A procession of health officials ironically proclaiming the coming of vaccination. Coloured etching.

The two pictures carried by the man in the top hat are also in the Wellcome Library

Fashionably dressed ladies and gentlemen gather around the cart, listening to the news about what is here cynically thought of as a 'dindonnade', a word that signifies both 'hoax' (from 'dindonner'- to dupe) and 'turkey' (dindon); hence the turkey held by the man on the left. 'Dindonnade' is meant in opposition to 'vaccine', from 'vacca' and 'vache', the words for 'cow' in Latin and French respectively; however the French word also possesses derogatory connotations. Hence the comic symmetry between the two words 'dindonnade' and 'vaccine'. Vaccination was viewed with suspicion by some of the French, who saw it as a dubious English invention; however, this is in line with the general wariness about the experimental beginnings of inoculation and vaccination

1 print : etching, with watercolour ; image 15.4 x 21.5 cm

La vaccine en voyage ... Lettering on the flag: "Pour votre argent nous manquer votre cure,/ Morbleu, vous recevrez tous l'heureuse piqure/ Chacun sera vacciné c'est a dire dindonné/ La bonne avantures o gué la bonne avanture." On the scroll: "Par permission Nous vaccinons, nous dindonnons, nous rajeunissons, nous embellissons, nous. &c ..." On the first print from the top: "La dindonnade ou la rivale de la vaccine" and the second: "Admirable effet de la vaccine" Bears number: VIII

Wellcome Collection 16066i