An Italian bandit offering a French gentleman the piebald one of three 'hottentot' (steatopygous) women; representing Louis Sambon and Raphael Blanchard at an international medical congress. Halftone after M.S. Orr, 1913.

The composition by Orr is based on that of a caricature by Cruikshank after F. Marryat, "Puzzled which to choose!! or, the King of Tombuctoo offering one of his daughters in marriage to Capt. --" (British Museum, Catalogue of satires, no. 13043), in which the seated central figure (in place of Orr's portrait of Sambon) is the King of Timbuktu and the bowing guest (in place of Orr's portrait of Blanchard) is Captain George Francis Lyon (1795-1832), the leader of an expedition to northern Central Africa (Libya and Sudan, but not Timbuktu). Among other adaptations by Orr, the central woman is piebald in reference to Blanchard's writings on "nègres pies" (partial albinos); the Union Jack on the left is replaced by the French tricolore; and the king's bodyguard holding skulls on spears are replaced by portraits of students and professors of tropical medicine: left to right, Cantlie with the head of Christophers, Manson with the head of possibly Sir William Macgregor, William Orr with the head of R.T. Leiper, and William's cousin James Gilchrist with the head of Ronald Ross. The head identified as Cantlie could be J.W.S. MacFie. The head of a man on the far left standing below the French flag is also a portrait, of an unidentified Frenchman

The depictions of the African women are based on Sarah Baartmann, the "Hottentot Venus"

[Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified], 1913.

1 print : halftone ; image 25 x 17.2 cm

Mission parasitologique. With apologies to Mr. George Cruikshank and Capt. E.J. ; Munro S. Orr del. 1913.

"With apologies to Mr. George Cruikshank and Capt. E.J.": meaning that Orr has copied the composition of an earlier print by George Cruikshank, 1818, after a drawing by Captain Frederick Marryat

L.J. Bruce-Chwatt, 'Tropical medicine -- historical cartoon', Transactions of the Royal society of tropical medicine and hygiene, 1978, vol. 72, p. 446, and 1979, vol. 73, pp. 353-355

Wellcome Collection 15801i