“I don’t ‘old with this ‘ere vaccination, Mrs. Green. What’s vaccination done for my little Tommy? Since I ‘ad ‘im done ‘e’s ‘ad whooping cough, chicken-pox, measles–in fact, everythink but small-pox!”
(Punch, London, 1915)
“Bundle him up Bedclothes & all & off with him to the Hospital as quickly as possible. Fumigate the Room instantly or I’ll not answer for the safety of the Neighborhood for never was there a more glaring Case of Cholera.”
(inspecting chamber pot) “Bless me! here be the Strongest Symptoms of Some Disorder…”
(G. Tregear, London, 1832, via National Library of Medicine)
Robert Seymour, presumed McLeans Monthly Sheet of Caricatures, London (1831), via National Library of Medicine
Children imbibing brandy.
Robert Seymour, presumed McLeans Monthly Sheet of Caricatures, London (1831), via National Library of Medicine
“Camphor.” “Soap, Sir.” “I feel very poorly.”
Robert Seymour, presumed McLeans Monthly Sheet of Caricatures, London (1831), via National Library of Medicine
“The scent lies strong here, do you see anything?”
Robert Seymour, presumed McLeans Monthly Sheet of Caricatures, London (1832), via National Library of Medicine
(A suburban play(gue) ground.)
(Punch, London, 1875)
This famous cartoon depicting Edward Jenner administering the smallpox vaccine was published by James Gillray in Vide – the Publications of ye Anti-Vaccine Society in 1802. See the full description by Hannah Humphrey at The British Museum.
Father Thames (to London): “Typhoid! Lor’ bless you, ma’am! I shan’t do you any harm as long as you keep others from harming me!”
The Maidstone Epidemic Report in the hand of Lady London followed upon an outbreak of typhoid fever in Kent in September 1897 that eventually cost more than a hundred lives. The commission reporting on the causes of the epidemic found fault in the provision of water services by the Maidstone Company, in violation of the Public Health Act of 1878. The outbreak prompted an early successful experiment with immunization among nurses at a local hospital, according to this history.
(Punch, London, 1897)
(Punch, London, 1901)
Pressure, typhoid fever, and jobbery as members of the school board. I haven’t looked into the politics referenced here, but I include this image because of its seeming resonances with our own current imperatives, trying to reconcile in-person instruction with the real-world behaviors of students in epidemic conditions.
(Punch, London, 1889)
I think a skull is visible at the bow,
a passenger with respect.
But the ship has expensive cargo, too,
and that aroused my desire to shop.
Cholera will never bother me,
whenever it comes to a good deal,
and therefore the ship may pass freely,
even if it carries the infection inside.
You should earn interest on your coin, I mean,
but not salted away in quarantine.
Yes, so long as I earn money,
I’ll steer it to the hometown of cholera.
I do not regret my illness,
no, in my slaked lime I feel so good.
Here we have healthy and sound stomachs,
and gold is everything for a shopkeeper’s soul.
(Fäderneslandet, Stockholm, 1883)
(Punch, London, 1891)
Punch, London, 1890
An amusing illustration in light of our present concerns about physical distancing. But the more so in view of its intentional juxtaposition on the same page with an entry in “Mr. Pips his Diary.” Punch‘s Pepys relates a conversation with a physician on a crowded train in which said physician complains of “the Foulness of London for Want of fit Drainage, and how it do breed Cholera and Typhus, as sure as rotten Cheese do Mites, and of the horrid Folly of making a great Gutter of the River.” Truly, “the Bustle of Railways do destroy all the Dignity of Travelling.”
(Punch, London, 1849)
There are some similarities in this German cartoon from Kladderadatsch (1889).
Sic Transit Pestilentia 