Genre:

Poetry, Satire

Relevant illustrations:

wdct. [3]

Illustrators:

T Hood

Subjects:

Homeopathy, Medical Treatment, Pharmaceuticals, Medical Practitioners, Charlatanry, Epistemology, Morality, Religion, Status, Magic, Quackery, Natural History, Taxonomy

    The poem addresses Hahnemann as the 'Founder of a new system economic, / To druggists anything but comic; / Fram'd the whole race of Ollapods to fret, / At profits, like thy doses, very small / To put all Doctor's Boys in evil case, / Thrown out of bread, of physic, and of place,— / And show us old Apothecaries' Hall "To Let" (89–90). Hahnemann's principle of treatment is described, and various ludicrous applications are suggested and questioned. Hood reflects on his own facetiousness: 'Perchance, from some dull eye the hopeless tear / Hath gush'd, with my light levity at schism / To mourn some Martyr of Empiricism!'. He dares to prescribe a rule for Hahnemann, and all his tribe, suggesting that 'Man's Health' is 'not for minds profane, / or hands, to tamper with in practice vain'. It is a 'heavenly gift [...] To be approach'd and touch'd with serious fear, / By hands made pure, and hearts of faith severe, / Ev'n as the Priesthood of the ONE divine'. (94) However, 'each fellow with a suit of black, / And, strange to fame, / with a diploma'd name, / That carries two more letters pick-a-back, / With cane, and snuffbox, powder'd wig, and block, / Invents his dose, as if it were a chrism, / And dares to treat our wondrous mechanism, / Familiar as the works of old Dutch clock'. Hood suggests that Hahnemann drown his book 'Like Prospero's beneath the briny sea, / For spells of magic have all gone to sleep!'. He should leave no 'decillionth fragment' of his works 'To help the interests of quacking Burkes'. (95) The illustration 'The Quinary System' (89) depicts five men playing ball, apparently in a prison yard. The illustration 'The Best Cure for a Cold' (facing 90) depicts a seaman sitting on a chair with both his wooden legs in a tub of hot water. The illustration 'Bell on the Hand' (96) depicts a hand with a bell resting upon it.

See also:

CA1/8p