Life, 1913-10-09 · page 8 of 44
Life — October 9, 1913 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical article critiques unethical medical testing practices. The text describes how the Lederie Antitoxin Laboratories announces that vaccine virus prepared by them has been "physiologically tested on children" — presented as a matter-of-fact business development. The accompanying illustration shows two women and a child in a domestic setting, captioned "A Chair Designed for Spinsters." The satire appears to conflate this casual announcement about child test subjects with the broader treatment of children as disposable experimental material. The article's tone is deliberately understated, making the horror of using children as unwitting test subjects the implicit joke. The text warns that such "careless" practices could turn "active and potent" products into inactive ones, framing the danger to children in terms of pharmaceutical efficacy rather than ethics.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
600 Life’s Fresh Air Fund Inclusive of 1912, Live's Fees Arr Fux has been in operation twenty-six years. In that time it has expended $139,304.44 and has given @ fortnight in the country to 34.748 poor city children, The Fund is supported entirely by bequests and voluntary contributions, which are ac- hnowledged in this column. Previously acknowledged . +$6,679.73 * Kitty” + 1.00 Maj. C. J. Manley. 5.00 In memory of E. E. B, 11,80 Contributed at the Sunday 7 held by the Rev. Dr. Charles Clausen at Canandaigua Lake dur- ing the summer of 1913....-.... 35.00 $6,732.53 A New Use For Children 'HE firm of Schieffelin & Co., of New York, is one of the oldest purveyors of vaccine virus in the country. In a recent letter, recalling that the annual vaccination harvest had arrived, this firm announces that “every lot of vaccine virus prepared by the Lederle Antitoxin Laboratories ts physiologically tested on children, thus insuring an active and potent product”, The italics belong to Schieffelin & Co. Some shallow people, indeed, might immediately begin wondering whose children these are, and how Messrs. Schieffelin & Co. secure them, and whether they or their parents know they are being used for testing pur- poses. But that’s not really the point. Who the children are and how they are secured may be of academic or sentimental, but not of scientific im- portance. The important thing is that we can't be too careful in preparing virus. There are many steps in its preparation, and a slight mistake of a careless workman may quickly con- vert an active and potent product into inactivity and impotency. The only way this can be discovered is by test- ing on children. If the test-children thereupon sicken and die of tetanus or tuberculosis or blood-poisoning or something else, then that particular lot has to be thrown away, or perhaps sold abroad, but if the test-children DESIGNED FOR SPINSTERS do not die and do not contract small- pox for seven years after being vac- cinated, then everything is all right. It ig to be hoped that other firms will copy these careful methods. As a great many different lots are pre- pared each year and as each child can be used only once in testing, general adoption of the correct method would create an enormous demand for chil- dren in this new field of usefulness. This, of course, is an obstacle, but not an insurmountable one, and, in order to help along, we hereby agree to run a free advertisement for any pharma- ceutical chemist who may find it hard to get a continuous supply of healthy children for testing purposes. comicbooks.com