Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery; Song, Drollery

Subjects:

Medical Treatment, Quackery, Pharmaceuticals, Religious Authority

    Discusses an article in the Daily News describing a 'Sisters' Establishment' at Dresden which sells a 'powder against epilepsy' made from the remains of magpies. Questions the assertion that 'Innumerable people have been cured by these powders!' and, noting that the sisters are 'of Charity', asks them to make their secret medical prescription known in England. Promises to establish a 'Magpie Hospital for Epileptic Patients' and to advertise 'Magpie Powders' on attestation of the cure. Appends a song that it claims was sung by a bird that reported the arrest of a magpie in Dresden for singing. The song describes the medical uses to which the magpie—in particular its bones—are put after its death.