Page:Alcohol, a Dangerous and Unnecessary Medicine.djvu/434

426 is the highest consumption of beer."—, Nerve Specialist, Konigsberg, Germany.

"The life insurance companies make a business of estimating men's lives, and can only make money by making correct estimates of whatever influences life. Now they expect a man otherwise healthy, who is addicted to beer-drinking, will have his -life shortened from 40 to 60 per cent. For instance if he is twenty years old and does not drink beer he may reasonably expect to live until he is 61. If he is a beer-drinker he will probably not live to be over 35. If he is 30 years old when he begins to drink beer he will probably drop off somewhere between 40 and 45 instead of living to 64 as he should. There is no sentiment, prejudice or assertion about these figures. They are simply cold-blooded business facts, derived from experience, and the companies invest their money on them just the same as a man pays so many dollars for so many feet of ground or bushels of wheat."—, Toledo, Ohio, in U. S. Senate Document, published in 1901.

"Fatty degeneration of various organs is frequently witnessed in beer-drinkers. Diabetes mellitus is frequently due to beer-drinking, and is made much worse by its continuance. In Germany more than half of the cases in the inebriate asylums enter from beer-drinking. In Bavaria, the women are not able properly to suckle their children because of the universal consumption of their favorite national drink. Indeed, so grave are the evils caused by beer-drinking that the fight against beer should now be conducted as strenuously as that against stronger liquors."—, Paris, France.

In the report of the President's Homes Commission, Senate Document 644, may be found a list of soft drinks examined by the Bureau of Chemistry. The report says:—