Hogarth and the Art of Alcohol Abuse

Gin cursed Friend, with Fury fraught,
    Makes human race a Prey;
It enters by a deadly Draught,
    And steals our Life away.
Virtue and Truth, driv'n to Despair,
    It's Rage compells to fly,
But cherishes, with hellish Care,
    Theft, Murder, Perjury.

Damn'd Cup! that on the vitals preys,
    That liquid Fire contains
Which madness to the Heart Conveys
    And rolls it thro' the Veins.

Scientific portraiture: accoutrements as props and symbols

Most of the portraits we hold include specific objects and visual references that relate to the careers of the medical practitioners (and other scientific professionals) that they depict. Many of the accoutrements used in this kind of professional portrait share common traits and themes, which remained consistent over much of the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries.

Fashion and the physician: how clothing made the man

In his biography of John Baron, Joseph Pettigrew quotes Baron’s description of his first meeting with Edward Jenner in 1808: ‘he was dressed in a blue coat, nankeen breeches and white stockings’. Pettigrew notes in an appendix that ‘we are grateful to him who told us that Milton wore big buckles... and in some future day the curious reader may be thankful for such particulars descriptive of the habits of Jenner’.