Science in the 19th Century Periodical

The Comic Annual [1st] [2nd]

Introductory Essay
Volume [5]  (1834)
Comic Annual,  5 (1834), [iii].

[Titlepage]

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T Hood Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Genre:

Illustration

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wdct.

Illustrators:

T Hood Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Subjects:

Horticulture


    The title-page illustration depicts a smiling flower.



Comic Annual,  5 (1834), v–x.

Preface

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[Thomas Hood] Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Genre:

Preface, Drollery

Subjects:

Natural History, Exploration, Magnetism, Utilitarianism, Medical Practitioners

Institutions mentioned:

Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge
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    The annual is making its fifth autumnal appearance 'like the annual Woodcock'. Since last season Hood has plied his bill 'around the springs of the Humorous and the Comic, which are, in the words of Bewick Bewick, Thomas and Beilby, Ralph 1797–1804. A History of British Birds, 2 vols, Newcastle: T. Bewick
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, "oozing rills that are rarely frozen"'. (v) Hood feels a 'sincere Captain Ross Ross, Sir John (1777–1856) ODNB
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-like pleasure' in re-appearing before his friends, although he cannot expect 'quite so pointed and fervent a welcome as a gentleman whose absence has kept all his well-wishers sitting on magnetic pins and needles' (vi). As usual, Hood has 'endeavoured to conciliate the utilitarianism, by mingling a little instruction with amusement, after the manner of the Library of Entertaining Knowledge' (vii). As sole contributor, Hood has no acknowledgements to make but to himself, and should thus make them in private 'after the fashion of the eccentric Doctor Monsey Monsey, Messenger (1694–1788) ODNB
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, who, when he had taken his own advice for his own indisposition, used to transfer the usual Physician's fee from his right hand pocket to the left' (ix).



Comic Annual,  5 (1834), 1–23.

The Rope Dancer, An Extravaganza,—After Rabelais

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[Thomas Hood] Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Genre:

Short Fiction, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

T Hood Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Subjects:

Crime, Natural History, Population, Menageries, Cruelty, Phrenology, Instruments


    Tony, an Italian caught counterfeiting money, is sentenced to death. He asks to be allowed the company of 'a little reptile, or insect of some sort that he had brought over from Italy', a whim that is granted (4). The lord mayor and sheriffs are anxious to 'attend very ceremoniously' to show Tony out of the world; their coachmen and footmen are also 'all Malthusians' (11). Tony is examined on points of faith, including whether the lions in Pilgrim's Progress were bred 'at Mr. Wombwell's Wombwell's Menagerie
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or Mr. Cross's Cross's Menagerie, King's Mews, Charing Cross
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, or at the Tower of London Tower of London
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' (11–12). The hour arrives for Tony to be 'ornithologised by sentence of the great Law Bird, genus Black-cap, into the jail bird, genus Wryneck' (12). Large numbers of Londoners race to attend the hanging. The Royal Humane Society Royal Humane Society
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and the Society for Preventing Cruelty to Animals Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
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are the first to arrive. The Medical Society Medical Society of London
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also 'came to see one die by the New Dropsy' (13). At the gallows, the hangman and the condemned man inexplicably begin dancing wildly. Others join in, including 'three Phrenologists who were waiting to take a cast of the skull' (21). Amidst all the dancing, Tony's pet creature is 'completely atomised', so that even with a 'solar microscope' one would not be able to find the slightest trace of 'A Tarantula' (23). The illustration captioned 'A Tranatula' (23) depicts a dancing spider.



Comic Annual,  5 (1834), 24–26.

Sally Simpkin's Lament; or, John Jones's Kit-Cat-Astrophe

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[Thomas Hood] Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct. [2]

Illustrators:

T Hood Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Subjects:

Natural History, Disease


    The sailor, John Jones, has been bitten in half by a shark. The illustration captioned 'Sea-Consumption—Waisting Away' (facing 24) depicts a man bitten in half. In answer to the question: 'How are ye?' from a sailor on a nearby ship, the top half of the man replies: 'Very middling'. The illustration captioned 'A Centre-Bit' (24) depicts an eel held in the middle by a heron.



Comic Annual,  5 (1834), 27–36.

A Tale of the Great Plague

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[Thomas Hood] Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Genre:

Short Fiction, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct. [2]

Illustrators:

T Hood Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Subjects:

Disease, Epidemiology, Statistics


    Describes the thwarting of an attempted burglary by a servant who feigns illness and dresses up a 'waxen puppet of Hygeia, the Goddess of Health' as a child dead of plague (35). (The puppet had formerly been carried by the Worshipful Company of Barber Surgeons Worshipful Company of Barber Surgeons
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at their pageants, but, on falling into disuse, had been purchased by the servant's mistress, Dame Ellinor Wood, as a toy for her children.) The illustration captioned 'The Bills of Mortality' (facing 27) depicts vultures tearing at a dead horse. The illustration captioned 'The Common Lot' (facing 28) depicts a skeleton acting as auctioneer for a coffin, while a group of gentlefolk look on.



