Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Politics, Government, Disease, Medical Practitioners, Medical Treatment, Morality, Crime

    Discusses the activities of Alexander O'Driscoll O'Driscoll, Alexander (fl. 1844) WBI
Close   View the register entry >>, 'a gentleman of exceeding bad health, and with a temper to match', who was 'removed by Ministers from the magistracy'. Reports that O'Driscoll has now been reinstated as a magistrate, partly on the grounds that the 'bodily ailment' that prevented him from undertaking his duties has now been 'amended'. Denies that it objects to the 'charitable construction of the causes of human infirmity', and hails it as 'increasing philosophy'. Believes it illustrates the fact that Robert Peel Peel, Sir Robert, 2nd Baronet (1788–1850) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> 'was called in as a "Doctor" to watch over the condition of the state'. Wonders why Daniel O'Connell O'Connell, Daniel (1775–1847) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, James R G Graham Graham, Sir James Robert George, 2nd Baronet (1792–1861) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, and other statesmen appeal to bodily ailments as excuses for their dubious political activities. Charitable indulgence, the author believes, should be exacted 'for all parties'. Concludes by suggesting that ' a certain number of physicians should be appointed to sit with the judges' and should ask the accused to show his tongue rather than plead his guilt or innocence.

Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

Railways, Transport, Environmentalism, Domestic Economy

    Begins by complaining of the 'horrid row' caused by the steam-locomotives that pass the railway line built next to the cottage in which he tries to enjoy 'Bliss' and his young wife, Betsy. Laments the fact that the noise 'Always drowns' songs sung by his wife, and that the vibrations of the machine causes his crockery to 'reel' and his whole house to shake. In conclusion, he yearns for 'some sequester'd spot, / Far from stokers and from steam', where he can enjoy marital bliss.

Genre:

News-Digest, Drollery

Subjects:

Telegraphy, Railways

    Reports on the 'application of the Electro-Magnetic Telegraph to the Great Western Railway Great Western Railway Company
Close   View the register entry >>'. Notes that the line is connected to such places as 'Wormwood Scrubs, Kensington, Warwick Square and Paddington Canal'. States that 'it's been all play and no work' on the line and illustrates the banality of this communication by specimen messages: for example, 'Kensington, 7.20. A.M. Has the policeman finished his breakfast? No answer. Kensington, 11 A.M., How are you? Wormwood Scrubs, 11.5 A.M. Tol lollish'.

Genre:

Reportage, Spoof

Subjects:

Astronomy, Observation

    Written by Punch's 'astronomer', the article describes the author's attempt to improve upon the efforts of James South South, James (1785–1867) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>, who told The Times The Times (1777–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> that he had only 'seen the comet for a fraction of a second, but could make no observation of it'. With an eye-glass in hand, the author gets drunk on wine and the 'dazzled' state of his vision induces him to conclude that he had seen the comet and can thus support South's claims.

Genre:

Introduction, Drollery; Letter, Drollery

Subjects:

Military Technology, Invention, Chemistry, Light, Magic

Publications cited:

Long, ed. 1833–43 [Long, George], ed. 1833–43. Penny Cyclopaedia for the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, 27 vols, London: Charles Knight
Close   View the register entry >>

    The letter by Brougham (an allusion to Henry P Brougham (1st Baron Brougham and Vaux) Brougham, Henry Peter, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux (1778–1868) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>) includes an explanation of 'Captain Warner's Warner, Samuel Alfred (1793/4–1853) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>' method of blowing up ships. Explains that the explosion was caused by 'something that floated up to the ship which pulled a trigger'—a 'trick' which, in Brougham's opinion, anybody could do. Explains the complex chemical reactions causing the explosion on board ship and insists that the feat was 'a semi-optical delusion' rather than a 'great truth in science'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Mesmerism, Spiritualism

    Reports that at the British and Foreign Institute British and Foreign Institute
Close   View the register entry >>, the 'Boy Alexis' tried to 'see through' James S Buckingham Buckingham, James Silk (1786–1855) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> but the latter would not 'submit to the experiment'.

Genre:

Reportage, Drollery

Subjects:

Agriculture, Chemistry, Education, Matter Theory

People mentioned:

Justus von Liebig Liebig, Justus von (1803–73) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>

    Reports on classes on agricultural chemistry held in Hampshire. Attaches a report of one lesson written in a parody of the West Country dialect. Examples of the statements made in the lesson include, 'An atom is a mossel o'zummut; a bit o' dust or zand, loike', 'Soda is stuff as washerwomen uses. Ammonia is one o' them fine names as your gentlefolks gives their daaters', and 'Chemical Affinity, Attraction, Cohesion, Composition, Decomposition, Analysis, Synthesis, is a parcel of outlandish gibberish'. The reporter adds that the latter statements 'exhibit some slight discrepancy with the views of Faraday Faraday, Michael (1791–1867) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>'.

