Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/99

 PREVENTION OF MENTAL DISEASES 8$

enormous difference if we consider that the first three companies are not recruited among the intemperate. These happy differ- ences are also found in certain English companies which make a dis- tinction between the temperance section and the general section ; the premium is 28 per cent, lower for the abstainers than for the others. These figures have their value because a good part of the results may be involved to prove that alcohol is a cause of degeneration.

In respect to the proportion of insanity caused by alcohol, one cannot appeal to the statistics of Belgium, which in general do not merit much confidence. F"rench tables mention a propor- tion of 38 per cent, with men and of 12 per cent, with women. It is evident that this is under the truth, since many cases of alcoholism are not officially mentioned. In fact, there are many inebriates who manifest mental disorders without on that account being shut up in asylums ; and there are many insane inebriates who, under the influence of alcohol, have become licentious, quarrelsome, ill-tempered evil-doers, but whose troubles are not judged to be important enough to make confinement necessary. Not all these insane inebriates figure in statistics ; but we encounter many of them in prisons, workhouses, etc.

Many of these victims might have escaped this destiny by means of a wholesome mode of living, if alcohol had not diminished their power of resistance in their nervous system. If alcohol has not induced in them insanity, there is no doubt that it has subjected the drunkards to a mental defect which they will trans- mit to their posterity in the form of imbecility, idiocy, moral insanity, hysteria, epilepsy, future inebriety, criminality, etc. It is sufficient to say that the struggle against inebriety is the most certain prophylactic measure, not only against different kinds of mental disease, but also against various other maladies of the body, against crime, vagabondage, mendicity, etc. The prisons swarm with inebriates, as the hospitals and workhouses abound with vagabonds and mendicants. The orphanages count numerous victims of the inebriety of parents, as well as the asylums for the aged. The French attribute a part of the diminution of births to alcoholism, and it would not be difficult to prove the exactness