The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1890-11-20

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TEN PER- NCE NOTES.
RUM AND LONGEVITY.
How Liquor Reduces the vitality q
states and Nations.
Tho idea has prevailed for centuries
that the use OF alcoholic drinks Is con-
ducive to health and long life But
modern research and experiment have
so completely exploded this error
to advocate that theory ct tho
present time Is to confess ones
self sadly deficient In the current
knowledge on this subject The latest
and highest medical science teaches
that alcohol-the intoxicating principle
in all the alcoholic liquors of tho day
ia . virulent poison, aud that it predis-
poses to disease, aggravates it when it
comes and so reduces the vitality and
sensibility of the system that it does
not respond so readily to remedies The
opinion OF the leading physicians Of its
value In therapeutics has undergone al
most an entire revolution within the
last third OF century. and now instead
Of being considered the great heal-all,
1t Is by many entirely excluded from the
materia medica, while with most it
Is employed in small quantities and
with great caution. As prophylactic
1t has proved not only valueless but
positively deleterious in the great cpl
denies that have swept over the coun-
try, the drinkers being the flrst and the
worst sufferers from these visitationA
In many instances drinkers have been
almost invariably attacked and few
have recovered, while few non-drinkers
have been attacked and they have gen.
orally recovered. i
Not only in epidemics but in ordinary
sickness alcoholic drinks exert q very
deleterious influence. largely increas-
Ing the amount of sickness and also the
percentage Of deaths in proportion to
the amount of sickness. The number
of deaths resulting from the use of alco-
holic beverages in the United States is
variously estimated at from co., to
loo, 600 annually. Many believe that
even this lowest estimate is entirely
too high. But we have reason to believe
that il the truth could be arrived at in
ell cases where life is shortened by this
habit, the highest figure will be found
to fall short of the truth.
The statistics of life insurance COM
panies prove that the common use of
alcoholic beverages has decidedly dele
terious effect on human life In the re-
port of the United Kingdom Temper
ance and General Provident Institution
for Mutual Lite Insurance the follow
ing statistics show the difference in the
death rate of total abstainers and the
general section for seventeen years,
ending with 1882. In the temperance
section the expected deaths were 2.844;
the actual deaths were 1851. A differ
ence Of nearly 20 per cent In the gen.
eral section the expected deaths were
4, 400; the actual deaths were 1882 A
difference of little more than TX per
cent. That is, there was difference of
about % per cent. in favor of the total
abstinence section.
d.. Richardson expresses the opinion
that if all alcoholic beverages were
b,'nisbed from England the vitality of
the Nation would be increased by one
third: which means that $1,000 lives
would be saved annually in that coun-
try. DR.. Norman Kerr, commenting on
this, says it is q startling statement,
yet he. places the figure at not less than
200, 600.
In this country the annual rate of
mortality per thousand is shown by the
highest authority to be, among beer
drinkers. 1897; among spirit drinkers.
SO. 95: among mixed drinkers, 61.94;
general population, %. ~; members OF
NJ. E. church, 11.45. These last are
total abstainers. In the year in which
these statistics we're cleaned the total
number Of deaths in the general popu-
lation was 1,144.5oO. At the rate of
mortality in the NJ. E. church it would
have been only 572. 500. while at average
rate of all classes of drinkers it would
have amounted to the startling number
of 2,797,5 500 deaths. Mr.. Nelson. an
eminent English actuary. in collating
the experience Of life insurance COM
panies in England, reaches the follow.
ing conclusions:
II. When, in agiven number of risks,
ten temperate persons die, between the
ages of 81 and 80 inclusive, 81 intemper-
ate persons die, or the risk on an in
ebriate is more than 500 per cent great
or than on temperate person.
III. When, in given number of
risks, ten temperate persons die, between
the ages of 81 and 40 inclusive, about 40
Incorporate persons die, or the risk is
increased some 400 per cent" The same
gentleman prepared the following table
showing the difference in the chances Of
duration of life in temperate and in
temperate persons at different ages:
AGE: Temperate. lnt~mpercte.
T TEeasy e. e. years years
Forty o1i . .::.::: i1S
If one hundred thousand Incorporate
persons and like number of the gen.
eral population be taken at the age of
twenty yeas, there will be living at
successive periods the following num-
bers:
AGE. Int mp.rate Gen, Pom.
Thirty iii .....91577
Forty .............. 1851 ...........@,09
Fifty. .21 938. ...... ..... 20 666
Sixty: IL SO 315
S'venty... ............. 5076. 22O
Eighty ................. SO7..............13l6 1863
Could all the drinkers be excluded
from the general population the con-
trast would be still more marked. The
foregoing facts in regard to the effects
of the use of narcotic poisons on the
bills of mortality, taken in connection
with the almost universal use of them in
some form. prove hey ond the possibili-
ty of question that such use has a very