The old bachelor's thermometer. The old maid's thermometer [graphic].

Print with an image at the top and two columns of letterpress below: A middle-aged man in a robe sits in an upholstered armchair, his gouty foot resting on a footstool, and a pained look on his face; medicine and a bowl on the table beside his chair (left) and a crutch rests against a second stool (right). He reaches toward a younger woman in a cap and apron who is looking down and away from him. On the left is bed with curtains and on the wall, a framed picture of Cupid shooting an arrow. The letterpress text below, in two columns, provides a timeline for a man's life, starting at the age of 16 listed at the beginning of each line, tells the humorous tale of the consequences of a man putting off marriage for prideful reasons from age "16 - incipient palpitations towards the young ladies", through the ages of "29 - rails against the fair sex", "37 - indulge in every kind of dissipation", and "48 - thinks living alone quite irksome ...". Eventually, he resolves to have a prudent young woman as housekeeper and companion, gradually feeling some attachment to her and becoming completely under her influence. At age 60, as he begins to feel ill, and "grows rapidly worse, has his will made in her favour, and makes an exit."