The Wasp — 1892 — page 487: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This satirical feature exposes quack doctors and medical fraudsters operating in San Francisco. The narrative follows a con artist ("Doctor") and an accomplice ("Copper") who prey on sick and vulnerable patients through bogus cures. The sequence shows their operation: setting up a fake medical office with grandiose claims ("Dispensary of All Nations" - "We Cure Everything in One Minute"), conducting ridiculous "diagnoses," assembling teams of accomplices posing as medical professionals, and ultimately swindling desperate patients out of money with worthless treatments (like "rain water"). The final panel shows the typical result: victims left worse off, sometimes bedridden. The satire targets the widespread problem of medical charlatans exploiting the sick in early 20th-century San Francisco, advocating public awareness of such fraud schemes.