The Wasp — 1880 — page 270: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page attacks vaccination as a dangerous medical practice. The central illustration depicts a grotesque, skeletal figure labeled "vaccination"—a personified disease or death. The accompanying text, titled "A Filthy, Useless and Dangerous Practice," presents anti-vaccination arguments: that smallpox statistics don't prove vaccination's worth, that the procedure spreads disease, and that doctors falsify data to support it. The satire mocks prominent physicians who advocate vaccination while citing medical authorities who claim the procedure causes more harm than good. This represents 19th-century anti-vaccination sentiment, a movement that existed despite emerging scientific evidence supporting inoculation's benefits. The cartoon ridicules both the medical establishment and the vaccination campaign itself as fraudulent and dangerous.