"Long, dressed as a funeral mute or mourner, stands full-face, legs apart, carrying four large boards like a sandwich-man (then "board-man"). Only his draped hat and eyes appear above the central board. In his hand is a staff draped in black which is inscribed 'Killing No Murder' [cf. British Museum Satires No. 11371]. At his feet are many ducks, all angrily quacking: 'quack!!'; 'quack!!!'; or (one) 'cruel quack'. He says, quoting a nursery rhyme, 'Come, Dilly, Dilly, Dilly, come and be killed!!!' The principal board is headed 'To the Public', with the Royal Arms. Inscriptions: 'A Receipt of my Grandmothers | Decline Arrested | Consumption prevented | A Cure for all diseases | By The Simple | process of | Skinning Alive | protected by the | NOBILITY | and a House-Full of | Ladies | of the first Distinction | Dr Needy, Harley-Street | NO QUACKERY'. On both flanking boards are a grinning skull and cross-bones inscribed 'momento [sic] mori'; on one (left) are wine-glasses, tankard, and bottle and 'A Short Life and a Merry one'; (right) 'N.B. . Short Accounts make LONG Friends'. Behind is a funeral procession with two coffins, preceded by a duck. This passes the railings of a London square. Behind are houses, on one of which is a hatchment, and a church-steeple on which prances a tiny devil flourishing a trident."--British Museum online catalogue
Alternative Title:
Oracle of Harley Street
Description:
Title etched below image., Second title etched above image: The Oracle of Harley Street., Signed at bottom of plate with the initials "J.D.R." followed by a depiction of an artist's palette., Possibly etched by 'Sharpshooter' (the pseduonym of John Phillips); see British Museum catalogue., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., and Temporary local Medical Library subject terms: Consumption -- Funerals -- Manslaughter -- Drugs.
Publisher:
Pub. by G. Humphrey, 24 St. James's Street
Subject (Name):
Long, John St. John, 1798-1834
Subject (Topic):
Quacks and quackery, Malpractice, Quacks, Signs (Notices), and Ducks
Grant, C. J. (Charles Jameson), active 1830-1852, printmaker
Published / Created:
March 1st, 1834.
Call Number:
Print01361
Image Count:
1
Resource Type:
still image
Abstract:
Central scene shows rivalry between doctors and their respective quack remedies. A patient sits helplessly in a chair while proponents of different medicines brawl with each other, overturning tables and chairs. Beneath are a comic strip and a further six comic episodes. The scenes below show 'a few specimens of the public in general!!', while the six scenes at the bottom begin with a fat woman tending pots at a stove, 'Ruling the roost', and end with a black boxer in 'Drama. The miller & his men' and Each scene is subtitled starting top with 'sudden breaking up of a consultation' and ending bottom right with 'Drama. The miller & his men'. There is numerous lettering in the main central scene including top left: 'I say the man is in the last stage of consumption thro' a too frequent supply of Morrison's Pills instead of Leakes sillybrated pills, which would have saved his life'. In response another salesman replies: 'It's false fellow the 'vegetables' rallied him but taking a box of your rubbish afterwards threw him back'. Another vendor exclaims: 'You have completely ruin'd the patient with your vile sovereign remedies in short you've kill'd him - then he can't swallow any more of your patent quack medicines.- You have totally deprived him of his sense of hearing - then he won't hear your gammon in the shape of advice - you have destoryed his olfactory nerves - then he wont be able to smell your horrid physic - you have glinded him with your deadly narcotics - then he can't see any more of your imposing long bills - you have deprived him of his speech - then he can't call you a humbug - in short Dr Long you have destroyed all his organs of sense - then you can no longer play upon his credibility'. Other doctors mentioned in the lettering include 'Dr Jardan and his universal balm' and 'Dr Solomons' (Dr Samuel Solomon, inventor of the Balm of Gilead).
Description:
Title from text beneath largest image at top of sheet., Largest image is signed in lower left corner with C.J. Grant's initials., Possibly published by John Kendrick, who issued other numbers of Every body's album & caricature magazine., Imperfect; sheet trimmed with loss of all text and additional images beneath largest image at top. Description based on a more perfect impression in the Wellcome Library, no. 640599i., "Continued every fortnight"--Following date., "In mercy spare us if we do our best, to make as much waste paper as the rest"--Beneath date., "6d. plain, 1s. colourd."--Upper right., Temporary local Medical Library subject terms: Drugs -- Morrison's Pills -- Leake's Pills -- Jardan., and Sheet trimmed to 216 x 272 mm.
Publisher:
J. Kendrick?
Subject (Name):
Morison, James, 1770-1840., Solomon, Samuel, -approximately 1818., and Long, John St. John, 1798-1834.
Subject (Topic):
Physicians, Quacks and quackery, and Tablets (Medicine)