Genre:

Essay, Drollery; Illustration, Caricature

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

J L, pseud.  [John Leech] *

Subjects:

Mesmerism, Electricity, Psychology, Politics, Government, Belief

    Surprised that electro-biology has not been adopted by politicians to make John Bull 'swallow whatever the Minister should desire to force down the throat of the victim'. Points out that the 'great advantage of electro-biology over common-place Mesmerism' is that it can be performed while the patient is awake—a state that John Bull is in for most of the time. Notes that electrobiologized patients apparently find it difficult to get rid of an object that they have stared at for a long time; the author believes that this is the situation with regard to John Bull (the patient) and income tax (the object). The illustration shows the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Benjamin Disraeli (standing), as the electrobiological 'Professor' who, while pointing to a lump of sugar (marked 'Income Tax') in the hands of a transfixed John Bull, exclaims, 'There, Sir That's a Lump of Sugar—You Can't Move it, Sir; I Defy You to Get Rid of It'.