Genre:

Notes, Drollery; Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

J Leech Leech, John (1817–64) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Spielmann, Marion Harry Alexander 1895. The History of "Punch", London: Cassell
Close   View the register entry >>

Solar Phenomena

Domestic Sanitary Regulations

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Questions Arising Under the Health of Towns' Act

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

The Lions in May

New Theory of Saturn and his Belt

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

R D, pseud.  [Richard Doyle] Doyle, Richard (1824–83) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Spielmann, Marion Harry Alexander 1895. The History of "Punch", London: Cassell
Close   View the register entry >>

[Pictorial Border]

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Natural History, Ornithology

    Points out that the 'Cockney's Sportsman's game-list' includes a bird called the 'chaffinch' which Carl Linnaeus Linnaeus (or von Linné), Carl (1707–78) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> called the 'Fingilla cœlebs' because in Swedish winters, 'the females migrate, and leave the males bachelors'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct. [2]

Subjects:

Archaeology

People mentioned:

Thomas J Pettigrew Pettigrew, Thomas Joseph (1791–1865) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

    Challenges the claim of 'archaeologians' to have determined the Roman provenance of a wall. Describes other events in what was evidently a meeting of archaeologists. These include the presentation of 'some fragments of coarse pottery [...] which somebody turned into a handle for a long argument'. The illustrations show the supposed Roman remains—broken pieces of pottery.

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

J L, pseud.  [John Leech] Leech, John (1817–64) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Spielmann, Marion Harry Alexander 1895. The History of "Punch", London: Cassell
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Railways, Transport, Travel, Gender, Accidents

    Shows a corpulent 'Old Lady' standing in a railway station, reading a notice about insurance against railway accidents. She is so shocked to read the costs for insuring against injuries to limbs, that she throws her parasol and other belongings in the air. The caption explains that she had just decided to 'travel, just for once, by one "of those new fangled railways", and the first thing she beholds on arriving at the station' was the notice about accidents.

Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

Electricity, Telegraphy

    Observes that the poet's mind is 'As quick as the electric spark' which 'Runs o'er the telegraph wires'.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Telegraphy, Technology, Internationalism

    Reports that the right to connect England and France by a submarine telegraph has been conceded and anticipates the rapid exchange of gossip between the countries. Gives examples of the kinds of conversations expected on the telegraph.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Telegraphy, Technology, Internationalism

    Reflecting on reports of the telegraph between England and France, hopes 'international good feeling' results from this 'entente électrique '.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Light, Invention, Politics

    Notes that 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 >> illuminated Cannes with an electric light late one evening. Hopes that he will 'enlighten London with some of those powerful rays'.

Genre:

Reportage, Drollery

Subjects:

Astronomy, Pollution, Sanitation, Public Health

    Reports on astronomers' 'abortive attempt [...] to create a panic, by predicting a run upon the Banks of the Thames'. Adds that the Thames kept its 'dead and deadly level'.

Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Hospitals, Patronage, Class

    Describes the Hampton Court Hospital Hampton Court Hospital
Close   View the register entry >> as an institution, funded by involuntary contributions, for 'decayed members' of the aristocracy. Reports allegations that the Hospital could admit patients who have 'done the state some service'.

Genre:

Reportage, Drollery

Subjects:

Analytical Chemistry, Adulteration, Nutrition

    Reports that London's milk and water have been carefully analysed and that the difference between them is that London water is at the bottom of chalk, while chalk is at the bottom of London milk.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Physics, Light, Invention, Philosophy

    Reporting a lecture by Mr Dart Dart, Mr (fl. 1850) PU1/18/3/3
Close   View the register entry >> on 'the philosophy of a candle', urges that this subject, though ancient, will 'bring to light some curious phenomena, as to how many times one pound of candles, which, by the ordinary rules of duration, will not fit into two candlesticks, may be found to go easily into one grease-pot'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Zoological Gardens, Monstrosities, Amusement

    Responding to a report of an alleged monstrosity, 'a vain player' in the theatre, urges William Tyler Tyler, William (1799–1864) WBI
Close   View the register entry >> of the Surrey Zoological Gardens Surrey Literary, Scientific and Zoological Institution—Gardens
Close   View the register entry >> to capture the creature.

