Page:EB1911 - Volume 26.djvu/619

Rh Comparalive Mortality-England and Wales. vi

va

following proportional figures at different ages for all the societies embraced in the Institute of Actuaries tables, as compared with the abstaining section of the United Kingdom Temperance and

All males. 1,000 16 27 186 105 144 174 52
 * Occupied and retired

g males .... 1,004 16 27 187 103 146 177 52 lUnoccupied males 2,884 42 68 583 879 294 310 112 Clergy .... 524 2 14 55 64 88 53 38

Agriculturists  602 7 13 85 62 96 86 29 Railway engine-drivers 610 4 18 65 74 107 84 36 Civil Service   723 5 40 129 80 102 78 51 Navvies, &c. 740 6 9 95 63 113 154 29 Shopkeepers  872 19 34 161 96 124 139 SI Coal-miners   885 5 17 89 87 134 196 35 Building trades 934 14 21 190 94 134 163 54 Metals. 1,027 II 23 189 109 151 213 56 Textiles  1,055 10 2I IQO 123 165 193 61 Dockers  1,481 50 22 308 112 198 365 64 Potters  1,493 8 21 285 131 219 473 53 File-makers. 1,700 14 15 387 225 198 325 160 Innkeepers  1,781 III 201 271 188 207 252 127 Inn-servants   1,883 I3I 49 543 146 211 224 100 Costermongers  2,007 59 40 554 167 276 392 86 General labourers 2,235 40 37 491 233 324 444 96 Provident Institution, which is taken as IO01*, Mortality Experience of Non-A abstainers to Abslainers as 100 Age- digiiiiife. Age- Elfgiiiiiiii
 * Seamen   1,646 26 34 262 170 238 220 83

1 5-19 67 55*59 144

20-24 2 1 60-64 1 32

2 5-29 172 65-69 120

30'34 194 7°-74 1 15

35-39 19° 75-79 91

40-44 1 8 1 80-84 107

45-49 179 35439 107

50-54 1 65 90-94 1 2 7

and it is no doubt due to the inhalation or absorption of irritating or poisonous particles through the nature of their occupation. The clergy, who have the lowest alcoholic mortality, show a remarkably low level of organic disease of all kinds; railway engine-drivers, who come next, suffer more from circulatory and respiratory diseases, navvies and coal-miners still more, while civil servants are more susceptible to phthisis. Agriculturists, though with a higher alcoholic mortality, nearly equal the clergy in general healthiness, which must be attributed to the open-air life. The low alcoholic level of coal-miners and navvies is striking, because both are hard-drinking classes; their position can only be explained by the fact that the drink beer, and it goes far to prove the innocuousness of beer when combined with hard work. The enormous and absurdly disproportionate mortality from diseases of the liver among innkeepers, and in a lesser degree among unoccupied males, is obviously due to a preference for stating that cause on certificates in place of alcoholism. The condition of unoccupied males revealed by this table is worth a volume of sermons. The mortality among them between the ages of 25 and 65 is higher than that of any other class of the community. It is also worth noting that poverty is good for health. The clergy are the poorest of the educated and professional classes; and agricultural labourers, who are the poorest of the manual working classes, are nearly as healthy all round except that they are somewhat more liable to phthisis; their comparative mortality figure from all causes is only 621. Longevity.-A great deal of statistical information with regard to the comparative longevity or expectation of life at different a es among abstainers and non-abstainers has been collected by liie-insurance companies and friendly societies. The following table is given in the syllabus of temperance teaching in elementary schools issued in 1909:-

Expectancy of Life.

Eficnairal EGcu<€1al R I United

1 l'lC EC C -.

