A horse-drawn hearse pulls away from a doctor's; representing the dire state of the medical establishment according to James Morison, pill-vendor and self-styled 'Hygeian'. Lithograph, c. 1848.

1 print : lithograph.

Morison and his system - versus - the doctors and their guinea trade. The guinea trade shewn up; or, who's the dupe? ... Lettering continues in left margin: The doctors will no more reform themselves than those who profit by abuses of any kind. The People must take the question in hand, as they have already done with respect to the Sanitary question. The principles of the Hygeian or Morisonian system which are totally opposed to the guinea trade of doctors, are contained in the following propositions: 1. The vital principle is in the blood. 2. Every thing in the body is derived from the blood. 3. All constitutions are radically the same. 4. All diseases arise from impurity of the blood, or, in other words, from acrimonious humours lodged in the body. 5. Pain and disease have the same origin; and may therefore be considered synonymous. 6. From the intimate connexion subsisting between mind and body, the health of the one must conduce to the serenity of the other. Speech bubbles emanating from the two gentlemen: I say, Tom, I have seen this doctor's carriage at the same door, every day, for the last month. The medical attendant gets his purse lined with guinea fees, and the rich man is content to lie in bed, and remain ill, rather than question the mode of treatment pursued by his fashionable physician. Now you know, my dear fellow, that wealthy people fall into the mistake of supposing that they cannot be cured properly unless it costs them a great deal of money, and the positive fact is, that they would not like to be made well in a cheap way. Oh, no! that would be vulgar. They must have it done by a scientific man, if you please, and like to have their ears tickled by a lot of fine words that the very doctors laugh at, themselves, when they get together. A doctor told me, only the other day, that they were only beginning to learn that they knew nothing at all. Now how do you suppose I keep in such stunning health, and I, too, that am a little rackety, sometimes? Why, I carry my true physician in my pocket; my two boxes of Morison's Vegetable Universal Medicine, a box of No. 1 and a box of No. 2, by the use of which, I keep as strong as a young bull. [Second man:] You are right, my boy, but let me tell you that the faith of the wealthy classes is sadly shaken with respect to the medical profession. The works of Mr. Morison and the British College of Health have knocked a leg from under the doctors, that they wont be able to set up again in a hurry. What with Mesmerism, Homeopathy, and all the other pathies, the rich are beginning to think that there is rather a little too much humbugapathy about them, and have therefore taken to investigating the question for themselves, and are for throwing the doctors overboard. [First man:] I should like to know how many millions a-year it costs John Bull for physic? -some of the doctors make as much as 20,000 pounds a-year by this guinea-trade humbug; and after that they talk to us about Mr. Morison being an interested party. Why, of course, he is just as much interested as any other person who sells a good thing, -but his system has emancipated our minds, -which is the grand thing. [On sandwich board below:] To the public. Sign the petition to compel doctors to write their prescriptions in plain English,; the safety of society depends on it!!! [On window above skeleton, beside whom stands a vat, labelled 'Pharmacopiae':] Prussic acid. Arsenic. Laudanum. Morphia. Strychnine. Mercury. And all the other poisons whose name is legion are brought into this house. [Boy on right carries basket spilling over with labels denoting the above mentioned chemicals]

For further information, see 'James Morison and his pills' by William H. Helfand in 'Transactions of the British Society for the History of Pharmacy', London 1974, vol. I, no. 30

Wellcome Collection 18139i