Faces Of Medical Caricature

Nineteenth-century medicine provided caricaturists with a wealth of material. Artists humorously exaggerated medical conditions and physical characteristics. Bulbous noses, protruding stomachs, and hunched backs were some of the more common features drawn to extraordinary proportions.

Bizarre treatments, massive doses of pills, and excessive bloodletting, prescribed by trained physicians and quack doctors alike, were all lampooned. Suffering and discomfort from disease and the patient's reaction to medical treatment were also fodder for the satirist's pen.