The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1886-06-04
DEATHS FROM ALCOHOL.


Is 1t an ExaggeratiOn to Say That One
Hundred Thousand Die From It's Use
Annually?
Our readers will remember that we
quoted a statement from the F0ice in
which that paper asserted that it is an
exaggeration to claim that 100000
drunkards die annually, and that in
our comments we said that while prob
ably not 100, 900 died drunk or drunk
ards, more than twice that number
died IN consequence of the use ofliquor
by themselves or others.
The Missouri SubmtssjopiSt quotes
our reply and claims our statement is a
whopper that will create envy in the
breast of Eli Perkins. The Voice, to
prove that it was an exaggeration, put
the total number of deaths in 1880
at $4,000. The census puts them at
756, 1892
The following statement from the
vice-prcsidcnt 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-
LEGATION.
al 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
1879, 455 deaths from pulmonary dis
eases, and next in the list are diseases
of the nervous system which are given
at SO, go, 50 that deaths from alcohol
according to this high authority must
be between $3.50 and 199,455, and it
does not smack much of exaggeration
to say that 100000 die from the results
of the use of alcohol.
Every well-informed physician knows
that Il 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 208,.
785, and put the rate caused by alcohol
at one-third, a moderate per centage,
we should have 90, 595 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 Of
larger cities where alcoholism is omni-
present as disease, with its resultant
poverty and starvation to which must
be accredited a 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 at
ten per cent. would be low estimate.
This would give us 1897 deaths
among children caused 10y inherited
alcoholism or due to the exposure. neg
lect or starvation resulting from 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 of
the use of alcohol. Then add to these
the large number of deaths universally
attributed to alcohol, including the
number who are killed through the
criminal intent or carelessness of drunk
en- men, and instead of its being an ex-
aggeration to say that 100000 die from
the use of alcohol we shall have to put
the number at 100000 if we would APP
proximate the truth. -XVIM AmentL.
ment.