The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1886-06-16
ALCOHOL AND MORTALITY.

d Il IN Exageeration TO say That One
. Hundred Thousand DIE From Its Use
Annuallyf ll..f safIt lIsIl' na
Our readers will remember that we
quoted a statement from the Voice in
which that paper asserted that it is an
exsggeration to claim that 1000
drunkArds die annually, and that in
our comments we said that while prob
ably not 100, 600 died drunk or drunk
ards, more than twice that number
died IN consequence of the use of liquor
by themselves or others. .,,
The Missouri S,sbmissionist quotes
our reply and claims our statement is q
whopper that will create envy in the
breast of Eli Perkins. The poice, to
prove that it was an exaggeration, put
the total number of deaths in 1880 at
472.0OO. The census puts them at 756.-
1872. s.I-r.,.,.sr yn .',,a ....... ,si
The following statement from the
vice-president Of the New York Equi-
table Life Insurance Company is an
opinion worthy of quoting in this con-
nection as starting point in the inves-
tigation. -...sf-' 4.5., aa
81 suppose that, next to pulmonary dis.
eases, more persons come to their death BY
alcoholism than from any other one cause"
The census shows that there were
1919, 455 deaths from pulmonary dis
eases, and next in the list are diseases
of the nervous system which are given
at SO, $40, so that deaths from alcohol
according to this high authority must
be between $500 and 199, ,455, and II
does not smack much of exaggeration
to say that 100, 900 die from the results
of the use of alcohol. m ..rt
Every well-informed physician knows
that u large per cent. Of the deaths at
tributed to enteric fever, diarrheal dis.
eases, consumption and diseases of the
nervous and digestive systems are the
results, direct or inherited, of the use
of alcohol.
The total of these deaths was 298,
785. and put the rate caused by alcohol
vt 0ne-third, moderate per centage,
we should have SO, 500 deaths attribut.
ed TO these diseases but really induced
by or resulting from the use Of alcohol.
The total number of deaths Of children
under five years of age was 478, ,O75.
The largest mortality among children
Is In the tenement-hOuse districts oi
larger cities where alcoholism is omni.
present as disease, with its resultant
poverty and starvation to which must
be accredited great portion Of the in.
fantile mortality. To place the whole
number, not included in the Other
classes, traceable to alcohol as the i'm.
mediate or remote cause of death al
ten per cent would be Q low estimate
This would give us 47,8O7 deaths
among children caused by inherited
alcoholism or due to the exposure, neg.
lect or starvation resulting fn,m the
drink habits of the parents.
DR.. Norman Kerr declared that in
his opinion four-fifths of all the deaths
in England were traceable to the direct
or remote use of alcohol, which is pref
ty good authority for the moderate es
Inmates we have made, which summed
up would be 147, ,4O2 deaths attributed
to other causes but really the results o.
the use Of alcohol. Then add to these
the large number of deaths universally
attributed to- alcohol including thu
number who are killed through thu
criminal intent or carelessness ofdrunk
en- men. and instead of Its being an ex
aggeratiOn to say that 100, 900 die from
the use Of alcohol we shall have to pu'
the number at 200. 900 Il we would ap
proximate the truth. .-XVlth amend
mont. H ~" sN'l- 'a' :. "