How does this artwork elucidate its Accuracy?
Fildes stated that his choice of subject was "to put on record the status of the doctor in our own time", but his depiction of 19th-century healthcare is not entirely accurate. There is no stethoscope, microscope, sphygmomanometer, or thermometer in the picture, well-known instruments of physicians in the late 19th century which saved time. It may be that these instruments were omitted in order to show the doctors' "professional and personal commitment". Fildes does include a pestle and mortar, and a cup and a spoon, equipment used before the scientific era of medicine.It has also been pointed out that it was unlikely that a Victorian physician would make an overnight home visit to a poor family, such services being available only to the middle class and the wealthy.
sphygmomanometer stethoscope thermometer microscope