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Untitled Caricature of Workmen in Boots, 1836

© 2021 Royal Pharmaceutical Society

Description

Mounted coloured lithograph, untitled, designed and lithographed by anon, and published by Gabriel Shire Tregear in 1836.

The lithograph depicts two agricultural workmen in boots, breeches, smocks and neckerchiefs in a cottage garden. One has entered from the gate on the left, he stands scratching his head, with a pitchfork over his shoulder: “Whou Robin lad, wot be’st thee at ?” His companion, kneeling by a bed of worm-eaten cabbages on which he is dropping pills, replies: “Whoy these Cabbage’s be Eaten nearly all up, and I be zowing zum o’ them Wegitable Pills, they cure’d I o’ the Worms, zo I means to try what em’ll do for the Cabbage’s.”

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.