Caricature of a "sadistic tooth-drawer" who frightens his patient with a hot coal to make him pull back his head and so extract the tooth, by John Collier, 1810.
Featured on PDR in the essay Sicko Doctors: Suffering and Sadism in 19th-Century America
American fiction of the 19th century often featured a ghoulish figure, the cruel doctor, whose unfeeling fascination with bodily suffering readers found both unnerving and entirely plausible. Looking at novels by Louisa May Alcott, James Fenimore Cooper, and Herman Melville, Chelsea Davis dissects this curious character.
Also appearing in the essay…
A Tooth-Drawer Frightening His Patient With a Hot Coal
Artist
Date
1810
