Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Health, Environmentalism

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Miracles, Supernaturalism, Mesmerism, Religion

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Disease, Surgery

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Exploration, Zoology, Government, Patronage

    Notes a report in Nature Nature (1869–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> claiming that 'men of science "are about to apply to Government for some further Deep-Sea explorations"', but warns that 'We wouldn't hurry Ministers. Some of them have already been getting signally out of depth'.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Medical Treatment, Quackery, Homeopathy

    A series of questions beginning with the phrase 'Would it surprise you'—a celebrated phrase used in the sensational legal case of the 'Tichborne Claimaint' (Arthur Orton Orton, Arthur (b. 1834) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>). The questions are deliberately designed to make the reader answer in the affirmative. These include '"Would it surprise you" to know that the Royal College of Physicians Royal College of Physicians
Close   View the register entry >> were insisting on the practice of homœopathy?'

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Hunting, Cruelty, Periodicals

Genre:

Diary, Spoof, Serial

Subjects:

Mathematics, Dynamics, Publishing, Health, Anatomy, Education

Reprinted:

Burnand 1872 Burnand, Francis Cowley 1872. My Health, London: Bradbury, Evans & Co.
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Education, Universities, Race, Gender

    Responds to the British Medical Journal British Medical Journal (1857–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> announcement that John S Burdon-Sanderson Burdon-Sanderson, Sir John Scott, 1st Baronet (1828–1905) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> has been appointed as Brown Professor, the senior position at Brown Institute for the Study of Animal Diseases, University of London University of London—Brown Institute for the Study of Animal Diseases
Close   View the register entry >>. Notes that Burdon-Sanderson must be the first 'brown' professor and compares this situation with America, where the large black population and 'free institutions' have led to 'many Brown Professors'. Anticipates that in the future, when the 'rights of women shall have been recognised', there will be women and therefore 'Brunette' university professors.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Pharmaceuticals

Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

Geography, Measurement, Controversy, Crime, Surveying

    Discusses the dispute between John Hampden Hampden, John (1820–91) DNBS
Close   View the register entry >> and Alfred R Wallace Wallace, Alfred Russel (1823–1913) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> over the former's claim that the earth is flat. Begins by explaining that Hampden bet five hundred pounds that he was right but 'the Globe's champion', Wallace, was declared by an 'umpire' to be correct and Hampden's 'vulgar belief' unfounded. Hampden then 'waxed wrathful', possibly because he lost his bet or because his creed was 'upset'. Hampden was later fined one hundred pounds by the Stratford Bench for his libellous remarks about Wallace. Concludes by suggesting that Hampden 'illustrates one of Heaven's laws'—'Fools must pay for their folly'.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Aeronautics, Zoological Gardens, Railways, Light

Institutions mentioned:

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

Genre:

Diary, Spoof, Serial

Subjects:

Health, Pharmaceuticals

Reprinted:

Burnand 1872 Burnand, Francis Cowley 1872. My Health, London: Bradbury, Evans & Co.
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Darwinism, Animal Behaviour

    'Choosing a Wife'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Darwinism, Human Species, Progress, Population, Nationalism, Cultural Geography

    Responds to an article in The Times The Times (1777–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> calculating the net population growth in the United Kingdom taking into account the rate of emigration. Argues that those who remain in England 'increase the severity of the struggle for existence', but those who emigrate to a country that is warmer, less polluted, and where the struggle for existence is less harsh, are making a 'natural selection'. Ironically suggests that it is wrong to point out that in France, where the population is stationary, the population problem is better managed. Instead, reminds readers that 'gregarious opinion' compels them to 'extol the continued numerical progress, and the railway-paced advancement in manufacturing industry, of this great commercial nation'.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Surgery, Medical Treatment, Anaesthesia

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Astronomy

People mentioned:

George B Airy Airy, Sir George Biddell (1801–92) DSB ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Mathematics, Religion, Religious Authority, Gender

    Comments on a Pall Mall Gazette Pall Mall Gazette (1865–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> report concerning Richard Wilkins Wilkins, Richard (b. 1830) Venn and Venn 1922–1954
Close   View the register entry >>, a clergyman at Magdalene College, Cambridge Magdalene College, Cambridge
Close   View the register entry >>, who calculated, on the basis of the sacramental confession, that 'there will be twelve women to one man who would enter heaven'. Believes that Wilkins has invented a new branch of mathematics, but argues that calculations based on the sacramental confession are hardly trustworthy because the confessional is a 'Protestant Counterfeit of a Roman Catholic institution', and that the penitents are 'mostly of a sex especially tenacious of their own secrets'. Suggests that the unreliability of the calculation stems from the fact that 'of those who credited Wilkins with the character of a Catholic Priest', women outnumbered men by twelve to one. Regards Wilkins as the inventor of the 'Theological Calculus'.

Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Psychology, Materialism, Religious Authority, Heterodoxy, Superstition, Phrenology

    Observes that 'modern Sages' argue for the dependence of thought on phosphorous. Notes that in 'former days', the clergy would have 'fried' these people for 'heresy deserving arson'. However, this claim shocks the reason and 'humbles pride and glory' and leads to the notion that when we loose phosphorous 'we lose our wits'.

Genre:

Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Scientific Naturalism, Evolution, Chemistry, Gender

    Responds to John Tyndall's Tyndall, John (1820–93) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> claim (published in Tyndall 1871a Tyndall, John 1871a. Fragments of Science: A Series of Detached Essays, Lectures, and Reviews, 3rd edn, London: Longmans, Green, and Co.
Close   View the register entry >>) that chemists could 'make a baby' given the proper materials. Notes that an anonymous bard once thought he could do this. Observes that cooking 'sugar, and spice, and all things nice' might result in the creation of little girls and that mingling 'slugs and snails, and puppy-dogs' tails' might result in 'a brood of goblins whom a popular nursery-rhyme calls little boys'. Concludes that the 'Innocents' recently massacred—a reference to the people killed by soldiers in the Paris Commune—were made from these repugnant materials.

See also:

Paradis 1997 Paradis, James G. 1997. 'Satire and Science in Victorian Culture', in Lightman, ed. 1997, 143–75
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Regular Feature, Reportage, Drollery

Subjects:

Measurement, Metrology, Government, Politics, Nationalism

    Discusses a bill to establish the metric system in Britain. Laments the large number of existing systems of weights and measures and considers the 'incessant torture which a compulsory measure of this sort would inflict upon the ignorant and semi-ignorant'. Believes it would 'bring on a Revolution'—possibly an allusion to the Paris Commune of 1871. Points out that Jewish people have several systems of weights and measures but supports Alexander J B B Hope's Hope, Alexander James Beresford Beresford (1820–87) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> statement that he had 'no objection to a uniform system, if foreigners found inconvenience in the present state of things', but insists that the system be an English one. (43)

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Hospitals, Internationalism

    Discusses the attempt by 'Several influential persons' to find a use for Greenwich Hospital—specifically, one for 'national purposes'. Suggests that it should be used as a residence for a visiting foreign king or emperor.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Disease, Sanitation, Politics

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Geography, Education, Travel, Exploration

    The writer describes his disappointment on reading the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society Journal of the Royal Geographical Society (1833–62) BUCOP
Close   View the register entry >>, a publication which he believed would remedy the 'defects' of his education. Explains that his limited knowledge of geography deterred him from taking up an invitation in the periodical to undertake an expedition to China. Continues to lament the parochial nature of his geographical knowledge.

Genre:

Regular Feature, Reportage, Drollery

Subjects:

Politics, Government, Medical Practitioners, Crime

Genre:

Reportage, Spoof

Subjects:

Development, Darwinism, Government, Politics, War

People mentioned:

Charles R Darwin Darwin, Charles Robert (1809–82) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Poetry, Reportage

Subjects:

Cosmology, Heat, Railways, Accidents, Spontaneous Generation, Controversy, Extra-Terrestrial Life, Providence, Religion, Palaeontology, Hypothesis, Evolution, Darwinism

People mentioned:

Charles R Darwin, Darwin, Charles Robert (1809–82) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> George D Campbell (8th Duke of Argyll) Campbell, George Douglas, 8th Duke of Argyll (1823–1900) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

    Response to William Thomson's Thomson, Sir William (Baron Kelvin of Largs) (1824–1907) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> presidential address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science British Association for the Advancement of Science
Close   View the register entry >>, a version of which was published as Thomson 1872 Thomson, William 1872. 'Address', Report of the Forty-First Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science held at Edinburgh in August 1871, 41, lxxxiv-cv
Close   View the register entry >>. The subtitle alludes to Edinburgh, which was the venue for the association's meeting. The author likens the sun, a 'slowly-cooling liquid mass', to the warm contents of a 'toddy-glass', but points out that the earth will continue to take 'draughts' from the sun for 'millions of years', 'unlike [the] thirsty Scot' with his toddy. Describes the nature and trajectories of comets and notes that just as terrestrial railways are frequently strewn with wrecks, so 'smashes' on the 'meteoric railway lines' of 'heavenly space' are 'not unknown'. Insists that 'Life can only give life' and that this 'truth' should be stamped 'above schools and their strife'. Enquires into the origin of life on earth and explains Thomson's theory that 'earth's primal germs'—which 'might have borne the sperms / Of other skies'—come from the remains of meteors hurled at the lifeless planet. Notes that science denies that this seemingly 'far-fetched' hypothesis is a dream, and notes Thomson's opposition to accounts of the earth that leave out 'Genesis and Moses'. Asks where the life on comets originated and insists that 'we have but thrust the myst'ry one stage back'. (62) Warns that despite palaeontological discoveries and 'creeds and fancies' regarding the origin of life, there 'Looms, fixed and awful, A Creative Power'. Considers it unwise for science to traverse and try to 'own' 'God's mysterious rule'. (63)

Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

Cruelty, Animal Development

Genre:

News-Commentary, Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Sociology, Gender, Societies

    Comments on news that women attended 'social science' discussions at the Edinburgh meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science British Association for the Advancement of Science
Close   View the register entry >>. Cannot find any 'practical discussion' of branches of the subject 'wherewith ladies are especially well qualified to deal'. Suggests several sciences that are social and are therefore 'suitable for feminine harangues'. In general these are the sciences of improving, with least personal expense, one's social and economic position. Suggestions include the 'Science of procuring from mysteriously gifted people all kinds of concert, opera, and flower-show admissions as often as you want them' and the 'Science of reserving half the made dishes and sweets of your Wednesday's grand-dinner, in order to do duty at your Friday's family feed'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Anthropology, Psychology, Human Species, Descent, Evolution, Darwinism

    In a thinly veiled reference to Charles S Wake's Wake, Charles Staniland (1835–1910) WBI
Close   View the register entry >> paper delivered at the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science British Association for the Advancement of Science
Close   View the register entry >> (a version of which was published as Wake 1872 Wake, Charles Staniland 1872. 'On Man and Ape', Report of the Forty-First Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science held at Edinburgh in August 1871, Transactions of Particular Sections, 41, 162
Close   View the register entry >>), the writer mentions that 'W C Stanisland' told the anthropology section that there were 'a few intellectual, moral, and spiritual differences' between humans and apes, especially concerning the faculty of 'insight and reflection'. Notes that a deficiency in this faculty makes men more like monkeys and thus supports the theory presented in Charles R Darwin's Darwin, Charles Robert (1809–82) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Descent of Man Darwin, Charles Robert 1871a. The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, London: John Murray
Close   View the register entry >>. Thinks that another type of reflection might explain why Darwin wrote this book: claims that on looking at the reflection of his face in a mirror, a man might be led to believe that he was a 'pithecoid man, and bore a family resemblance to an Orang-outang'. Suggests that man might therefore believe that he and the Quadrumana have a common ancestor, but thinks photographs in shop windows undermine this idea.

Genre:

Notes

Subjects:

Railways, Commerce, Crime, Quackery

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

W R Ralston, William (fl. 1850–1907) WBI
Close   View the register entry >> Spielmann, Marion Harry Alexander 1895. The History of "Punch", London: Cassell
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Education, Geography, Commerce

    Shows a 'fond' Scottish father introducing his son to a schoolmaster. He notes that his son has been put 'intil graummer an' jography' but explains that since he neither means him 'tae be a minister or a sea-captain, it's o' nae use. Gie him a plain bizness eddication'.

Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Cosmology, Heat, Spontaneous Generation, Controversy

    Response to William Thomson's Thomson, Sir William (Baron Kelvin of Largs) (1824–1907) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> presidential address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science British Association for the Advancement of Science
Close   View the register entry >>, a version of which was published as Thomson 1872 Thomson, William 1872. 'Address', Report of the Forty-First Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science held at Edinburgh in August 1871, 41, lxxxiv-cv
Close   View the register entry >>. Claims, in opposition to Thomson, that a meteoric stone 'with lichen overgrown' would have fallen to the earth with any life contained in it 'burnt off'. Supposing Thomson to be correct, imagines 'showers of fish and frogs' and a rain of 'cats and dogs'. Says 'pooh' to Thomson, and considers the idea of aerolites containing mould 'too hot to hold'.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Sanitation, Disease, Public Health, Government

    Discusses a report in the Hampshire Advertiser Hampshire Advertiser (1823–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> of a meeting of the Winchester Board of Health Winchester Board of Health
Close   View the register entry >>, which heard a proposal by one councillor to appoint an officer of health and also discussed the local mortuary house. Concludes from the report that the inhabitants of Winchester appear to prefer the unsanitary path of leaving the dead 'well alone'. Explains that the breezes which sweep down to Winchester from the surrounding chalk hills dilute the 'unsavoury contributions' from polluted 'receptacles' in the city, but hopes the local board of health will undertake sanitary reform.

