Page:George Archdall Reid 1896 The present evolution of man.djvu/327

Rh shows, as between Foresters and Rechabites, a gain to the latter of 5–7 years at age twenty. This is an enormous advantage. It would mean on the 400,000 young men (about) who every year reach the age of twenty, about 2,280,000 additional years of life; allowing 39·4 years of the mean after-time of each adult at twenty, it would be equal to the addition to the population of 57,360 men, with all the wealth which they could create!

"72. The London Grand Division of the Sons of Temperance has had an average death-rate during the eleven years 1880–90 of 5·29 per cent., the average age at the end of 1885 being 32⅓ years. The same low mortality is experienced in other parts of the world. An actuarial report on the Friendly societies of Auckland during five years showed the actual as compared with the expected mortality to have been, among 8315 abstainers (Rechabites and Sons of Temperance) 71·56 per cent., and among 49,698 non-abstainers, 93-34 per cent.

"73. It must not be forgotten that there are a considerable number of abstainers among the Foresters and Oddfellows; if these were withdrawn the mortality of the rest would be seen to be greater. There are also, unfortunately, many who drink to excess, and their mortality is highest of all. These two classes tend to counterbalance each other, and hence the comparison is, to a large extent, between abstainers and moderate or medium drinkers.

"74. The Collective Investigation Committee of the British Medical Association in 1888 published a series of returns furnished by several medical men on the connection between the age at death and habits with regard to alcohol. The results obtained were that the average age at death of males over twenty-five years of age was as follows:—