Genre:

Reportage, Drollery

Subjects:

Meteorology, Electricity

    Reports that a passenger on board an omnibus observed that 'lightning was scarcely visible in consequence of the conductor having stepped inside', and that on the same day three dinner-party guests were 'laid prostrate' by 'a sort of fluid [...] with which they had charged their glasses'.

Genre:

Reportage, Drollery

Subjects:

Agriculture, Technology, Exhibitions

    Describes an 'exceedingly unsatisfactory' visit of a Punch correspondent to the show. He was so affected by the noise that he was 'unable to remember anything' and found the 'agricultural implements' to be 'completely beyond [...] comprehension'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Education, Mathematics, Physical Geography, Schools

    Responds to news that a schoolmaster is teaching by illustrating silk handkerchiefs with the '"great facts" in reading, writing, or arithmetic' and 'science of every description'. Notes that some were worried that applying pocket handkerchiefs to science would deal it 'a very severe blow' but adds that the 'public are easily led by the nose'. Relishes the fact that the educational 'experiment is to be tried' and describes the geography and arithmetic handkerchiefs. The illustration depicts the statesman Henry P Brougham (1st Baron Brougham and Vaux) Brougham, Henry Peter, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux (1778–1868) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> standing in front of a group of children whilst pointing to one of the inscribed handkerchiefs.

Genre:

Reportage, Spoof

Subjects:

Railway, Transport, Commerce

    Reports on the sorry state of Punch's spoof 'Kensington and Wormwood Scrubs Little Western and No-Junction Railway'. The railway clerk is impressed with his position at a 'private station', a reflection of poor public interest in the line. Notes that the directors of the company are contemplating allowing the public to hire carriages 'at any particular hour'.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Ornithology, Animal Behaviour, Music

    Contrasts the migrating habits of Italian singing birds with those of martins and swallows. A description of habitats, physical features, and singing qualities of individual birds reveals that the 'birds' are in fact Italian opera singers.

Genre:

Reportage, Spoof

Subjects:

Telegraphy, Railways, Transport, Commerce, Music

    Reports that the wires of the 'Electro-Telegraph' are to be 'tuned' so that they can produce musical notes. Provides the lyrics for a 'duet between the Kensington and the Great Western Great Western Railway Company
Close   View the register entry >> Railways'. In the duet, 'Kensington' complains of its failure to make it as a railway enterprise, while 'Great Western' boasts of its technological and commercial success.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Military Technology, Invention, Commerce, War

    Reports that 'maritime geniuses', driven by the prospect of considerable remuneration, have started working on economical schemes for blowing up ships. Punch suggests that if money is to be given to 'explosive' inventors then they should get paid to 'blow-up that crazy old funny', the statesman Henry P Brougham (1st Baron Brougham and Vaux) Brougham, Henry Peter, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux (1778–1868) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Invention, Discovery, Publishing, Nationalism

    Reponding to the fledgling Club des Inventeurs Club des Inventeurs, Paris
Close   View the register entry >> in Paris, proposes that a prize be awarded to 'the person who discovers an article in the French press that is written with the least good feeling towards England'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Medical Treatment, Mesmerism, Quackery, Politics, Government

    Responds to the Home Secretary James R G Graham's Graham, Sir James Robert George, 2nd Baronet (1792–1861) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> discussion in Parliament Houses of Parliament
Close   View the register entry >> of medical quackery. Rephrases an extract from Graham's speech so that he claims that given the revenue 'derived by Government from the duty on quack medicines' it is not surprising that 'Ministers should uphold quackery'. Challenges Graham's belief that the act of being imposed on by medical quacks is pleasurable, and laments Graham's toleration of quackery.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Medical Treatment, Animal Magnetism, Mesmerism, Homeopathy, Charlatanry, Education

    Punch's 'plan of the Council of Health and Medical Education'. The plans include: having 'different patent medicine vendors', 'advertising surgeons', and 'itinerant lecturers upon Animal Magnetism' on the council; setting examination questions that test the 'ability of the candidates to concoct puffs and posters'; establishing professorships in such subjects as 'Universal Medicine' and 'Homeopathy and Humbug'; and having lectures on such subjects as 'On Nervous and Mental Complaints; with the Cure for Benevolence rather than Gain'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

