Another iconic image of systematic child abuse: At the Yorkshire School Dotheboys Hall, a boarding institution, the pupils are forced to eat brimstone and treacle [sulfur and molasses] – a laxative believed in Victorian times to cleanse the blood. Served directly before a small breakfast of porridge and bread, it also acts as appetite suppressant. Illustration by George Cruikshank from Charles Dickens’s Nicholas Nickleby (1838–39).