Science in the 19th Century Periodical

The Comic Annual [1st] [2nd]

Introductory Essay
Volume [9]  (1838)
Comic Annual,  9 (1838), 1–45.

The Carnaby Correspondence

View full article text

[Thomas Hood] Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Introduction, Drollery; Letter, Spoof

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

T Hood Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Authorship, Expertise, Education, Navigation, Medical Treatment, Horticulture, Natural Philosophy, Mathematics, Astronomy, Race, Industrial Chemistry


    The introduction states that unthinking persons make ludicrous estimates of the powers of authors: 'Thus, when a gentleman has once written a Book, say, on Domestic Medicine, it is popularly supposed that he is competent to compose a work on any subject whatever, from Transcendental Philosophy down to Five Minutes' Advice on the Teeth' (1). The letters relate the inadequacies of the school attended by Robert Carnaby. Carnaby's naval uncle reports the results of his inspection of the school in a letter to the boy's father. He records that on asking the boy what the variation of the compass was, he received the reply: 'Why, it's one leg shorter than t'other' (37). To the question 'what's metaphysics?' the boy replied 'Brimstone and Treacle'; the uncle observes 'there's no more physic in metaphysics than a baby might take in its pap'. When, to the question 'What's religion?' the boy returned the answer 'The colic [collect] on Sundays', the schoolmaster 'looked as pleased as if he had found the longitude'. (38) The uncle reports that when showing him the kitchen garden, the schoolmaster announced that he encouraged his pupils in 'perusing the book of Nature'. The uncle approved, but on asking his nephew what natural philosophy was, he received the reply '"Keeping rabbits" [...] which sounds likely enough, but it's not the thing by sixty degrees'. (39) In desperation, the schoolmaster asked the boy 'What is Algebra,—Al—gebra?' only to be told 'its a wild donkey all over stripes' (40), and on asking him to describe a triangle was told 'it's the thing that tingle-tangles to the big drum' (41). The uncle examined the gentlemen ushers: 'One told me that Guy Fox found out gunpowder; and another that a solar eclipse was along of the sun's standing in its own light' (43). The illustration 'Recrimination' (45) depicts two men, one black and the other wearing worn-out clothes, carrying advertising placards on poles and cocking a snook at each other; the black man's placard reads 'Try Warren', the ill-dressed man's placard reads 'Ask for the Bleaching Fluid'.



Comic Annual,  9 (1838), 46–53.

A Rise at the Father of Angling

View full article text

[Thomas Hood] Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Introduction; Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Epidemiology, Disease


    A poem addressed to Izaak Walton Walton, Izaak (1593–1683) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>
is written as if by Jane Elizabeth Stuckey, and bemoans the ill consequences of his Compleat Angler Walton, Isaak 1653. The Compleat Angler; or, The Contemplative Man's Recreation. Being a Discourse of Fish and Fishing, Not Unworthy the Perusal of Most Anglers [...] London: Richard Marriot
Close   View the register entry >>
on her son. She complains: 'I thought he were took with the Morbus one day, I did with his nasty angle! / For "oh dear," says he, and burst out in a cry, "oh my gut is all got of a tangle!"' (47). The poet has quarrelled with her cook: '"How dare you," says I, "for to stench the whole house by keeping that stinking liver?" / 'Twas enough to breed a fever, it was! they smelt it next door at the Bagots', / But it wasn't breeding no fever—not it! 'twas my son a-breeding of maggots!' (48).



Comic Annual,  9 (1838), 54–63.

Right and Wrong. A Sketch at Sea

View full article text

[Thomas Hood] Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Short Fiction, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct. [3]

Illustrators:

T Hood Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Menageries, Machinery, Steamships, Pollution


    The illustration captioned 'He's A-going to Take a Tower' (facing 54) depicts a yokel with a pitchfork in hand looking at an elephant in hat and cape, with a tree trunk grasped in its trunk, behind which rises a crenellated tower. The illustration captioned 'Deep Distress Produced by Machinery' (facing 58) depicts a male bather clinging to the top of a bathing machine, which is being tossed on a violent sea, while a woman and two children hail him from the harbour wall. The illustration captioned 'Charming Spots about this Part of the River' (facing 61) depicts a fashionable gentleman standing near the funnel of a steamship, being covered by spots of soot.



Comic Annual,  9 (1838), 64–75.