['D' with a bird], pseud.  [Richard Doyle]
Close   View the register entry >> Spielmann, Marion Harry Alexander 1895. The History of "Punch", London: Cassell
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Race, Politics, Ethnology, Anthropology

    Following Punch's last treatment of this subject (Anon, 'The Ioways—"The Lost Tribe"—And Young England', Punch, 7 (1844), 95), this explains the theory of George Jones Jones, George (1810–79) COPAC
Close   View the register entry >> that the Ioways (an American Indian tribe, some of whom were then on show at the Egyptian Hall Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly
Close   View the register entry >>) are the 'descendants of the lost tribe of Israel'. Reports that they visited Benjamin Disraeli Disraeli, Benjamin, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield (1804–81) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, the 'champion of all the tribes of the Hebrews'. Explains that the event is considered 'worthy of immortality on our pages' and that an illustration is included representing the moment when Disraeli 'drew his first puff at the calumet of peace—surrounded by the Ioways, their squaws and papooses'.

Genre:

Reportage, Drollery

Subjects:

Railways, Engineering, Steamships

    Praises the Great Western Railway Great Western Railway Company
Close   View the register entry >> as a 'wonderful triumph of cash and pick-axes over obstacles of a fiscal as well as of an earthy nature'. Likens the Great Britain Great Britain, ship
Close   View the register entry >>, a steamer that, despite its powerful engines, could only get out to sea if all the docks and half the city of Bristol were pulled down, to 'GEORGE THE THIRD'S apple [...] in the dumpling'. (103) Compares the Clifton Suspension Bridge Clifton Suspension Bridge, Bristol
Close   View the register entry >> unfavourably to the Hungerford Suspension Bridge Hungerford Suspension Bridge
Close   View the register entry >>.

Genre:

Essay, Spoof

Subjects:

Race, Politics, Human Development

People mentioned:

George Jones Jones, George (1810–79) COPAC
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Steam-power, Transport, Railways, Progress

    Wonders whether Godfrey of Bouillon Godfrey of Bouillon (c. 1060–1100) CBD
Close   View the register entry >> and King Richard I Richard I, King of England, Duke of Normandy and of Aquitaine, and Count of Anjou ('Richard Coeur de Lion') (1157–99) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> could have imagined a journey to the Holy Land by steam. Continues with examples of the rough language spoken by steamer crew. For example, '"Ease her, stop her!" / "Any gentleman for Joppa?" / "'Mascus, 'Mascus?" / "Ticket, please, sir"'. Wonders what 'next marvel Time will show' but thinks it won't be long before one can pay sixpence for a 'Buss' to Jericho.

Genre:

Reportage, Spoof

Subjects:

Railways, Transport, Amusement

    Reports on an event at this absurdly unsuccessful railway line owned by Punch.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Astronomy

    Following James South's South, James (1785–1867) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> letter in The Times The Times (1777–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >>, Punch's 'own astronomer' tries to observe the comet. Initially he mistakes a piece of 'flough' stuck to the end of his opera-glass for the comet, and presents dubious evidence to support his claim to have actually observed the object.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Railways, Engineering, Commerce

    Suggests that money could be made from the Hungerford Suspension Bridge Hungerford Suspension Bridge
Close   View the register entry >> by uniting it with the destitute Kensington Railway. Believes that 'two negatives' ('a bridge that nobody wants to go over' and 'a railway nobody wants to go by') might make an 'affirmative' profit.

Genre:

Announcement, Spoof

Subjects:

Societies, Periodicals, Archaeology

    Offers Punch's apologies to the British Archaeological Society British Archaeological Society
Close   View the register entry >> for not devoting as many columns to its proceedings as it had wished. Explains that it will make amends, and announces a manuscript of a forthcoming paper by James R Planché Planché, James Robinson (1796–1880) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> 'On the Origin, Progress, and Uses of the Shoulder-knot'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery / Paper, Spoof

Subjects:

Archaeology, Societies, Mental Illness

    Regards archaeologists as 'a body of savans who devote their whole lives, to the unrolling of mummies, the opening of barrows, and the pick-axing of tumuli'. Criticises an archaeological exploration that threatens the foundations of Canterbury Cathedral Canterbury Cathedral
Close   View the register entry >>. Thinks Thomas J Pettigrew's Pettigrew, Thomas Joseph (1791–1865) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> 'unrolling of mummies is a sort of monomania' and considers James R Planché's Planché, James Robinson (1796–1880) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> paper on the buckle to be the 'most interesting part of the proceedings'.

