Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Physiology, Class, Disease, Heredity, Race, Medical Treatment, Human Species, Microscopy, Human Development, Prehistory, Palaeontology

    Discusses an announcement of a medical work that describes the 'Blood of the Aristocracy' (Evans 1861). Interprets the announcement to mean that aristocrats' blood is 'very pure' but 'contains the seeds of eruptive complaints, of the nervous system and respiratory and digestive organs'. Wonders whether such blood contains 'finer globules than that of the common people' or 'a principle of honour' which might be given such names as 'Race', 'Pedigrine', and 'Nobbine'. Goes on to consider the effects of tranfusing the blood of one aristocrat into another, and concludes that the origin of the 'pure blood' of an aristocrat would be an 'interesting subject of inquiry' if that individual were a 'king of men' and 'chipped the flints in the drift'.