Genre:

Regular Feature, Reportage, Drollery

Subjects:

Military Technology, Medical Practitioners, Disease, Public Health, Sanitation

    Discusses the debate about gun-boats and a proposed 'Medical Police system', and urges the need for sanitary action to thwart the imminent spread of Asiatic cholera to Britain.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

A C Chasemore, A (fl. 1871) Spielmann 1895
Close   View the register entry >> Spielmann, Marion Harry Alexander 1895. The History of "Punch", London: Cassell
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Comparative Philology, Zoology, Evolution, Human Species

    Replies to people who do not believe 'in any history whatsoever, sacred or profane', or even natural history. Challenges the notion that mermaids do not exist. States that 'respectable persons' told a scientific audience at the British Association for the Advancement of Science British Association for the Advancement of Science
Close   View the register entry >> that they had seen mermaids in Scotland, but the claim went unchallenged. Announces that the mermaid as 'one of the connecting links' between man and the marine ascidian and then describes the mermaid's anatomy. Pointing out that the mermaid is endowed with lungs and gills, claims that she is 'truly amphibious' and capable of enjoying life on the bottom of the sea and seashore. Notes that the mermaid occasionally shows more of her bust than women of the 'superior classes' who wear 'low' dresses. Notes the mermaid's 'titivating' habit of combing her long hair whilst singing in an unknown tongue.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Heat, Dynamics, Societies, Narcotics, Human Species

    Notes that a president of one of the sections of the recent meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science British Association for the Advancement of Science
Close   View the register entry >> referred to William Thomson's Thomson, Sir William (Baron Kelvin of Largs) (1824–1907) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> 'Theory of Dissipation'. Wonders whether the association is 'going to investigate the phenomena of Fast Life' and hopes that Thomson can 'teach us how to lessen' the 'practice' of 'Dissipation'.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Breeding, Domestic Economy

Genre:

Reportage, Spoof

Subjects:

Zoological Gardens, Zoology

    Reports on the arrival of animals, including 'The Ludio Monkey, on a visit to MR. OURANG OUTANG, Monkey House, Zoological Gardens Zoological Society of London —Gardens
Close   View the register entry >>, Regent's Park'.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Physical Geography, Cultural Geography

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Military Technology, Steamships, Nomenclature

    Given the tendency of British warships to be wrecked or otherwise meet with an accident, suggests that ship names such as 'Vigilant' and 'Thunderer' should be changed to 'Somnolent' and 'Blunderer'. Similarly, suggests names that reflect the disappointing tardiness and unreliability of the vessels.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Zoology, Amusement, Exhibition, Commerce

    Discusses an advertisement offering for sale several young pythons, a baby crocodile, and other animals. By purchasing these animals an 'enterprising speculator' could create a 'good, paying exhibition'. Once the animals had been trained, they could be introduced as a 'family' to the public, who would be especially delighted if the crocodile could be kept young and made to cry.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Mathematics, Societies

Publications cited:

Merrifield 1872 Merrifield, Charles Watkins 1872. 'On Certain families of Surfaces', Report of the Forty-First Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Held at Edinburgh in 1871, Notes and Abstracts of Miscellaneous Communications to the Sections, 18-20
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Vaccination, Human Development, Government, Crime

Institutions mentioned:

Houses of Parliament Houses of Parliament
Close   View the register entry >>

    Upholds vaccination as the greatest medical discovery since William Harvey's Harvey, William (1578–1657) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> discovery of the circulation of the blood. Criticises the 'Parliamentary Asses' who, lacking faith in vaccination, launched an official inquiry into the technique. Notes that the inquiry vindicated vaccination but made the 'idiotic' recommendation that the penalty should be greatly reduced for those who neglected or refused to have their children vaccinated. Rejects the argument that this clause in the legislation was to prevent 'conscientious persons being fined': instead, thinks the true object of the clause was to 'make a weak concession to the asinine element in Parliament and out of it'. Praises the House of Lords House of Lords
Close   View the register entry >> for striking out this clause and thus bringing penalties on those 'asses' who risk their children's lives.

Genre:

Commentary

Subjects:

Descent, Evolution, Darwinism, Human Species

People mentioned:

Charles R Darwin Darwin, Charles Robert (1809–82) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>

    Observes that man's alleged descent from the monkey, and more remotely, from the larvae of marine ascidians, is a subject which natural historians and natural philosophers have 'vainly tried to solve'. Thinks that man's tendency to 'ape' his betters and to drink like a fish is no less convincing an argument for simian descent than 'citing the existence of a small point in the upper inner portion of the inner ear'. Citing Charles Kingsley's Kingsley, Charles (1819–75) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> argument that civilisations can 'fall as well as rise', claims that the question of man's descent into savages and then apes is at least as important as the question of man's simian descent. Admires 'ingenious speculation' concerning man's simian descent but doubts whether this has benefited mankind. Thinks that it is better for 'every true-born Briton' to use his mental powers and stop aping his inferiors and to 'do battle' with his animal propensities.

Genre:

Reportage, Spoof

Subjects:

Hunting, Palaeontology, Archaeology

Genre:

Drama, Drollery

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Narcotics, Psychology, Disease, Medical Practitioners

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Zoology, Display, Menageries

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Military Technology, Steamships, Nomenclature

    'The Hog in Armour'.

Genre:

News-Digest, Spoof

Subjects:

Astronomy, Extra-Terrestrial Life, Meteorology, Electricity, Botany

    Reports a recent meteor shower at the village of Chignons. Notes that the meteors allegedly came from Venus and thus support the possibility that 'other planets are inhabited'. Reports a violent thunderstorm at Gulston where a lightning bolt struck a piano in a house and played a recognisable tune on the instrument. Reports the appearance of cucumber on a hitherto barren fruit tree. Anticipates considerable botanical interest in this news.

Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Military Technology, Steamships, Aesthetics, Nationalism, Cultural Geography

Institutions mentioned:

Royal Navy Royal Navy
Close   View the register entry >>

    Begins by insisting on the ugly appearance of 'Our ironclads' which are bereft of the features of the 'wooden walls of old' that amply showed that Britannia was 'ruler of the waves'. Agrees that the 'armour-plated man-of-war' is no match for the 'mail-clad man-at arms of old' because it lacks the 'grace of the medieval Knight'. Concludes by hoping that enemy's ironclads will be even uglier than the British ones.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Invention, Machinery, Language

    Discusses the possible subject of an advertisement for a 'Vowel Washing Machine', suggesting that machines might be invented for cleaning consonants and for inserting 'h's' when they are dropped.

Genre:

Song, Drollery

Subjects:

Animal Development, Descent, Evolution, Darwinism, Religion

    Observes that Charles R Darwin's Darwin, Charles Robert (1809–82) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> law of development implies that 'certain causes' produce 'varied effects', such as bats and birds, and that new and winged living things would develop from species attempting to fly. Speculates that monkeys, owing to continual leaping between trees, might have developed webs between their arms and their sides. Considers that, after aeons, this 'flying arboreal Ape [...] under conditions which modify shape', might have developed hoofs and horns. Reflects that, the species becoming extinct, tradition might have preserved remembrance of its anatomical features, representing them as the Devil to the 'popular mind'.

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Astronomy, Natural Law

    The writer informs Punch of his lack of scientific education. Wants an explanation for the 'Periodic Comet of Arrest'. Asks whether this means that comets, despite their movement in 'upper circles', are not free from the 'disagreeable operations of the Law' to which humans are subjected.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Surgery, Medical Treatment, Pneumatics, Matter Theory

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Disease, Medical Treatment

    'Don't mix your Physic'.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Time, Instruments, Instrument-Makers

    'Seven Dials'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Astrology, Engineers, Class, Mental Illness

    Believes that there might be 'some truth in astrology after all'. Responding to striking engineers at the Park End Company, Forest of Dean Park End Company, Forest of Dean, firm
Close   View the register entry >>, and the threatened strike by Newcastle policemen, wonders whether a 'planetary stroke' is the cause of workers' strikes since no visible cause can account for them. Thinks the working classes can now be called the 'Striking Classes'. Ends by implying that strikers are lunatics because the only star under which they can be conceived to strike so wildly is the 'moist star upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Hydropathy, Medical Practitioners, Mental Illness, Charlatanry

    Comments on the alleged therapeutic powers of the water in Lochmanur. Notes that a reporter for the Inverness Chronicle Inverness Advertiser, Ross-shire Chronicle, and General Gazette for the Counties of Elgin, Cromarty, Sutherland, Caithness and the Isles (1849–71) Inverness Advertiser and Ross-shire Chronicle (1871–85) British Library Newspaper Catalogue
Close   View the register entry >> observed that the 'impotent, the halt, the lunatic, and the tender infant' meet up at midnight to immerse themselves in its water. Suggests that lunatics probably outnumbered all other types of sufferer, and that the Lochmanur water cure is no more efficacious at treating lunacy, 'than it would be if, as its name would almost seem to imply, it were a tank on some Scotch farm'.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Homeopathy, Medical Practitioners, Medical Treatment, Heterodoxy

    Responds to a letter in the Hampshire Independent Hampshire Independent (1834–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> announcing that the Winchester Poor Law Union Winchester Poor Law Union
Close   View the register entry >> has achieved much success in giving homeopathic remedies to the poor of Hampshire. Asks whether Winchester inhabitants are aware of medical wisdom and comments that the guardians are unprecedented in trying to 'supersede the medical Faculty'. Wants to confirm that the guardians have 'officially recognised and established Homœopathy'. Argues that homeopathy, if true, commends itself to guardians because medical officers would have to supply the poor with drugs in 'infinitesimal doses' and would thus increase their financial remuneration.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Mathematics

    'A Fellow Mathematician'.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, War

    Discusses puzzling extracts from orders issued to the Army Army
Close   View the register entry >> camp at Aldershot, including one which states that during the autumn manoeuvres 'one hospital orderly per regiment will carry a medical companion'. Thinks it is ludicrous to expect a soldier to have to carry an army surgeon or assistant army surgeon.

Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

Engineering, Engineers, Railways, Heroism, Progress, Internationalism

    Describes the political implications of the completion of the Mont Cenis Tunnel Mont Cénis Tunnel
Close   View the register entry >> under the Alps. Notes that the Alps presented a formidable barrier to military commanders and their armies, but that the 'bitter brattle, / Of Alp and Engineer' was finally won by the latter who laid a railway line through the tunnel. Concludes by discussing whether the 'iron tether' now laid between nations will bring 'Labour, Peace, and Progress' and tie 'Men's races, toils and minds'.

Genre:

Diary, Spoof, Serial

Subjects:

Mechanics

Reprinted:

Burnand 1872 Burnand, Francis Cowley 1872. My Health, London: Bradbury, Evans & Co.
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Extract, Reportage; Reportage, Spoof

Subjects:

Gender, Medical Practitioners, Statisitics

Publications cited:

New York Tribune New York Tribune (1881–87) British Library Catalogue
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Steam-power, Gender, Comparative Philology, Miracles,

    Puzzled by a 'nautical notice' for 'Sirens worked by steam', reflecting that this invention would have melted the wax Ulysses used to stop his ears. Notes that Erasmus Darwin Darwin, Erasmus (1731–1802) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> was 'much laughed at when, some eighty years ago, he told the Georgian era that steam would do miracles'.

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Natural History, Regeneration, Gender

    Depicts Paterfamilias standing near a dining table where his daughters, who are 'fond of sketching from nature', are drawing a leg of mutton before it is taken away to be prepared for the next meal. Paterfamilias asks his daughters to pay attention to an 'exquisite ridge of brown fat'.