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Medical Treatment, Government, Charlatanry, Quackery

    Addresssing himself to the Home Secretary James R G Graham Graham, Sir James Robert George, 2nd Baronet (1792–1861) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, 'A Pettifogger' identifies himself as one of the 'unqualified practitioners' or 'quacks' to be penalised in Graham's Medical Reform Bill. Seeks protection for himself and for his 'fraternity' and hopes that Graham will reform the law as well as medicine, since 'the unskilful physician can only kill a few patients' while the 'ignorant attorney can but ruin a client or two'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Archaeology, Palaeontology, Gender

    Attempts to correct a report in the Athenaeum Athenaeum (1828–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> concerning William Buckland Buckland, William (1784–1856) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>, who sought to demonstrate that the acid produced by snails will discolour the lilac riband of a lady's bonnet. Insists that the lady did not decline to testify to Buckland's claim but wrote to complain of her ruined bonnet and to ask Buckland for a new one.

Genre:

Serial—Reportage, Drollery; Proceedings, Spoof

Subjects:

Societies, Experiment, Discovery, Politics, Disease, Botany, Natural History, Radicalism

    Introduces a report of the activities of the British Association for the Advancement of Science British Association for the Advancement of Science
Close   View the register entry >> by noting the capacity of the association's members 'to keep science on the move' but wonders what the association 'is about'. The 'proceedings' begin with Edward Sabine's Sabine, Edward (1788–1883) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> reading of the report on a committee's activities. These activities include 'experiments on a captive balloon', and sending out Edward Forbes Forbes, Edward, Jr (1815–54) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> 'with a dredging machine'. During his presentation, Sabine is interrupted by the president and a new member with various remarks and questions. For example, when Sabine announces that Forbes has discovered 150 new species in his dredging expedition, the new member demands names for such animals, to which the president quickly replies: 'Suppose we say Cockleuis Scollopoeculus, or Cockle good for scolloping [...] I can't think of any more right now'. After Sabine's presentation, a 'warm discussion' ensued on the proper section in which to discuss the 'Daddy Longlegs'. Summarises the content of other papers including those by Dr Hunt (an allusion to Robert Hunt Hunt, Robert (1807–87) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>), who discussed the influence of light on plants and ended up burning a flower, and Dr Heming (an allusion to G Oakley Heming Heming, G Oakley (fl. 1831) COPAC
Close   View the register entry >>) who described a disease of the tongue which was 'found a good deal among Radical Members of Parliament and Chartist demagogues'.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Discovery, Invention, Physics, Gravity, Vaccination, Disease

    Notes the 'ecstasy of the soul that possessed Isaac Newton Newton, Sir Isaac (1642–1727) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> 'when he invented the law of gravitation', and the 'moral transport' of Edward Jenner Jenner, Edward (1749–1823) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> when he 'grasped the antidote to fell disease'.

Genre:

Reportage, Spoof

Subjects:

Societies, Meteorology, Zoology

    Reports on a 'stormy' meeting of the Meteorological Section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science British Association for the Advancement of Science
Close   View the register entry >> in which 'speakers kept bouncing backwards and forwards, in and out at the door, to have the last reply to something' said by a section member who had not already left. Describes a 'most successful' paper on the dog by Dr Hodgkin (an allusion to Thomas Hodgkin Hodgkin, Thomas (1798–1866) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>), who 'imitated the barkings' and 'various looks' of dogs. Concludes by remarking that the association has brought science 'to exactly where it was thirteen years ago' when they first met.

Genre:

Announcement, Spoof; Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Societies, Theory, Nutrition, Chemistry

    Announces the imminent formation of an association for the 'Advancement of Cookery', intended as branch of the British Association for the Advancement of Science British Association for the Advancement of Science
Close   View the register entry >>. Proposed sections of the association include 'Section A, Soupology, including the philosophy of oxtails, and the theory of turtle', and 'Section D, Tartology', which will 'examine into the question whether puff-paste has any analogy with scissors and paste'. The illustration depicts a man whose head has blown off owing to 'incautiously taking too much soda to correct acidity'.

