''A Consultation of Physicians, or The Company of Undertakers'' is a 1736 engraving by

William Hogarth William Hogarth (; 10 November 1697 – 26 October 1764) was an English painter, engraver, pictorial satirist, social critic, editorial cartoonist and occasional writer on art. His work ranges from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like s ...

that satirizes the medical profession. It depicts a

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...

with three notorious quacks of the time― John Taylor, Sarah Mapp, and

Joshua Ward Joshua Ward (1685–1761) was an English doctor, most remembered for the invention of Friar's Balsam. He sat briefly in the House of Commons from 1715 to 1717. Life Ward was born in Yorkshire. He was the brother of John Ward who was MP for seve ...

—seated at the top of the shield and twelve physicians below, implying that the quacks and the physicians are one and the same. The

blazon In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct the appropriate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The vis ...

at the bottom of the print reads:

The ''company'' of ''
undertaker A funeral director, also known as an undertaker (British English) or mortician (American English), is a professional involved in the business of funeral rites. These tasks often entail the embalming and burial or cremation of the dead, as ...
s'' beareth,
sable The sable (''Martes zibellina'') is a species of marten, a small omnivorous mammal primarily inhabiting the forest environments of Russia, from the Ural Mountains throughout Siberia, and northern Mongolia. Its habitat also borders eastern Kaza ...
, a ''urinal'',
proper Proper may refer to: Mathematics * Proper map, in topology, a property of continuous function between topological spaces, if inverse images of compact subsets are compact * Proper morphism, in algebraic geometry, an analogue of a proper map for ...
, between twelve ''quack-heads'' of the second, and twelve ''cane-heads'', or ''consultant''. On a chief, ''nebulae'', ermine, one complete ''doctor'', issuant, checkie, sustaining, in his right hand, a baton of the second. On his
dexter and sinister ''Dexter'' and ''sinister'' are terms used in heraldry to refer to specific locations in an escutcheon bearing a coat of arms, and to the other elements of an achievement. ''Dexter'' (Latin for 'right') indicates the right-hand side of the sh ...
sides two ''demi-doctors'', issuant, of the second, and two ''cane-heads'', issuant of the third; the first having one eye,
couchant In heraldry, the term attitude describes the ''position'' in which a figure (animal or human) is emblazoned as a charge, a supporter, or as a crest. The attitude of an heraldic figure always precedes any reference to the tincture of the figur ...
, towards the dexter side of the escutcheon; the second, ''faced'', per
pale Pale may refer to: Jurisdictions * Medieval areas of English conquest: ** Pale of Calais, in France (1360–1558) ** The Pale, or the English Pale, in Ireland *Pale of Settlement, area of permitted Jewish settlement, western Russian Empire (179 ...
, proper, and
gules In heraldry, gules () is the tincture with the colour red. It is one of the class of five dark tinctures called "colours", the others being azure (blue), sable (black), vert (green) and purpure (purple). In engraving, it is sometimes depict ...
guardant. With this motto—''Et plurima mortis imago''.

Taylor, seated at the top left, is winking and holds a cane bearing an open eye, a reference to his dubious ocular surgeries. The

bonesetter Traditional bone-setting is a type of a folk medicine in which practitioners engaged in joint manipulation. Before the advent of chiropractors, osteopaths and physical therapists, bone-setters were the main providers of this type of treatment. ...

Mapp holds a large bone in her hand, and Ward, a pharmaceutical charlatan, is depicted with a half-red face, representing the man's distinctive port-wine birthmark. A physician in the bottom right holds a urine flask, likely referencing the practice of

uroscopy Uroscopy is the historical medical practice of visually examining a patient's urine for pus, blood, or other symptoms of disease. The first records of uroscopy as a method for determining symptoms of an illness date back to the 4th millennium BC, ...

. Other physicians examine the flask, holding perfumed canes to their noses to cover up the smell—perhaps of death. The motto translates to "And many are the faces of death" or "Everywhere the image of death". The doctors' canes resemble the batons held by undertakers at funerals, and death is symbolized by the black background and the crossed bones at the bottom of the crest. The language of "quack-heads" and "cane-heads" equates the intellect of the doctors to that of their canes.

References

Works cited

* * * Prints by William Hogarth 18th-century engravings Medicine in art {{Art-stub