Genre:

Reportage, Drollery

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Charlatanry

    Reports that following an attack of 'stitch in the side' suffered by the 'MARQUESS OF FOUR-HUNDRED-THOUSAND', 'medical assistance was summoned' and the 'intelligence of the physician–intelligence, it must be confessed, extra-professional' discovered that the cause lay in the patient's coat.

Genre:

Reportage, Drollery

Subjects:

Physics, Light, Technology, Display, Lecturing

    Reports on a lecture delivered at the Academie des Sciences, Paris Académie des Sciences, Paris
Close   View the register entry >>, by 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 >>, the substance of which was later published in Brougham 1850 Brougham, Henry Peter 1850. 'Recherches Expérimentales et Analytiques sur la Lumière', Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de l'Académie des Sciences, 30, 43–47
Close   View the register entry >>. Adds that Brougham used apparatus made by Jean-Baptiste-François Soleil Soleil, Jean-Baptiste-François (1798–1878) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>, and was thus able to 'make his theory as clear as noon-day'.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Surgery, Commerce

    Advises visiting an advertising dentist rather than a 'regular practitioner' for replacing lost teeth because this will 'bite—the purchaser'.

Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Telegraphy, Progress, Government

    Observes that the electric telegraph, though it advances civilisation, rules the world 'with rods of iron'.

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Surgery

    Depicts a 'medical student' and a 'Consulting Surgeon' in the latter's office. The student accepts the surgeon's praise for his examination success but complains that he does not get much practice and is at home to take calls.

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Horticulture, Pollution, Gas Chemistry, Animal Development, Human Development, Nutrition

    Communicating his observations on the comparative effect of Thames water on animal and vegetable life, wonders why Thames water stunts the human frame, but is 'highly nutritious' to vegetables.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Time, Instruments

    Reports on an article in The Times The Times (1777–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> by Edward J Dent Dent, Edward John (1790–1853) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> describing the damaging effects of dirt on the 'Exchange Clock'. Punch adds its own report of the clock's recovery.

Genre:

Reportage, Drollery

Subjects:

Railways, Invention, Transport

    Challenges the railway authorities' decision to reject ingenious ideas regarding railway signalling and declare, 'that a break is a sufficient means of communication between the guard and the engine driver'.

Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Medical Treatment

    Lamenting the Royal Navy's Royal Navy
Close   View the register entry >> abolition of grog, the subject of the poem, Jack, is 'blister'd and bled', fed 'washy slops', and treated with physic', but complains that drinking physic is 'nothing like grog'.

Genre:

Ballad

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Railways, Class, Human Development

    Written in a style to represent an inferior literary skill, relates the story of a doctor and his friend and their meeting with a woman who gave them her child and subsequently vanished. Later in the story the doctor is ordered by its mother to return the baby to Devon. The doctor goes to a judge to decide what to do with the child, but leaves refusing to deposit the child in the workhouse. Contrasts the cruelty of the mother to the kindness of the doctor.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Telegraphy, Cultural Geography

    Compares the Englishman, who is 'as laconic as an electric telegraph's message' to the more verbose Frenchman.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Natural History, Ornithology, Politics, Animal Behaviour

    Descriptions of some alleged new birds that turn out to be political types. These include the 'Colymbus Arcticus', a 'disagreeable bird' whose 'blackness of the throat is attributed by political naturalists to a sort of black slimy matter generated in the bird itself, and discharged from the mouth'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Adulteration, Nutrition

People mentioned:

William Buckland Buckland, William (1784–1856) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>

    Responding to a proposal to supply London with water filtered from milk, notes that 'a pretty abundant source of water-supply exists in the chalk-formation'.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Display, Amusement, Meteorology, Exploration, Physical Geography

