The national Republican. [volume] (Washington City [D.C.]) 1866-1870, 1869-11-01

Temperance and Iassnperanee.
An English paper gives some very inter-
eating and valuable statistics as to the effect
Of drinking and abstaining upon the Eng
llsh army In the East:
According 10 returns recently presented
thlrty-two out Of every hundred abstainers
were In hospital every day In Bengal, while
only Eve out Of the same number of tenn
perato drinkers came under the doctors
hands. As for the Incorporate, however,
We learn that four out OF Eve, or eighty per
cent, were always on the sick list. At
Bombay only four per cent. Of the abstainers
troubled the medical officer daily. 1t will
appear that, as far rs ordinary daily sick
ness 10 concerned the temperate driuker and
the abstainer are upon equal terms; while
tho Incorporate, by which term we should
understand those who are reported drunk
four or more times In the year, suffer In the
frightful proportion Of eighty per cent. In
other words, the free drinker Is sixteen times
moro liable 10 sickness than the wiser
brother. This will be seen to be O very i'm
portant matter when we state that In the
Bengal army alone nearly two thousand men
are daily In hospital, and subsequently hors
Dc combat, on account Of diseases brought on
by intemperance.
II We look at the mortality returns, the
ptOPOrtious uIo Cvuhly btIlkiuB. hmonB
tho abstalners sixteen died out Of every
thousand; while twenty-five persisted among
temperate drinkers, and forty per thousand
Of those who INDUCED without stint. In
Bombay the effect Of intoxicating liquor
upon mortality was even more striking; for,
among thousand Of each class, three alb
stainers, ten temperate, and twenty-threc
Incorporate drinkers died In the year. Com
bining the two returns we find that among
IL, hat linn ho In
any one year twice as much chance OF life
a. temperate men, aud Eve times as much as
tho Incorporate. The advantage enjoyed
by the temperate over the Incorporate Is
also very marked, as they have at least
twice the chance OF life. Every drunkard
that was attacked by cholera In the Bombay
Presidency died Of 1t. Much Of the dimi-
mutton in the death rate during the last ten
years has been owing to the increase OF In
valldlng, by which the bulk OF the mortality
Is shifted from india to England and the
high seas.
In Bengal, out of q thousand Of each
class, there were invallded homo, at at ex-
ponse Of not less than 600 rupees per man,
twenty abstainers, forty-three temperate and
hfty Incorporate soldiers. The Bombay re-
turns show some slight differences, the in
five temperate and forty-eight Incorporate
mon per thousand Of strength. Looking,
therefore, to this point alone, the abstainer
has twice the chance Of health sufficient for
residence In this country enjoyed by his
temperate messmate, and two and half
times the chance Of the Incorporate soldier.
There are, however, two kinds Of inyaliding
practised. Taking the same standard Of O
thousand men Of each class we ind that
eighteen abstainers, forty-three temperate
and thity-thrcc Incorporate drinkers were
sent from duty to the hills during the year.
In Bombay the ratio was twenty-three,
thlrty-two and forty-two per thousand.
The sum total Of all this 10 that among
the teetotalers nlnety-ave men out Of every
thousand would be in some way or other un
der the hands Of the doctor. Temperate
mon would send him one hundred and sixty
seven men, and their Incorporate fellows
would plague him with nine hundred and
forty-two patients for every thousand mer
under his charge. The real, that Is, thu
irrecoverable loss each year would BIO ont
man out of every twenty total abstainers
one out Of every ten temperate men, ant
.ons out Of every eight Incorporate men.
the number disabled from service each day
though not absolutely out Of reach, wer,
counted, Il would prove that only one mar
OF every 1--WE Of the drunkards Is available
for duty.