Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1902-12-17
FACTS ON INEBRIETY
STARTLING STATISTICS PROFOUND
ED By DR.. CHARLES l. DANA.

Indoor Workers Greatest Alcoholic
| Misunderstanding Habit Acquired
In EARLY Life-Alcoholism Among
! Wennen.
In view of the perennial and world
wide interest in the subject of intem-
perance and all that pertains to it the
facts and figures presented in paper
on the causes, duration and manage
ment of inebriety contributed to the
Medical Record by DR.. Charles L. Da-
ma Of New York are worthy of review
In these columns for the benefit of norl-
professio..el readers. DR.. Dana has
been visiting physician at Bellevue
hospital for many years and has had
varied experience in the treatment of
alcoholic cases. In single year he
studied $50 such cases, and his average
of later years was even larger.
His evidence on the subject of hered-
tty and alcoholism is startling. Among
$50 patients whom he questioned on
this topic he found that drinking hab-
its existed m one or both parents in all
but ten (97.5 per cent?. The father was
usually the drinker. Among thirty pc
riodical inebriates two-thirds had the
hereditary factor counting against
them; in fourteen cases the father
drank: in eight both parents drank.
Notwithstanding these facts DR.. Dana
expresses the opinion that drinking Is
largely matter Of habit and environ
ment."
Classified as to occupation, DR.. Dana
found that it was not the day laborers,
the mechanics, artisans and small
tradesmen that furnished the largest
proportion Of alcoholic victims, indoor
workers generally leading all others.
In a total Of 1850 cases studied the
tradesmen numbered 387, clerks and
statesmen 239 and professional men only
"a.
The impression given out by some
writers that drunkenness has increased
to an alarming extent among American
women is not borne out by DR.. Dana's
Investigations. In the total Of admis-
sions at Bellevue in the years 1887,
1888, 1889 and 1895 there were 1O,479
men and 5000 women, giving a proper
ton Of 81 per cent, or little over one
third, women. In 1887 the percentage
Of women was 80 and in 1895, eight
years later, it was "a, an increase Of
only two points. st= :@=..-e-
AS, to the age at which the drinking
habit is generally formed DR.. Dana has
some suggestive figures to offer. Among
thirty periodical inebriates two-thirds
began drinking before twenty, and all
began before thirty. The greater num-
Der Of cases and of deaths from alco-
holism were found between forty and
fifty in men and between twenty and
thirty IN women. :: .. .'-.
More interesting and remarkable per-
I haps than any other disclosures made
by DR.. Dana are those relating to the
\ capacity OF men for drink and the
1 duration Of life among habitual inebri-
ates. On the latter point the conclu-
sions reached are that in serious cases
the duration Of life is about fifteen
years, the maximum being, over forty
years. In general 1t is said that hard
drinking can rarely be carried on for
more than twenty years, and it gen.
orally brings the victim to grief at
& about the age Of forty. s.
Referring to persons who drink most
\ heavily and frequently, It is said that
ut takes ten or fifteen years to bring
sbn dementia or insanity, during which
49, ESasy .sfs - -