1803

The Famous Mr. Martin Van Butchell, Pupil to the Late Dr. Hunter

Quacks went to great extremes to achieve notoriety, often dressing elaborately and behaving strangely. Martin Van Butchell (1736?-1814?) was an eccentric surgeon and dentist who paraded through London on a white pony painted with purple spots while peddling real and artificial teeth. He was famous for having had his wife embalmed and placed on view in a glass-lidded case in the sitting room of his London home. "Dr. Van Cheathall," the name on a signpost in the print after Robert Dighton at right, was intended as an obvious reference to Van Butchell.