Cours d'Hygiène

This lithograph by Cham satirizes medical instruction and public health policy in mid-nineteenth-century France. A bearded figure—representing either a charlatan or incompetent hygienist—defaces a statue of Hippocrates while scrawling on its base. The composition invokes the classical authority of ancient medicine while mocking contemporary practitioners who ignore or corrupt Hippocratic principles. The work belongs to the French caricature tradition of Daumier and Gavarni, which used wit and visual distortion to expose professional pretension and social folly. Published by Arnauld de Vresse in Paris, the print demonstrates how satirical lithography functioned as political and social commentary in the mid-nineteenth century, a tradition foundational to modern editorial cartooning and comics.