The funny side of physic, or, The mysteries of medicine, presenting the humorous and serious sides of medical practice. An exposé of medical humbugs, quacks, and charlatans in all ages and all countries / by A. D. Crabtre, M. D.

  • Crabtre, Addison Darre.
Date:
1874
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The funny side of physic, or, The mysteries of medicine, presenting the humorous and serious sides of medical practice. An exposé of medical humbugs, quacks, and charlatans in all ages and all countries / by A. D. Crabtre, M. D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    What were you doing at the front door but a moment since ? Nothin', ma'am, but spakin' to me cousin ; he's a p'leece- man, ma'am, if ye plaze, ma'am, replied Bridget, drop- ping a low courtesy to the mistress. No, no; I did not mean that. But haven't you been cleaning the door-knob and the bell-pull? Yes'm, replied Bridget, changing from embarrassment to surprise. Why, Bridget, didn't I tell you never to polish the front door-knobs during the warm season? Now my friends will think that I have returned from Saratoga — And is it to Saratogy ye've been, ma'am? exclaimed Bridget. No, you dunoe; but was not the front of the house closed, and the servants forbidden to polish the plates and glass, that my friends might be led to believe we had all gone to the watering-place? That was true humbug. Double humbuggery! for the servant girl was humbugging her mistress by pretending to polish the door-knobs, while she was really coqueting with a policeman; and the mistress was humbugging her friends into the belief that the house was closed, and the family gone to Saratoga. So, Hamburg, on the Elbe, being a fashionable resort of the upper-ten-dom of London, those who would ape aristoc- racy, yet being unable to bear the expense of a trip to the Continent, closed the front of their dwellings, moved into the rear, giving out word that they had gone to Hamburg. When a house was observed so closed, with a notice on the door, the passers by would wag their heads, and exclaim, questionably, Ah,' gone to Hamburg! or, All gone to Hamburg! It's all Hamburg! and so on. And, like a thousand other words in the English language, this be- came corrupted, and humbug followed. Hence, taking