Comic Annual,  5 (1834), 37–43.

Over the Way

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[Thomas Hood] Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Exploration


    The narrator is fascinated by the young lady who lives 'over the way'. He muses: 'Cold as the pole she is to my adoring;— / Like Captain Lyon Lyon, George Francis (1795–1832) ODNB
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, at Repulse's Bay, / I meet an icy end to my exploring / Over the way!' (39).



Comic Annual,  5 (1834), 44–55.

Summer.—A Winter Eclogue

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[Thomas Hood] Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Genre:

Dialogue, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct. [3]

Illustrators:

T Hood Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Subjects:

Steam-power, Entomology, Cruelty, Human Species, Nomenclature, Adulteration, Analytical Chemistry, Experiment, Universities, Botany, Medical Practitioners, Medical Treatment, Quackery


    Civis has gone to visit his friend Sylvanus at Camberwell, hoping to enjoy some 'suburban verdure' (45), but is disappointed to discover that 'The trees are all bare [...] as bare as the "otomies in Surgeon's Hall Royal College of Surgeons
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!"'. Winter has not, as he fears, come early. Sylvanus explains: 'Boiling heat had more part than freezing point in this havoc. To think that even summer now-a-days should go by steam!'. (47) He reports that the trees were destroyed in one day by a swarm of a new species of locust. He caught a specimen which he did not, however, 'pin down to a cork after the manner of the entomologists' (48). The illustration captioned 'A New Locust' (facing 48) depicts a boy pulling the leaves off a tree; underneath a large jar bears the words 'British Leaf'. Sylvanus comments that the 'visage was so strangely human' that he had not the heart to kill it. He describes the species 'according to the system of the great Linnæus Linnaeus (or von Linné), Carl (1707–78) DSB
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'. (49) Sylvanus confesses that in fact the locust was a boy who was, 'in his own heathenish jargon', doing 'a morning fake on the picking lay for a cove wot add a tea-crib in the monkery'. Civis thinks the boy's language similar to that of 'Peter the Wild Boy Peter the Wild Boy (c. 1712–1785) ODNB
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'. (50) Sylvanus explains that the leaves were being used in the adulteration of tea, and reports rumours of resulting ill-health. 'Mr. Fairday, the notable chemist [an allusion to Michael Faraday Faraday, Michael (1791–1867) DSB
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], hath sworn solemnly on his affidavit, that the tea is strongly emetical, having always acted upon his stomach as tea and turn out' (53). The illustration captioned 'A Great Projector' (facing 53) depicts a corpulent man with a protruberant abdomen. The illustration captioned 'Sloe Poison' (facing 54) depicts an ashen-looking woman taking tea out of a cup which bears the skull and crossbones, and a teapot with a ghoulish face; her teaspoon bears the letter 'T', as do the otherwise bare branches of the tree outside the window. Civis thinks the tea 'ought to be tested by the doctors'. Sylvanus reports that 'Dr. Budd, the Pennyroyal Professor of Botany hath ranked it with the rankest of poisons, after experimenting its destructive virtues on select tea parties of his relations and friends'. However, 'Dr. Rudd, of the same Royal College' does not agree, confirming the proverb 'Doctors' opinions do not keep step, or match together, better than their horses'. (53) Rudd 'hath given this beverage with cream of tartar and sugar of lead to consumptives, and hath satisfied himself morally and physically that phthisic does not begin with tea' (53–54).



Comic Annual,  5 (1834), 60–64.

Poem,—From the Polish

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[Thomas Hood] Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Genre:

Poetry, Letter, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

T Hood Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Subjects:

Exploration, Heat, Medical Treatment


    The poem purports to be addressed by the captain of a whaler to his lover, complaining of the effects of the cold in the polar seas. The whaler exclaims: 'The Polar cold is sharp enough / To freeze with icy gloss / The genial current of the sould / E'en in a "Man of Ross"' [the pun is apparently on the northern county of Scotland and the polar explorer John Ross Ross, Sir John (1777–1856) ODNB
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] (61). The illustration captioned 'Discovering the Pole' (facing 61) depicts a man being struck from behind by the projecting pole by which two horses are pulling a carriage. The sailor complains: 'For opodeldoc I would kneel, / My chilblains to anoint; / O Kate, the needle of the north / Has got a freezing point' (62).



Comic Annual,  5 (1834), 65–71.

The Fancy Fair

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[Thomas Hood] Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Genre:

Introduction, Drollery; Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Exploration, Menageries


    The article appears under the quotation attributed to 'Captain Ross Ross, Sir John (1777–1856) ODNB
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': 'I named this place Boothia' (65). In the introduction, Hood reports that a friend had recommended that he should make a fancy fair the subject of a comic sketch, suggesting: 'fancy Jolterhead at the fair of the Surrey Zoological Surrey Literary, Scientific and Zoological Institution—Gardens
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, forcing his clumsy destructive course through groups of female fashionables [...] with the equally laughable intention of inspecting long horns and short horns' (66). Hood reports that he presented his friend instead with a purportedly 'bonâ fide letter' from Jacob Giles of Hampshire. The letter (which is reproduced) complains of a London fancy fair that it had 'no wumwills menageris Wombwell's Menagerie
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' (68).