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Engineering, Transport

Institutions mentioned:

Thames Tunnel, Thames Tunnel
Close   View the register entry >>Mont Cenis Tunnel Mont Cénis Tunnel
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Engineering

    'The Mont Cenis Tunnel Mont Cénis Tunnel
Close   View the register entry >>'.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Pollution, Environmentalism

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Military Technology, Steamships, Politics

Institutions mentioned:

Royal Navy Royal Navy
Close   View the register entry >>

    Notes that Henry J Rous Rous, Henry John (1795–1877) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> has advocated the use of John P Drake's Drake, John Poad (1794–1883) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> steam rams, and that he remarked to the government's chief naval architect, Edward J Reed Reed, Sir Edward James (1830–1906) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> that 'It is never too late to mend'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Vulcanism, Homeopathy, Medical Treatment

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Disease, Instruments, Light, Sound

    Written from the perspective of a 'society' gentleman who notes a brief reference in Punch to the 'alarming increase in defective vision in this country' as shown by the use of 'double eye-glasses by young ladies of the upper and middle ranks of society'. Disappointed that no learned medical authorities have given their opinion on the subject, suggests that sufferers wear tinted spectacles 'with sideglasses as required'. Thinks that if nothing is done to stop this 'fashionable infirmity' then deafness may attack society—a contingency which would foster the widespread use of ear-trumpets. Concludes by noting that the 'lower classes' are not so badly afflicted with short sight.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Hospitals, Exhibitions, Display

Institutions mentioned:

Guy's Hospital Guy's Hospital
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Military Technology, Chemistry, Accidents

    Notes that the 'public mind has been reassured by the result proving the safety from accidental explosion of the gun-cotton discs' made by Frederick A Abel Abel, Sir Frederick Augustus, 1st Baronet (1827–1902) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Hospitals, Colleges

Institutions mentioned:

Royal Naval Hospital, Greenwich Royal Naval Hospital, Greenwich
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Education, Natural History, Collecting, Agriculture, Cruelty, Meteorology, Reading, Measurement

Publications cited:

Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society (1839–81) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >>

    The writer gives his relative, Algernon, some hints about how to spend his vacation on his cousin's farm. Being passionate about self-improvement, his suggestions include devoting himself to some 'rational pursuit' such as natural history, and making himself 'an authority on the particular creatures you select for investigation'. He also suggests that Algernon interest himself in 'agricultural operations and inquire into such specific topics as crop rotation, corn averages, and irrigation, subsoils, the newest improvements in implements, and the cultivation of Italian rye-grass'. He recommends gathering statistical information from agricultural labourers and participating in some of the 'minor operations of agriculture'. (149) Finally, he suggests reading books and periodicals on agriculture and keeping a record of various meteorological phenomena, including 'the wind, the clouds, electrical phenomena, mock suns, lunar rainbows, auroras, &c'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Homeopathy, Medical Treatment, Pharmaceuticals

    Discusses a recent 'Homœopathic Congress' in Oxford at which Dr Black Black, Dr (homeopathist, of Clifton) (fl. 1871) PU1/61/14/0.7
Close   View the register entry >> of Clifton gave a paper on '"Posology", which led to an animated discussion as to the efficacy of high and low doses', a point on which homeopaths are evidently willing to meet allopaths 'half-way'. Wonders what counts as half-way between the infinitesimal doses of homeopathy and a 'common dose', and considers this to be an insoluble question.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Agriculture, Public Health, Internationalism, Politics, Engineering

    Believes that the issue of peat connects Ireland and sewage. Reports the formation of the Peat Engineering and Sewage Filtration Company Peat Engineering and Sewage Filtration Company
Close   View the register entry >>, which has developed a process for using peat in the purification of sewage. The venture is regarded as so promising commercially that the company has contracted to work on Bradford's sewage for twenty-one years. Reports that the company's remuneration derives from the sale of peat charcoal in compound with other sewage materials. Considers the possibility of taking peat from Irish bogs, using it to treat the sewage of English cities, and then using the resulting compound of English sewage and Irish peat to improve Irish and English crops. Thinks the exchange of these agricultural 'presents' would improve Anglo-Irish relations.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Exhibitions, Animal Development, Evolution, Zoology, Descent, Human Species

    Reports the opening of a sea-water aquarium at the Crystal Palace Crystal Palace
Close   View the register entry >>. Assuming that people are descended from marine ascidians, speculates that the aquarium will witness the birth of water babies and their development into humans. Thinks those sea urchins will develop human features and later be taken to school. Believes certain men are already like fish: gudgeons exist in human form, 'shoals of sharks' move in lawyers' circles, 'drinking like a fish' is a common human attribute, and some men are very fishy and cannot 'keep their head above water'. Suggests that the affinity of the English for the sea proves their marine descent.

Genre:

Song

Subjects:

Sociology, Human Species

     Describes the noise and scampering of women motivated by some cause unknown to the author. Notes the noise of the 'dirty men and boys' who rush forward on the street, force the author to stand aside, and track 'each others' heels like geese'. Accordingly wonders whether geese are kindred species to man and thus thinks that Charles R Darwin Darwin, Charles Robert (1809–82) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> may be right.

Genre:

Diary, Spoof, Serial

Subjects:

Health, Disease

Reprinted:

Burnand 1872 Burnand, Francis Cowley 1872. My Health, London: Bradbury, Evans & Co.
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Animal Behaviour

Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Societies, Education

Institutions mentioned:

Social Science Congress Social Science Congress
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Engineering, Display

Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Societies

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Ethnology, Archaeology, Hypothesis

    Confused by a report about the International Prehistoric Congress International Prehistoric Conference
Close   View the register entry >>. Claims that, if prehistoric man is 'aught more than an hypothesis', it is 'represented only by the Neanderthal Skull'. Wonders whether congress members are prehistoric men and whether they derive from the 'Drift' where their flints, 'copper caps', and 'cartridges' may one day be found.

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Scientific Practitioners, Morality

People mentioned:

Isaac Newton Newton, Sir Isaac (1642–1727) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Patents, Invention

    Discusses an item of news claiming that under the Patent Law Amendment Act of 1852, 'provisional protection has been allowed to the inventor of an improved construction of the Governor'. Taking governors to mean employers, agrees that they have improved 'since the old days'.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Manufactures, Industry

Genre:

Reportage, Spoof

Subjects:

Meteorology, Statistics, Geology, Palaeontology, Zoology, Monstrosities, Darwinism, Descent, Development, Evolution, Animal Behaviour, Gender

    A series of reports of bizarre physical phenomena, including a 'shower of monkeys in Monmouth', the discovery, by a Massachusetts woman, of a live pterodactyl in a piece of coke she was splitting for the stove, and the report of the shrimp eating a large craw-fish in the Crystal Palace Crystal Palace
Close   View the register entry >> aquarium. The report on the pterodactyl explains that although the animal was subjected to the high temperature by which coal is converted into coke, it had sufficient vitality to survive. Adds that the woman discoverer of the reptile is 'an eminent geologist' and a 'believer in the Darwinian theory of descent'. Taking the pterodactyl to be one of her 'primeval ancestors', she gives it pin money.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Steamships, Military Technology, Engineering, Transport

Institutions mentioned:

Royal Navy Royal Navy
Close   View the register entry >>

    Discusses news of the worrying tendency of British ironclads to roll exceedingly 'during the late cruise of the combined squadrons'. Laments the fact that the ships cannot be used as steam-rollers to squash sharp flints and granite on roads.

Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Sociology, Human Species

    Compares members of 'Social Science gatherings' to rooks who caw in concert 'with the clack / Of many a garrulous jackdaw'. Notes their 'sere and brown' caucus on foliage. Likens the prating of social science gatherings to the noise at the 'Parsons' Congress' — an 'annual parley' that sounds like a meeting of rooks and jackdaws. Notes that once a year the jaws of members of these gatherings 'o'erleaps all bounds'. Thinks the 'Sage and Divine and likewise Bird' are united in their 'common noisiness' and their common interest in 'hearing and being heard'. Concludes that musical ears prefer the chorus of birds to the talk of sages and divines.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Mental Illness, Hospitals

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Darwinism, Hypothesis, Theory, Descent, Evolution, Human Species

    Comments on a report in the Morning Post Morning Post and Daily Advertising Pamphlet (1772–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> that a Carlisle man drowned himself after learning that man descended from monkeys. Thinks he must have been insane, but warns of the large number of people, many of them 'credited with being scientific as well as in their senses, who imagine that MR. DARWIN'S Darwin, Charles Robert (1809–82) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> mere theory proves itself'. Wonders whether Darwin or his 'disciples' can provide any cases of anthropoids going mad. Cites the story of a monkey who, imitating its owner's actions, cut its owner's throat.

Genre:

Diary, Spoof, Serial

Subjects:

Steam-power, Steamships

Reprinted:

Burnand 1872 Burnand, Francis Cowley 1872. My Health, London: Bradbury, Evans & Co.
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Diary, Spoof, Serial

Subjects:

Health, Disease

Reprinted:

Burnand 1872 Burnand, Francis Cowley 1872. My Health, London: Bradbury, Evans & Co.
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Reportage, Spoof

Subjects:

Agriculture, Cruelty, Pharmaceuticals

    Discusses an extract describing how the provincial council of Brabant in Belgium has asked landowners to clear their trees and other foliage of caterpillars and other insects. Explains that British farmers might do the same using insecticide on sale from druggists' shops and small bellows for spraying the insecticide. Suggests that 'idle boys' could do this work and considers that this is better than farmers encouraging sparrow clubs that destroy birds and thereby remove one of the chief deterrents of pests.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Mathematics, Instruments, Government, Patronage

    Points out the failure of the government to finance Charles Babbage's Babbage, Charles (1792–1871) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> calculating machine. Complains that the cost of securing 'the completion of that marvellous instrument' is a small fraction of the money that has been 'squandered through Admiralty Admiralty
Close   View the register entry >> mismanagement' since the funding for Babbage's invention ended.

Genre:

Reportage, Spoof

Subjects:

Industry, Palaeontology

Institutions mentioned:

British Association for the Advancement of Science British Association for the Advancement of Science
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

News-Commentary, Review

Subjects:

Phrenology

    A brief review of an unidentified new book on phrenology. Reproduces the book's phrenological interpretation of Kate J Bateman Bateman, Kate Josephine (1842–1917) CBD
Close   View the register entry >>, a 'distinguished and delightful' actress much admired by Mr Punch. Agrees with the interpretation but is mystified by discussion of an organ of 'Eventuality'. Impressed that a phrenologist, who knows nothing of the actress, 'should be able to hit out a character so accurately'.

Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

Astronomy, Observation, Travel, Government, Observation, Patronage

    Reflects on the astronomical expedition, under the direction of J Norman Lockyer Lockyer, Sir Joseph Norman (1836–1920) DSB ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, to observe a solar eclipse. Wishes the party's telescopes well and hopes 'a Vision sublime' will greet the expedition ship HMS Mirzapore HMS Mirzapore
Close   View the register entry >>. Regrets the 'foe to the "Government"' who believed astronomers would 'get into holes, and fall through'. Thinks the prospects of the expedition are good given that 'there is not one Admiralty Admiralty
Close   View the register entry >> laggard on board' the ship.

Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

Heroism, Geology, Mapping, Stratigraphy, Mathematics, Instruments, Progress

    Laments the death of three 'Landmarks of Science and War': the military general John F Burgoyne Burgoyne, Sir John Fox, 1st Baronet (1782–1871) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, the geologist Roderick I Murchison Murchison, Sir Roderick Impey, 1st Baronet (1792–1871) DSBODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, and the inventor and mathematician Charles Babbage Babbage, Charles (1792–1871) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>. Believes they 'shaped our words and deeds' and were 'lights to guide through darkling ways'. Describes Murchison's early career as a soldier and his subsequent exchange of 'hammer for the sword'. Notes that he 'left, mapped and mastered, what he found untranslated in Earth's book' and taught the lessons he had gleaned from examining the earth. Notes his soldier-like mood and 'campaign with Nature' and the way 'men's loves subdued, / As though Silurian slates he cloved his way'. After noting his successful and busy career, wishes he had lived to see David Livingstone Livingstone, David (1813–73) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> return from Africa. Considers that Babbage stood under the 'dark / Of Destiny', and that he was the first to 'range / Lone Analytic heights [...] By lettered sign and symbol quaint and strange'. Notes the 'grudged means and room' he was given to build his machine for 'making wheel / And crank and lever ply the toil of the mind'. Cannot blame him for feeling outraged at those who considered his calculating engine to be a 'toy'. Describes how he subsequently lived a life of comparative obscurity, except for the occasional 'sharp stir of strife'. Thinks his 'sore' but strong brain 'warred for truth', although the 'great dreams of his youth' were 'unachieved, in brain and breast'. Does not doubt that he has gained his late reward of immortality.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Telegraphy, Electricity, Commerce, Transport, Progress

    Praising the 'marvels of Electricity' and the 'triumphs of Telegraphy', the author claims that the 'magic wire that encircles the globe' has 'achieved another victory over the impossible' with news that £10,000 was 'remitted to New York on Wednesday by Atlantic Cable'. Wonders whether travel by telegraph will be possible in the future.

Genre:

Catechism, Spoof

Subjects:

Analytical Chemistry, Pollution, Geology

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Entomology, Natural History, Instinct, Animal Behaviour, Natural Law, Psychology

    Suggests that the 'instinct which drives the moth and the daddy-longlegs to fly into the light of a candle, is perhaps an impulse engendered in such insects under such natural law tending to make them limit their own numbers'. Wonders whether the same impulse actuates crowds of people to rush towards the scene of a fire.

