Peking, Pechili province, China: a travelling chiropodist. Photograph by John Thomson, 1869.

Two men seated by the kerbside, one examining the other's foot. They are overlooked by a third man smoking a pipe, who looks out of the window of a house. Thomson seems to have mislabelled this negative: see his published legend. In Late Qing China, the streets of major cities were full of "quack doctors", many of whom practised as barbers and ear-cleaners. Here an itinerant chiropodist is operating on a painful corn and dressing the toe-nails of his patient; a second customer leaning out of a dilapidated window patiently waits his turn, while smoking the pipe of peace