‘Universal Pills No 3’, c1830-1840

Description

Mounted coloured lithograph, entitled ‘UNIVERSAL PILLS No 3.’, designed and lithographed by anon and published by William Spooner, circa 1830-1840.

Here a man, wearing a top-hat, and so obese he is bursting out of his clothes, carries an advertising board for Morison’s Pills showing a picture of his skeletal appearance before he began his treatment. The text below the image quotes him saying: “This here Board is a hexact representation of me as I vos afore I took to Morrisons Pills and only 480 Boxes!! I lived on nothink else for a vortnight”.

At least 25 caricatures were published during the 1830s ridiculing Morison’s Pills. This caricature comments on the public’s gullibility in accepting Morison’s exaggerated claims for his vegetable pills.