Illustrations from the Wellcome Institute Library. John Monro MD and Charles James Fox: etching by Thomas Rowlandson.

THE picture reproduced in Fig. 1 is an unsigned etching dated 4 April 1784, which is firmly attributed on stylistic grounds to Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827).' The two figures depicted are identified as, on the left the Bethlem mad-doctor John Monro (1715-1791), and on the right the politician Charles James Fox (1749-1806). Dr Monro screws up his right eye as he raises a lens to his left and declares As I have not the least hope ofhis Recovery. Let him be remov'd amongst the Incurable's M-o. The dashed word suggests the name Monro, and this identification is clinched both by comparison with the earlier (1769) portrait of Dr John Monro by Nathaniel Dance at the Royal College of Physicians (Fig. 2) and by the role which Charles James Fox plays in this print. Fox is portrayed with the attributes of a Bethlem inmate: he wears a straitjacket, has straw in his hair, and is oblivious to the doctor's presence (as Monro's statement also implied). He sings to himself the lament: