Page:George Archdall Reid 1896 The present evolution of man.djvu/325

Rh the temperance movement is modern, and has spread most among the young.

"66. It has been alleged that those insured in the Temperance Section have a better constitution than the non-abstainers, and live longer as a result of this, and not on account of their total abstinence. This is purely imaginary, begging the question altogether. There is not a particle of evidence in support of it. The lives in both sections are drawn from the same classes scattered all over the kingdom, so that exceptional circumstances neutralize one another. If there be any difference it is in favour of the strictly temperate persons, as the abstainers include some who have at some former time drunk to excess, but have reformed.

"67. A similar difference in favour of abstainers is shown by the statistics of the Order of Rechabites compared with the Foresters. The Scottish Temperance Insurance Company has published the diagram on the opposite page, in which the experience of twenty leading life assurance companies is also given.

"68. The eminent actuary, Mr. F.G.P. Neison, has published the results of a careful actuarial examination of the reports of the Ancient Order of Foresters, the Manchester Unity of Oddfellows, and the. Independent Order of Rechabites. The Foresters and Oddfellows each supplied more than one million and a quarter years of lives for examination, the Rechabites supplied 127,269, extending over ten years. Mr. Neison gives the following table, showing the rate of mortality in each—