Age. of iiiiiiaiviiiie riiiedagny Odd- biieia Kingdom Population Experience of fellows- (abstain- TemP"af'°° (R-:gist rar- Insurance ers). I“5“t}m°“ General). Oices. (abstmnersi

20 41-0 43-2 41-4 48-8 i 46-9

25 37'0 59'1 37'6 44°3 43'0

30 33'1 5 35'1 34'0 39'7 33'3

35 29'2 31'2 30'3 35'1 3447

40 25~6 27-4 26-8 30-6 30-3

45 22-2 23-7 23-3 26-1 26-1

50 18-9 20-1 19-9 21-8 22-0

55 15-8 16~7 16-6 17-7 18-1

60 12-9 13-6 13-6 13-8 14-6

Similar statistics haye been prepared showing the relative mortality experience among insured persons. Mr R. M. Moore gives the The United Kingdom Temperance Institution has a general as well as an abstaining section. The experience of the twenty-two years 1884-1905 gives the following result: percentage of actual to expected deaths-general section, 79-53; temperance section, 54-25. Other offices having abstaining sections show similar results, thus:- General. Temperance.

Sceptre Life Association (25 years). 79-67 53-05 Scottish Temperance Life Assurance Co. (25 years) ..... .. 64 46

Pathology.-Dr Sims Woodhead thus summarizes the results of experimental investigation into the direct action of alcohol upon living cells and tissues.

Alcohol plays a prominent part in bringing about degeneration of nerves, muscles and epithelial cells; it determines the accumulation of waste products in the tissues by paralysing the tissue cells, interfering with oxidation, with secretion and with excretion; it induces the proliferation of the lower forms of tissue, often at the expense of the more highly developed tissues, which in its presence undergo marked degenerative changes; it interferes directly with the production of immunity against specific infective diseases, and reasoning from analogy it may be assumed that it plays an equally important part in impairing the resistance of tissue to the advance of the active agents in the production of disease that may have already obtained a foothold in the body. With regard to this aspect of the subject it must be remembered that laboratory experiments by which alcohol is placed in direct contact with cells and tissues are an entirely different thing from the dietetic use of beverages containing dilute alcohol with other things. It would be interesting to know how the tissues would behave when similarly treated with common salt, lemon juice, vinegar, theine, caffeine or other substances in general dietetic useé or with ordinary tonics such as quinine, quassia and dilute acl s.

Inebriely.-Much study has been devoted to inebriety as a diseased condition. It generally results from long-continued and excessive indulgence in alcohol and is characterized b dipsomania or a craving for alcohol, which is chronic or periodical and which the subject cannot resist. It is accompanied by organic changes in the nervous system, which probably begin in the stomach, but end in disintegration of the brain cells with the development of alcoholic insanity. The only chance of cure lies in complete abstinence from liquors with, at first, suitable medical treatment. The recognition of this fact has led to the establishment of special institutions for this purpose, both of a voluntary and a compulsory character. An account of the laws relating to the. subject is given under the heading of INEBRIETY. In accordance with the law three classes of institutions have been established in the United Kingdom:-(1) Certified inebriate reformatories, to which patients are committed by the courts for various periods of detention. They are II in number, and during 1908-the last year reported the committals to them numbered 262 (218 women and 44 men). The total number committed since their establishment in 1897 is 3002 (2548 women and 484 men); the highest number in any one year was 493 (428 women and 65 men) in 1907. (2) State Inebriate Reformatories, more of a pena character, for persons committed but too refractory for the previous class. There are two, one for women and one for men; the average number under detention in 1908 was 74 women and 42 men; the admissions were 27 women and IO men. (3) Licensed retreats, for voluntary patients. In 1908 they numbered 20, and had under treatment 493 patients (288 women and 205 men). In all about 800 habitual inebriates are thus treated. The results cannot be stated with any precision, but they are certainly disappointing. The Inebriates After-Cure Association gives the following analysis of 407 cases discharged from reformatories and looked after in the years 1903-8:—Satisfactory result, 82 (50 women, 32 men); unsatisfactory, 114 (78 women, 36 men); not known, 221 (162 women, 49 men). One explanation of the failure of treatment and the frequency of relapses