Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Zoological Gardens, Religious Authority

    Considers the arrival of 'An ELEPHANT CALF and its MOTHER' at the Zoological Society Gardens Zoological Society of London —Gardens
Close   View the register entry >> to be more welcome than the coincident arrival of 'HIS EMINENCE CARDINAL WISEMAN Wiseman, Nicholas Patrick Stephen (1802–65) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> [the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster] in full costume'.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Homeopathy, Pharmaceuticals

    Reports Mr Punch's response to letters defending homeopathy and notes Punch's wife's conversion to the doctrine of Christian F S Hahnemann Hahnemann, Christian Friedrich Samuel (1755–1843) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>. Argues that the 'infinitessimal doses' of homeopathy are 'the best remedies' for excessive drinking and medicine-taking, but points out that they are only suitable for curing 'infinitessimal diseases'. Ridicules the claim of a correspondent, Judy, that her baby's sickness was cured homeopathically. Refuses to 'investigate a theory which carries apparent absurdity on the face of it', and considers that it rests with the homeopathic practitioners to 'prove their doctrines'.

Genre:

Diary, Drollery

Subjects:

Display, Geology, Physical Geography

    Describes a journey around Wyld's Great Globe Wyld's Great Globe, Leicester Square
Close   View the register entry >>. Claims that James Wyld Wyld, James, the younger (1812–87) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> has disproved the theories of Louis Agassiz Agassiz, Louis (Jean Louis Rodolphe) (1807–73) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>, Jean B J Fourier Fourier, Jean Baptiste Joseph (1768–1830) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>, and Thomas Burnet Burnet, Thomas (1635–1715) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> regarding the earth's interior, and has shown it to be filled with staircases. Observations include the fact that the earth's crust resemble an overdone 'beefsteak pie' and that the temperature of the globe increases towards the Artic regions (owing to the number of gas lamps). Enjoys the spectacle of having 'All the World [...] before you' and the opportunity of comparing the sizes of the earth's physical features, but is disappointed with the minute size of England. Discusses the colours given to different geographical regions—specifically, 'warm colours to warm climates', 'dead colours to barren districts', and 'neutral colours' to unknown regions.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Psychology, Machinery, Materialism, Exhibitions, Electricity, Mesmerism

    Following Alfred Smee's Smee, Alfred (1818–77) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> claim, published in his Process of Thought Smee, Alfred 1851. The Process of Thought Adapted to Words and Language: Together with a Description of Relational and Differential Mechanics, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans
Close   View the register entry >>, that 'mechanical contrivances' could be devised to imitate the actions of the mind, anticipates what a future Great Exhibition Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations (1851)
Close   View the register entry >> might feature. Discusses the implications of such machines including the idea that the insane will be able to have 'artificial brains' installed in their heads and the construction of 'mechanical SHAKESPEARES and BEETHOVENS—actuated by steam and electricity, instead of genius'. Ridicules the feasibility of producing 'cogitative machines'.

Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Exhibitions, Botany, Natural History, Ornithology, Education, Botanical Gardens

    Discusses possibility that the Crystal Palace Crystal Palace
Close   View the register entry >> may be turned into a 'Winter Park under Glass', a 'home to English Flora'. Notes Joseph Paxton's Paxton, Sir Joseph (1803–65) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> intention to stock the garden with 'animate beauty' in order to familiarise everybody with the 'science of Geology' and 'practical Botany, Ornithology, Geology'. Anticipates a development from John Gould's Gould, John (1804–81) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> stuffed hummingbird display—live hummingbirds in the Great Exhibition Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations (1851)
Close   View the register entry >>.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Breeding, Invention, Technology

    Describes some of the 'things that were to have been hatched' in 1851, as if relating a visit to Mr Cantelo's Cantelo, Mr (fl. 1848) PU1/14/1/2
Close   View the register entry >> 'Incubator' in Leicester Square. Thinks most of the 'Golden Eggs' that were supposed to have 'brought forth anything' were, like the eggs from Cantelo's machine, 'cracked'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Mesmerism, Spiritualism, Exhibitions

    Recommends that the statesman Charles L W Sibthorp Sibthorp, Charles de Laet Waldo (1783–1855) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> be mesmerised so that he can visit the Great Exhibition Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations (1851)
Close   View the register entry >> from 'his arm-chair'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Analytical Chemistry, Sanitation, Public Health, Politics, Government

    Discusses the report by 'Several scientific gentlemen' on the 'great Water Question', an allusion to Graham, Miller, and Hofmann 1851 Graham, Thomas, Miller, William Allen and Hofmann, August Wilhem von 1851. 'Chemical Report on the Supply of Water to the Metropolis', Journal of the Chemical Society, 4, 375–415
Close   View the register entry >>. Notes that the report declares the Thames to be '"the main drain of a large and populous city", full of corruption' and capable of 'self-purification', but that it ignores the 'remarkable allegorical fact that the Thames is exactly parallel to the British Senate'.

