The Wasp — 1890 — page 421: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This appears to be a satirical cartoon from *The Wasp*, a 19th-century American satirical magazine. The image shows a figure (appearing to be a politician or public figure) whose head contains a chaotic scene with horses, figures, and activity, suggesting mental confusion or disorder. The text visible on the head reads "THE RESULT OF MESMERISM," indicating the cartoon critiques mesmerism—an early form of hypnosis then controversial in America. The joke seems to be that mesmerism has scrambled the subject's mind into chaos. The device or instrument visible in the lower right may represent mesmerist equipment. This likely satirizes both the practice of mesmerism itself and possibly a specific political figure or public intellectual who promoted or fell victim to the practice, which was widely debated as either scientific or fraudulent during this era.