Genre:

Illustration, Drollery; Poetry, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

J Leech *

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Hospitals, Education, Physiology, Medical Treatment

    One of twelve woodcuts and poems in a series entitled 'Punch's Valentines!'. Depicts a medical student smoking a pipe and drinking a pot of beer, while standing before a young woman who sits behind a shop counter. Notes that the medical students 'grind instruction just enough to pass / St George's, Guy's, North London and King's College', and thirst alike for 'half-and-half' (a mixture of two malt liquors, commonly ale and porter) and 'knowledge'. The student offers his heart, 'aorta, valves and all', to the young woman. Notes that medical students' 'funds incline' to 'cheap hats and boots'. The young woman eschews the hospital's 'dull gloom' and practices the 'Physiology of Deglutition'. The student declares to her that he'll 'ne'er know peace until our hands / Shall form a "ganglion" with Hymen's bands'. Thinks his beloved is 'as precious and dear as sulphate of quinine'.