English: Pitt visits the quack de Loutherbourg to be cured of his (supposed) unpopularity. He walks (left to right) with crutches, one gouty leg is swathed with bandages inscribed 'Excise'; he is grotesquely thin. Two stout citizens, one on each side of him, are puffing clouds of smoke in his face inscribed 'Sir R. Walpole's Legacy'. He says, "Dear Doctor relieve me from the Fumes of discontent - set me on my Legs and make a Man of me". The fashionably dressed doctor stands in the centre of the room, in profile to the left, addressing Pitt, and pointing to an oval half length portrait of Chatham on the wall. He says, "I can Cure my poor Patients vidout trouble or expence - but to make de Man of you by Cot I could as soon animate de Canvas". Chatham holds a paper inscribed 'Magna Charta et libertas'; the frame is inscribed 'Right Honble Wm Pitt Earl of Chatham'. On a bench against the wall (left) is a row of 'Incurable Curables': a man without a leg, a woman without arms, a man without a head and with only one arm, a man without arms, a man with half a head. Above their heads 'Miracles never cease!!!' is inscribed within a triangle formed of the names of three notorious quacks: 'Graham', 'Loutherbourg', 'Katterfelto'. In front of these patients is a table on which is a book: 'Medicine - Faith', and a long scroll lying partly on the ground: 'Cures by a Touch. A Maiden of the Green Sickness - A Ditto of a nine months Dropsy - A Child without legs made to go - A Man without a Head made to comprehend - A Lawyer cured of a spotted fever - A Lady of a scarlet Fever - A Bishop of a Lethargy - An Alderman of craving - A Justice of Deafness - A Statesm[an] of Blindness &c &c.' Under the table-cloth is seen a pile of guineas; above this is a placard of the 'Bottle Conjuror' (the bottle-imp issuing from his bottle), below which is inscribed 'Loutherbourg Exd.' On the wall (left) is a placard: 'Question to the Professor - Why not cure the Poor Blind if such a Blessing can be bestowed without Expence or Trouble?'. 20 July 1789
Etching with hand-colouring