Genre:

Reportage, Spoof

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Medical Treatment, Charlatanry, Education, Anatomy

    Reports on a meeting of medical students for thanking the Home Secretary James R G Graham Graham, Sir James Robert George, 2nd Baronet (1792–1861) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> for his medical reform bill. Much of the report is devoted to the speech of a 'young gentlemen in a Tweed wrapper' who analyses his disappointing examination performance and hopes that Graham's bill will 'settle' his brutal examiners, and put an end to the Apothecaries' Hall Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London—Apothecaries' Hall
Close   View the register entry >> and to 'grinding'. This is followed by others praising Graham and discussing the use of such subjects as anatomy and Latin to the medical practitioner.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery; Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Military Technology, War

People mentioned:

Archimedes Archimedes (c. 287–212 BC) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>

    Reports that some 'scientific folks' occupying an 'establishment at Fulham', 'issued a prospectus' undertaking to blow up schooners cheaply and annihilate fortresses quickly. Notes that the scheme is to be 'done by shells' but needs the public to 'shell-out as a preliminary', and that these scientific folks' 'benevolent object' is to 'put an end to war' by making it highly self-destructive. Punch observes that it is 'a rum idea to destroy life wholesale, for the purpose of saving it in detail'. The illustration shows a soldier pouring water from a watering-can onto a cannon—one way of 'destroying the enemy's guns'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Geology, Discovery

    Reports on a discovery by 'some scientific gentleman' that London rests on a 'sort of clay-pit' which, if dried, would lead to the city tumbling 'through into the Antipodes'. Accordingly advises Londoners to 'swap their kitchens once a week' and regards the fluid foundations of the British and Foreign Institute British and Foreign Institute
Close   View the register entry >> to be a 'good omen of its stability'.

Genre:

Diary, Spoof

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Medical Treatment, Commerce, Accidents

    The thoughts of a surgeon are focused on the ways in which he can make money out of the dangerous aspects of street life. Relishes the number of 'fractures and dislocations' that will result from a gentleman falling over a hoop trundled by a ragamuffin, and refuses to remove orange peel from the pavement, 'the blessings of the whole profession' being on those who scattered the peel. Equally 'amazed and delighted' to see ladies 'going about in thin shoes' on damp and muddy streets, a fashion that he expects to result in broken ankles and numerous interesting afflictions, including catarrh and coughs.

Genre:

News-Digest, Drollery

Subjects:

Public Health, Pollution, Disease

    Reports on the investigation by Professor Fairplay (a possible reference to Lyon Playfair Playfair, Sir Lyon, 1st Baron Playfair of St Andrews (1818–98) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>) of the diseases caused by living in cellars. Notes that 'Fairplay occupies the chair of Rheumatics in a cellar under the Royal Institution Royal Institution of Great Britain
Close   View the register entry >>' and has successfully caught a number of respiratory diseases.

Genre:

Announcement, Drollery

Subjects:

Invention, Government, Metallurgy, Industry

    Announces a process for increasing the hardness of wood by impregnating it with iron. Adds that the inventor intends to convert the wood prepared in this manner into 'Boards of Guardians'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Transport, Engineering, Steamships

    Likenening the Great Britain SS Great Britain
Close   View the register entry >> steamship to a swimmer, reports that, on being launched from her Bristol dock, 'her timbers shivered very much' but she 'soon struck out, smoking all the time'.

Genre:

Instructions, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct. [3]

Subjects:

Railways, Transport, Class, Accidents

    Describes the disadvantages of travelling first, second, and third class on a railway. It includes the observation that first-class travellers should be prepared to have their necks broken by an accident. Advises second-class passengers: 'you will do well to wear a respirator, unless you wish to be choked with dust and ashes from the engine close in front of you'. Suggests that third-class passengers should make up their minds 'for unmitigated hail, rain, sleet, snow, thunder and lightning'. The illustrations represent some of these hazards.

Genre:

Letter, Illustration, Publishing

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Invention, Technology

    After announcing that he was unsuccessful in manufacturing a 'Lawyer's Clerk', J Babbage (an allusion to Charles Babbage Babbage, Charles (1792–1871) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>) informs Punch that he has completed a 'New Patent Mechanical Novel Writer, adapted to all styles, and all subjects; pointed, pathetic, historic, silverfork, and Minerva'. Supports his invention with testimonials purportedly from some distinguished writers. G P R James (an allusion to the novelist George P R James James, George Payne Rainsford (1801–60) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>) claims that the invention can produce a 3-volume novel in 48 hours while E L Bulwer Lytton, (an allusion to the novelist Edward G E L Bulwer-Lytton Lytton, Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>) stresses that the machine produces novels with such attractive features as 'capital situations, ornate descriptions', and 'accommodating morality'. The illustration shows the machine in action.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Statistics, Physiology, Narcotics

    Analyses a report on the 'origin, causes, results, metaphysics, philosophy, and physiology of drunkenness'. Mystified by the statistics suggesting such things as 'birthdays', 'taking up a bill', and 'arrival of a friend from the country' are causes of drunkenness.