DIAGRAMS OF THE FUTURE
CASE BOARD REFS ABOUT

How to Live

1915

The rules of health as they appeared in a Metropolitan pamphlet glossed from Fisher and Fisk’s How to Live

(Fisher & Frisk, 1915)

SCEPTRE LIFE ASSOCIATION OF LONDON, WHOLE LIFE POLICIES, 1884–1911
MORTALITY AMONG NON-ABSTAINERS—STANDARD RISKS—51.8% HIGHER THAN AMONG ABSTAINERS [alcohol]

(Fisher & Frisk, 1915)

Americans insured by New-York Life had their days numbered more precisely than ever before. From New-York Life’s fine-tuning of risk prediction, the Life Extension Institute developed a tool for scaring Americans into reforming their lives: losing weight, seeing a doctor, or—with no apparent irony—cultivating a worry-free lifestyle. Americans’ days became things to be forecast and also things to be extended, at the same time.

(Bouk, 2015, p.355)

Bouk, D. (2015) How Our Days Became Numbered. University of Chicago Press.


Fisher, I., & Fisk, E. L. (1915). How to live: rules for healthful living, based on modern science. New York, Funk & Wagnalls Co. [link]