A travelling procession of health officials who ironically praise the coming of vaccination. Etching.

The two pictures carried by the man in the top hat are also in the Wellcome Library: catalogue numbers 16161i and 16164i

Fashionably dressed ladies and gentlemen gather around the cart, listening to the news about what is here cynically thought of as a 'dindonnade', a word that signifies both 'hoax' (from 'dindonner'- to dupe) and 'turkey' (dindon); hence the turkey held by the man on the left. 'Dindonnade' is meant in opposition to 'vaccine', from 'vacca' and 'vache', the words for 'cow' in Latin and French respectively; however the French word also possesses derogatory connotations. Hence the comic symmetry between the two words 'dindonnade' and 'vaccine'. Vaccination was viewed with suspicion by some of the French, who saw it as a dubious English invention; however, this is in line with the general wariness about the experimental beginnings of inoculation and vaccination

1 print : etching ; platemark 17.5 x 22.7 cm

La vaccine en voyage ... Lettering on top flag: "Pour votre argent, dussions nous manquer votre cure,/ Morbleu, vous recevrez tous l'heureuse piqure/ Chacun sera vacciné c'est a dire dindonné/ La bonne avanture o gué la bonne avanture." On the scroll: "Par permission Nous vaccinons, nous dindonnons, nous rajeunissons, nous embellissons, nous &c &c &c &c &c &c &c." On the first picture from top: "La dindonnade ou la rivale de la vaccine", and on the second: "Admirable effet de la vaccine" Bears number: VIII

Wellcome Collection 16065i