Life, 1903-08-20 · page 16 of 32
Life — August 20, 1903 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical story mocks the era's aggressive medical interventions and the medical establishment's overconfidence. A healthy backwoods visitor enters a hospital and is forcibly subjected to vaccination, germ exposure, and serum injections against his wishes—despite his protests that these procedures might harm rather than help him. The satire targets early 20th-century medicine's zealous promotion of new treatments (vaccines, serums) as cure-alls. The hospital attendant's pride in his "germ collection" and casual mention that serum effects "wear off in time" lampoon doctors' dismissal of side effects. The visitor's alarm reflects public skepticism about mandatory medical procedures and the tension between medical authority and individual bodily autonomy—a debate that remained contentious during this era. The joke hinges on depicting medicine as an invasive, coercive institution imposing treatments on the unwilling.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LL! WHAT'S THE MEANING OP ALL THs?" TUIS 18 THE LATEST THING IN BILL POSTING.” An Unwilling Guest. fe S the visitor > A entered the hospital, he was taken aside by the attendant, who ob- served, pityingly : “Young man, you have about you a look of innocence and health, May I ask where you have been keeping your- 4 self ?"* CEB “In the backwoods, away from the haunts of 7 men,” said the visitor, ‘and I have come down to learn the ways of doctors."” Good!" said the attendant. ‘Step into this room and be vaccinated.” ** But I don’t want to be vaccinated.’ “That's of no consequence; you are too healthy, and you must be.’’ The visitor, having submitted with ill grace, was then shown into the germ room. “« What's this? '’ he asked somewhat feverishly. ‘This is where our germs are kept,’’ said the attendant, with a flush of honest pride. ‘ We have the finest collec- tion in the world. Allow me to inoculate you. What will you haye—typhoid, yellow fever or diphtheria?" “* Excuse me,” said the visitor; ‘* not any for me.”’ “As if,’ said the attendant, ‘it would harm yon, Here," he continued, leading the way into the next room, “‘is our serum room. No matter what disease you con- tract, wecan pump a quart of selected serum into you and counteract the effect.’” “ But isn’t the serum a poison?” “Nonsense! You may feel the effect a few years, but it wears off in time.” The visitor ‘began to show signs of alarm, especially as he saw a doctor coming. “Let me out,”’ he murmured, “and I will make it all right with you.”” “Never !’’ said the attendant. “Here, doctor, what do you see in this man?” The doctor, examining the visitor's pulse, which was A PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN IN EGYPT, comicbooks.com