The Monitor., 1891-08-14
THE Great Destroyer

When Gladstone declared before the
House of Commons that drink had inflicted
on the world greater evils than war, pesti-
lence and famine combined, was he in
dulging in mere rhetorical exaggeration?
When the Supreme Court of the United
States solemnly declared in its official
decision in the case of California VS..
Christensen (1890) that a greater amount
of crime and misery is shown by the
statistics of every State to be attributable
to drink "than to any other source was
il, for the moment, indulging in thought
less statement for the purpose of pleasing
the temperance people?' Well, perhaps
so. Glad tone may have been out Of his
head and the Supreme Court may have
been hypnotizad Let US make a little
excursion into mathematics to see. In 1888
the British Medical Journal published the
result of an inquiry made by the British
Medical Association (the principal associa-
tion of the kind in England. or, perhaps in
the world). The inquiry was conducted
during a period of nineteen months (May
9, 1885, to December II, 1866, and related
to the effects of drink on mortality. Each
OF the doctors contributing to the inquiry
(178 in all, in different sections of Great
Brtain) took his death certificate book
and from the countelfoils OF three years
gave, in the case of each death of male
over twenty five years ofage the immediate
cause of death, the age at death, and the
drink habits of the man who died. From
the data supplied by this inquiry has been
carefully Teckoned (see 'ProhibitiJn, the
Principle, the Policy, the Party" by
Wheeler, Appendix, Note c. the number
(120OO0) of Incorporate persons dying
every year in England aud Wales, from
all causes, and, what is more important,
the number of these who are killed by
drink. This latter number is a little over
10000. 1t does not include those Gnfants
and others dying as result of crime or
negligence on the part of drinkers, or as
result Of inherited defects; but simply
those who kill themselves with alcohol.
The number is about tho same for the
United States, estima ting on the basis of
the ratio of absolute alcohol consumed in
the two countries. Thirty thousand killed
each year in the United States, 80, 900 more
in England. Let us 90 further. In the
report of the Swiss Federal Council, in
1880, after special aud exhaustive in :
vestigation, it appears that the amount of
alcohol consumed in the countries of
Canada, Norway and Sweden, United
States, Great Britain and ireland, Austro-
Hungary, France, Russia, German.
Zollverein, Belgium, Switzerland, the
Netherlands and Denmark, is Gr6, ,724, ,0s5
gallons or abo nj six times as much as in
England and the United States alone. The
same amount of absolute alcohol can be
safely reckoned as causing an equal amount
of mortality, on an average, in all these
countries. Six times 60, 900 equals $50, 900
- the number Of deaths each year caused
in these countries by drink. Three hun
dred and sixty thousand yearl In an
average generation of thirty three years the
number is nearly twelve millions III $780,
000). In the lifetime of man of seventy
years, the aggreg ate death roll will reach
the amazing figure Of over twenty-five
millions (25, 200, 0O0). Remember. in look
ing at these stupendous figures, that they
represent, not the number of drinkers who
have died, but she humber who were Killed
by drink. Remember, the estimate is
based on reliable data furnished by one
Of the best scientific associations on the
face Of the earth. Remember that in these
figures is not included the large, hut in
determinate number Of those dying as the
result of inherited defects due to drink, or