Portrait of Thomas Dimsdale, a practitioner of medicine recognized as a specialist in inoculation. Dimsdale was summoned by the Empress of Russia, Catherine II, in 1768 to introduce the practice of inoculation in Russia. Dimsdale performed an inoculation on the empress herself and much of St. Petersburg and Moscow. He was anointed a Baron for his contributions to the improvement of Russian well-being. The illustration precedes a chapter describing the circumstances by which inoculation practices emerged in various Eastern and Western countries.

This plate is found in the publication, The History of Inoculation and Vaccination for the Prevention and Treatment of Disease, a book on the history of vaccination associated with the American Medical Association's 1913 Annual Meeting, which took place in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The publication includes a forward by Henry S. Wellcome, followed by sections titled "The 'Wellcome' Materia Medica Farm: A Modern Physic Garden" and "Medical Equipments from Pole to Pole." This is followed by a supply catalog section, a pharmaceutical products section, advertisements for medical products, awards given by the Wellcome Chemical Research Laboratories, and drawings of the Wellcome research laboratories located in London, England as well as their office in New York City, New York.