Life, 1894-03-29 · page 10 of 14
Life — March 29, 1894 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 210 This page satirizes the debate between "regular physicians" (licensed medical doctors) and "cure-doctors" (unlicensed alternative practitioners). The left illustration shows a skeleton labeled "AN UNSTEADY INCOME," representing the financial precariousness of quack medicine. The dialogue on the right presents a logical argument: if a cure-doctor sometimes succeeds where regular physicians fail, isn't consulting one reasonable? The response argues that while cure-doctors may occasionally help through luck or experimental methods, a regular physician remains safer and more professional. The street scene depicts what appears to be a child in need of medical care, illustrating why this debate mattered practically to ordinary families choosing between legitimate and fraudulent medical providers. This reflects late 19th/early 20th-century anxieties about medical legitimacy before strict licensing standards.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
D. H E calls her his dearest, his darling, His dearie, his dove—for you see More frequent than rain drops in April Are love terms beginning with D, AFTERWARD. The cooking is really quite dreadful, The baby is howling high C, And frequent as rain drops in April Are phrases beginning with D, THE REGULAR PHYSICIAN. HINK you he will cure me? What a question ! Why? This isn't a cure doctor; this is a : regular physician, What's he for if he doesn’t cure ? He does cure sometimes. Oh, well, if he can cure I want him. You want him anyhow, Not if he doesn’t cure. I guess, then, there isn’t much the matter with you, Why not? I say he's a regular physician. You said you were sick. It isn’t legal to be really sick and not have a regular physician ! But suppose I got a cure-doctor ? = = That's not legal nor respectable cither, Not if I got cured ? Not even if you were cured, tho’ then itis excusable, perhaps; but if you don't get cured it’s criminal. It ought to be illegal to be sick. It is, unless you have a regular physician, But suppose he loses the case ? That's the case's fault, not his. And suppose the cure-doctor — loses the case! That's the cure- doctor's fault. Being a mere cure-doctor isn’t much of a profes- sion, then ? AN UNSTEADY INCOME, 'T YER A RUSHIN’ THE SEAS Naw! Wuen I pickep ouT a suIT DIT WAS A WARM DAY AN’ I WANTED TO No, it isn’t. Whereas a regular physician — Has some advantages to be sure. It isn’t fair. Yes, it is. Doesn't the cure-doctor cure sometimes? Oh, yes. Doesn't the regular physician fail sometimes ? Oh, yes. Doesn't the cure-doctor cure sometimes, when the regular physician can’t? So they say. Is there no safe and respectable way, then, to try a cure- doctor ? Oh, yes; there is one. Well, what ? Get a regular physician to prescribe him. Do they ever do it? Sometimes, For instance ! They have been known to prescribe Pasteur'’s treatment for dog-bite. But isn’t Pasteur a regular ? No; mere cure-doctor. A cure-doctor may have his uses, then ? Yes; he is useful to have experiment with therapeutic methods that the regular doctors must sniff at, until he has demonstrated their value. . Thereby, sometimes, advancing medical knowledge. Yes, sometimes, but always at his own risk. comicbooks.com