‘The Consumptive Patient’, 1835

Description

Mounted coloured lithograph, entitled ‘THE CONSUMPTIVE PATIENT.’, designed and lithographed by anon and published by W. Spooner, circa 1835.

A mother consults a doctor about her son’s “decline”. The doctor pauses in his reading of “The Times” to regard her and the overdressed, obese and repulsive looking boy, clutching an apple and a cake, standing beside her.

Lettering below reads: “Please Doctor, I’ve brought the little boy wot’s going into a decline!” The walls have shelves of jars containing anatomical specimens, a diploma, and a large pestle and mortar.