‘Dawson’s Magic No 2 – Awful Effecets of Morison’s Vegetable Pills!!!!!!!’, 1835

Description

Mounted coloured lithograph, entitled ‘DAWSON’S MAGIC NO 2 – AWFUL EFFECTS OF MORISON’S VEGETABLE PILLS !!!!!!’, designed and lithographed by Charles Jameson Grant, and published by Thomas Davison in 1835.

The caricature depicts a man, with gout, sitting in an armchair in front of a fire. A woman, with a horrified expression on her face, stands in front of him holding up a mirror to show him his face which is covered with spots, sprouting grass.

The text below the image reads: “Oh! Lawk a daisy me! Look here sir! Why you are cover’d all over with Grass!! – – I shoud’nt at all wonder if it isn’t taking so many of them Wegetable pills. They have no doubt taken root in your inside, and you sitting so long by the fire have made ’em Wegetate thro your skin!!”, and ‘This Print must be exposed to a gentle heat before the fire’.

At least 25 caricatures were published during the 1830s ridiculing Morison’s Pills. This caricature takes a satirical look at the dangers of taking too many vegetable pills and com