Jan Ingen-Housz with his servant Dominique demonstrating the properties of vegetables. Soft-ground etching.

Another impression of this print, at Bowood House, Calne, Wiltshire, identifies the subject as Jan Ingen-Housz, who carried out much of the research for his book Experiments upon vegetables (London 1799) in the laboratory at Bowood which the Earl of Shelburne had originally constructed for Joseph Priestley's researches: McKinstry, op. cit.

Beale and Beale identify Dominique as Dominique Tede, from Parma (op. cit. p. 15)

1 print : soft-ground etching, with pencil ; sight 32 x 35.4 cm

The sage ambitious to instruct the fair, Extracts from cabbage leaves his vital air, Shews how each plant can boast the double use Of latent fire and aliamental juice: Planets and satellites appear at will, Proclaim his pow'r and verify his skill. His mighty thunder then he deals around, The very walls reecho to the sound: Dominique with fear and wonder gazes, Following the Doctor thro' his magic mazes.

Possibly by one of Lord Shelburne's wards, Caroline Fox and Elizabeth Vernon: they would be the "fair" recipients of Ingenhousz's instruction mentioned in the first line of the lettering. "Caroline Fox and Elizabeth Vernon were particularly fond of Ingen Housz and teased him mercilessly in their correspondence. This is why I guessed that they might have been responsible for the work - and the fact that the poem refers to instructing "the fair" (Ingen Housz was always very complimentary about their charming appearance)"--letter to the Wellcome Institute from Dr Kate Fielden, Bowood, 14 July 1999

Jason McKinstry, 'Taking the air at Bowood', Country life, 1 July 1999, p. 101

Norman and Elaine Beale, Who was Ingen Housz, anyway? a lost genius, Calne 1999, p. 33 (detail reproduced)

Wellcome Collection 43486i