    Prefers leaving the conquest of the North Pole 'in the hands of others' and is content with the Arctic display at Burford's Panorama Burford's Panorama, Leicester Square
Close   View the register entry >>. Speculates on how Robert Burford Burford, Robert (1791–1861) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> depicted the aurora borealis in his Panorama, but adds that observing the actual phenomenon means sustaining very cold temperatures and is boring. Describes the 'streets, and lanes, and courts, and squares' of the Arctic and the dangers associated with the geography of this region. Praises the authenticity of Burford's depiction of the Arctic landscapes and expects the Panorama to be a 'Magnetic Pole' in the summer.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Natural History, Political Economy, Nutrition

    Referring to 'A FREE-TRADE PIE', asks 'the whole of the natural historians now living', and in particular, Alexander von Humboldt Humboldt, Alexander von (Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von) (1769–1859) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> and 'TIDE-MAN' Tiedemann, Friedrich (1781–1861) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>, why pigeon pies are made from pigeons that have four legs.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Time, Invention, Disease

    Discussing the 'epidemic' which has infected London's clocks in past years, reports the absence of hands and movement in the 'Asylum Clock' in the Westminster Road.

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

N, pseud.  [William Newman] Newman, William (fl. 1842) Spielmann 1895
Close   View the register entry >> Spielmann, Marion Harry Alexander 1895. The History of "Punch", London: Cassell
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Engineers, Mechanics

    Shows two floors of a building: on the bottom floor, a man is woken by a counterweight crashing through his ceiling, an object which is attached to a clock in the room of the 'mechanical genius' above.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Pollution, Public Health, Engineering, Government

    Responding to an article in The Times The Times (1777–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> on the City of London Commissioners of Sewers City of London Commissioners of Sewers
Close   View the register entry >>, points out that the commissioners have implemented a 'system of drainage' but 'drained the City's resources instead of its sewers'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Steam-power, Agriculture

    Argues that farmers, who are already in 'hot water', should use the water for the new steam-powered ploughing process.

Genre:

Reportage

Subjects:

Engineering, Commerce, Disease

    Reports on the dire financial state of the Thames Tunnel Thames Tunnel
Close   View the register entry >> and notes that the decline in tolls is due to cholera, which has 'acted as a sort of general accountant employed in balancing all matters of profit and loss'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Military Technology

    Comments on a report in the Morning Post Morning Post and Daily Advertising Pamphlet (1772–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> about Mr Groves's Groves, Mr (fl. 1850) PU1/18/12/1
Close   View the register entry >> shell that sets fire to clothes when 'burst among troops'. Doubts that the weapon would be effective against any troops but 'Amazonians' and 'Highlanders'.

Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Mathematics, Universities, Education

    Asks the 'Gods of Hades' to 'have mercy on a sinner' for having endured 'Six weeks of squares and triangles' and become 'but a beginner'. Complains that 'These cosine thetas to the nth / Will drive me crazy soon [...] And bring me home the Spoon'. Wishes he was 'a bold Bargee' with 'MILLER'S Miller, William Hallowes (1801–80) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> hydrostatic lore', or a 'Gyp' [university servant] with no worries about mathematics.

Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, War, Scientific Practitioners, Engineers, Heroism, Status, Nationalism, Government, Politics

    Notes the heroic battlefield work of military surgeons but points out that they are no more honoured than London hospital surgeons. Argues that the English, 'in the serenity of our greatness, rarely vouchsafe to acknowledge the existence of people of science'. Describes the paucity of scientific practitioners in the Court and Government and the fact that military victors are honoured by the state more than Robert Stephenson Stephenson, Robert (1803–59) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, whose Britannia Bridge Britannia Bridge, Menai Straits
Close   View the register entry >> was of 'incalculable' utility. Continues to contrast the ways military warriors and surgeons are honoured.

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Light, Instruments, Gender

    Shows a couple on a coast line looking out to the sea. The man points to the horizon and asks the woman if she can see a distant steamer. The woman, who looks at two seagulls on the sea with a telescope, replies, 'Oh, distinctly! There are two'.