Genre:

Diary, Drollery

Subjects:

Display, Geology, Physical Geography, Astronomy

People mentioned:

Galileo Galilei, Galilei, Galileo (1564–1642) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Thomas R Malthus Malthus, Thomas Robert (1766–1834) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>

    Description of a second visit to Wyld's Great Globe Wyld's Great Globe, Leicester Square
Close   View the register entry >>, with observations of the features of the 'earth' as if it were a real place. These include the fact that the earth does not move, the cessation of daytime on Sunday, the great variation in population on the globe, and the high temperatures of its Arctic regions as a result of the globe being 150 feet closer to the Sun than the Earth.

See also:

Anon, 'A Journey Round the Globe', Punch, 21 (1851), 4–5

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Exhibitions, Hospitals

    Discusses Joseph Paxton's Paxton, Sir Joseph (1803–65) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> proposal to turn his Crystal Palace Crystal Palace
Close   View the register entry >> into a sanatorium which would provide patients with 'the same atmosphere both in winter and summer', the atmosphere being purified to feed plants which would supply oxygen to the sick.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Breeding, Invention, Technology

    Discusses the visit to Mr Cantelo's Cantelo, Mr (fl. 1848) PU1/14/1/2
Close   View the register entry >> 'Hydro-Incubator' by members of the 15th Hussars and 16th Lancers who took such interest in the exhibition that they requested eggs produced by the machine to be sent to them.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Chemistry, Pharmaceuticals, Scientific Practitioners, Charlatanry, Education, Patronage

    Agrees with Mr Bernal's criticism of the poor scientific education of chemist's assistants, but warns that such practitioners must receive 'better reward' for 'better education'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Exhibitions, Zoological Gardens, Animal Behaviour, Animal Development

Institutions mentioned:

Zoological Society Zoological Society of London
Close   View the register entry >>

    Describes the imminent arrival at the Great Exhibition Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations (1851)
Close   View the register entry >> from Borneo of an 'Uran Utan'. Notes that despite the death of its 'wife', the orang-utan is in 'the best health and spirits' and that 'his forehead has the intellectual development that marks his early years; a development that becomes more purely animal as he grows to the adult'.

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Mesmerism, Gender

Publications cited:

Gregory 1851 Gregory, William 1851. Letters to a Candid Enquirer on Animal Magnetism, London: Taylor [and 2 others]
Close   View the register entry >>

    Asks William Gregory Gregory, William (1803–58) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> whether Major Buckley, a figure who claimed to have produced 'a degree of clairvoyance' in over 140 people, can 'magnetise the Custom House officials' so they can see inside trunks, especially those owned by ladies.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Exhibitions, Invention, Technology, Crime, Religion

    Complains that the Great Exhibition Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations (1851)
Close   View the register entry >> lacks the appearance of a 'BENEVOLENT MACHINE', a machine for providing 'the vilest, the most atrocious criminal, a passage to the realms of endless bliss'—the next life.

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Agriculture, Chemistry, Pharmaceuticals, Government, Politics

    Responding to Jacob Bell's Bell, Jacob (1810–59) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> 'Farmacy Bill' (a parliamentary bill for regulating the qualifications and practices of pharmaceutical chemistry), rejects the uses of drugs as a 'remedy for agricultur' and urges Bell to 'mind his own bisnus'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Exhibitions, Hospitals

People mentioned:

Joseph Paxton Paxton, Sir Joseph (1803–65) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

    Thinks the conversion of the Crystal Palace Crystal Palace
Close   View the register entry >> into a winter garden will greatly benefit outpatients of the Brompton Hospital Brompton Hospital, Frimley
Close   View the register entry >>.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Exhibitions, Botanical Gardens

    Laments the London alderman Peter Laurie's Laurie, Sir Peter (1778–1861) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> opposition to the transformation of the Crystal Palace Crystal Palace
Close   View the register entry >> into a winter garden.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Astronomy, Human Species, Government, Politics

    Discusses some of the possible 'strange freaks performed [...] by the lower animals' during the imminent eclipse of the sun. These include 'Members of Parliament' who 'will go down to the "House" House of Commons
Close   View the register entry >> wondering how the time has flown so fast'. Adds that the eclipse is a good time for observing sunspots.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Domestic Economy, Heat, Invention, Technology, Crime

    Speculates on the purposes of the 'Pocket Stove', suggesting, for example, that it is to be kept in the pocket as a deterrent against pickpockets. Warns the inventor that he has picked the wrong time of year to expect the public to 'take up' his invention.

