The cow-pock, or, The wonderful effects of the new inoculation! [graphic]

"A scene in a vaccine institution; poor patients crowd in through a doorway on the left; in the room are those whose treatment has had dire consequences. A comely and frightened young woman sits in an armchair in the centre, the doctor (Jenner, a good portrait, see British Museum Satires No. 9925) holds her right arm and gashes it with his knife, while a deformed and ragged boy holds up a bucket of 'Vaccine Pock hot from ye Cow'. A charity-schoolboy's oval badge on his sleeve is inscribed 'St Pancras'; from his coat pocket projects a pamphlet: 'Benefits of the Vaccine Process'. From the patients miniature cows sprout or leap. A pregnant woman (right) stands in profile to the right, a cow issues from her mouth, another from below her ragged petticoat. A man dressed as a butcher registers despair at the horns which sprout from his forehead. A labourer with a pitchfork sees a cow bursting from a swelling on his arm while another breaks through his breeches; cows struggle through huge swellings on nose, ear, and cheek. Another patient has only reached the stage of large carbuncles on forehead and chin. The doctor's medicine-chest and a close-stool stand on the left. On the chest are bottles, a syringe, &c, and a tub of 'Opening Mixture'. This a haughty assistant ladles contemptuously into the mouths of the patients as they crowd into the room. On the wall is a picture: a crowd of kneeling worshippers pay homage to the statue of the golden calf. The scene combines fantasy and realism."--British Museum online catalogue