Life, 1916-01-06 · page 20 of 48
Life — January 6, 1916 — page 20: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes the early 20th-century popularization of blood pressure measurement as a medical diagnostic tool. The article mocks how this newly-available measurement created widespread anxiety among patients who previously had no knowledge of their blood pressure. The satire's central joke: blood pressure readings give people a "new thrill of terror" by revealing numerical values that doctors interpret as harbingers of numerous fatal diseases. A reading of 180 means "150 fatal diseases" you didn't know you had—creating needless medical panic. **The illustrations** reinforce this: "The Wheel of Miss Fortune" shows a figure spinning on a blood pressure gauge, suggesting randomness and fate. The golf bug cartoon (lower left) appears unrelated—a brief comedic aside. The piece critiques medical anxiety-creation and the gap between what doctors measure and what laypeople understand, arguing that ignorance about such numbers was bliss.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Rise of the B. P. HE man who invented blood pressure, like the man who invented the mouse-trap, probably little knew what a great industry he was creating. The mechanism of the mouse-trap, together with its tragic results, are apparent to any one who has eyes. The mechanism of blood pres- sure is alike apparent, but its tragedy lies among those medical abstractions which, to the lay mind, are shrouded in impenetrable mystery. Yesterday nobody had a blood pressure; to-day everybody has one. Man is a walking measure of sanguinary fate, a rival of the barometer and the thermometer, The real advantage in knowing what one’s blood pres- sure is, lies in the fact that it gives one a new thrill of terror—and that is always a valuable medical asset. To have the doctor forcibly remove your clothes, pound you with a hammer, sound you with a stethoscope and scrape you with a set of assorted silver carving knives comes, in time, to be an old story. Veteran soldiers get used to the cannon’s roar and the everlasting whistle of bullets; so veteran patients face death in almost any form in a doctor's office; but when you are told, in a hollow, sepulchral voice, that though outwardly you are a handsome man with every appearance of health, your blood pressure is over 180 and may go to 200 before the exchange closes, you want to go out and die early before it gets any worse. With a blood pressure of 160 there are only about ten fatal diseases; as your blood pressure goes up, however, the number of fatal diseases increases permutatively. When it is 180 you may have, say, 150 fatal diseases, and not have known it. Think THE WHEEL OF MISS FORTUNE of that! Any healthy man may have all those fatal diseases and live to a ripe old age and never know it, if it were not for his blood pressure. Great is the art of medical inven- tiveness! TL. M. Persistent ‘B sure and get the right tooth, doctor.” “Don't worry. I'll get it if L have to pull out every OF MEMORY tooth in your head.” THE RECENTLY INCARCERATED GOLF BUG SUFFERS A BRIEF LAPSE, comicbooks.com