A satire on the influenza of 1803.

ONE OF the coloured engraved satires in the Wellcome collection is An Address of thanks from the Faculty to the Right Hon.ble Mr. Influenzy for his kind visit to this country (Fig. 1). It was designed by Temple West, an amateur artist whose name appears on the cross-bar of the commode on which the figure of Influenzy is seated. The print was published by S. W. Fores, 50 Piccadilly on 20 April 1803. There is also the inscription by the publishers "Folios of caracatures lent out for the evening." Members of the public living in 1803 who were interested in medical matters would have taken this print home for amusement and they were probably familiar with the faces of the doctors in the picture. Their names do not appear on the print, as in all satires representing prominent people; but lines of their sayings appear above, connected by dotted lines with the mouth of each individual; these texts characterize the doctors' opinions and their professional attitudes. The modern beholder of such satires, however, is at a loss to identify the persons and usually resorts for information to the British Museum's great Catalogue of political and personal satires.' But this is of no avail in the case of our satire, as the Address of thanks only came into the possession of the British Museum after completion of the catalogue's volume VIII which deals with satires between the years 1801 and 1811. However, in 1955 Dr. Peter John Taylor, then house physician to St. Thomas's Hospital, wrote an article about the print in St. Thomas's Hospital Gazette.2 He states that after acquiring the print, he asked the British Museum and the Wellcome Historical Medical Library whether any work on the identification of the group had been done, and received negative replies. His own research at the Royal College of Physicians resulted in an interpretation of the historical background of the scene and in identification of two persons in the picture. In his article he pointed out that the influenza epidemic raged through Western Europe and concentrated chiefly in France and England. He writes of a "temporary, if uneasy peace between this country and France" in 1803, which, however, turned into hostility during the second quarter of that year. Looking at the figure of Influenzy we perceive some political connotation. His headgear consists of a red pointed cap