From an advertisement for a potion produced by Guyot: “Everyone knows that bad microbes are the cause of almost all of our major diseases: tuberculosis, influenza, diphtheria, typhoid fever, meningitis, cholera, plague, tetanus, etc.” (Am I the only one who sees some Miró here?)
(O Malho, Rio de Janeiro, 1919)
Banishing the demons in this advertisement by Bayer in Rio de Janeiro during the Spanish flu epidemic. “Undoubtedly, modern Medical Science, thanks to its surprising progress, knows how to successfully conjure away these horrible specters…”
(O Malho, Rio de Janeiro, 1919)
And in a similar vein:
“That’s the Spanish flu. Do not expose yourself to not staying on your spine.” (Spain/spine, get it? OK, it doesn’t really work in translation.)
(O Malho, Rio de Janeiro, 1918)
Details from the “Nail porridge” series in the Brazilian satirical magazine O Malho, published with the Spanish flu epidemic underway and the world war just concluded.
Man with head in bucket: “It is no longer the flu, it is relapse and old addiction.”
Man emerging from coffin: “What a mess. If I had known that the war was going to end soon, I would not have died of the flu.”
Line of annoying Allied celebrants: The other epidemic.
(O Malho, Rio de Janeiro, 1918)
“You passed this year by a miracle. Now try to study for real.”
“There’s no need. The flu is coming back.”
(O Malho, Rio de Janeiro, 1918)
The flu in the army or: Always the same thing. The soldiers sick with flu initially were often suspected of faking it.
Major: “Anything special?”
Attendant: “No, sir! Just that two of the flu fakers have died again.”
(Nebelspalter, Zurich, 1918)
When you could win 100,000 marks from one of a million lotteries so that you could buy one capsule of quinine from a pharmacy to cure this awful Spanish disease.
(Tuulispää, Helsinki, 1918)
“Well, what does that doctor say?”
“He said that as long as I’m convalescing, I need to be very careful.”
“At least the gentleman said it would turn your Spanish disease into a convalescent. What’s new about the disease then again? Isn’t that contagious?”
(OK, I’ve surely botched the wordplay here, but it’s clearly about “convalescence” as medical neologism.)
(Tuulispää, Helsinki, 1918)
“Mr. Smith, which theater are you heading to cough?”
(Ludas Matyi, Budapest, 1958)
Avoid the tram; get spritzed at the office; smoke to protect yourself (!); be cautious, carry supply of lime, carbolic acid, lysol; defend yourself using the epidemic, proclaim yourself infectious when the bill collector shows up.
(Borsszem Jankó, Budapest, 1918)
(Punch, London, 1918)
“How a cunning Pest resident gets his hands on a theater ticket.” (Man sneezes at the ticket office and the crowd scatters. This was at the height of the influenza epidemic.)
(Borsszem Jankó, Budapest, 1918)
“Not enough yet!” (From the Spanish attire we may assume that Death was hoping for influenza to contribute its part.)
(Nebelspalter, Zurich, 1918)
The year 1892 finally exits the store carrying her acquisitions: dynamite, cholera, strikes, influenza, tariffs, and the Panama Canal scandal.
(Le Charivari, Paris, 1892)
(Nebelspalter, Zurich, 1918)
Sic Transit Pestilentia 