Fun newspaper find shows laughter was best medicine

But, incredibly, a 106-year-old copy of a little-known satirical publication produced at an Edinburgh hospital has turned up at a car boot sale in the south of England.

The Bacillus newspaper, which poked fun at local aristocrats while raising crucial hospital funds, printed only four copies, but made a huge impact on local healthcare.

The newly uncovered copy, which has now made its way back to Edinburgh, has helped shed light on fundraising activities around the Royal Victoria hospital, which was then a specialist tuberculosis facility, and life in the Capital in 1905.

Archivists were stunned when contacted about the discovery of the broadsheet, which showed up in Dorset.

Staff at the Lothian Health Services Archives instantly got to work on examining the tender documents, which were in excellent condition and bound beautifully with green ribbons.

It has also been made available on the organisation's website.

Further study of the paper - which cost one penny - found that it was part of an international fair at Waverley Market in November 1905 that raised 17,000 for the hospital.

Assistant archivist Laura Brouard said: "Whoever bought it made contact with a man who writes about the Royal Victoria and it was then passed to us.

"We get around 50 per cent of our material from members of the public who find bits and pieces - it's an important contribution to our archive.

"Dorset is not the furthest place we've received material from, although there is no indication how it could have ended up there.

"We get a lot from places like Australia, which is in line with the Scottish diaspora."

The satirical newspaper, which jokes under the masthead that it has "the smallest circulation and the worst advertising medium of any daily paper outside of Camlachie, Ecclefechan, Auchtermuchty and Milngavie", was aimed at poking fun at life in Edinburgh.

Several local characters, who experts said would be given thinly-veiled pseudonyms, featured in the stories, along with a cartoon. Writers quipped that one local politician's only two objectives in life were getting his car fixed, and planning what to do when it was mended.

Light is also made of the Scotland football team, while readers who pledged to subscribe to the newspaper were given a series of bogus offers, such as a cheap-day rail journey to London and financial benefits for bald readers.

Ms Brouard added: "This paper would have been one of the main attractions of the fair.

"Hospitals then would have relied heavily on these fundraising events because, of course, there was no NHS.

"This shows how life would have been and features a lot of local characters who would have been well known to the people of Edinburgh in those days."

To see more of the document and additional information, visit www.lhsa.lib.ed.ac.uk.