Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, October 9, 1841Various
General
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, October 9, 1841
Various
English wit and humor -- Periodicals
under his arm; and whether he is engaged upon a subject or no, delights to
keep on his black apron, pockets, and sleeves (like a barber dipped in a
blacking-bottle), the making of which his sisters have probably
superintended in the country, and which he thinks endows him with an air
of industry and importance.
The new man, at first, is not a great advocate for beer; but this dislike
may possibly arise from his having been compelled to stand two pots upon
the occasion of his first dissection. After a time, however, he gives way
to the indulgence, having received the solemn assurances of his companions
that it is absolutely necessary to preserve his health, and keep him from
getting the collywobbles in his pandenoodles--a description of which
obstinate disease he is told may be found in "Dr. Copland's Medical
Dictionary," and "Gregory's Practice of Physic," but as to under what head
the informant is uncertain.
The first purchase that a new man makes in London is a gigantic note-book,
a dozen steel pens on a card, and a screw inkstand. Furnished with these
valuable adjuncts to study, he puts down every thing he hears during the
day, both in the theatre of the school and the wards of the hospital,
besides many diverting diagrams and anecdotes which his fellow-students
insert for him, until at night he has a confused dream that the air-pump
in the laboratory is giving a party, at which various scalpels, bits of
gums, wax models, tourniquets, and foetal skulls, are assisting as
guests--an eccentric and philosophical vision, worthy of the brain from
which it emanates. But the new man is, from his very nature, a visionary.
His breast swells with pride at the introductory lecture, when he hears
the professor descant upon the noble science he and his companions have
embarked upon; the rich reward of watching the gradual progress of a
suffering fellow-creature to convalescence, and the insignificance of
worldly gain compared with the pure treasures of pathological knowledge;
whilst to the riper student all this resolves itself into the truth, that
three draughts, or one mixture, are respectively worth four-and-sixpence
or three shillings: that the patient should be encouraged to take them as
long as possible, and that the thrilling delight of ushering another
mortal into existence, after being up all night, is considerably increased
by the receipt of the tin for superintending the performance; _i.e._ if
you are lucky enough to get it.
It is not improbable that, after a short period, the new man will write a
letter home. The substance of it will be as follows: and the reader is
requested to preserve a copy, as it may, perhaps, be compared with another
at a future period.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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