Tag: Hungarian

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)

Hungarian syphilis cartoon

The cholera uproar in Budapest

The police force their way despite resistance from residents into a building suspected of cholera, in order to undertake disinfection of the flats. According to the accompanying story, the building was in one of the most densely populated sections of Budapest, with more than 600 residents. In the entryway thirty-two policemen were met with a shower of vegetables, pickles, refuse, manure, and stones. Once inside, some were scalded with cooking water by infuriated women. The editors faulted the city fathers for not instructing the populace about the nature of cholera and the precautionary measures in a timely fashion.
(Das interessante Blatt, Vienna, 1892)

In Budapest

Doctor: “Now that it has been established from the bacteria that we have cholera among us, it means that we must act promptly.”
Second doctor: “And indeed very promptly! That is why I propose that an urgent request to the city council regarding the assembly of experts for preparation of a draft plan for introduction of a high-quality water supply on account of the renovation [?] of our capital is to be introduced immediately, (in Hungarian) I humbly request….” (Lost here are the cartoon’s subtler linguistic caricatures amid the mockery of hyperbureaucratic formulations.)
(Figaro, Vienna, 1886)

Austrian cholera cartoon

Cholera disinfection in Hungary

This image by the Scottish illustrator Louis Whirter was reprinted in the Russian magazine Ogonek no. 50 in 1910, but I have not been able to find anything further about its provenance. From the accompanying text: The Asian visitor (i.e., cholera) is welcomed to Hungary, Romania, and Serbia. Public health measures undertaken against it in the Balkan states, especially along Hungarian border areas, have been exceptionally strict, and judging by the results, quite expedient. Along the banks of the Danube the Hungarian authorities subject all arriving peasants from Serbia to strict disinfection.

Hungarian cholera disinfection

At the currency clinic

When contagion metaphor and economic analogy join forces to manifest our anxieties at a time of high inflation: “At the currency clinic” (epidemic department). Patient name: Austrian crown. Disease: Pestis pecuniae. Fur-swathed French franc in the waiting room. German Herr von Mark: “Your prominence is useless here, Madame… The epidemic will not avoid you.” (Borsszem Jankó, Budapest, 1922)

Hungarian currency cartoon