The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-06-04
MORTALITY FRoM ALCOHOL.

An agent like alcohol, extensively and
recklessly used by mankind in all parts Of
the world, and capable Of inducing so many
and serious diseases must, of necessity, be
the cause Of O tremendous mortality, with
the usual precedence Of many days Of utter,
disablement and disease The fact Is so. It
is difficult to calculate the precise mortality
from alcohol, because we have never yet
fully diagnosed all the evils leading to dis :
ease and death which spring from It. For
example, up to this time we have not added |!
the mortality due to alcoholic paralysis in
the large computations from which our re-
suits have been drawn. Some years ago,
from the best data I could obtain, l esti-
mated that in England and Wales the annual
mortality from alcohol was fifty thousand
per annum, an estimate fairly confirmed by
ether Observers Of an important and inde-
pendent character. Admitting its correct
ness, this estimate makes the mortality from
alcohol to be about one-tenth Of the wt.ole
mortality-a view which had previously
been expressed by the late DR.. Edwin Lam
kaster, the Coroner for Central Middlesex-
and which places alcohol, as one OF the
causes of mortality, at the head OF those
causes This estimate however, must have
been under the mark, since it excluded alto
gether that fatality which we now know TO-
arise from alcohol paralysis, and excluded
also, too rigidly. instances OF direct poison,
ing from alcohol and all accidents OF a fatal
kind indirectly due to alcohol. l would not, |
however, run any risk of being charged with :!
over-statement and would be content still
to place the mortality from alco lol at one!
tenth of the whole mortality, In places
where the article is consumed in the same
proportion as it is in England and Wales at
the present time; q proportion fairly repre-
sentative of alcoholic populations Sener-
ally.
Connected with the two subjects of the
diseases from alcohol and the mortality from
II. the question has often been discussed as
TO the relative amonnt Of sickness presented
by abstainiug as compared with an-ooStaln-
ing communities, and as to the relative value
of life in the two communities. 1t has oeen
difficult to get at precise conclusions on
these subjects from the two circumstances
that in making comparisons tle soclai
relationships Of the different classes are
largely different, and the returns from the
registers of death from alcohol have oeen
hitherto imperfect in themselves, and I'M.
nerfect in the interpretations that have been
INT upon them But, judging from the re-
norts of those life assurance companies u
Which there are two classes OF insured-one
IN abstaining, the other a Notwithstanding
ciass-and Judging, likewise, from the re-
tnrns of sickness and mortality Of two CLUBS,
one abstaining, the other on-absealnlng,
Existing in the same locality, holding the
same social status and made up OF the same
numbers. it is absolute certain tnat tne iaGe
nf rnortality and the number Of days of sick
ne ness present data largely in favor of abstain
ING communities. 49,
In summary as to the effects of alcohol on
tho health and life of the human species, on
which unfortunately those effects have aone
been tried on large scale, it must be staesu ss,
on physical grounds, apart altogether from IRON
moral Considerations, that the efects OF aieo.
hol are injurious both TO nj lau au+;sca AMI I cog,
etitution alcohol does nothing that anyone
can cons.rue into useful action, and that the
establishment @ of the alcoholic constitution , Is
a false aud unnatural policy of human me-
source Of weariness, of disease, OF psnrI prema-
ture old age and OF excessive and unnecessary
mortality-The Voice.