The true end of Fips, the monkey

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!”

Cholera republicana

In Spain, they are afraid of the Portuguese epidemic of Cholera republicana, and in order to prevent infection, they lock the suspects in isolation barracks and give them 9-millimeter injections… (Not sure what the object in the prisoner’s pocket is, but it says “Glory to the Republic.”)
(Humoristické listy, Prague, 1910)

The worst epidemics

(in closing) “So that fine kettle of fish is already here.”
“What? You mean cholera?”
“Something worse! Only a few of us would be taken by cholera, but this is an official [Austro-Hungarian] census. Some Czechs would fall victim to it…”
(Humoristické listy, Prague, 1910)

The iconic Oswaldo Cruz

I lack the Portuguese knowledge to translate all these cartoons in full, but in this post I just want to highlight the iconic status of bacteriologist and public health leader Oswaldo Cruz (1872-1917). For an avowedly secular publication like O Malho, Cruz as the standard-bearer of modern medicine clearly exerted tremendous appeal, though of course its satire often drew attention to the many obstacles in the way of achieving his aims.
(Each image links to the appropriate issue.)

Vaccine-mandate war!… (1904)

The journey of the mosquito czar. Reception in Victoria (1905)

Journey of the mosquito czar — arrival in Bahia (1905)

Essential cleaning (1907)

One more broom… (1907)

Cruz in provincial Pará (1910)

In Pará: Mosquito plague does not kill Governor Coelho (1911)

Federal intervention in Ceara (1914)

At the Pharoux Quay: The messiah of consumption (1908)

The great magician… of coincidences

Roping it in time (1908)

The challenge of tuberculosis (1906)

Plagues on the go (1907)

See also this multi-panel cartoon from 1905. And another from 1908. And a marvelous color cartoon from 1907. And this vaccination cartoon from 1904. Ditto.

Sanitary defense

(Concerns that cholera is transported in the holds of ships are leading to rigorous disinfection of parcels at ports of entry.)
Postman: “Even more of this!… In addition to being poorly paid, I have to work with this devil in sight, promising me a scythe in the neck.
Not even carrying it with tongs am I free of… fear!”
(O Malho, Rio de Janeiro, 1910)

Oswaldo the Crusader: The microbes that are escaping

(Brazil’s great public health crusader Oswaldo Cruz intends to spread his measures to the distant provinces.)
Joe Public: “Go, wise hygienist […]! God be with you in this new and holy crusade, which you undertake with the sacrifice of your own life! But, in addition to malaria, you could also destroy those other microbes… [depicted are idleness, filth, oligarchy, yellow fever, demonstrations, beri-beri, and banditry] then that would be a bargain!…”
Oswaldo Cruz: “Impossible, my dear Joe! They are microbes of politics and there is no peaceful hygiene that I can use with them… Only you, with the power of protests, can one day put an end to these beasts!…”
(O Malho, Rio de Janeiro, 1910)

Cholera in Brazil

The passengers of the Araguaya and the quarantine on Grand Island.
For third-class passengers, poor and unhappy people: washing, disinfection, grooming, tongue examination, eye testing, clothes spread out to dry, isolation… hell!
For first-class passengers: all the perks, permission to “escape” to Rio, gestures of appreciation with oil portrait, steel-drum music and quintets for the blind…
Nothing like having money: even the tips of the syringes are soft…
(O Malho, Rio de Janeiro, 1910)

Look, cholera!

(Commenting on disputes among the Brazilian states about how to deal with cholera, then raging in Europe.)
Cholera: “Ah! That’s it? Now that you remember to close the door to Rio de Janeiro in my face? Well, wait for it to come back! I enter from the north, whose doors are always open, thanks to the kindness of the respective governments!
Whoever wants to get rid of me has to defend himself very well, in a timely fashion… Move along! …”
(O Malho, Rio de Janeiro, 1910)

Noblesse oblige

(It has been widely commented that Marshal Hermes [de Fonseca, the president of Brazil] did not go to Italy.)
Italian King Victor Emmanuel (holding document behind his back that reads “Italian emigration to Brazil is prohibited”): “Hey! Marshal, my dear! So you’re embarking without having visited la bella Italia! What does this mean?”
The Pope: “Darn! The President of Brazil, the world’s most clerical republic, doesn’t want to see the Pope?”
The Marshal: “Oh, gentlemen! It is a simple matter of courtesy… Your immigrants cannot come to my land for a reason that I can’t explain? … I can’t go to yours either, because of… cholera… Love is repaid with love.”
(O Malho, Rio de Janeiro, 1910)

Against cholera

The public health authorities have advised: “Our salvation against cholera lies in fire. Let’s cook our food very well, let’s boil our drinking water well.”
In short: let us be careful, cook everything, watch for the boiling point, like in San Salvador!
(second image) Yet insofar as the measure is really good, it should be expanded… And, we say to ourselves: Let’s cook the newspapers daily that feed our spirit with the indigestible prose of odious and personal campaigns!
Only thus may we fear in tranquillity…
(O Malho, Rio de Janeiro, 1910)

Yet another contrast

On differences between the Argentinian and Brazilian responses to the cholera epidemic. (The Argentinians appear to be uniformly armed with disinfectant sprayers.) “Regarding cholera and what can be seen: Argentina is energetically preparing for the horrendous monster with its giant maw (?). And us? We are only preoccupied with our… rage!” (I.e., choler)
(O Malho, Rio de Janeiro, 1910)

Sinister bacillus

Balkan peninsula. “Humanity is oppressed by various infectious bacteria: plague, cholera, typhus, yellow fever, etc. But worse than all these is the bacillus called bacillus germanicus, which constantly provokes hatred and militant sentiments around the world. Here we provide an image of this bacillus.”
(Kogut, Warsaw, 1910)

Cholera Russica

This cartoon set at the Austrian border with the Russian Empire is accompanied by a bit of nasty verse entitled “Cholera Russica” (in my slapdash translation):

The Slavic danger — how should I
Just say it? — is not an empty delusion;
On the contrary, it swells menacingly
In the south and in the east.

Defending against it, cannons are
Dispensable and rifles, too;
Only from sanitation troops alone
Can we make successful use.

In the south, where it is more primitive,
Yet still fruitless,
It besets us with vermin,
In the east with epidemics.

Now due to this realization the eastern one
Terrifies us especially clearly,
Since its main pathogen is just now
Loosing the prohibited heart of the epidemic;

Even though the tightest quarantine,
That we usually put in place,
Sets hardly more conditions than those,
That the Tsar himself always imposes.

And as for the man himself, it was not
A plague that instilled fear in him,
For whom the greatest of all plagues
Hasn’t yet withered him: his regime!
(Die Muskete, Vienna, 1910) (Or this bit of German verse in a similar vein.)

Hungarian disinfection procedure

…against the further spread of cholera. (“Denial sprays” are being applied against cholera.)
(Kikeriki, Vienna, 1910)

Sons of the fathers

This is a bit obscure, but it was published at the height of bacteriologist Paul Ehrlich’s fame in 1910, when he was offering a cure for syphilis (“606”), and it seems to poke fun at the insularity of the academic appointment process. (It cannot have been coincidental that Ehrlich was Jewish. Though a disproportionately high percentage of physicians in Hungary were Jewish, access to university teaching positions remained limited.)
Professor Ehrlich: “Honorable colleagues & sons, if I do not offend you: I would respectfully like to request a small academic chair at the University of Budapest for your humble servant.”
Sons: “You don’t say, Mr. Nobody! After all, your father was not a university professor! You may go!”
(Borsszem Jankó, Budapest, 1910)