This little rhyme has been stuck in my head since fourth grade, approximately.
About this book Read this bookSmiles in Rime By Edward Warloch Mumford
I searched for the last line on Google and discovered this little feature that allows me to excerpt bits from Google Book Search. Genius. The book was published in 1904. I can’t find anything about Mumford, but I’ll look.
I thought about it again when I heard Paul Offit speak the other weak. I asked him if he ever remembered the rhyme…and if mercury was ever a folk remedy for pertussis. No to both, I’m afraid.
And be warned, if thou art easily offended, this book has some…shall we say…bugfuncking racist rhymes. Those were the times, I’m afraid. Surely, I must have seen it in some anthology poetry book of nonsense rhymes as a kid. I hope.
But wait, there’s more… Continue reading