From the exhibition
John Scott Burdon-Sanderson ('Oxford Physiology')
Leslie Ward · Published 17 May 1894

Leslie Ward ('Spy') presents the physiologist Sir John Scott Burdon-Sanderson — first Waynflete Professor of Physiology at Oxford — leaning casually against a plain wooden chair, one hand pocketed, his gaze directed off to the left with an air of distracted authority. The caption 'Oxford Physiology' anchors the joke in institutional prestige: Burdon-Sanderson had dragged British experimental medicine into the Continental laboratory tradition, making him both admired and controversial. Ward renders him gaunt and angular, the long jaw and heavy brow exaggerated in the Spy manner. The dark frock coat and watch-chain signal Victorian respectability; the loose trousers read as the absent-minded professor's concession to comfort.
Leslie Ward Public domain