A child with a swollen mouth being led by a woman to visit an apothecary, who is seated in his laboratory. Drawing by William Heath Robinson.

The child on the left sticks out its tongue for the inspection of the apothecary. The latter is immensely tall (reflecting the view of the child) and is dressed in a bizarre costume including a ruff of ca. 1600, a mediaeval tunic, and spectacles of ca. 1830. Around him are a mass of alchemical and pharmaceutical paraphernalia. In the right background an assistant in Tudor costume prepares a potion, while in the left background are skeletons of a narwhal and an ostrich