Genre:

Essay, Spoof; Polemic

Subjects:

Education, Religious Authority, Cultural Geography, Superstition, Anti-Scientism

    Upholds the argument that 'there is no greater auxiliary to the inculcation of virtuous precepts, than instruction in the laws that govern the system of nature'. Lamenting the 'Cimmerian darkness' covering 'natural and political science' in Italy, calls for the establishment of a mechanics' institute in Rome. Hopes this move will convert the Italian people to the great ideas of Isaac Newton Newton, Sir Isaac (1642–1727) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>, Jeremy Bentham Bentham, Jeremy (1748–1832) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, and Adam Smith Smith, Adam (1723–90) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>. Decrees that the institute be christened the 'Baconian Mechanics' Institute' and that it be staffed by Englishmen trained at the University of London University of London
Close   View the register entry >> and renowned for expertise in 'physical sciences' and liberalism in political and religious matters. Hopes this will 'dissipate' the 'dark clouds of superstition' that have overshadowed Italy and will result in English control over that country's ideas.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Exhibitions, Botanical Gardens, Disease, Public Health

People mentioned:

Peter Laurie Laurie, Sir Peter (1778–1861) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

    Purporting to be a prose rendition of Thomas Campbell's Campbell, Thomas (1777–1844) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> poem, The Pleasures of Hope, comically outlines the criticisms made by John Campbell (1st Baron Campbell) concerning the proposal to turn the Crystal Palace Crystal Palace
Close   View the register entry >> into a winter garden. The criticisms include the possibility that it will cause such diseases as 'rheumatisms, coughs and agues' and prove to be a 'huge hot-house of consumption'.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, Animal Behaviour, Human Species, Physiognomy

    Describes Mr Punch's observations at the Royal Agricultural Society's Royal Agricultural Society of England
Close   View the register entry >> show area in Windsor Home Park Windsor Home Park
Close   View the register entry >>. Claims that the physiognomy of the pigs and bulls resembled that 'characteristic of agricultural gentlemen'. The bulls, for example, showed 'a doggedness of will', while the pigs sense of 'persecution and wrong' was accompanied by 'continual grunting and squeaking in terms of angry complaint'. Adds that the animals, like agricultural workers, were 'groaning and squealing, as if for hunger' while they were 'stuffing themselves'.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Astronomy, Animal Behaviour, Politics

    Responds to an astronomer's claim that the 1812 solar eclipse brought horses 'to a stand-still' and forced oxen to form a circle. Likens the immobility of 'some political parties' to a 'moral eclipse' and wonders why oxen have not formed a circle to protest against the threatened closure of Smithfield Market Smithfield Market
Close   View the register entry >>.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Astronomy, Observation, Instruments

    Shares the public's disappointment with the solar eclipse. The author explains how he prepared a smoked-glass plate through which to observe the phenomenon but was dismayed to find that the sun did not disappear.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

J T, pseud.  [John Tenniel] Tenniel, Sir John (1820–1914) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Spielmann, Marion Harry Alexander 1895. The History of "Punch", London: Cassell
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Astronomy, Instruments, Observation, Politics

    Presents non-technical accounts of the eclipse as seen from such European cities as Rome and Naples. The report from Paris records that 'The moon—as described by M. Arago Arago, Dominique François Jean (1786–1853) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> appeared like a pitch plaster upon the face of the sun. Certain deputies, however, declared it to be like a monstrous blot of censor's ink'. The illustration shows Mr Punch looking through a telescope while sailing in a wooden tub.

Genre:

Notes, Spoof

Subjects:

Hospitals, Exhibitions, Disease, Public Health

    Presents a pessimistic report concerning the Jardin d'Hiver Jardin d'Hiver, Paris
Close   View the register entry >> in Paris, putatively prepared for John Campbell (1st Baron Campbell) Campbell, John, 1st Baron Campbell (1779–1861) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> by his commissioner 'Henry Stretcher M.D.', in response to Joseph Paxton's Paxton, Sir Joseph (1803–65) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> proposal to turn the Crystal Palace Crystal Palace
Close   View the register entry >> into a winter garden. The observations underline the claim that the winter garden would foster illness and raise the mortality rate.

Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Exhibitions, Electricity, Futurism

People mentioned:

Galileo Galilei, Galilei, Galileo (1564–1642) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> William Harvey, Harvey, William (1578–1657) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Isaac Newton, Newton, Sir Isaac (1642–1727) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Edward Jenner, Jenner, Edward (1749–1823) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Charles Wheatstone Wheatstone, Charles (1802–75) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Dialogue, Spoof

Subjects:

Exhibitions, Instruments, Invention, Technology

    Two gentlemen on a train returning from the Great Exhibition Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations (1851)
Close   View the register entry >> discuss such familiar and less familiar instruments as the 'sphaero-Condenser', 'the Zinickotimodai, for the waistcoat-pocket', and 'the Antephlebotomon for children'.

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Exhibitions, Botanical Gardens

Institutions mentioned:

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace
Close   View the register entry >>

Publications cited:

Lindley and Paxton 1851–53 Lindley, John and Paxton, Joseph 1851–53. Paxton's Flower Garden, 3 vols, London: Bradbury & Evans
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Song, Drollery

Subjects:

Medical Treatment, Disease

    A song allegedly sung at a recent 'Great Teetotal Demonstration', notes the 'delusion [...] That punch cures gout, cholic, and phthistic [...] Or in any way answers as physic!'.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Nutrition, Morality

    Criticizes the 'principle' and goals of vegetarians. Drawing parallels between animal and vegetable foods, questions the statesman Joseph Brotherton's Brotherton, Joseph (1783–1857) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> conviction that vegetables are not harmed in their consumption. Believes the 'philosophy that renounces animal food because of the pain inflicted upon animal sensation' applies to vegetables, and wants vegetarians to prove the 'want of sensation' in vegetables. Hopes to see a day when philosophers 'entirely subsist on air'.

