The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1876-03-04
NUMBER SO.
ALCOHOL.


and Length OF Life.
DIR. Elisha Harris, in lecture before
the National Temperance Society of the
United States, on the Influence Of
alcohol ebricty upon the value and
length of human lives" said he should
not strain single point TO suit the pre-
conceived notions which the most preju-
diced may hold on the subject of alco-
holic drinks. Even medical men do not
always appreciate the full value of facts
falling under their notice. The old and
bold assertion that the drunkard shall
not live out half his days" remains true
after 1000 years Of quotation. There
are two ways of estimating the value of
a bnman life, two standards of measure
meut. First, the daily life and ability,
the health from day to day, and the
power that possession of health gives to
work; and, secondly, tho duration of
life, or longevity. Any excessive. wear
and tear is sure to work prejudicially to
both these standards, and a great mis-
take is made and great damage incurred
by installing alcoholic stimulation for
healthy vigor. The proof of this SUBJ
ject rests no longer on mere opinion.
The actual physical effect of alcohol as
stimulant can be registered as the pull
sations Of the heart ore recorded. DIR.
Parks has spent much time on this
problem, and in a perfectly healthy sol
dier he found the labor per diem of the
human heart as equal to the lifting of
122 tons one foot high. To this man
two ounces of alcohol were given the
first day, and the increased work thrown
on the heart was fifteen and half tons,
and the last day of the eight through
which the experiment ran the extra effort
was twenty four tons, and this increased
action was followed by reaction, de-
preston. Should the system have this
stimulus?
DIR. S. G. Howe after careful investi-
cation concludes that two-thirds of all
the imbeciles in the Massachusetts asy-
lums arc SO by reason of the inebriety of
the parents. Medical men are beginning
to find that this incbriety is beginning
to entail miseries that all the resources
of social science and medicine cannot
fully overcome. In Great Britain statis-
tics show that between the ages of twenty
and thirty tho chance of living for the
whole population is fortyfour years,
while for the incorporate the expectation
is fifteen and One-half years. Between
thirty and forty years the general ex-
pectation is thirty-six years, while for
the incorporate it is thirteen years. Be-
tween forty and fifty years the average
expectation is twenty-eight years, while
the drinkers expectation is eleven and
half years, and so on. The application
of these figures in American life is TO
our disadvantage. Our whisky isquicker
than the English beer. The best mcdi-
cal talent to-day is laboring to have al
cohel placed ona proper basis ami to
check its indiscrinlinatc Use. The old
topcrs are special class. They live be-
cause they do nothing elsc but make Il
speciality of their old topcrism. Take
figures. Say one thousand Young men
twenty years old, and drinkers, but not
drunkards, and then take another one
thousand men of equal age, abstainers.
The complement of life given them to
spare or spend, waste or save, will in the
end make difference of twenty-cight
thousand years. The statistical differ
encc from long series of observation
makes this figure for single life twenty
eight years eight months. What is the
worth in money of this loss to the world?
In Europe and England especially, in
the upper classes the drinking habits
have changed. Medical men are taking
the matter where it properly belongs,
into their own hands,.