Genre:

Essay, Spoof

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Class, Education

Institutions mentioned:

Royal Navy Royal Navy
Close   View the register entry >>

    Anticipates the proceedings of an inquest into the death of a seaman at the hands of assistant surgeon, Cooper Slice M.D. Includes testimony of Slice's superior, Dr Slash, who produces evidence against Slice. Slice explains his incompetence by complaining that he could not develop his knowledge of anatomy while living in the midshipman's berth. The 'PRESIDENT of the COLLEGE of SURGEONS Royal College of Surgeons
Close   View the register entry >>' upholds the importance of constant medical study and the jury decides that the seaman died of a haemorrhage and attributes Slice's ignorance to poor working conditions.

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Zoological Gardens, Animal Behaviour, Meteorology, Display, Amusement, Religion, Morality

    The narrator describes a visit to the Zoological Society Gardens Zoological Society of London —Gardens
Close   View the register entry >> in which he and his family saw certain sights that offended his Christian sensibilities, including a giant elephant carrying a child on its back. Describes a visit to Burford's Panorama Burford's Panorama, Leicester Square
Close   View the register entry >> where he and his family saw representations of the Arctic and the aurora.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Physical Geography, Engineering

    Responds to some gross errors in Le Napoleon Napoleon, Le (1850) BUCOP
Close   View the register entry >> concerning the location and purpose of Robert Stephenson's Stephenson, Robert (1803–59) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> tubular Britannia Bridge Britannia Bridge, Menai Straits
Close   View the register entry >> across the Menai Straits.

Genre:

Reportage, Spoof

Subjects:

Chemistry, Pharmaceuticals

    Reports the discovery by 'the distinguished chemist', Mr Punch, of 'an antidote to arsenic' in the form of a parliamentary bill 'limiting the operation of Burial Clubs to paying for the funerals of their deceased members'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Pollution, Public Health, Sanitation

    Denies that Napoleon's Napoleon I, Emperor of France (1769–1821) CBD
Close   View the register entry >> identification of 'Water, Air, and Cleanliness' as medicines applies in the case of London's water and air.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Zoological Gardens, Animal Behaviour, Psychology

    Discusses the imminent arrival of a hippopotamus in the Zoological Society Gardens Zoological Society of London —Gardens
Close   View the register entry >>. Reports on the rhinocerous's restlessness, a condition that is attributed to jealousy.

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Exhibitions, Industry, Human Development, Class

    Shows Mr Punch and a moustached figure (possibly Prince Albert Albert [Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha], prince consort, consort of Queen Victoria (1819–61) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>) inspecting some grim images of industry: four large bell jars, each of which contains a figure in the midst of his or her trade. The figures are 'An Industrious Needlewoman', 'A Labourer Aged 75', 'A Distressed Shoemaker', and 'A Sweater'.

Genre:

Notes, Satire

Subjects:

Physics, Mechanics, Heat, Government

    Links common parliamentary events to processes explained by natural philosophy. For example, it notes the 'EVOLUTION OF HEAT' that follows when 'anybody comes into collision with [the statesman] Lord Brougham Brougham, Henry Peter, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux (1778–1868) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>'.

Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Class, Government

    Attacks the Prime Minister Lord John Russell Russell, Lord John, 1st Earl Russell (1792–1878) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> for allowing the lords of the Admiralty Admiralty
Close   View the register entry >>, Francis T Baring Baring, Sir Francis Thornhill (1st Baron Northbrook) (1796–1866) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, James W D Dundas Dundas, Sir James Whitley Deans (1785–1862) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, and Maurice F F Berkeley Berkeley, Maurice Frederick Fitzhardinge (1st Baron Fitzhardinge) (1788–1867) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, to resist so '[u]nhandsomely, meanly, mendaciously' the claims of assistant surgeons in the Royal Navy Royal Navy
Close   View the register entry >>.