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Homeopathy, Medical Treatment, Quackery, Health, Heterodoxy

People mentioned:

Christian F S Hahnemann, Hahnemann, Christian Friedrich Samuel (1755–1843) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> James Morison, Morison, James (1770–1840) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Thomas Holloway Holloway, Thomas (1800–83) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Institutions mentioned:

Consumption Hospital Consumption Hospital
Close   View the register entry >>

    Identifying himself as a 'valetudinarian' who has become a homeopath, explains how the 'infinitesimal globules' cured his 'nervous depression', and analyses a report in The Times The Times (1777–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> of a meeting of the Homeopathic Association Homeopathic Association
Close   View the register entry >>. Praises John Kennaway's Kennaway, Sir John, 2nd Baronet (1797–1873) WBI
Close   View the register entry >> 'masterpiece of homeopathic reasoning' at the meeting, upholding Kennaway's identification of the need to investigate homeopathy for oneself and his stress on the efficacy of the treatment. Valorises the remarks of Mr Shaen Shaen, Mr (fl. 1851) PU1/21/9/1
Close   View the register entry >> who defended the claim that his recovery to health was due to homeopathy rather than 'change of diet, habits, or other trivial and unimportant circumstances'. Believes 'Homeopathic truth' has been 'laid down' by the Royal College of Physicians Royal College of Physicians
Close   View the register entry >> and was originally established by either Thomas Sydenham Sydenham, Thomas (1624–89) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> and William Harvey Harvey, William (1578–1657) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>. Thinks homeopathy will put an end to 'that overpaid fraternity of impostors, medical practitioners'. Praises John Epps Epps, John (1805–69) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> for singing 'a poem in honour of Homeopathy'.

Genre:

Reportage, Drollery

Subjects:

Agriculture, Entomology, Microscopy, Commerce

    Reports the existence of 'a curious kind of insect' in ripe ears of corn which, according to Mr Punch's examination of the species under a microscope, is distinguished by the white letters '5d'. Explains that the blight at present found among the 'British Farmers' wheat predicts, 'The Best Quartern Loaf, price 5d.'

Genre:

Proceedings, Spoof

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Quackery, Narcotics

    One participant, Mr Stunner, attacks the medical profession for 'withholding their sanction against total abstinence' owing to their self-interest in 'disease and suffering' and also for employing 'medicated grog' in their practice.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Domestic Economy, Heat, Invention, Technology

    Discusses the invention of a 'ventilating stove'.

Genre:

Song, Drollery

Subjects:

Exhibitions, Botanical Gardens

    Describes the narrator's imagined tour, with 'the gallant COLONEL [a reference to Charles L W Sibthorp Sibthorp, Charles de Laet Waldo (1783–1855) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>]', of winter gardens established in the Crystal Palace Crystal Palace
Close   View the register entry >>. Having formerly opposed the plans for the palace, the colonel now admires the fauna, flora, and fruit of 'foreign climates'.

Genre:

Diary, Drollery

Subjects:

Zoology, Animal Behaviour, Human Species

    Includes a description of a visit to Drury Lane Theatre Drury Lane Theatre
Close   View the register entry >> during a performance of 'Acknowledged Man-Monkey'. Considers the 'delineations of the monkey tribe' to be 'rather deceptive' and warns the 'student of the habits of monkey life' not to trust the drama 'too implicitly'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Astronomy, Periodicals, Electricity, Metallurgy

    Responds to the grossly poetic way in which a 'Sunderland paper' described the recent solar eclipse. Comparing the luminosity of the report to that of the sun, urges readers to peruse the report through 'a piece of smoked glass'. The report includes the remark that the sun '"stood trembling at the gates of the west," electro-plating with burnished gold every hill and tree'.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery; Polemic

Subjects:

Cultural Geography, Agriculture, Invention, Machinery, Astronomy, Religious Authority, Lecturing, Anti-Scientism

    Laments the fact that the wrongs England has inflicted upon Ireland are 'full and running over'. Points out that not only was the Crystal Palace Crystal Palace
Close   View the register entry >> 'raised by Irish skill' but that the exhibition commissioners have awarded a lucrative prize to an Irishman for inventing a steam-powered reaping-machine. Anticipates the consequent exultations of 'Saxon' farmers and the 'well-understood confusion' of the 'armies' of Irish reapers whose livelihoods will be destroyed by the machine. Continues with a description of the 'beautiful scene' of the Roman Catholic lecturer Daniel W Cahill Cahill, Daniel William (1796–1864) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, 'as an astronomical lecturer', trying to teach the 'bigoted Saxon' the 'principles of astronomy—as set forth by the College of Rome Gregorian University, Rome
Close   View the register entry >>'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Anatomy, Light, Invention, Technology

    Discusses the invention of a 'false moveable eye' that can perform all the operations of a real eye except seeing. Objects to the 'prismatic head of hair' caused by attempts to dye hair and questions how far the 'false' can 'supersede the true' in the case of the human body.