Comic Annual,  5 (1834), 72–78.

Ode to Sir Andrew Agnew, Bart. Agnew, Sir Andrew, 7th Baronet of Lochnaw (1793–1849) ODNB
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[Thomas Hood] Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Genre:

Poetry, Satire

Relevant illustrations:

wdct. [3]

Illustrators:

T Hood Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Subjects:

Ornithology, Politics, Class, Botany, Piety


    The article is headed with an illustration captioned 'A Bill-Sticker' (72), which depicts a man impaled by a bird's long sharp beak. The vignette is followed by quotations putatively from 'Selby Selby, Prideaux John (1788–1867) ODNB
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' ('At certain seasons he makes a prodigious clattering with his bill') and 'Bewick Bewick, Thomas and Beilby, Ralph 1797–1804. A History of British Birds, 2 vols, Newcastle: T. Bewick
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' ('The bill is rather long, flat, and tinged with green'). The illustration captioned 'Fancy Portrait—Sir Andrew with his Bill' (facing 72) depicts a man with a bill instead of a nose. The poem bemoans the possible consequences of Agnew's Sabbath Bill. According to Hood, Agnew would deny poor men, who had perhaps spent the week 'weaving artificial flowers', from seeing 'Nature's kinder bowers' on the sabbath, and 'Making the earth, the streams, the skies, the trees, / A Chapel of Ease' (73–74). Instead he would wall them in with 'hard Scotch granite'. There may be 'Sermons in stones', but Hood fears Agnew would 'have us work at them like paviours'. (74) The illustration captioned 'A Black Dose' (78) depicts a bottle of medicine with a face superimposed to suggest the black-clad figure of a puritanical clergyman.



Comic Annual,  5 (1834), 93–97.

The Fox and the Hen

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[Thomas Hood] Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Crime, Natural History, Nutrition


    A fox caught by a dog in the act of killing a hen is brought to trial before a jury of twelve animals. Through the influence of a friendly camel he is acquitted, since in the 'Silly Isles' the law is that the jury cannot eat or drink while deliberating, and the camel with its three stomachs can outlast the other animals. The moral of the tale is that it is foolish to make 'the full stop of a Man's existence / Depend upon a Colon' (97).



Comic Annual,  5 (1834), 98–104.

The Steam Service

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[Thomas Hood] Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Genre:

Introduction, Drollery; Ballad, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct. [3]

Illustrators:

T Hood Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Subjects:

Steamships, Pollution, Race, Education


    The introduction looks forward to the time when the Royal Navy Royal Navy
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will rely on steam rather than wind-power. The illustration captioned 'Lawk! How the Blacks are Falling' (facing 98) depicts a woman standing in front of a full washing line gazing at black people falling from the sky. Hood suggests some changes in naval terminology and practices that will follow from the introduction of steam-power. First lieutenants will have to 'attend lectures on the steam-engine'; midshipmen will need lessons 'as climbing boys in the art of sweeping flues' (99). The illustration captioned 'All Up!' (facing 99) depicts a chimney sweep appearing with brushes out of the top of a funnel, the ship being obscured by mighty waves. 'Some sea Gurney Gurney, Sir Goldsworthy (1793–1875) ODNB
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may get a seat at the Admiralty Admiralty
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Board, and then farewell, a long farewell, to the old ocean imagery; marine metaphor will require a new figure-head' (99). Suggests that Charles Dibdin's Dibdin, Charles (1745–1814) ODNB
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'Sea Songs' will require revision for future editions, and provides some examples. One verse reads: 'Go patter to lubbers and swabs do you see, / 'Bout danger, and fear, and the like; / But a Boulton Boulton, Matthew (1728–1809) ODNB
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and Watt Watt, James (1736–1819) DSB
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and good Wall's-end give me; / And it an't to a little I'll strike.' Hood hopes that 'the kettle, though a great vocalist, will never thus appropriate the old Sea Songs of England' (101). Suggests, in the words of an old Greenwhich pensioner, that '"Steaming and biling does very well for Urn Bay, and the likes;" but the craft does not look regular and shipshape to the eye of a tar who has sailed with Duncan, Howe, and Jarvis' (104). The illustration 'For Cork' (104) depicts a steam-ship whose smoking funnel is in the shape of a bottle.



Comic Annual,  5 (1834), 105–08.

The Poacher. A Serious Ballad

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[Thomas Hood] Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Genre:

Ballad, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

T Hood Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Subjects:

Chemistry


    The illustration captioned 'Lunar Caustic' (108) depicts a crescent moon encircling a face with a caustic expression.



Comic Annual,  5 (1834), 109–25.

Sketches on the Road

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[Thomas Hood] Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Genre:

Short Fiction, Drollery



[2] The Accident

Subjects:

Time, Instruments


    A coachman refers to a time when coaches 'wasn't called by such names as Chronometers and Regulators, and good reason why', since they were often late (118).