"Comment peut-on-être persan?..."

"Today one of the major social concerns in the United States is the rising cost of health care. People complain about the prices charged for a doctor's appointment and for expensive prescription medicine. It was no different in nineteenth-century England. The cost of a doctor's visit increased as the medical field became more professionalized. Many medical practitioners sought university degrees; over 8,000 university men became doctors between 1801 and 1850. Bruce Haley, The Healthy Body and Victorian Culture , Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1978, pp. 4-5. Some of these highly trained physicians practiced at one of the 70 new specialty hospitals that were founded during this time in England. Bruce Haley, The Healthy Body and Victorian Culture , Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1978, p. 5. An extremely successful medical practice, especially one catering to the upper class, could make a physician wealthy."

George Cruikshank, published by Thos. McLean, 26 Haymarket, August 1, 1935 .   "In this intricately detailed print, Cruikshank brings us into the life of a forlorn, solitary figure sitting hunched over a barren hearth. The drawing, entitled “The Blue Devils,” describes the depressed world of the protagonist. Three pictures hanging on the back wall symbolize the man's life careening out of control. A devilish creature wielding a fiery paintbrush adds his own special touches to the artwork. The first painting depicts a boat sinking in a ferocious storm at sea. In the second, flames burst from a burning building. The final picture, this one not yet framed, shows a sketch of a man similarly dressed and posed as our protagonist. Behind him is an angry woman, presumably his wife, about to strike him over the head with what looks like a metal bed warmer. All around the poor man there are imps and symbols encouraging him to choose death over life. A little devil on his shoulder holds ...