Genre:

Illustration, Caricature; Address, Spoof

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

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:

Religious Authority, Entomology, Natural History

    Subtitled 'A Lecture addressed to the National Entomological Society', describes the 'Episcopus Vastator', a 'variety of the Moth Tribe' notable 'for the damage it does to the cloth'. The description of the 'voracity' and physical appearance of 'Episcopus', and the illustration, reveal that the insect is a Roman Catholic bishop.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Engineering, Engineers

People mentioned:

George Stephenson, Stephenson, George (1781–1848) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Joseph Paxton Paxton, Sir Joseph (1803–65) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

    Reports on the visit of Arthur Wellesley (1st Duke of Wellington) Wellesley, Arthur, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769–1852) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> to Robert Stephenson's Stephenson, Robert (1803–59) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> 'Britannia Bridge'. Believes Wellington was contemplating the replacement of military generals by engineers. Describes a banquet held in Stephenson's honour.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Engineering

    Reports that the 'philosophical world' has only just woken up to the agitation over the 'Lock question' and that the Philosophical Transactions Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (1665–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> will contain an analysis of the 'relative merits of the philosophy of Lock Locke, John (1632–1704) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> and HOBBS Hobbes, Thomas (1588–1679) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>'.

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Agriculture, Invention, Machinery

    Written from the perspective of a rustic, rejects the 'reapun masheen' forced upon agricultural workers by the 'Mericans' and threatens to beat the machine 'any day, wi a hook'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Commerce

    Discusses an advertisement from a surgeon seeking an assistant who wishes to 'see practice' without a salary. Unless the applicant can manage to live without an income, the author points out that 'the mere fact of "seeing practice"' will 'amount to a very visionary sort of benefit'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Invention, Anatomy

    Announces the invention of an artificial leg by an American named Mr Palmer Palmer, Mr (fl. 1851) PU1/21/14/1
Close   View the register entry >>, and discusses its implications, including the fact that injured seamen will now be 'refitted and sent back to active duty', and the possibility of having taller footmen and better ballet dancers.

Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Medical Treatment, Quackery

Institutions mentioned:

Army

    Fiercely attacks medical practitioners as 'vile and infamous wretches' who 'get a disgraceful living by administering to the hard exigencies' of the sick with the 'resources of a paltry science' or a 'low mechanical art'. Condemns the easy studies and avaricious existence enjoyed by medical practitioners, and praises the Army Commander-in-Chief's Office (Horse Guards) Army—Commander-in-Chief's Office (Horse Guards)
Close   View the register entry >> for branding deserting army medical officers with the letter 'D'.

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Nutrition, Adulteration, Domestic Economy, Gender, Reading

Institutions mentioned:

Lancet—Analytical Sanitary Commission Lancet—Analytical Sanitary Commission
Close   View the register entry >>

    Stresses 'how much badness the body and soul destroying tea-trash contains' and, urging women to read the Lancet Lancet (1823–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> instead of 'foolish novels and unmeaning poetry', describes the 'nasty and pernicious' substances with which various types of tea are adulterated.

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

J T, pseud.  [John Tenniel] Tenniel, Sir John (1820–1914) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Spielmann, Marion Harry Alexander 1895. The History of "Punch", London: Cassell
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Aeronautics, Invention, Technology, Amusement

    Subtitled 'Vincent Lunardi Lunardi, Vincenzo (1759–1806) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Throwing Out a Little Ballast', depicts two aeronauts rising from a crowd of people in a balloon. One aeronaut is throwing some foul-looking fluid out of the basket to lighten the balloon.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Zoological Gardens, Display, Animal Behaviour

    Reports on the resolution of the 'little jealous differences' between the hippopotamus, the infant elephant, and the orang-utan of the Zoological Society Gardens Zoological Society of London —Gardens
Close   View the register entry >>.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Pharmaceuticals, Medical Treatment, Cultural Geography, Narcotics

    Discusses the London Pharmacopoeia Nevins, John Birkbeck 1851. A Translation of the New London Pharmacopoeia: Including the New Dublin and Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia with a Full Account of the Chemical and Medicinal Properties of their Contents; Forming a Complete Materia Medica, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans
Close   View the register entry >> and stresses the existence of considerable differences between the same 'medicine' as prescribed in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin. Noting the potentially fatal nature of these medicines, concludes that 'what is one man's physic, may be another man's poison'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Societies, Medical Treatment, Psychology, Gender

    Discusses the Royal College of Physicians' Royal College of Physicians
Close   View the register entry >> proposal to establish a 'Chair of Psychological Therapeutics, or Medicine as applied to moral and intellectual diseases', a move prompted by the need to evaluate compensation for broken-hearted or bereaved women. Relishes the prospect of a remedy for curing the 'ailments of the inner senses' and notes that a College of Physicians professor has already discovered medicines for lawyers whose 'fallacies have become chronic'. Believes the materia medica may be enriched by 'psychological physic'.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Nutrition, Adulteration, Commerce

    Describing the adulteration of tea, castigates grocers as 'THE POISONERS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY' and urges that 'The Act for Prevention of the Sale of Poisons' be applied to these tradesmen.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery / Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Electricity, Medical Treatment, Psychology, Mental Illness

    Introduces a 'Hydro-Electric Chain', a machine that claims to raise the spirits, dissipate depression and neutralise feelings of nervousness. Supplies testimonials from J Briefless and Mr Dunup supporting the efficacy of the machine.

