Evening star., 1914-05-09
DRINK BILL INCREASE
|SPROSPER|TY CLAIM
Report of United Kingdom Alliance
Has Some Striking
Features.

LONDON April 30--The drink bill o.
the United Kingdom for the past year
shows an increase Of twenty -tve million
dollars. The United Kingdom Alliance
whose mission is 10 decrease the con
sumption of alcoholic liquors. makes this
report and suggests that tn" increase =
probably due to unprecedented prosper.
ity, for the kingdom had never exPer
enced a greater wage bill The encouras
ing feature. according TO the alliance, IS
"A decrease shown in the per capita con
sumption. which attained its maximum
during similar trade revivals in 1874
and 1889
a dscouraginG feature is the increase
in the consumption of spirits, which leads
with an increase of i,o61 900 gallons.
Beer is second With 100000 gallons. and
wine third with l3l.oD gallons. The
share of each individual in the United
Kingdom in the drink bill for 1918 was
SIS, while the average for family Of
five persons was Sap. Since these figures
do not allow for the boys and girls
under fifteen years of age and the total
"A abStainers. il may be assumed that among
the drinkers the average per capita eN-
pensc for drinks is much higher than
stated.
Liquors Awful Toll.
During 1911 o.sOo men and 2.o14 wom-
en- were certified to have died in Eng
land and Wales alone as the result ot
alcoholism. This number does not in
clude those whose deaths have been ac-
celerated by the use of alcohol. Or. W
C. sullivan is quoted in the report as
making the estimate that ~ per cent OF
the suicides in the United Kingdom arr
N ~
a startling feature of the infant NOR
tality figures furnished by the alliance
is the fact that in 13l: LIE babies un-
der one year of age were suffocated while
sleeping with their parents or other eld-
ers, and the organization claims that
most of these cases can be laid at the
door of alcoholic indulgence The or
.anzatiOn also points out the effect OF
alcohol on the physique of the race. on
crime and on divorce.
Without aneSthesa or modern instru-
ment. native surgeons among the Bed
ouins of the Algerian hinterland have
become so skilful that they do not hest
tate to undertake operations as delicate
as trepanning This report is brought by
III. Hylton- Simpson. who. accompanied
by his wife. has Just returned from a
scientific expedition among these almosi
unknown nomadlc tribes of the desert.
| The explorer and his wife lived amone
the natives and established the closest
Teld Win tiit siiclhs VI ~
mote villages
Bedouins Skillful Surgeons.
They found that surgery had grown to
be "A really skilled profession. Hylton-
Simpson was lucky enough to come into
contact with a friendly Arabian physi-
clan who arranged a meeting for him
with eight of the tribal surgeons. From
them he collected mass of interesting
information and a valuable collection OF
native surgical instruments. Their saws,
lancets and probes are of the crudest de
sign. but prove highly effective in the
hands of their native operators Tn.
only training these native surgeons have
is instruction from their fathers, Very
few of them are able to read or write.
Trepanning operations arr probably
more common in this country. than any
where else in the world because of the
frequency with which the natives resort
to stone throwing in light. The use Of
an anesthetic is unknown and PAIN is ~.
garded with such contempt that the peo-
pie seem impervious to il.
HNlton- Simpson saw one ease IN winch
a hoy was operated on for fifteen days
for the removal Of small piece of skull!
The operation was successful and the pa
tieut recovered Besides surgery the ma
tives claim TO have discovered 2S cures
for various diseases.