Life — December 27, 1917 — page 15: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This political cartoon satirizes an expensive medical consultant. The image shows a well-dressed, skull-faced doctor smoking a cigar, standing beside what appears to be a wealthy, poorly patient seated in a chair. A small, military-uniformed figure (possibly representing a nurse or attendant) stands nearby. The satire targets the pretension and greed of high-fee medical specialists who provided minimal actual care while charging exorbitant rates. The skull-face suggests the doctor is essentially a "quack" or charlatan—profiting from patients' suffering without delivering real help. The wealthy patient's apparent distress contrasts with the doctor's confident, self-satisfied demeanor, emphasizing the exploitation inherent in expensive specialist medicine during this era.