Adolphe Thiers as a chemist dissolving the Garde Nationale throughout France. Colour line block by Lefman and Lourdel after A. Gill, 1871.

The Garde Nationale in Paris had supported the Paris Commune, opposed by Adolphe Thiers. In August 1871 the Third Republic under Thiers dissolved the guard throughout France. In the present print, Thiers sits in a chemist's laboratory or pharmacy, with rows of glass vessels behind him on shelves marked "Dissolvants". He contemplates a jar marked "Dissolvant", while sitting on an alembic. The capital of the alembic (the large vessel on the left) contains agitated figures (members of the Garde Nationale), who are being distilled into the cucurbit (the small vessel on the right) containing the 'coq gaulois', the cock which is the national symbol of France