Genre:

Reportage, Drollery

Subjects:

Homeopathy, Chemistry, Nutrition, Medical Treatment

    Responding to a Morning Chronicle Morning Chronicle (1769–1862) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> report on 'homeopathic hospital dinners', suggests that the portions of food served on these occasions were minute. Noting the medicinal qualities of trace substances found in meat, concludes that meals contain 'a deal of medicine'.

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Surgery, Class

    Addressed to the statesman Charles L W Sibthorp Sibthorp, Charles de Laet Waldo (1783–1855) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, asks why assistant surgeons in the Royal Navy Royal Navy
Close   View the register entry >>, 'adult members of a liberal profession', are restricted 'to the berth of sea-schoolboys'. Disputes the claim put forward by a Lord of the Admiralty, James W D Dundas Dundas, Sir James Whitley Deans (1785–1862) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, that the reason for this arrangement was due to lack of space, and condemns the claim of another Admiralty lord, Maurice F F Berkeley Berkeley, Maurice Frederick Fitzhardinge (1st Baron Fitzhardinge) (1788–1867) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, that, owing to inferior birth and education, an assistant-surgeon should not mix with senior officers lest he damage 'the discipline of the service'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Electricity, Metallurgy, Geology, Commerce

    Reports on gold-diggers' disappointment that gold is 'merely a crust over the soil' and their castigation of 'Nature, for having condescended to use the electrotype process, instead of making the ground one solid mass' of gold.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Railways, Time, Mathematics, Education, Transport

    Believing that 'no one will ever understand a Railway Timetable, unless he has learnt it in his early youth', advises the teaching of railway arithmetic. Lists suitable questions for such an exercise, all of which poke fun at the lateness and danger of trains.

Genre:

Reportage, Drollery

Subjects:

Monstrosities, Natural History

    Reports on a 'party of the "Free and Independent"' on the Beaufort River in Carolina, who judged that the sea-serpent was three whales.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Disease, Government, Politics, Sanitation, Public Health, Commerce

    Imagines the existence of 'the MEMBER for HEALTH' who seeks to remove Smithfield Market Smithfield Market
Close   View the register entry >>, and 'the MEMBER for FILTH' who would 'defend vested interests through thick and thin' and who would be supported by 'the MEMBER for PESTILENCE'.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Medical Treatment, Quackery, Pharmaceuticals

    Responds to an advertisement for the recipe for a medicine to treat 'a disease of great suffering' that has been 'laying dormant' owing to the 'death of the medical gentleman' who made a 'large practice' out of it. Taking this to imply that it is the disease and not the recipe that has been lying dormant, suggests that the disease will be revived by the successor to the 'medical gentleman'.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Analytical Chemistry, Laboratories, Alchemy, Electricity, Light, Machinery

Institutions mentioned:

Society of Apothecaries—Apothecaries' Hall Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London—Apothecaries' Hall
Close   View the register entry >>

    Thinks that the 'analysation' of society into its component parts would be 'a process too vast for the resources of the chemist'. Using an implict comparison of humans and chemical substances, points out that 'combinations of various qualities and properties' which would normally be 'antagonistic', can 'amalgamate' in the opera house. Believes Her Majesty's Theatre Her Majesty's Theatre
Close   View the register entry >>, where the 'laws of political chemistry are suspended', witnessed such eirenic chemical processes as the 'correction of Protectionist Acidity' and the fusion of 'Whig Oil with Radical Vinegar'. Regards opera boxes as 'little laboratories [...] for the formation of other unions of a still more delicate kind', including 'Maternal Alchemy, the art of match-making'. Gives a 'manual of maternal chemistry' for those wishing to practice this latter art, which includes advice on the best oils to use for 'capillary attraction' and the claim that the person to be selected for the union must be 'solvent', because an 'insolvent' cannot 'liquidate'. Advice also includes the discreet use of the retort in matrimonial 'as in other chemistry', and the study of 'the theory of refraction and reflection' to ensure that rays of light from the countenance do not fall on a dense body.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Astronomy, Prognostication