Genre:

Literary Notice, Spoof

Subjects:

Entomology, Domestic Economy

Publications cited:

Wood 1871 Wood, John George 1871. Insects at Home: Being a Popular Account of British Insects, Their Structures, Habits, and Transformations, &c., London: Longmans
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

Steamships, Accidents

Institutions mentioned:

Admiralty Admiralty
Close   View the register entry >>

    Laments the wreck of the HMS Magaera HMS Magaera
Close   View the register entry >>. Does not think this ironside was worthy of its crew who were 'The same stuff' that manned 'Hearts of oak'. Explains that the ship sent to sea 'by a lot / Of incapable duffers' and had rotten plates and holes in its hull.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Natural History, Animal Behaviour, Extinction

    Observations on various species found in London, whose characteristics are related to humorous interpretations of their names. For example, the mudlark is 'principally seen towards nightfall on the shores of the river' and 'flits from place to place in quest of anything worth picking up', and oysters' tendency to cast their shells in 'courts and back streets' during August proves their amphibious nature. Supposes that the decline in white mice and 'monkeys dressed as soldiers' indicates a 'progressing civilisation', and invites naturalists to observe that the 'Learned British Pig' has become virtually extinct. Observes that rum-shrub, which was overlooked by Carl Linnaeus Linnaeus (or von Linné), Carl (1707–78) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>, is readily found where 'dram-drinkers do congregate'.

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Spiritualism, Darwinism, Descent, Evolution, Human Species, Animal Development, Proof

    Responds to criticisms levelled at the Report on Spiritualism by the Committee of the London Dialectical Society London Dialectical Society 1871. Report on Spiritualism by the Committee of the London Dialectical Society: Together with the Evidence, Oral and Written, and a Selection from the Correspondence, London: Longmans, Green and Co.
Close   View the register entry >> by supporters of Charles R Darwin's Darwin, Charles Robert (1809–82) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Descent of Man Darwin, Charles Robert 1871a. The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, London: John Murray
Close   View the register entry >>. Considering himself a 'Spiritualist and a Darwinist', the author considers that spiritualism and Darwinism 'illustrate and confirm each other'. Argues that, since Darwinists hold that man is descended from anthropoid apes, they should agree with the spiritualist claim that 'disembodied simious spirits' also exist. Believes the latter claim to be supported by the fact that spiritual communications are often absurd and purport to come from apes impersonating a 'poet, philosopher or man of science'. 'The Ape-spirit imitates human speech, being in a state of Darwinian development, which is as possible for a monkey in the spheres as in this world'. Ascribes the 'ludicrous' incidents associated with the medium Daniel D Home Home, Daniel Dunglas (1833–86) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> to 'the monkey's tricks of tricksy spirits'. Deflects the need to prove his theory by arguing that 'proof is an anachronism in science' and by noting that his theory, like Darwin's, 'is the best we have to account for the facts'. Believes his theory shows that 'the Descent of Man is no reason against his Destiny' and denies that 'Darwinism and Spiritualism, respectively, are but opposite poles of scientific and superstitious credulity'.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Hospitals, Crime

Institutions mentioned:

Hampstead Hospital Hampstead Hospital
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Railways, Accidents

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Animal Husbandry, Transport, Narcotics, Nutrition, Disease

    Discusses a report in the Scotsman Scotsman (1817–1900+) BUCOP
Close   View the register entry >> describing how the Austrian government gives brandy to cattle being transported to other countries. Wonders how this would be received by those upholding England's liquor laws and the temperance movement. Suggests that giving brandy to cattle may improve the quality of their meat and avert the cattle-plague.

Genre:

Review

Subjects:

Entomology, Animal Behaviour, Morality, Religious Authority

    Notices publication of John G Wood's Wood, John George (1827–89) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Insects at Home Wood, John George 1871. Insects at Home: Being a Popular Account of British Insects, Their Structures, Habits, and Transformations, &c., London: Longmans
Close   View the register entry >>. Notes that insects have found ways of making themselves 'at home' in the home and records a number of 'unspeakably unpleasant' insects contemplated by the book's author. Believing the book to have been written by some 'literary Bedfellow Destroyer', is surprised to learn that its author is a 'Clergyman and a Naturalist'.

Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

Steamships, Accidents, Heroism, Engineering, Government, Politics

    Describes how the 'gallant' Capt. Thrupp Thrupp, Capt. (fl. 1871) PU1/61/21/0
Close   View the register entry >>, commander of the recently wrecked ironclad, HMS Magaera HMS Magaera
Close   View the register entry >>, sent a diver overboard to examine the ship's hull. Notes that the hull was so weak that the diver could thrust his knife through its plates. Describes how Thrupp steered the vessel ashore but was later imprisoned and court-martialled for 'saving his crew'. Points out that 'all England' was a witness to his bravery and suggests that Whitehall has some leaks in its 'bottom'. Concludes by suggesting that divers be sent to examine the hulls of ironclads before they are launched.

Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

Steamships, Politics

Institutions mentioned:

HMS Glatton HMS Glatton
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Political Economy, Heat, Economic Geology

Publications cited:

The Times The Times (1777–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Engineering, Commerce, Charlatanry

    Following the completion of the Mont Cenis Tunnel Mont Cénis Tunnel
Close   View the register entry >>, the author suggests some further engineering schemes for which 'Companies are about to be started' and in which money can be advantageously invested. These include the removal of the Pyrenees, the 'irrigation of the Great Desert', the 'transfer of the Great Pyramid to the South Kensington Museum South Kensington Museum
Close   View the register entry >>', and the raising of the temperature of the polar seas by artificial means.

Genre:

Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

C K Keene, Charles Samuel (1823–91) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Spielmann, Marion Harry Alexander 1895. The History of "Punch", London: Cassell
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Hospitals, Charlatanry

    The illustration depicts an 'experienced night nurse' complaining to a sleeping patient in a hospital ward. She asks the patient to stop his 'wheezing and snoring' since such a 'horrid noise' is keeping her awake.

