A ''Mr Jones'' ogles another patient undergoing the cure.

The bizarre treatment is revealed at a new exhibition that is part of Whale Season at the Australian National Maritime Museum.

The practice is thought to have started in the whaling town of Eden, on NSW's far south coast.

One claim is that the first man to try the cure stumbled drunk into a carcass before emerging sober and apparently free of his rheumatism hours later.

Michelle Linder, curator of the museum's Australian content, said: ''I don't know there was scientific evidence per se [to support the practice] but there was hearsay at the time that they felt better after being in the whale.