Genre:

Reportage, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct. [2]

Illustrators:

T H, pseud.  [Thomas Hood]

Subjects:

Menageries, Animal Behaviour, Political Economy, Instruments

    Describes having once seen the feeding of the boa constrictor at 'Charing Cross's'. The only other witness to the event was a man who 'looked like a personification of what Political Economists call the Public Consumer; or, Geoffrey Crayon's Stout Gentleman, seen through Carpenter's Solar Microscope' (86–87). The illustration captioned 'The Boa after a Meal' (facing 85) depicts a fat man gazing at a snake which has an enormous rabbit-shaped engorgement in the middle of its length. The illustration captioned 'The Great Sea Serpent Discovered From the Mast-Head' (89) depicts a giant sea serpent attached to, and trailing from, the mast of a ship.