The Green Man

View full article text

[Thomas Hood] Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

T Hood Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Disease, Medical Treatment, Medical Practitioners, Aeronautics, Pharmaceuticals, Industrial Chemistry

People mentioned:

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


    The poem recounts the exploits of Tom Simpson, who became very drunk one Christmas Eve, coming home in the morning to find his face 'as green as grass'. The possible ill-effects of alcohol on health are detailed. Tom's landlady, thinking he has been in a fight, boasts her knowledge of injuries and their proper medical treatment. The surgeon arrives and after examining him asks ludicrous questions about what he has eaten: 'Had he eaten grass, / Or greens'? (71). He is baffled: 'Cases of other colours came in crowds, / He could have found their remedy, and soon; / But green—it sent him up among the clouds, / As if he had gone up with Green's Green, Charles (1785–1870) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>
balloon!' (72). The illustration captioned 'A Very High Fever' (facing 73) depicts an ill man lying on an extremely high four-poster bed as a diminutive surgeon reaches up on his toes to take his pulse. News spreads abroad of the 'modern miracle' (73). '"Green faces!" so they all began to comment— / "Yes—opposite to Druggists' lighted shops, / But that's a flying colour—never stops— / A bottle-green that's vanish'd in a moment"' (74). It finally transpires that Simpson got his green face from 'sleeping in the kennel near the Dyer's' (75).



Comic Annual,  9 (1838), 76–92.

Patronage

View full article text

[Thomas Hood] Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Introduction, Drollery; Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Patronage, Industrial Chemistry, Accidents, Mental Illness, Narcotics, Medical Treatment


    Hood introduces a spoof letter from Lucy Emily Dexter to 'the Right Honourable Lord Viscount ****, &c. &c. &c. Whitehall', with the observation that the letter's authenticity will probably be disputed on account of its description of 'the superannuation of sucklings' (76). Hood observes that he can, in any case, vouch that 'the measures taken by Patrons' have not led invariably, 'like Stultz's [a reference to a Bond Street firm of tailors], to admirable fits' (77). The letter details Dexter's husband's history, from the promise of a sinecure made to him as an infant by a noble relative, to his appointment as 'Superintendant of Powder-Mills, with the condition of a living attached to the works' (80). The letter details the nervous affliction from which he has suffered since the day after taking possession, when there was a 'blow' at the works. He was prescribed laudanum and brandy. 'The mad Doctors do say, that we are all, every one of us, crazy on a certain subject; and if such is the case, there can be no doubt that my husband's weak point is explosions' (83). He is worried about the 'Young Gentlemen' at the neighbouring school sending up 'fire-balloons' (87). Thunder-storms make him particularly uneasy: 'it is the misfortune of Mr. D. not to put faith in conductors, or, to use his own words, "in Franklin Franklin, Benjamin (1706–90) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>
, philosophy, and fiddle-sticks,—and a birch rod as likely to frighten away lightening as an iron one"' (88–89).



Comic Annual,  9 (1838), 97–111.

Animal Magnetism

View full article text

[Thomas Hood] Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Introduction, Drollery; Letter, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct. [5]

Illustrators:

T Hood Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Animal Magnetism, Mesmerism, Charlatanry, Homeopathy, Phrenology, Morality, Scientific Practitioners, Medical Practitioners, Cultural Geography, Narcotics, Geology, Fieldwork, Temperance, Animal Husbandry, Magnetism, Medical Treatment, Veterinary Science


    The illustration captioned 'Animal Magnetism' (97) depicts a cat sitting with its tongue out underneath a bird's nest in a tree, as all the hatchlings fly down towards its mouth. The illustration captioned 'The Family Seat' (facing 97) depicts a cat attached by its claws to the seat of a gentleman's breeches while the man's horrified wife looks on from behind a fan; he has evidently attempted to sit on a chair occupied by the cat and its kittens, which are now falling to the floor as the chair overturns. The article is headed with a spoof quotation from the Sporting Intelligence: 'Charlatan is rising in public favour, and has many backers who book him to win' (97). The introduction begins: 'Of all the signs of the times—considering them literally as signs, and the public literally as "a public"—there are none more remarkable than the Hahnemann's Hahnemann, Christian Friedrich Samuel (1755–1843) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>
Head,—the Crown and Compasses, devoted to Gall Gall, Franz Joseph (1758–1828) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>
and Spurzheim's Spurzheim, Johann Christoph (1776–1832) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>
entire,—and the Cock and Bull, that hangs out at the House of Call for Animal Magnetizers' (97–98). It is astonishing that the Cock and Bull—'a daring, glaring, flaring, gin-palace-like establishment' dispensing 'a raw, heady, very unrectified article'—gains respectable custom. Yet 'scientific men, and even physicians, in good practice in all other respects, have notoriously frequented the bar, from which they have issued again, walking all sorts of ways at once, or more frequently falling asleep on the steps, but still talking such "rambling skimble-skamble stuff" as would naturally be suggested by the incoherent visions of a drunken man'. (98) Such occurrences are far more common in Paris than in London: Hood cites a recent instance there involving seventy-eight 'medical men'. However, 'it is not improbable that we may yet see a meeting of the College of Physicians Royal College of Physicians
Close   View the register entry >>
rendered very how-come-you-so indeed by an excess of Mesmer's Mesmer, Franz Anton (1734–1815) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>
particular', and the example would have a 'powerful influence' in spreading the 'pernicious narcotic' to all classes, robbing them of their common senses. (99) The illustration captioned 'I was Told I Should Find Here Some Trap Rocks!' (facing 99) depicts a stern-looking gentleman with a geological hammer staring at a kneeling man who has just removed a pigeon (evidently a rock pigeon) from a wicker trap; a figure with a gun stands in the background. Hood suggests that the temperance societies might attack 'mental dram-drinking' as well (100).

