The Wasp — 1890 — page 446: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This 1890 cartoon satirizes **Columbus Koch** (visible on a bottle he holds labeled "Dr Koch's Consumption Cure"). The central bearded figure in Renaissance dress represents Columbus; the four men with exaggerated duck-like features below represent "Quacks." The satire mocks medical fraud: Koch, a famous tuberculosis researcher, apparently marketed a dubious "consumption cure" (consumption being the era's term for TB). The cartoon suggests Koch is performing the "trick" of standing an egg upright—a reference to the Columbus legend where Columbus proved his genius by making an egg stand on end. The duck-men chorus declares "Why, we could have done that ourselves!"—implying Koch's miraculous cure is equally simple fakery that any charlatan could accomplish. The satire targets both Koch's questionable medicine and gullible believers.