Gentle Emetic
This is the second of five related prints based on sketches by Gillray's friend and amateur caricaturist, the Reverend John Sneyd. They include:
- Taking Physick (February 6, 1800)
- Gentle Emetic (January 28, 1804)
- Brisk-Cathartic (January 28, 1804)
- Breathing a Vein (January 28, 1804)
- Charming Well Again (January 28, 1804)
For more information and the larger context of the series as a whole, begin with Taking Physick.
© Trustees of the British Museum
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Much of 18th century medicine was based on what was called Humourism, which can be traced back as far as the Egyptians, but in its application to medicine is usually attributed to Hippocrates. According to Hippocrates' The Nature of Man, as quoted in the Wikipedia article on Humourism,
The Human body contains blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. These are the things that make up its constitution and cause its pains and health. Health is primarily that state in which these constituent substances are in the correct proportion to each other, both in strength and quantity, and are well mixed. Pain occurs when one of the substances presents either a deficiency or an excess, or is separated in the body and not mixed with others.
Consequently, the remedies for illness usually centered upon trying to re-balance the humors in the body by expelling elements that had become temporarily excessive. One of the methods for that purpose was what we see here, a "gentle emetic," i.e. causing the patient to throw up, emptying the contents of his stomach and, with it, whatever was causing the complaint.
Commonly used emetics included senna and tartar emetic. They would probably have been mixed with the tea in the pot on the table.
As in all five prints of the series, Gentle Emetic is a comedy of expression, the queasy expression on the face of the patient and the sadly solicitous expression of his doctor. Even the patient's body is expressive. His right hand moves unconsciously to his stomach as his left hand grips his knee. His right foot is flexed as a wave of nausea approaches. The bowl on the table is ready.
NEXT: Brisk-Cathartic
Sources and Reading
- Commentary from the British Museum on Gentle Emetic.
- "Humourism," Wikipedia
- "Heroic medicine," Wikipedia
- "Antimony potassium tartrate," Wikipedia
- "English Caricature: Heroic Medicine–Bloodletting, Emetics, and Laxatives," 'Very Ill!' The Many Faces of Medical Caricature in Nineteenth-Century England & France
- Thomas Wright and R.H. Evans, Historical and Descriptive Account of the Caricatures of James Gillray #482.
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