Genre:

Song, Drollery

Subjects:

Agriculture, Machinery, Steam-power, Animal Husbandry, Progress

    Subtitled 'Adapted to the Improved System of Agriculture', reflects on the fact that his master employs only 'two men and a boy; / The rest is Machines [...] and the chief of his servants is osses and steam'. Anticipates that 'gentlefolks' dining at the 'fat cattle show' will now drink to 'the Machine'.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Aeronautics, Technology, Display, Cultural Geography

People mentioned:

Mme Poitevin Poitevin, Mme. (fl. 1850) http://www.balloonlife.com/publications/balloon_life/9512/history.htm
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    Responding to news of another balloon bursting, notes that the balloon has long been regarded as a 'perfectly useless invention'. Compares English balloon displays to the more dramatic French variety, where the aeronauts have no 'scruples about risking their necks' and where the objects raised by balloon include an 'eight-oar boat' and a 'four-roomed house, with its furniture and occupants'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Telegraph, Zoology, Animal Behaviour

    Points out that fish would probably not injure the submarine telegraph because they would regard it as another fish—an electric eel.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Quackery, Medical Treatment, Mental Illness, Commerce

    Discusses a report of a man who was cured of his mental illness with 'quack medicines'. Observes that 'we should expect none but madmen could have been attracted by the puffing advertisements' of quack medicine vendors, and that such a person would come to his senses after entering a course of quack medicine.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Telegraphy, Accidents, Internationalism

    Expresses disappointment at news that the attempt to connect London and Paris by a 'sub-marine telegraph' collapsed owing to the shortness of the cable.

Genre:

Review, Spoof

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Medical Treatment, Education

Institutions mentioned:

Army

    A spoof review of 'Punch's Outlines of Military Surgery', a work notable for its discussion of branding those who disgrace 'an honourable profession', and of 'corporal and capital punishment'. Adds that army surgeons should learn clinical medicine in the 'school of [the hangman] JACK KETCH Ketch, John ('Jack') (d. 1686) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>', and that they have now been 'allotted' a 'D' tattoo.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Telegraphy, Accidents, Politics, Cultural Geography, Medical Practitioners

    Describes how a long spell of fog caused a 'sudden paralysis' of the arms of the French telegraph midway through the transmission of political intelligence. Speculates on what King Louis-Phillipe Louis-Phillipe, King of the French (1773–1850) CBD
Close   View the register entry >> of France will do once conventional telegraphy is replaced by its electric counterpart, removing the excuse that it is the fog that keeps 'France in a perpetual fog'. Suggests that Louis-Phillipe will blame such events as geese snapping the telegraph wires. Calls for French physicians to observe the French telegraph.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Railways, Accidents

    Observes that railway accidents 'have become so numerous' that public interest would only be excited if a week were to pass without an accident happening.

Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Monstrosities, Zoology, Government

    Asks Richard Owen Owen, Richard (1804–92) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> to identify the 'the Creature with a sturgeon / That was sent before the QUEEN Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and Empress of India (1819–1901) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>'. Remainder of the poem poses several questions regarding the possible characteristics of the 'Water-Bailiff'.

Genre:

Letter, Spoof; Polemic

Subjects:

Animal Magnetism, Mesmerism

    Describes his visit to an 'exhibition of animal magnetism' at the Hungerford Hall Hungerford Hall
Close   View the register entry >> in London. Reports that Auguste Lassaigne Lassaigne, Auguste (1819–1885) WBICOPAC
Close   View the register entry >> sent Prudence Bernard Bernard, Prudence (fl. 1851) Lassaigne 1851
Close   View the register entry >> to sleep and 'caused her to do things that make her appear extremely wide awake'. These 'things' include moving a magnet 'without touching it', a feat that the author ascribed to either a 'magnetic influence' or by 'communicating vibration through the floor'. Adds that the stage managers tried unsuccessfully to show him that it was the former. In a description of a 'thought-reading' display, records how Lassaigne made Prudence Bernard believe she was walking over flowers. The author records how he established that 'grasping the hand of the somnambulist', an apparently important condition of the display, had no effect on the somnambulist. He is confident that 'Collusion or trick seemed impossible' but denies that he should believe in a miracle because he 'cannot imagine how it is done'. (184) Concludes by criticising mesmerists for not allowing analysis of their 'extraordinary phenomena' and compares them to 'friars and quacks'.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Meteorology, Gender, Observation, Domestic Economy

