Old King Coal and the Fog Demon. John Tenniel, artist. Swain, engraver. Punch (13 November 1880). Source: Internet Archive online version of a copy in the University of Michigan Library. Click on image to enlarge it.

In this Tenniel cartoon that spreads across two full pages, a jolly King Coal (from the nursery rhyme) sits next to a dish labelled “carbon acid” and watches as Death spreads “catarh,” “pthisis,” “pleurisy,” “penumonia,” “bronchistis,” “asthma,” and “sulphurous acid gas” over St. Paul’s and the rest of London.

[This image may be used without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose without prior permission as long as you (1) credit the Internet Archive and the University of Michigan and (2) link to the Victorian Web in a web document or cite it in a print one.— George P. Landow]

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Last modified 10 July 2020