A corpulent physician diagnoses more leeches for a young woman, who lies drained and bedbound. Lithograph by P. Numa, c. 1833.

According to Boyar, the doctor may be deliberately reminiscent of Louis-Philippe. The pear shape which was his caricatural emblem seems present enough. After 1833, caricaturists were forbidden to represent the king and his ministers in caricatures, so they had to hide their allusions in ever more cunning designs. However, a similar portly doctor also by Numa can be seen in Wellcome Library catalogue no. 16438i, apparently unencumbered by any such political resonances as may be present here