Life, 1911-04-27 · page 18 of 44
Life — April 27, 1911 — page 18: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a satirical piece attacking medical vivisection (animal experimentation). The dialogue depicts gentlemen casually discussing brutal experiments on animals—orphans, hospital patients, dogs, monkeys, and pigs—performed under the guise of medical research, particularly serum development for meningitis. The satire works through escalating absurdity: speakers defend killing test subjects to avoid public knowledge of what "killed him," justify sudden deaths as necessary, and cite wealthy patrons like Rockefeller supporting such experiments. The audience's interjected outrage ("Smash his face!", "Liar! Idiot!") represents public moral opposition. The silhouette cartoon below shows gentlemen departing while a woman watches disapprovingly—visualizing social rejection of vivisectionists. The piece reflects early 20th-century anti-vivisection sentiment, when animal testing for medical advancement faced serious ethical criticism from reformers who viewed it as cruel and morally indefensible.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
OOD-MORNING, get out! what puzzled Being an ass. rding the right way of address- You are so infatuated errors; you childish gentlemen, —ree ing you to-day. your own pride in with take honest your ties Liar! hat a ncertain kind friend like whether to symp or congratulate you. How keys did you use up Oh, go home! ——to discover your certainly serum for cu meningitis? It is a wonder Hear; hear! Judging by happen to be made Hush! —certainly misery. For applications that public, recent puts the patient out of Hush—not so loud! thing yet. Bul same isthe quickest ts and lightning are not in uss. While sometimes desirable that sufferer should never pw what killed him, it—— Not so loud, you fool! public if really ——might be fairer 10 the that what it ehand how sudde you labelled serum is and told bef Hush! Hush works, Did nonkey, kills when Smash his face? —you tried it on orphans and hos- pital patients? a brick! seem aste Hit him again! that a oman Thro You should collapse after you have blood ished squirted into his Oh, give us a rest! —the essence of You should be such an ——patients prefer to the dead certainty of Shut We have this: Well, ——stuff, anc ——noble pastime. I about not should tlemen, continue don’t want any Lincoln. said public all the Get out of Yes; adieu for the of dogs and pigs at Mr before remember monkeys and ra Rockefe nd have a jolly time w Smash h guine: pense a Pig! liar! idiot! the face! you, gentlemen, Good-ls “To THEM THAT MATH. comicbooks.com