Psychiatry in pictures

Following the success of The Bottle (plates from which were featured in the January and February issues of the Journal) Cruikshank produced a sequel, The Drunkard's Children, which again used eight plates to chart the deleterious effects of alcohol, this time on the offspring of the alcoholic father featured in the original series. This is the first plate in the series and is set in a low-class tavern. The daughter stands in the middle of the picture and is holding a glass of gin. Later plates in the series reveal that the man and woman on either side of her are enticing her into prostitution. The son, who is smoking, stands at the right of the picture and is being offered a mug of ale by a rather dubious-looking character. In front of them is a ragged family group, in which the mother is pictured pouring gin down the throat of her baby. Elsewhere, the other patrons of the tavern appear dissolute and disorderly. Plate VIII will appear in the April issue of the Journal. Thanks to Dr Bruce Ritson.

The Drunkard's Children. A Sequel to The Bottle, Plate I. Neglected by their parents, educated only in the streets and falling into the hands of wretches who live upon the vices of others, they are led to the gin shop, to drink at that fountain which nourishes every species of crime (1848). George Cruikshank (1792–1878)