Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, November 13, 1841 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 53 pages of information about Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, November 13, 1841.

Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, November 13, 1841 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 53 pages of information about Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, November 13, 1841.

  Clotted blood is thrown up, in colour very black, sirs,
  And generally sudden, as it comes up in a crack, sirs. 
  It’s preceded at the stomach by a weighty sensation;
  But nothing appears ruptured upon examination. 
  It differs from the last, by the particles thrown off, sirs,
  Being denser, deeper-coloured, and without a bit of cough, sirs. 
  In plethoric habits bleed, and some acid draughts pour in, gents,
  With Oleum Terebinthinae (small doses) and astringents. 
        Sing hey, sing ho; if you think the lesion spacious,
        The Acetate of Lead is found very efficacious.

Thus, in a few lines a great deal of valuable professional information is conveyed, at the same time that the tedium of much study is relieved by the harmony.  If poetry is yet to be found in our hospitals—­a queer place certainly for her to dwell, unless in her present feeble state the frequenters of Parnassus have subscribed to give her an in-patient’s ticket—­we trust that some able hand will continue this subject for the benefit of medical students generally; for, we repeat, it is much to be regretted that no more of this valuable production remains to us than the portion which Punch has just immortalized, and set forth as an apt example for cheering the pursuit of knowledge under difficulties.  The gifted hand who arranged this might have turned Cooper’s First Lines of Surgery into a tragedy; Dr. Copeland’s Medical Dictionary into a domestic melodrama, with long intervals between the acts; and the Pharmacopoeia into a light one-act farce.  It strikes us if the theatres could enter into an arrangement with the Borough Hospitals to supply an amputation every evening as the finishing coup to an act, it would draw immensely when other means failed to attract.

The last time we heard this poem was at an harmonic meeting of medical students, within twenty shells’ length of the ——­ School dissecting-room.  It was truly delightful to see these young men snatching a few Anacreontic hours from their harassing professional occupations.  At the time we heard it, the singer was slightly overcome by excitement and tight boots; and, at length, being prevailed upon to remove the obnoxious understandings, they were passed round the table to be admired, and eventually returned to their owner, filled with half-and-half, cigar-ashes, broken pipes, bread-crusts, and gin-and-water.  This was a jocular pleasantry, which only the hilarious mind of a medical student could have conceived.

As the day of examination approaches, the economy of our friend undergoes a complete transformation, but in an inverse entomological progression—­changing from the butterfly into the chrysalis.  He is seldom seen at the hospitals, dividing the whole of his time between the grinder and his lodgings; taking innumerable notes at one place, and endeavouring to decipher them at the other.  Those who have called upon him at this trying period have found him in an old shooting-jacket

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Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, November 13, 1841 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.