The museum of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society is to mount a special exhibition showing how 18th and 19th century caricaturists lampooned the medical professions. Entitled "The quack doctor", the exhibition will run until February, 2001.
The exhibition will be open from Monday to Friday during the Society's normal working hours and during the pharmacy history event on June 3 (see above). Admission is free. No appointment is necessary for pharmacists, but other visitors must either contact the Society's museum office in advance or take advantage of the guided tours during May, June and July (see above).
The official opening of the exhibition on May 17 will be marked by a lecture on "The changing image of the doctor: a view from the cartoonists". Professor Roy Porter, medical historian, writer and broadcaster, will explore how the medical professions have been satirised and caricatured by generations of artists.
Organised jointly by the Society and the British Society for the History of Pharmacy, the lecture will take place in the Society's assembly hall at 7pm. Admission will be free but by ticket only. An opportunity to view the exhibition will be given until the lecture begins, and all other museum displays will be open until 6.30pm. Tickets can be obtained from the Museums Office, Royal Pharmaceutical Society, 1 Lambeth High Street, London SE1 7JN (tel 020 7735 9141 ext 354).

"Dr Blowbladder discovering the perpetual motion", by an anonymous early 19th century artist. It shows an elderly, old fashioned doctor feeling the pulse of a demure, well dressed young lady. The bottle in his pocket is labelled "blessed medicine"