    Hood introduces some letters as 'materials to be worked up into Tracts' (101). Reuben Oxenham, a Lincolnshire grazier, wishes to know about animal magnetism, as it might be useful in animal husbandry. He writes to his nephew Robert Holland, a London linen-draper, who investigates and sends an account. Holland recalls the appearance of true magnets to his uncle's mind: 'little bone boxes, at sixpence a piece, with a blackamoor's head atop, and a little bar of philosopher's steel inside, that points out the north, and sets a needle dancing like mad' (103). He explains that animal magnetism 'is all of a piece with juggling, quack-salving, and mountebanking, such as universal physic'. He describes making a visit to the rooms of an 'outlandish count' who has 'set up in it in the west end' (the reference is to the leading mesmerist Jules Dupotet de Sennevoy Dupotet de Sennevoy, Jules, Baron (1796–1881) DBF
Close   View the register entry >>
(Winter 1998, pp. 42–46, p. 359 Winter, Alison 1998. Mesmerized: Powers of Mind in Victorian Britain, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Close   View the register entry >>
)). (104) Holland also gives a lengthy account of the mesmeric state and actions of the subject, 'Mizz Charlot Ann Elizabet Martin' (106). The illustration captioned 'Sleeping Draughts' (facing 108) depicts a man (a surgeon's assistant?) with a basket full of medicine bottles asleep against a bank; a fierce-looking man (the surgeon?) stands over him with his whip held high, while his horse snorts, and his dog growls. In conclusion, Holland suggests possible punishments for the mesmerists, whom he suspects are acting deceitfully. A postscript gives the comical advice of a veterinary surgeon, who considers that animal magnetism 'is all very well for the old men and women Physicians, but won't go down with the Horse Doctors' (110). The illustration captioned 'Somnambulism' (111) depicts the rear view of a man in his nightcap and nightgown, with a snuffed candle in his hand and a paper marked 'Stop and read' strapped facing his back; Punch (wearing a nightcap) stands asleep, resting on a club, with his hunchback turned towards the paper.



Comic Annual,  9 (1838), 117–29.

Review. The Rambles of Piscator. By Sylvanus Suburban. Fisher. London. 1837

View full article text

[Thomas Hood] Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Review, Spoof

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

T Hood Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Engineering


    The illustration captioned 'Shareholders of the Thames Tunnel Thames Tunnel
Close   View the register entry >>
, A.D. 1938' (facing 122) depicts a flooded tunnel, with a group of fish meeting in a circle; below them lie two jumbled human skeletons.



Comic Annual,  9 (1838), 130–34.

Clubs, Turned up by a Female Hand

View full article text

[Thomas Hood] Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

T Hood Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Gender, Amusement, Reading, Botany, Collecting


    The poem complains about the long hours spent by married men at their clubs. Husbands may suggest that their neglected wives subscribe to a circulating library: 'They'd better recommend at once / Philosophy and tubs,— / A woman need not be a dunce / To feel the wrong of Clubs' (132). The illustration captioned 'A Circulating Library' (facing 132) depicts a man attempting to keep books down on a street stall, while the wind blows them up in the air. The narrator's daughters are determined not to marry men who frequent clubs. 'They say, "without the marriage ties, / They can devote their hours / To catechize, or botanize— / Shells, Sunday Schools, and flow'rs'— / [...] As Wives do since the Clubs"' (133).



Comic Annual,  9 (1838), 135–46.

A New Song from the Polish

View full article text

[Thomas Hood] Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Introduction, Drollery; Ballad, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

T Hood Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Exploration, Biblical Authority, Navigation, Anthropocentrism, Magnetism, Menageries, Physiology, Climatology

People mentioned:

William E Parry, Parry, Sir William Edward (1790–1855) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>
John Ross, Ross, Sir John (1777–1856) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>
George Back Back, Sir George (1796–1878) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>


    In the introduction the narrator describes encountering in Deptford 'an old, whimsical, frost-bitten Tar', a 'North-Poler' called Drury, with whom he has 'a slight Somerset House Somerset House
Close   View the register entry >>
acquaintance' (135). They discuss the 'late Arctic Expedition', recently returned. The sailor believes that it and all such expeditions have been 'trying to find what's not to be found'; his opinion is based on 'scripture larnings, which is worth all other larning ten times over, not excepting navigation'. (136) He considers that 'Natur would never act so agin nature, as stick a sea where there was no early use for it', and argues that 'there never was no sea at all in them high latitudes, afore the Great Flood' (137). He claims that the Arctic Sea 'was named arter the Ark, by Noah, when he diskivered it in his first voyage. That's Philosophy!' (137–38). The 'Scholards' are convinced there is a pole, and Drury has 'even heard say, there be Scholards as look for a wooden needle there, acccordin' to magnetism', but he believes that 'if ever there was sich a pole, there, or thereabouts, why then—old Admiral Noah carried it away with him for a pole to stir up "his wild beasts!" (138–39). The illustration captioned 'You're Quite Safe—He Can't Wag His Tail!' (facing 139) depicts a man firmly holding a lion's tail through the bars of a cage; he has not seen, however, that his colleague, who has entered the cage, has his head in the lion's mouth. Drury nevertheless has a high opinion of the conduct of the latest expedition. He sings 'The Old Poler's Warning' (142–46), which cautions sailors about the change in a person's sense of temperature that results from spending time in the Arctic, such that temperate climes thereafter feel tropical.



Comic Annual,  9 (1838), 147–56.

Hints to the Horticultural

View full article text

[Thomas Hood] Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Miscellaneous, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct. [3]

Illustrators:

T Hood Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Horticulture, Expertise, Theory, Practice, Botany


    Acknowledging that it is 'always dangerous [...] for a mere theorist to offer suggestions to practical men', Hood observes that he has not 'the usual qualification of a horticulturalist—a plant bearing his patronymic' (147). He nevertheless brings forward 'a few plain rules, founded on personal observation and study, and directed to points hitherto not touched upon, from the voluminous encyclopedias down to the dwarf works on Botany' (148). His observations are intended for those amateurs in London and the suburbs without gardens, especially women, who wish to grow their own flowers. 'The technical terms, as well as the phrases marked as quotations, are borrowed from the only herbaceous volume in my library,—"Paxton's Magazine of Botany" Paxton's Magazine of Botany (1834–49) Gardener's Magazine of Botany Horticulture, Floriculture, and Natural Science (1850–51) Garden Companion, and Florists' Guide (1852) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >>
' (149). The illustration captioned 'Botanizing—A Bog Plant' (facing 139) depicts a bearded and bespectacled gentleman up to his waist in a bog, but holding aloft a flower which he has picked. The rules are all comic. The first, 'To produce a "Blow" from Plants at any Season of the Year' (149), gives directions for putting them out in the wind. The second, 'To destroy Vermin in the most effectual Manner', suggests throwing slugs, snails, earwigs 'and other nasty insects' into the street so that they land on the clothes or receptacles of passers-by and are 'carried off' to distant houses of various sorts, 'so as to provide against the insects returning' (151–53). The third, 'To water Plants so that none of the Moisture may be wasted or lost', argues that watering should be done in such a way as 'to bestow the excess of fluid on proper objects' (153). The illustration captioned 'Pour Mary Anne' (facing 153) depicts a distracted woman attempting to water her pot plants on the windowsill; the water is falling instead on the foliage decorating the bonnet of a young woman, who is walking beneath the window with a small boy. The illustration captioned 'Pot-Luck' (156) depicts a man wearing an apron and carrying two tankards of beer, which are being spilt since he has a large plant-pot upturned on his head; a further potted plant and broken pieces of plant-pot are falling to the ground around him.



Comic Annual,  9 (1838), 157–58.

Stanzas, Composed in a Shower-Bath

View full article text

[Thomas Hood] Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

J Scott Scott, John (fl. 1836–39) Engen 1985, CA1/7/2, CA1/10/8
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Hydropathy, Surgery


    Three short stanzas record the poet's reluctant anticipation of his cold shower. The illustration 'Operation for the Cataract' (158) depicts a man with a stony countenance and eyes closed, standing underneath a shower bath, with his hand on the chain.



Comic Annual,  9 (1838), 159–76.

Hit or Miss

View full article text

[Thomas Hood] Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Exploration


    The poem recounts the predicament of two dogs: Dash, whose master cannot shoot any game, and Don, whose master shoots not only game, but all manner of other animals and people. Dash claims of his master: 'The great Balloon that paid the visit / Across the water, he would miss it!' (167). When hunting, his master 'goes in gaiters and in fustian, / Like Captain Ross Ross, Sir John (1777–1856) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>
' (169).