An Octave for Mr Ernest Hart at Sir Henry Thompson's house. Oil painting by Solomon Joseph Solomon R.A., ca. 1897.

Octaves were dinner-parties held by Sir Henry Thompson, Bart., Professor of Surgery at University College, London, at his house 35 Wimpole Street, at which eight courses, accompanied by eight wines, were served at eight o'clock to eight guests in addition to the host and the guest of honour. The guest of honour here, seated to the right of the mantelpiece, was Ernest Hart, editor of the British Medical Journal. The room contains works of art from Thompson's collection including paintings by well-known artists of his acquaintance.

Clockwise from the centre background (right of mantelpiece): Ernest Abraham Hart, editor of the British Medical Journal 1866-1898, sanitary and medical reformer; Sir Thomas Spencer Wells, 1st baronet (1883), PRCS, gynaecological surgeon; Sir Joseph Fayrer, 1st baronet (1896), FRCP, FRS, FRCS, Surgeon-general, Indian medical service, authority on snake venom; Newman, butler to Sir Henry Thompson Bt.; Sir Thomas Lauder Brunton, 1st baronet (1909), FRCP, FRS, physician and teacher of pharmacology and therapeutics; Sir William Henry Broadbent, 1st baronet (1893), FRCP, FRS, physician; Sir George Anderson Critchett, 1st baronet (1908), FRCS (Edin.), ophthalmic surgeon; Sir Victor Horsley, knight bachelor (1902), FRS, FRCS, surgeon, pathologist and physiologist; Sir Richard Quain, 1st baronet (1891), FRCP, FRS, physician; Sir James Paget, 1st baronet (1871), FRS, PRCS, surgeon and pathologist; Sir Henry Thompson, 1st baronet (1899), FRCS, urological surgeon, supporter of astronomy and cremation of the dead, patron and practitioner of arts and letters, host of the Octaves.

Iconographic Collections
Keywords: Ernest Abraham Hart; Thomas Spencer Wells; Joseph Fayrer; Newman; Thomas Lauder Brunton; W. H. Broadbent; George Anderson Critchett; Victor Horsley; Richard Quain; James Paget; Henry Thompson; Solomon Joseph Solomon