I can’t pass up a multi-panel cartoon about Ilya Mechnikov, the Russian émigré zoologist working in Paris who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1908 for his research on immunology. (Kladderadatsch, 1910)
(The motive invoked by the cartoonist: news reports that Professor Ilya Mechnikov has vaccinated monkeys with typhoid serum.)
Once while Fips the monkey was in his cups
Wildly rampaging around,
Professor Metchnikoff caught sight of him,
And lured him toward himself.
He smoothly pulled out of his pocket
An instrument, ever so quietly,
And injected something in his rear
In a subcutaneous way.
Fips rejoiced like a fool,
How could he really know?
It was a serum for catarrh!
I find that very hideous!
Very soon, however – his breath short! –
He got it good from the lure
To which he had been cunningly drawn.
He headed straight up the trees!
He whirls around shrieking
In outrageous dances,
And harasses the public
Without moderation and bounds!
An angry constable came up
And let his revolver crack.
“The street is only for traffic
And not for things like that! “
As Flips met this misfortune,
Everyone cried: “Jerum, jerum!”*
In contrast, Mr. Mechnikov sang
A song of praise for his serum!
*(invoking the Latinate refrain of a student song)
He grins when Fips croaks,
Satisfied and amused:
“The monkey’s response
to my vaccine is excellent!”
Sic Transit Pestilentia 