Genre:

Reportage, Spoof

Subjects:

Zoology, Disease, Medical Treatment, Ornithology, Taxonomy, Animal Behaviour

    Reports of a series of bizarre incidents, some of which concern natural phenomena. One report claims that 'A splendid specimen of the bald-headed golden eagle (the Aquilla chrysaëtos of LINNEAUS Linnaeus (or von Linné), Carl (1707–78) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>)' has been shot a Scottish peer's gamekeeper. The bird measured 'four feet six inches and a half across the chest, and the rest of its limbs and tail were in proportion'.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Invention, Machinery, Domestic Economy

    Begins with an extract from the Echo Echo (1868–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> describing a report in an 'American Journal' of a woman who invented a machine for preventing her husband from snoring. Suggests a number of other inventions from America that will get rid of 'petty annoyances'. These include 'A machine to prevent babies crying', 'A machine for parting the hair, particularly the back hair, with mathematical precision and nicety', and 'An instrument for opening oysters easily and expeditiously'.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Steamships, Accidents, Crime, Politics

Institutions mentioned:

HMS Magaera, HMS Magaera
Close   View the register entry >> Admiralty Admiralty
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Discovery, Exhibitions, Heroism

    Comments on a British Medical Journal British Medical Journal (1857–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> report on a forthcoming exhibition commemorating the tercentenary of William Harvey's Harvey, William (1578–1657) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> birth. Quotes the journal's view that having 'original copies' of Harvey's books on display is an 'excellent precedent in matters of circulation'. Suggests that a possible examination question at the Royal College of Surgeons Royal College of Surgeons
Close   View the register entry >> would be to request an opinion regarding the 'probability of a jocular allusion' to 'Harvey's immortal discovery' in this use of the word 'circulation'.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Medical Treatment, Electricity

    Responds to a report in the Pall Mall Gazette Pall Mall Gazette (1865–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> concerning Jean B Bernier's Bernier, Jean Baptiste (b. 1812) WBI
Close   View the register entry >> discovery that a 'stream of electricity, directed on a drunkard's red nose, will kill off grog-blossoms'. Believes this may signal the disappearance of 'light-house beacons kindled on nasal promonotories'. Thinks that 'jolly noses will become sorry noses' and suggests how their 'wearers' should rephrase Olivier Basselin's Basselin, Olivier (d. c. 1418) WBI
Close   View the register entry >> Vaux de Vire in order to incorporate Bernier's discovery.

Genre:

Diary, Spoof, Serial

Subjects:

Health, Disease, Quackery

Reprinted:

Burnand 1872 Burnand, Francis Cowley 1872. My Health, London: Bradbury, Evans & Co.
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Homeopathy, Medical Treatment

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Technology, Gender, Heat, Light, Amusement

    Discusses an extract from an article in the Court Journal Court Journal (1829–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> describing how a fashionable New York woman will illuminate her hair with 'little gas jets, the reservoir of which is to be concealed amidst a wilderness of false braids, puffs and curls'. Plays on the similarity of words describing the power of gas jets and those referring to courtship. For example, suspects that with a 'fire in her eye, and a taper waist', the woman will 'kindle a consuming passion in many a combustible bosom'.

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Steamships, Military Technology, Accidents, Politics

Institutions mentioned:

HMS Magaera HMS Magaera
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Utilitarianism, Class

    Discusses an advertisement in The Times The Times (1777–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> for a medical officer to the Honiton Poor Law Union Honiton Poor Law Union
Close   View the register entry >>, a position paying the meagre salary of £9 per annum. Suggests several reasons for the smallness of this salary, including the argument that the poor-law guardians wish to treat their medical officer as one of the pauper inmates.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Military Technology, Electricity, War

Genre:

News-Digest, Spoof

Subjects:

Societies, Sanitation, Public Health, Ornithology, Comparative Philology, Archaeology, Human Species, Extinction

    Spoof digest of proceedings at London's scientific societies. Reports that 'scientific circles' are discussing the possibility of thwarting London's worsening sanitary condition by means of 'mountain breezes conveyed fresh through silicated tubes from healthy districts direct to the Metropolis'. Reports Professor Ospray's paper at the Oological Society, on the amount of albumen in the Kittiwake's egg, and the 'sharp discussion' following an exhibition at the 'Acumenical' of some flint toys 'found in the lake nurseries of the ancient Hyperboreans'. Reports that the Cosmoramic Society will present news of an extinct human race, lately encountered in the 'heart of the Sunderbands', whose members have no ear-lobes.

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Vaccination, Periodicals

People mentioned:

Edward Jenner Jenner, Edward (1749–1823) DSB
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    Discusses an extract from the Pall Mall Gazette Pall Mall Gazette (1865–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> describing the collapse of a journal called the Anti-Vaccinator Anti-Vaccinator and Public Health Journal (1872–73) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >>. Noting that the proprietor was Frederick Pitman Pitman, Frederick (1828–86) WBI
Close   View the register entry >>, suggests that 'Pitman' is a 'suggestive' name in this context because the 'simpletons' who agree with the periodical's cause are 'much to be pitted'.

Genre:

Notes, Drollery

Subjects:

Medical Treatment, Pharmaceuticals

Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Animal Behaviour

Genre:

Diary, Spoof, Serial

Subjects:

Health

Reprinted:

Burnand 1872 Burnand, Francis Cowley 1872. My Health, London: Bradbury, Evans & Co.
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Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Scientific Practitioners, Crime

    Relishes news that William R Grove Grove, Sir William Robert (1811–96) DSB ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> has been made a judge. Believes he 'is an honour to the ermine' and advises him not to let off 'the next rascally incendiary' as easily as some judges.

Genre:

Ballad, Drollery

Subjects:

Agriculture, Hunting, Cruelty, Scientific Practitioners

    Challenges the decision by the English government to send sparrows to Canada where they will be used as a deterrent against agricultural pests. Mocks the claim made by 'sciencers' that what 'the good sparrers does [...] Is ten thousand times wuth all their damage to grain'. Concludes by insisting: 'the moor I be argy'd that sparricide's wrong, / Shall stick to my Sparrer Club all the moor strong'.

Genre:

Drollery, Illustration

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

D M Du Maurier, George Louis Palmella Busson (1834–96) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Spielmann, Marion Harry Alexander 1895. The History of "Punch", London: Cassell
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Subjects:

Positivism, Religious Authority, Astronomy, Miracle

    Depicts a parson asking a boy to define a miracle. The parson asks the boy to respond to the claim that the sun shone at night, and the boy answers that he would take such a claim to mean that the sun was in fact the moon. The parson asks the boy to interpret the same claim having been 'told' that the bright object was the sun, and the boy answers that he would then interpret the claim as a lie. The parson insists that he is not a liar but the boy claims that he would think that the parson 'wasn't sober' were he to insist that the sun appeared at night.

Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

Railways, Commerce, Morality

    This poem marks the death of the 'Railway King', George Hudson, by describing the mania for buying shares in his railway schemes: even 'Archbishops put their croziers down, / To write to him for shares, / Great ladies by his smile or frown / Were changed to bulls or bears' (272). Describes how the 'fairy treasures' of 'our Great King' turned to 'dust' 'When all the bubbles we had blown / Burst with a swift collapse', and that people heaped blame on Hudson for their financial misfortunes. However, notes that some who 'said it is a sorry thing / A Beggard King to see' bought the penurious Hudson an annuity, a gift which Hudson clutched gratefully. Concludes by claiming that Hudson now 'rests, where Kings and churls are one'.