feature, Proceedings, Drollery

Subjects:

Telegraphy, Progress, Education, Gender

    Notes an observation by Spencer C Cavendish (Marquess of Hartington) Cavendish, Spencer Compton, 8th Duke of Devonshire (formerly styled 'Marquess of Hartington') (1833–1908) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> that the 'Telegraph System is being extended as rapidly as possible', and indicates that the 'difficulty seems to be the stupidity of the telegraphist staff'—a problem that is diminishing. Asks why more women are not 'almost exclusively employed in work which they could do so adroitly'. (205)

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

L S Sambourne, Edwin Linley (1844–1910) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Spielmann, Marion Harry Alexander 1895. The History of "Punch", London: Cassell
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Hunting, Zoology, Accidents

    Shows two fishermen on a barge, one of whom has caught a small alligator on the end of his line. This refers to a recent report that an alligator had been found in the River Thames.

Genre:

Dialogue, Spoof

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Quackery, Gender

    Describes a conversation about Dr Smoothman between several ladies who praise his charming manner. The husband of one of the ladies, however, had just seen the doctor's bill for a year's attendance and interjects to complain that the doctor is a quack.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Amusement, Degeneration, Human Development, Darwinism

    Rebutts the complaint made by John B Buckstone Buckstone, John Baldwin (1802–79) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> that William Shakespeare's Shakespeare, William (1564–1616) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> plays are not performed frequently enough in London theatres, urging that the 'play-going portion of the British Public are in a transition state, reverting, if the Darwinian Darwin, Charles Robert (1809–82) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> theory of development is true, degenerating whether or not, to the level of apes'.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Hospitals, Human Development, Medical Treatment, Disease

    Discusses a recent speech made by the chairman of the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital Royal Orthopoedic Hospital
Close   View the register entry >>, who discussed the number of patients attending the hospital since its foundation thirty years earlier. Puzzled by the name of the hospital, which suggests that its beneficence is limited to children, the writer suggests that if it opens its doors to adults with such afflictions as club foot then it would benefit from patients who could pay for their accommodation and treatment. Notes the fee commanded by Parisian physicians for treating feet injured by the wearing of high-heeled boots and shoes, and warns that a similar fashion in London for wearing high-heeled footwear will turn feet into 'the semblance of a neat's tongue' and thus require attention at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Language, Medical Treatment, Physiology

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Human Development, Heat, Gender, Magnetism

    A series of droll observations. For example: 'Cold women are often very attractive. FARADAY Faraday, Michael (1791–1867) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> showed why this is. He proved that magnetic power increased with reduction of temperature'.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery, Serial

Subjects:

Scientific Practitioners, Discovery, Astronomy, Instruments, Time, Measurement, Medical Treatment, Controversy, Religion, Progress

    A series of accounts of the invention and discovery of common domestic objects, including the dining-table, the reformed calendar, and the umbrella. Claims that the dining table was invented by Galileo Galilei Galilei, Galileo (1564–1642) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>. When 'Science was yet in its cradle, philosophy still in its perambulator' and before the age of 'egg-boilers', 'sewing-machines', and 'asparagus tongs', Galileo 'withdrew from the world about the time that COPERNICUS Copernicus, Nicholas (1473–1543) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> discovered Night Lights', to 'a humble cottage near Amsterdam'. There he contemplated 'the deep problem which had turned KEPLER Kepler, Johannes (1571–1630) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> white, prematurely aged TYCHO BRAHE Brahe, Tycho (1546–1601) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>, and wrinkled, untimely, the capacious brow and benevolent form of our own NEWTON Newton, Sir Isaac (1642–1727) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>'. In his 'tapestried chamber', dressed in 'his Oriental dressing-gown and Eastern slippers', Galileo paced his apartment 'with eager, restless steps'. Early one morning after spending a night handling 'Plans, diagrams, calculations, sketches, models', he emerged into the 'unpeopled streets' with the cry of 'Ευρηκα! Ευρηκα! [Eureka! Eureka!]' and imparted to a cabinet-maker 'his immortal invention of the telescope—dining-table'. Proceeds to describe Pope Gregory XIII's Gregory XIII, Ugo Buoncompagni, Pope (1502–85) CBD
Close   View the register entry >> 'Reformation of the Calendar' and his invention of 'Gregory's Powder'—a substance 'first compounded by his private physician in the Baths of DIOGENES towards the close of the proceedings'. Also describes the controversy among antiquaries over the date when the umbrella was first introduced into 'this damp climate'. Notes that 'that great Batvian scholar' and fellow of the Royal Society Royal Society of London
Close   View the register entry >>, Wetstein, has challenged Waterland's notion that it was introduced during Oliver Cromwell's Cromwell, Oliver (1599–1658) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> protectorate, insisting that the umbrella first appeared during the reign of King Charles II Charles II, King of England, Scotland and Ireland (1630–85) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> who 'set the fashion of using an umbrella, as a protection both against sun and rain'.

