The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1891-04-10
TEMPERANCE NOTES.
RUM AND LONGEVITY.

more favorable conditions of modern
civilization the average span of human
life is lengthening. We have more COM
Portable houses, better warmed and
ventilated than the habitations of our
ancestors. Our clothing is better fitted
10 protect the body from winters cold;
we eat better and more wholesome
food, and, greater than all, possibly, we
pay far more attention to the demands
Of personal cleanliness and to the prop
er sanitation of our dwellings.
Those individuals whose lives are
heightened through these means form
90 numerous Il class in the entire aggre-
gate OF humanity that the average ex-
Pectation of human life has been
.engthened; and this is shown by the
tables of the expectation of life" of
the life insurance companies. Since
these tables were first prepared by a
careful collation. of statistics of ages
at death of large numbers of individu-
ais, the average time of death has been
postponed beyond the date set in these
tables, prepared something like a CEN
fury ago.
1t has for many years been contro-
verified question whether total absti-
hence really is factor in lengthening
the lives of those who observe it. Every
body admits that great excess in the
use of liquors shortens life. The fact
is too pate Mt to common observation for
anyone to deny it successfully. But
the position has been maintained by
many that the moderate use of liquors
is beneficial, and to some extent aids in
prOlonging life itself. The large amount
of data necessary to settle this question
has never been accumulated until last
year, when an English life insurance
company made public the statistics
which it had been for a number of years
gathering upon this one point.
This company had been in business
for twenty-five years, and has, for that
period, kept two sets of records of the
persons insured in 1.-THE one composed
of total abstainers, and all other risks
in the other. AS is well known, no life
insurance company accepts risks on the
lives of heavy drinkers; and this COM
pany excluded also from this record list
all persons engaged in the liquor traffic.
Hence we have, in these two records,
comparison between total abStainers
and moderate drinlerS''-the very
class for whom it has been claimed that
liquor was always not harmful, and
often directly beneficial. The results
collated by the company afford us the
first reliable data for determining the
action of moderate drinking upon the
length of human life.
For the five years ending December,
1888, the above mentioned company in
sured 4,527 lives in the total abstinence
section" and G,700 in the general sec
ton" as that embracing moderate
drinkers as termed by the company.
In the total abstinence section the
deaths were only 81 per cent. of the
number of deaths to be expected accord
ing to the usual tables of mortality. In
the general section" the number of
deaths were IS per cent. of the number
to be expected from the mortality
tables
This gives, therefore, the astonishing
result that total abstinence gives II per
cent. advantage in length of life over
moderate drinking; or, to take another
view of it, it prolongs the lives of those
who follow it to that extent.
1t may be said however. that these
figures are not absolutely conclusive.
We admit that they are not as regards
the exact average amount of prolonga-
ton of life, but there can be no escape
from the conclusion that even moderate
drinking shortens life, and that one
who INDUCES in that habit is much less
likely to live to an advanced age than
is total abstainer.
This is confirmation of the view of
the most advanced medical authorities
that alcohol is, under all circumstances,
poison, and that its effects are pro-
portioned to the amount taken into the
system and the frequency of the dose.
This position has long been taken by
the Blade, and these statistics afford a
fresh proof of it's soundness. Another
interesting fact in connection with the
matter is the report of the medical eX-
aminer of the aforementioned COM
pany, who says that in the examination
of many thousands of applicants he has
found that total abstainers, as rule,
exhibit much cleaner condition of the
tongue, resembling, indeed, that of a
young child. His observations have
also led him to concur with the late
Baron Liebig in affirming that total
abstainers eat more than moderate
drinkers. This view depends upon the
fact that liquors in the system retard
the processes of tissue change, and the
worn-out particles of the body are not
gotten rid of as rapidly as they would
normally be.
So one more OF the stock arguments
used to bolster up the use of rum as a
beverage falls to the ground, never to
be resuscitated. While it is true that
some very old people have used it in
moderation all their lives, these COM
paratively few do not make rule
for the rest of mankind. Probably if
such cases were investigated closely
the fact would be clear that they lived
so long not because of their indulgence
in rum, but in spite of it. There can
be no doubt, in view of the careful OBJ
servations made by this English insur-
ance company and the deductions
drawn therefrom, that for the great
mass of humanity the only safe rule as
to rum is: Touch not, taste not,