Page:George Archdall Reid 1896 The present evolution of man.djvu/331

Rh "81. It must not be forgotten that these statistics of mortality from alcohol represent a great deal more than so many deaths. The deaths from intemperance mean a more or less prolonged course of vicious drinking and all its attendant horrors affecting both the individual and the friends and neighbours. Intemperance is not simply a self-regarding vice; it is a danger and a loss to the State, and hence its causes and means demand recognition and, if possible, removal. It is necessary to realize, at least to some degree, the extent of the evil if the nation, or rather the individuals who compose it, are to be aroused to take steps to prevent it. No effectual measures are ever likely to be adopted until the intelligent portion of the public is thoroughly convinced that something must be done, and that speedily.

"82. I shall briefly consider the effects of alcohol on the nation under several heads—

"(A) Sickness.—The various forms of diseases, directly and solely due to alcohol, only need enumeration, such as delirium tremens, mania à potu, chronic alcoholism, alcoholic paralysis, and cases of true dipsomania. The extent and nature of other diseases caused or aggravated by alcohol requires further elucidation. If there be twenty cases of sickness for every death, then it would be easy to reckon up the excess of alcohol-caused disease. But this would be an exceedingly rough and fallacious method. The effect of alcohol can only be strictly determined when all other circumstances are either the same or are neutralized. The comparison of one Friendly society with another is not entirely satisfactory, as they differ to some extent.

"83. Some facts of this nature have already been alluded to. The London Grand Division of the Sons of Temperance was valued in 1881, on the preceding five years, by professional actuaries, Messrs. Gomme and Hatton. (See Table, page 320.)

"84. The experience of the Rechabites is rather different, and is evidently dependent on some cause or causes peculiar to that Order. One of these causes is that members have been admitted for years past at fifteen years of age instead of eighteen, as in the