    Responding to news of another comet, suggests that if all predicted comets actually arrive the sky would not be 'large enough to hold such a POSSE COMET-ATUS'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Hospitals, Sanitation, Public Health

    Following Napoleon's Napoleon I, Emperor of France (1769–1821) CBD
Close   View the register entry >> remark that 'the market-place [...] is the Louvre of the common people', suggests that 'Smithfield Market Smithfield Market
Close   View the register entry >> is the hospital of the common people', a possible reason why St Bartholomew's Hospital St Bartholomew's Hospital
Close   View the register entry >> was built near the market.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Exhibitions, Machinery, Industry, Human Species

    Following news that machinery will be displayed at the Great Exhibition Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations (1851)
Close   View the register entry >>, suggests showing the British solider as an example of a 'rough-going machine'.

Genre:

Introduction, Spoof; Proceedings, Spoof

Subjects:

Disease, Public Health, Sanitation

    Describes the activities of 'the first dinner of the United Undertakers' Protection Society' founded to oppose the Metropolitan Interments Bill. One participant, Mr Shrowdall, criticises the 'Report of the Board of Health on a general scheme for extramural sepulture' and for linking 'emanations from the dead' to disease.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery; Illustration, Satire

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Pollution, Public Health, Sanitation, Microscopy, Mesmerism, Spiritualism

People mentioned:

Arthur H Hassall, Hassall, Arthur Hill (1817–94) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Thomas Carlyle Carlyle, Thomas (1795–1881) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

    Describes the 'wonders [...] revealed in a drop of London water through the Molecular Magnifier, illuminated by the Intellectual Electric Light'. Likens the practice of preparing to view the drop to mesmerism and notes the 'whole universes instinct with life, or life in death' revealed by the 'Molecular Magnifier', an instrument whose powers stump the revelations of the American seer, Andrew J Davis Davis, Andrew Jackson (1826–1910) WBI
Close   View the register entry >> (189). Text and illustration reveal some of the gruesome objects to be seen in the water drop, including 'aldermen', a 'water bailiff', an 'undertaker', 'Gorgon-lobsters', and 'dire chimeras of turtle' (188–89). The text reveals the fierce competition among these monstrosities for 'atomic garbage'. Noting the theory that 'all organisations are multiples of themselves' suggests that water from wells must contain such individuals as aldermen (189).

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Astronomy

    Reports that one astronomer, a representative of the 'police of the skies', has announced the existence of a new comet. Explains the claim that the comet has no tail as the result of some 'violent [...] meteorological disturbances' and suggests calling the object 'Comet Spencer'.

Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Anatomy, Pathology, Exhibitions, Natural Law, Representation

Institutions mentioned:

Orthopaedic Institution Orthopaedic Institution
Close   View the register entry >>

Publications cited:

Cooper 1809 Cooper, Samuel 1809. A Dictionary of Practical Surgery, London: John Murray
Close   View the register entry >>

    Reports on a picture at the Royal Academy of Arts Royal Academy of Arts
Close   View the register entry >> showing 'illustrations of the scrofulous or strumous diathesis', a condition resulting in 'emaciated bodies', 'shrunken legs', and 'tumid ancles'. Praises the attention to the details of morbid anatomy exhibited in the painting and suggests that it is fit for the 'demonstration room'. Suggests that the artist might be employed when conventional forms of preserving specimens fail. Notes that the figures are 'revolting' to the 'non-professional beholder' and are 'examples of the consequences of transgressing the laws of health'.

Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

Sanitation, Public Health, Disease, Physiological Chemistry

    Instructs his executor to bury him far from churchyards near 'a narrow and crowded site' and to let him decompose far from 'living men's habitations'. Wants none of his 'chemical emanations' to 'injure a soul or offend a nose', but requests 'freshly smelling' flowers to adorn his tomb.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Heat, Instruments, Agriculture, Politics, Political Economy

    Describes the operation of a 'newly-invented Agricultural Pocket Thermometer' which indicates the extent of the 'loyalty of the agricultural Protectionist'. The instrument is calibrated in terms of the price of corn, fify-six degrees representing the point at which 'farmers' loyalty boils'.