Genre:

Announcement, Spoof

Subjects:

Societies, Geology, Physiology, Scientific Practitioners

    Announces a recent meeting of the 'Intellectual Gymnasts, a Society principally consisting of Geologists, and Physiological Philosophers', many of whom 'exhibited the most wonderful capacity of jumping at conclusions'.

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

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

Subjects:

Geology, Palaeontology, Scientific Practitioners, Class

    Shows a bespectacled 'Scientific Pedestrian' standing before a sweating north of England 'Excavator' who stands, pick axe in hand, in a shallow hole. Responding to the scientist's question whether he had found any fossils, the excavator remarks: 'Dunno what you calls "vossuls". We finds nowt here but muck and 'ard work!'.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Taxonomy, Animal Development, Human Development, Evolution

    Presents Mr Punch's criticism of 'the fashionable A.B.C. Dispatch Box' and notes Mr Punch's suggestion that the invention could be improved by dividing the box into types of humans rather than alphabetically. Mr Punch's classification system includes such categories as 'Asses', 'Bores', 'Gladstone Gladstone, William Ewart (1809–98) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>', 'Nobodies', 'Ungrateful brutes', and 'Zoophytes (mankind generally)'.

Genre:

Notes

Subjects:

Astronomy, Heat, Light, Energy, Mechanics, Utilitarianism, Class

    Begins with a report describing the time period during which the heat generated by the impact of Mercury and Jupiter on the sun would 'cover the solar emission'. Suggests that those who enjoy this calculation will also like to calculate 'what amount of enlightenment' and 'increase in heat of their debaters' would be caused by smartly knocking together the 'heads of dense body', such as poor-law guardians.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Electricity, Physiology, Commerce

    Thinks a 'Galvanic Band Manufacturer's' claim that 'Electricity is Life' is '"shocking" nonsense'.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Exploration, Physical Geography, Discovery, Religious Authority, Heroism

    Discusses a North German Correspondent North German Correspondent (1869–70) German Correspondent (1871–72) BUCOP
Close   View the register entry >> article on the likelihood of Columbus being beatified as a saint. Believes the need to establish that Columbus did perform a miracle is amply supplied by his discovery of America.

Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

Universities, Religion, Dissent, Secularism, Politics, Controversy

    Describes the dispute between various leading statesmen over the bill to abolish religious tests for students entering Oxford University of Oxford
Close   View the register entry >> and Cambridge University of Cambridge
Close   View the register entry >> universities. Notes that 'Twixt Dissenters on one side, the POPE Pius IX, Pope (1792–1878) CBD
Close   View the register entry >> on the other, / And HUXLEY Huxley, Thomas Henry (1825–95) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>, who Faith under Science would Smother; / With her tests torn away, and her orders made delible, / Sequestrations unlawful and livings not sellable; / Her King Storks thrust on one side, to raise her King Logs, / The old Church of England is gone to the dogs'.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Amusement, Animal Behaviour, Astronomy, Light

Institutions mentioned:

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

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Telegraphy, Technology, Instruments, Crime, Morality

    Notes Frank I Scudamore's Scudamore, Frank Ives (1823–84) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> appeal to 'all sensible people' to protect telegraphic apparatus from 'idiot boys' who make 'cockshies of the insulators'. Believes there is no more legitimate 'postage duty' (the General Post Office General Post Office
Close   View the register entry >> being in control of all land telegraphs) than dealing with such individuals.