Poor Henry consults a doctor in Salerno about his leprosy: they sit opposite each other in the doctor's study while the doctor explains his remedy. Aquatint by F. Hegi, 1810.

A patient poking out his tongue and having his pulse taken by a physician. Watercolour by M. Anderson.

A woman doctor examining a girl's finger. Engraving after J. Northcote.

Ailing soldiers queuing up to see the doctor in a military surgery. Coloured lithograph by G. Gostiaux after himself.

Five decrepit doctors crushed together in consultation. Coloured lithograph after L. Boilly, c. 1823.

A medical consultation while a patient dies; a group of soldiers with a family; men in an artist's loft. Coloured lithograph c. 1840.

A young physician taking the pulse of a woman with whom he is flirting, a young man passing by raises his hat. Colour stipple engraving by J. Parker, 1783, after J. Northcote.

An unsympathetic doctor trying to get rid of a poor patient by frightening her. Wood engraving after J. Leech.

An excited physician examining a urine specimen and referring to a book, while the patient waits for the diagnosis, two assistants are mixing concoctions in the background. Mezzotint by J.B. Enzensberger after D. Teniers, the younger.

A doctor suggests to an exhausted patient that he commit theft and spend some time locked in a police cell in order to regain his health. Wood engraving by G. Du Maurier, 1878.

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"1760" refers to the time of the ancien régime and contrasts the picture with another of Boilly's 'Grimaces' series bearing the same title, but a different date, 1823. It shows a group of fashionable young doctors and can be seen in Wellcome Library no. 16325i

Grimaces

Five decrepit doctors crushed together in consultation. Coloured lithograph by F-S. Delpech after L. Boilly, c. 1823.

Caption reads: 'Old Lady (to eminent physician) "Tell me, doctor, what do you consider the most important rule of all for health?" Doctor (whose ideas run much on the hygenic properties of soils and air & c) "My dear madam - always live on gravel." Old Lady (whose thoughts take a more gastronomic turn) "Oh doctor! I'm sure I couldn't digest it!!"'

1 print : wood engraving ; border 13.6 x 18 cm

A physician and his female patient talking at cross purposes. Wood engraving by C. Keene, 1880.

A physician talking to a patient who is in bed. Engraving.

Dialogue includes: "But, doctor, how can you be sure it's a foreign body?"

1 photomechanical reproduction ; image 17.1 x 11.9 cm

A doctor examining a nervous patient's eye for foreign bodies. Reproduction of a drawing after F. Reynolds, 1937.

"The model who sat for the artist for the position of the young man given the sentence of death was a member of our family, Gerald Layton Orr, a friend of the artist himself" (letter to the Wellcome Institute from Dr Andrew W. Orr, Montrose, 30 December 1983)
Reviewers at the time the picture was first shown in public (1908) speculated about the nature of the terminal disease the patient might have contracted. Syphilis was one suggestion
The microscope on the physician's desk resembles the compound monocular microscope manufactured in England by Henry Crouch in the 1890s, as illustrated in J.M. Blumberg et al., The Billings microscope collection of the Medical Museum, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Washington 1967, p. 107 (information supplied by Mr David Houle, 2005)

1 print : photogravure, printed in colour ; image 19.9 x 25.1 cm

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Medical consultation

Images

Catalogue

Five decrepit doctors crushed together in consultation. Coloured lithograph by F-S. Delpech after L. Boilly, c. 1823.

A physician and his female patient talking at cross purposes. Wood engraving by C. Keene, 1880.

A physician talking to a patient who is in bed. Engraving.

A doctor examining a nervous patient's eye for foreign bodies. Reproduction of a drawing after F. Reynolds, 1937.

A physician telling a patient that he is going to die: the patient stares out at the viewer. Colour photogravure after the Hon. J. Collier, 1908.

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Wellcome uses cookies.

Medical consultation

Images

Catalogue

Five decrepit doctors crushed together in consultation. Coloured lithograph by F-S. Delpech after L. Boilly, c. 1823.

A physician and his female patient talking at cross purposes. Wood engraving by C. Keene, 1880.

A physician talking to a patient who is in bed. Engraving.

A doctor examining a nervous patient's eye for foreign bodies. Reproduction of a drawing after F. Reynolds, 1937.

A physician telling a patient that he is going to die: the patient stares out at the viewer. Colour photogravure after the Hon. J. Collier, 1908.

Wellcome Collection

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