Punch,  28 (1855), 137.

Common Things for High Officials: Medicines and How not to Stow Them

Anon

Genre:

Essay

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Medical Treatment, Disease, Narcotics, War, Government, Charlatanry, Accidents

Institutions mentioned:

Army


    Compares the abundance of drugs in England, where 'diseases are common', with their paucity in the Crimea, 'where diseases are very common'. Blames 'certain authorities' for being ignorant of the 'nature of these common things [medicines]', for disposing of medicines and for wasting an immense amount of money by purchasing them. Describes the various methods of storing medicines and the dangers of spilling and wasting expensive ones, and warns of the dangers of transporting medicines in a ship—notably, the possibility of drugs being crushed and the explosive consequences of medicinal oils colliding with ordnance. The illustration shows medicine bottles running away from a flying cannon ball.



© Science in the Nineteenth-Century Periodical Project, Universities of Leeds and Sheffield, 2005 - 2020

Printed from Science in the Nineteenth-Century Periodical: An Electronic Index, v. 4.0, The Digital Humanities Institute <http://www.sciper.org> [accessed ]