Punch,  3 (1842), 162–63.

Mr Muff's Introductory Discourse  [2/3]

Anon

Genre:

Short Fiction, Satire, Serial

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Botany, Education, Lecturing, Medical Treatment


    Continues the description of Joseph Muff's popular lectures at 'his own medical school'. In this lecture, Muff alludes to lectures on botany offered by the Society of Apothecaries. Defending the high place of botany in medical study, he argues, for example, the importance of 'thoroughly understanding the physiology of a stinging-nettle in a case of fracture of the skull', and the need to know the Latin name for a buttercup when attending a cholera victim (162–63). The author of the article considers botanical lecturers to be 'scientific Jack-in-the-green'. Thinks a man must have very few friends if he agrees with botanical lecturers that the vegetable world provides an 'inexhaustible fund of scientific and gratifying amusement' (163). Notes that students might develop botanical interests by visiting lecturers conversing in the 'Bells' pub in Putney.



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