File:The central board of health (BM 1859,0316.201).jpg
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Captions
Captions
Summary
[edit]The central board of health
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| Artist |
Print made by: George Cruikshank
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| Title |
The central board of health |
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| Description |
English: Above the design as a second title: 'Cholera Consultation'. Four over-fed doctors carouse at a table laden with rounds of beef and decanters. Each holds up a glass and gives a toast. The man at the head of the table (left): 'Long life to our Central Board—R |. "in medio tutissimus bibis [for ibis]"—as we say in the classics'. His vis-à-vis: 'May we preserve our health by bleeding the country'. The man in back view: 'I drink Reform in our Hospitals, may they close their doors against the public & the poor die in Hackney coaches'. On the back of his chair: 'Board & Lodging'. His vis-à-vis: 'I pledge myself to keep some cases afloat'. From their coat-pockets hang big bloated purses. Beside the first speaker a long scroll hangs from a writing-table (left): 'Post Mortem Appearances, want of Employment Poverty Starvation Quarantine Stagnation Distress Blue Ruin' [gin]. On the floor (right): 'While Drs differ & deny—The Country bleeds & patients die'. Above the principal doctor hangs a picture of a bottle (blue) emitting smoke, and with head, arms, and legs, capering menacingly. This (a symbol of humbug, cf. BM Satires No. 14507) is 'Contagious Cholera'. At the other end of the room (right) packing-cases are piled from floor to ceiling inscribed (reading downwards): 'A bad case' [broken]; 'Cases made on the Shortest Notice'; 'Per varios [sic] casus, per tot discrimina rerum" | Tendimus" | "By various cases & such discrimination | we get on." | Docrs Transtn —'; 'Dr Bolus Case Maker'; 'New Case' [twice]. 27 February 1832
Hand-coloured lithograph |
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| Depicted people | Associated with: Sir William Burnett | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date | 1832 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Medium | paper | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Collection |
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| Current location |
Prints and Drawings |
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| Accession number |
1859,0316.201 |
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| Notes |
(Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', XI, 1954) For the cholera see No. 16922, &c. There was much controversy as to the efficacy and practicability of quarantine. A general Board of Health had been appointed in June 1831; of Sir William Pym, Sir William Burnett, Sir B. Martin, Sir James McGrigor, with the Assistant Secretary to the Treasury. Greville, 'Memoirs', 1938, ii. 157. Greville writes (1 Apr.) restrictions "begot complaints and disputes, and professional prejudices urged a host of combatants into the field, to fight about the existence or non-existence of cholera, its contagiousness, and every collateral question. . . . The Boards of Health which were everywhere established immediately became odious. . . . In this town [London] the mob has taken the part of the anti-cholerites and the most disgraceful scenes have occurred." Ibid. ii. 279. They met at the Council Office in Whitehall and issued statistical reports (here ridiculed). According to a letter in The Times, 14 Feb., "the public will look in vain for a cessation of the official reports, while the Government employs agents to search for cases at high salaries". 'The Lancet', 25 Feb., pilloried 'The Times' in a leading article (reprinted in 'The Ballot', 26 Feb.) for its "slanderous attacks" on the Board of Health, "malevolent and audacious falsehoods" on the emoluments of the officers, and its "utter ignorance of the history of epidemic and contagious diseases". See Nos. 16963, 17221. Merle's pencil design and a pen and pencil sketch by G. C. are in the Print Room. Merle's doctors are not elderly, stout, and jovial as in G. C.'s sketch and etching. See 1891,1117.1492 (Pressmark 199.c.8/1492. Binyon, i. 335). |
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| Source/Photographer | https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1859-0316-201 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Permission (Reusing this file) |
© The Trustees of the British Museum, released as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Licensing
[edit]This image is in the public domain because it is a mere mechanical scan or photocopy of a public domain original, or – from the available evidence – is so similar to such a scan or photocopy that no copyright protection can be expected to arise. The original itself is in the public domain for the following reason:
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| current | 12:53, 12 May 2020 | | 1,600 × 1,156 (510 KB) | Copyfraud (talk | contribs) | British Museum public domain uploads (Copyfraud/BM) Coloured lithographs in the British Museum 1832 #676/22,275 |
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