    Following the scientific study of 'storms in general', proposes investigating 'the theory and causes of domestic storms', with a thinly-veiled comparison of wives to storms. The author reports having kept a log of the behaviour of 'her condition' under various weather conditions and makes several observations including the prevalence of storms 'about Christmas time', the protection from the storm offered by 'a bank', and the fact that storms sometimes begin 'with trifling airs, but these often increase suddenly to a squall of the most alarming character'. Likening husbands to mariners and wives to wayward sea-vessels, suggests methods for dealing with 'domestic storms' including 'taking [a vessel] out of her stays' and 'cutting her rigging'. The illustration shows a woman's head in a storm cloud and a man being blown away by the wind emerging from her mouth.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Adulteration, Nutrition, Public Health, Analytical Chemistry

Institutions mentioned:

Lancet—Analytical Sanitary Commission Lancet—Analytical Sanitary Commission
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Publications cited:

Liverpool Journal Liverpool Journal (1830–84) Waterloo Directory
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    Reports that the Lancet's Lancet (1823–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> exposure of the 'horrid adulterations of tea' has prompted a decline in tea-drinking and the 'totality of teetotalism'. Wishes the government could have provided against' this 'state of things' and argues that adulteration could be checked by hiring 'a Chemical Officer, to be employed [by custom houses] as a Preventive against that sort of smuggling by which our foods and medicines are poisoned and polluted'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Sanitation, Public Health, Reading, Periodicals

    Demands that the 'thinking, the reading public, be protected as well as the eating one' from adulterated products, and following the Lancet's Lancet (1823–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> Analytical Sanitary Commission Lancet—Analytical Sanitary Commission
Close   View the register entry >>, reports Punch's 'scientific analysis' of adulterated literature. 'The Common Penny Titillator', for example, was found to contain 'much lead' and 'granules of old jokes, in a state of decomposition'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Medical Treatment

    Reports that the physician James Clark Clark, Sir James (1788–1870) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> has offered his services to the exiled Hungarian national hero, Lajos Kossuth Kossuth, Lajos (1802–94) CBD
Close   View the register entry >>.

Genre:

Essay, Rejoinder

Subjects:

Mesmerism, Animal Magnetism, Experiment, Homeopathy, Quackery, Phrenology, Spiritualism, Telegraphy, Belief

    Responds to a reply to his communication on mesmerism at the Hungerford Hall Hungerford Hall
Close   View the register entry >> (see The Sceptical Gentleman, 'Prudence and Mesmerism at Hungerford Hall', Punch, 21 (1851), 184–85). Defends his approach to mesmerism by pointing out that the 'marvellousness of [mesmerists'] assertions induces close scrutiny of their facts' and implies that mesmerists, owing to their 'Intolerance of scepticism, in matters of science', are guilty of the 'imposture of enthusiasm'. Insists that he is not denying the possibility of phenomena produced between Prudence Bernard Bernard, Prudence (fl. 1851) Lassaigne 1851
Close   View the register entry >> and Auguste Laissaigne Lassaigne, Auguste (1819–1885) WBICOPAC
Close   View the register entry >>, only that it is 'not proven'. Argues for a series of experiments by candid persons on the effect of the will on Prudence Bernard's ability to behave as if she were really walking on a bed of serpents. Denies the existence of corroborative evidence for her supposed thought-reading powers and urges that such evidence can only be produced in the Royal Institution Royal Institution of Great Britain
Close   View the register entry >>. Adds that Michael Faraday Faraday, Michael (1791–1867) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> should be asked to verify her apparent power to 'attract the magnet', and insists that the action of the electric telegraph, unlike 'Mesmeric miracles', can be verified 'at any time for the sum of one shilling, with no extra change of scepticism'.

Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

Telegraphy, Technology

    Reflects on the completion of a submarine telegraph between England and France. Notes the speed with which messages will be sent between these nations and asks, 'What great marvel could a wizard boast? / No worse explosion, no more fearful shock'. Expects the rapid transmission of news through the telegraph will cause 'fish that flock / Around it' to 'gape with all their jaws'.

Genre:

Reportage, Spoof; Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Religious Authority, Education, Anti-Scientism

    Introduces a poem by 'MOLLOY MOLONY', who is indignant at the appointment of 'a Scotch Professor [the philosopher James McCosh McCosh, James (1811–94) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>] to one of HER MAJESTY'S Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and Empress of India (1819–1901) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Godless Colleges [the nondemoninational Queen's College, Belfast Queens' College, Belfast
Close   View the register entry >>]'. Threatens to 'stamp under feet the base book of [Saxon] science', and hopes to study science at a college built by Nicholas P S Wiseman Wiseman, Nicholas Patrick Stephen (1802–65) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, John Machale Machale, John (1791–1881) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> ('Chume'), and Paul Cullen Cullen, Paul (1803–78) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>—namely the planned Catholic University of Ireland Catholic University of Ireland, Dublin
Close   View the register entry >>.

Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Time, Instruments, Technology, Electricity, Government

    Discusses the possibility of using electricity to control clocks 'on every floor, in every man's house'. Suggests establishing a central electrical clock in the Horse Guards Army—Commander-in-Chief's Office (Horse Guards)
Close   View the register entry >> which would 'regulate all the Electrical Clocks in the Metropolis', and believes that this system would make for 'greater degree of regularity [...] in our daily engagements', including 'getting up of a morning' and railway travel.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Meteorology, Gender, Domestic Economy, Electricity

    Continues observations on domestic storms begun in Anon, 'The Law of Domestic Storms', Punch, 21 (1851), 185. These include the claim that 'Domestic Storms, like other storms [...] come round at regular intervals' and increase with the trade winds, an observation supported by an account of a shipmate losing all control of 'Eliza'. Compares the showers of fish accompanying violent sea storms to the shower of crockery accompanying domestic storms, and explains that 'sparks' are the cause of these storms. Considers the best remedy to be 'a good conductor' or 'meeting the sparks with an opposing battery'.

Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Quackery, Pharmaceuticals, Medical Treatment, Statistics, Narcotics

    Notes the changing fashions in quackery including those for pills and lozenges. Discusses and repudiates the mania for sarsaparilla, a drink that is 'said to "destroy every kind of humour"'. Asks the editor of Notes and Queries Notes and Queries (1849–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> why 'anybody dies at all' given the large consumption of supposedly life-saving medicine. Criticises the statistics used by quacks to puff their medicines.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Telegraphy, Time

    Claims that the submarine telegraph will stop people being 'tied to time' and that it has taken over from mail as the route for 'all the important French news'. Thinks that the consequences of the rapidity of news transmission via the electric telegraph will be 'watches and clocks' becoming 'obsolete', time being 'set at nought', and the possibility of being 'knocked into next week'.

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Telegraphy

    Representation of the Dover-Calais submarine telegraph of 1851. Shows John Bull standing on the cliffs of Dover wrapped in an 'electric wire' which extends across the Channel to a French policeman on the distant shores of Calais.

Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Chemistry, Crystallography

    Claims that 'If FARADAY's Faraday, Michael (1791–1867) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> or LIEBIG's Liebig, Justus von (1803–73) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> art / Could crystallise this legal treasure' then 'Long might a pleader, near his heart, / The jewel wear with chuckling pleasure'.

Genre:

Reportage, Spoof

Subjects:

Mesmerism, Animal Magnetism, Periodicals

    Claims to be using a clairvoyant whose 'prophetic revelations' will 'startle the literary world'. Boasts that the clairvoyant's 'Mesmeric Telescope' enables him to see through such objects as the 'walls of Grubb Street' and the thoughts of journalists.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drolley; Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

Mc C, pseud.  [William McConnell] McConnell, William (1831–67) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Spielmann, Marion Harry Alexander 1895. The History of "Punch", London: Cassell
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Telegraphy, Crime, Progress

    Discusses a letter complaining that the submarine telegraph will give some people 'unpleasant facilities' for 'interfering with other people'. Points out that the telegraph can help catch criminals and debtors and asks whether 'the progress of science shall be stopped'. The illustration shows two gentleman responding to the news of a siege in Paris which had reached them, via the telegraph, only twenty-five minutes after the event occurred.

Genre:

Poetry, Drollery; Illustration

Relevant illustrations:

wdct. [5]

Illustrators:

Mc C, pseud.  [William McConnell] McConnell, William (1831–67) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Spielmann, Marion Harry Alexander 1895. The History of "Punch", London: Cassell
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Zoological Gardens, Animal Behaviour

People mentioned:

Isaac Newton Newton, Sir Isaac (1642–1727) DSB
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    Describes a visit to the Zoological Society Gardens Zoological Society of London —Gardens
Close   View the register entry >> and offers observations on the behaviour of the boa constrictor and other animals. The illustrations depict the visit to the gardens.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Scientific Practitioners, Heroism

    Criticizes the decision of the French to name a 'steam-sloop' after Isaac Newton Newton, Sir Isaac (1642–1727) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Time, Instruments, Disease, Electricity

    Describes the spread of the 'chronic' London clock disease to the St Pancras clock. Suggests that, 'as the electric clock had something to do with lightning', the clock 'may be literally thunder-struck'.

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

A, pseud.  [A]
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Military Technology, Invention

    Shows two cannons.

Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Mathematics, Instruments, Technology, Medical Treatment

People mentioned:

Charles Babbage Babbage, Charles (1792–1871) DSB
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Genre:

Essay, Drollery; Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

Mc C, pseud.  [William McConnell] McConnell, William (1831–67) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Spielmann, Marion Harry Alexander 1895. The History of "Punch", London: Cassell
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Museums, Menageries, Race

    Responding to news that George Catlin Catlin, George (fl. 1841–48) WBI
Close   View the register entry >> is proposing to 'collect a Museum, consisting of all the individuals of all the tribes that are now passing away', suggests forming collection of the 'numerous races' that are 'on the eve of becoming extinct among our own countrymen'. Describes four of these races: the 'Protectionist', the 'Stage Coachman', the 'Watchman', and the 'Irish Repealer'. Illustrations depicts Mr Punch and John Bull visiting the menagerie displaying these races.

Genre:

Editorial, Drollery

Subjects:

Astronomy, Cultural Geography, Analogy

    Makes favourable and unfavourable comparisons between France and a celestial body.