Punch,  5 (1843), 162–63.

A Hint to Young Medical Men

Anon

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Medical Treatment, Education, Temperance, Commerce, Publishing, Textbooks


    Offers 'young medical practitioners' advice on how to write a book that will make them 'notorious'. Responding to Theobald Mathew's attempts to ban liquor consumption, Punch suggests a treatise on the 'diseases of intemperance'. This 'Medicina Teetotalis' will describe the symptoms 'arising from the abrupt disuse of beer, wine and spirits' and will draw on experiments on the many patients who will 'pour in'. Describes, in the language of apothecaries, several formulas for mixtures that 'imitate' alcoholic beverages and which can be prescribed by the medical practitioner. The first mixture, for example, is composed of 'Compound Tincture of Cardamoms' and 'Crystal Spring' and will 'form a mixture resembling cold brandy and water'. (162) Believes that by devising 'many variations' on these formulas the medical practitioner will secure fame, fortune, and 'the girl of his heart' (163).



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