Genre:

Letter, Spoof; Polemic

Subjects:

Surgery, Professionalization, Morality, Ethics

Publications cited:

Lancet Lancet (1823–1900+) Waterloo Directory
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    Discusses the Royal College of Surgeons Royal College of Surgeons
Close   View the register entry >>, which appointed some fellows by examination and others because they were favoured by the college's council. Reports on attacks made on the council for this apparently 'unjust and arbitrary conduct' and the council's attempt to gain a government charter for the appointment of fellows without examination. Reports opposition to this move from 'Fellows by Examination', Thomas Wakley Wakley, Thomas (1795–1862) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, and others, but asks why 'young fellows submit to an examination, if the partial requisition of it was an injustice'. Seeks to console these fellows by reminding them of the security and dignity of their qualification.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Menageries, Imperialism, Internationalism, Imperialism

    Describes some of the animals in a 'domestic menagerie' sent to Alexandria 'as a present for the Pasha Abbas Pasha, Khedive of Egypt (1813–1854) CBD
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Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Engineering, Transport, Politics, Radicalism

    Argues that John L McAdam McAdam, John Loudon (1756–1836) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> 'is the great enemy of the barricades', since Parisian boulevards are being macadamised to stop stones being used to aid a future revolutionary movement.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Astronomy, Religion, Superstition

    Notes the continued shining of the sun, moon, and stars despite the death of the Emperor of China, a figure believed to have a 'close relationship' with all celestial bodes. Expected that the constellations would have marked his death more sorrowfully.

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery; Essay, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

R, pseud.  [Richard Doyle] Doyle, Richard (1824–83) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Spielmann, Marion Harry Alexander 1895. The History of "Punch", London: Cassell
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Subjects:

Hunting

    Reports on the attempt by Arthur Wellesley (1st Duke of Wellington) Wellesley, Arthur, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769–1852) ODNB
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Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Ornithology, Animal Behaviour, Music

Publications cited:

Bechstein [1837] Bechstein, Johann Matthaus 1837. The Natural History of Cage Birds: Their Management, Habits, Food, Senses, Treatment, Breeding, and the Methods of Catching Them, London: Orr & Smith
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    Notes that 'Ornithology, has been running about for ages with a pinch of salt of research between its fingers, to place on the tails of the feathered community'. Upholds the interest of all parts of the bird and takes the bird 'in hand as if it were a member of our civilised community'. Begins its description of 'the whole race of social birds, from the hawk downwards to the duck', with an account of the nightingale, which is a thinly-veiled portrait of Jenny Lind Lind-Goldschmidt (née Lind), Johanna Maria ('Jenny') (1820–87) ODNB
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Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Animal Behaviour, Gender

    Compares the way camels weep when they are overloaded to ladies who resort to the same 'expedient' when they consider themselves 'too much put upon'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct. [2]

Illustrators:

R D, pseud.  [Richard Doyle] Doyle, Richard (1824–83) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Spielmann, Marion Harry Alexander 1895. The History of "Punch", London: Cassell
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Subjects:

Zoological Gardens, Nutrition, Adulteration, Natural History, Taxonomy, Animal Behaviour

    Describes arrival of the hippopotamus at the Zoological Society Zoological Society of London —Gardens
Close   View the register entry >> Gardens Zoological Society of London —Gardens
Close   View the register entry >>. Notes that its liquid intake consists of 'the usual wash of chalk, pump water, brains and other ingredients' that constitute London milk and that the animal displays 'extreme sensibility' and pines for its Arab keeper. Thinks that the animal, owing to its 'tendency to blubber', should be given the natural historical classification of 'Mammy-sick-alia'. The illustrations show people clamouring to see the hippopotamus.