Sword and shield. (Clinton, Miss.) 1885-1888, 1885-04-18

} w uGl III gwen HuIluCI vi
: risks, ten temperate persons die be.
tween the ages Of twenty and thirty
! inclusive, fifty-one Incorporate per
, sons die; or the risk en- an inebriate
{ is more than 500 per cent. greater
than on temperate person.
3. When in a given number Of
risks, ten temperate persons die be-
tween the ages of thirty-one and
forty inclusive, about forty intern
perate persons die; or the risk is IN
creased some 400 per cent.
Tho tables prepared BY Mr.. Mel
son exhibit at a glance the difference
in the chances of duration of life be-
tween temperate and incorporate
persons. A temperate persons
chance Of living is, at 20 years Of
age, 442 at 80, 36.3: at 40 years,
2S.S years. An Incorporate per-
SON S chance of living is, ut 20 years,
1916: at 30, 1873 years at 40 years,
lie yrs. The average lives ofdrunk-
ards is 80! years, and Of non
users is 81 years. The average loss
Of life, as appears from the statistics
of insurance companies, is loss Of
twenty-nine years on the life Of
every drunkard. This is not merely
a loss to the individual, or to his
family, but to the State of that
which properly belongs to it. The
loss to the State for every one hun
dred drunkards, is the loss Of the
aggregate wealth which would re-
suit from the production of 2900
years. And the aggregate Of intem-
perance amounts to | ,127,000 years,
if any reliance can be placed upon
what are claimed to be reliable sta
tistics.
The average wages of a laboring
man per year is $500. There is,
therefore, an annual loss through
premature deaths Of SOB! millions Of
dollars. Large as these figures may
seem, they by no means show the
full measure of productive capacity
to the State from this cause for in
addition to this absolute loss, is the
loss resulting from the inferior ca
pacity of drunkdn labor during the
years that the man is shortening up
his existence.
Again, the State, in caring for
the public health, expends large
sums of money annually in trying to
cure the insane, and in providing
for the idiotic. Large aSyIums are
erected ct great expense, skilled
physicians are employed, and the
necessary nurses and attendants are
required The annual expenditures
of this country for this purpose are
estimated at S50,000,000.
1t is, therefore, important to in
quire into the relation of the traffic
in itoxicants, to the causation of in
sanity and of idiocy. Almost any
treatise on the subject of insanity
will show that the principle comes
of this disease intemperance, hered-
itary predisposition, and mental anx-
letles. Mr.. Henry Maudesley, dis
tinglished professor of medical iuns
prudence, in London, says, while
we must admit hereditary influence
to be the most powerful factor in
the causation of insanity, there can
be no doubt that intemperance
stands next to it in the list of eff
cient causes; it acts not only as a
frequent exciting cause where there
is hereditary disposition, but as an
originating cause of cerebal and
mental degeneracy, as producer Of
the desease de .oro. If all heredi-
tary cases of insanity were cut off,
and if the diseases were stamped out
for time, it would assuredly soon
be created anew by intemperance
and other exeesses." In support of
the opinion expressed, the learned
author refers to the experience of
the Glamorgan County Asylum.
The statistics of that institution
show that during the second half of
the year 1871, the admissions Of
male patients were only twenty-four
whereas they were AZ and 73 in the
preceding and succeeding half years,
and during the first quarter of the
year 1873 the admissions were 10,
whereas they were q and l8 in the
preceding and succeeding quarters.
Now what is worthy Of remark,
there was no corresponding differ
ence as regards the admission Of the
female insane during thes" periods.
The interest and instruction Of these
facts, he adds, lie in this: ''That
the exceptional periods cores
ponded eXacly with the last two
strikes in the coal and iron indus
tries, in which that county is exten-
sively engaged. The decrease was
undoubtedly due to the fact that the
laborers had no money to spend in
drinking, that they were sober and
temperate by compulsion, the direct
result of which, was that there was
marked decrease in the production
Of insanity and crime.
DR.. Carpenter, an eminent physi-
ologist, equally we'll known in Eng
land and America, in speaking of
hereditary transmission of perverted
modes of functional activity says
''The predIsposition may have been
congenitai ON the part of parents, or
it may have been acquired by them
selves, and IN no case is this more
obvious than in the influence Of al
coholic excesses, on the part Of one
or both parents, in producing idiocy,