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To the visitor to Windsor Castle, the Thomas Lawrence portraits in the Waterloo Chamber represent the most important contributors to the military defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte, by British, Prussian, Russian and Austrian forces at the Battle of Waterloo. Nevertheless, only few individuals realise that a Greek physician, Count Ioannis Capodistrias, a native of the island of Corfu, stands among these leading personalities as a diplomat, the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, who contributed remarkably to European unity in the early nineteenth century and as a statesman ('Governor' of Greece) with a tragic end to his life, after establishing a Greek State practically from ruins.

Until the 16th Century, physicians had always been portrayed, on paintings, frescoes and statues, as anonymous practitioners. Since that time, a vast amount of portraits has come down to us. In the Library of the Academy of Medicine alone, are registered more than 7000 documents (portraits, photographs, heliographies and caricatures).

THE GROSS CLINIC: is an 1875 painting by Thomas Eakins which is counted among the world's most famous doctor's portraits. This picture became more topical when it was sold to the Philadelphia Museum of Art for 68 million USD in 2006. We here present aspects of how this picture can help to document surgical practice in the USA at the time it was made. A comparison with a later doctor's portrait, THE AGNEW CLINIC: painted by Eakins in 1889, : shows that many changes occurred during a short time in the end of the 19 th century. This is especially the case within infection prevention, anaesthesia and development of the surgical profession as such. From an art historical perspective it has been common to compare the portrait with the old masters' group portraits of surgeons in surgical theatres. The most known of these is Rembrandt's DR. NICOLAES TULP'S ANATOMY LECTURE: (1632). In our opinion it is more interesting to consider THE GROSS CLINIC: in connection with concomitant photographies of medical practice. The realistic motive for the painting was assessed as inappropriate and unsuitable for a piece of art at the time. Despite of this, Eakins himself regarded the picture as one of his best, and during the 20 th century THE GROSS CLINIC: has been increasingly acknowledged. Today, the picture is the piece of art that Thomas Eakins is mainly associated with.

We have described the 17th century dispute on the nature of the poison of the viper and its possible use as an antidote which arose between published in Britain at that time. We have also seen the reciprocal interest of Charas and members of the Royal Society in each other's work, and how Charas settled in England for a few years at the time of discrimination against the Huguenots in France. We prefer to leave any conclusions from this story to individual readers. However the dispute seems to be part of a transition from an animate view of the world to one where empirical methods do not appear to need to invoke 'spirits'. The story also seems to illustrate the limitation of experiments there can still be disagreement. If there is a the feeling that the subject is of interest, we can broaden it to cover scientific exchanges and connections between British and French Scholars in the field of pharmaceutical chemistry in the 17th and 18th centuries. At that time a number of pharmacists and scientists moved or corresponded between the two countries influencing one another. That was when modern chemistry gradually evolved out of traditional origins.

Many statues of doctors have been erected in Paris. Sadly, many bronze monuments were deliberately destroyed during the Second World War, including memorials to Claude Bernard, Broca, Charcot, Pean, Raspail and Ricord, and to Berlioz who was a medical student in Paris. Only those of Bernard and Berlioz were replaced after the war. Bronzes of Bichat, Clemenceau, Pinel and the Barons Larrey (Dominique Jean and Hippolyte - father and son) survived the cull, as did the stone monuments commemorating Servetus, Vulpian, Tarnier and Marey.