The weekly Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1911-1922, 1912-02-08

Physicians Are Urged to Use Their
influence Against This Evil
That Causes Such a
Big Loss.


nell Phelps has made a scientific
study of the mortality of alcohol in
this country in a book recently pub
lished. He has based his figures on
the year 1908 and finds that alcohol
caused $4,000 deaths, directly or in
directly, in that year. Commenting
on this, the Medical Record says:
1.-The effect of alcohol upon the
mortality figures of a community
has become a threadbare subject in
speeches and writings of prohibition
and anti-prohibition publicists; yet,
indeed, few subjects of sociological
nature deserve more frequent men,
ton. The trouble has been, however.
that such mention was rarely, if
ever, founded upon real study of
the subject, but was simply an in
dicator of the. intolerance Of the de-
tenders of one or the other political
or social creed.
There is no question that for
men interested in insurance matters
the problem of the mortality of
alcohol is one of foremost rank.
and it is to their credit that one of
the best scientific studies of the
matter that has yet appeared comes
from one of their number. Mr..
Phelps, who has published several
statistical studies in similar fields,
has taken the total adult mortality
in the United States for the year
1908 as the groundwork of his study.
Method Used for Statistics.
ellis method was simple. He OBJ
tanned from the medical directors of
three large insurance companies
their estimate of the percentage of
male deaths between the age of 20
and "a, directly or indirectly due
to alcohol, for each of the 106 causes
of death listed in the census statis-
ties for that year. From these esti-
mates he figured the probable NOR
tality from the same causes among
females and then made an approx
nation of the probable mortality Of
the whole country, irc]uding the So
called nonregistration area from
which direct mortality statistics
were not available.
SIN defense of this method of
study it may be granted that medical
directors of insurance companies have
much broader knowledge of the gen.
eral subject of mortality. and the
effect upon it of certain specific
causes than even the busiest and
most prominent of practitioners of
Moreover, the differences
In the individual estimates we're
such as to lead to the reasonable
conclusion that a. poll of, say, sew
eral hundred physicians would not
have resulted in a nearer average
approximation than the average OBJ
tanned from the poll of these three
physicians only.
Without going into minute an
alysis of the methods used by Mr..
Phelps, we may say that, to a dis
mind, his use of the sta
tistical tables seems to be correct
from the standpoint both of sta
tistical science and of EVERYDAY
methods of arriving at approxima-
lions. * tss
Five Per Cent of Total.
"His final result is that $4,000
deaths were directly or Indirectly
due to alcohol in this country dur
ing the year 1908, or, in percent
age figures, about 5 per cent Of the
total mortality from all causes at
all ages during that year.
"This, then, forms the first scien-
tifically constructed approximation
IF the effect of salcohol upon NOR
'ality in this country. To the rabid |
orohibitionist it will appear to be too
ow a figure. To the medical man,
however, this figure is large enough
% prove the appalling waste of life
iue TO the excessive use of alcohol. |
Moreover. no mere mortality sta
lstlcs can give an idea of the
economic waste due to loss of work
nc time and of productive efficiency
Imong habitual and heavy drinkers, i
md the daily scenes in our courts Il
f law. both high and low, are an
nd cation of the number of crippled
nd unhappy lives which result from