In the following table, from Carpenter's work already cited, four general insurance companies, A, B, C and D, are compared with the Temperance Provident Institution: I beg you to observe, gentlemen, that these tables were compiled for business purposes; and money, you will remember, is not fanatical. The former shows the average mortality of the intemperate to be more than three times greater than that of the temperate. The latter shows the mortality of the insurers in a temperance company to be less than one-half the average of those in four general companies. Dr. Jarvis stated that, in Lowell, according to the annual bills of mortality, the deaths from delirium tremens and intemperance were, in the period 1841 to 1851, under the license law, 56.9, and in the period 1852 to 1865, under the prohibi tory law, 26.2, in 10,000 deaths from all reported causes in each of the periods. Comparing the mortality from alcoholic causes with the population, Dr. Jarvis showed that these deaths were one in 8,359 of the living under the license law, and one in 19,381 of the living under the prohibitory law. By the first comparison, the fatal consequences and evidences of intemperance decreased 54 per cent., and by the second comparison, this decrease was 57 per cent. in passing from license to prohibition.* You have had the testimony of the distinguished chemist, Dr. A. A. Hayes, who stated that the use of alcoholic beverages not only shortens life in general, but lays the foundation of many diseases, undermining the constitution, and causing diseases to be fatal which would not have been, had the * These facts the Doctor gave in his testimony before the Committee. Beside these, we have since obtained from him other facts which he intended to give the Committee if opportunity had permitted. He furnishes facts that show the destructive effect of intoxicating liquors on life and on mental health, in this and some other States and in foreign countries, especially in France, where it is erroneously supposed and often asserted that the free use of wine had banished intemperance. On the contrary, French writers on diseases of the brain give a proportion of the lunatics whose disorder is caused by the abuse of alcoholic liquors, much larger in France, the favored and boasted land of the vine, grape and wine, than is recorded in any northern country, where no such natural facilities are offered to seduce men to take the first steps in the paths of intemperance. Dr. Jarvis gives, also, a statement of the effect of the prohibitory law, showing that there has been a decided decrease of mortality from intemperance since the commencement of the operations of prohibitory laws in this State, more marked where the traffic of liquors has been suppressed system maintained its natural vigor. Dr. Edward H. Clarke, of the Harvard Medical Faculty, testifies, "If distilled liquors were banished from in the smaller towns and rural districts, but seen also in Boston itself, as well as in Lowell, by comparison with the total deaths and with the living population. 1.-EFFECT OF ALCOHOL ON HUMAN MORTALITY. Deaths from Intemperance among 10,000 reported from all causes. 32.99 39.28 47.81 Barnstable, Berkshire, Dukes, Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire, and Nantucket Counties, in Massachusetts, (1851 to 1864,) Massachusetts, excluding Suffolk County, (1851 to 1864,) Boston, 1851 to 1865, (excepting 1859 and 1860,) Among 40,393 deaths from diseases of the brain, in the United States, in the year 1859-60, reported in the 8th census, 575 were from delirium tremens.† Of the 394,153 deaths reported in the same year, 1,506 were from delirium tremens and intemperance.‡ 2.-EFFECT ON MENTAL HEALTH. Cases of Insanity caused by Intemperance in 10,000 known causes. Admitted into Worcester Hospital, (1833 to 1866,) 1,200 545 One Hospital in Ohio (Columbus, 1839-66,) English, Scottish, Irish, Continental Insane Hospitals give similar statements. * Scotland is not the most intemperate country in the world. † 8th Census, Vol. Mortality, p. 221, Table XIII. + Ibid., p. 4. § Not including the Philadelphia Pauper Hospital, which, at the last dates, contained 41 per cent. of all the lunatics in the hospitals of Pennsylvania, and of these 56 per cent. were foreigners. The causes of the disease in this hospital are not stated. society, it would be the gainer thereby." The venerable Dr. Alden, of Randolph, testifies to the exceedingly injurious effects of alcoholic beverages upon human life, as observed through a long course of years in his own town and in surrounding towns. I have also the testimony, privately given me, of the elder Dr. Bigelow, that if intoxicating beverages had never been discovered, the wellbeing of the race would have been promoted. 3.-EFFECT OF PROHIBITORY LAWS. Deaths from Intemperance in 10,000 from all known causes. Massachusetts, 1841 to 1850, 1851 to 1864,* Massachusetts, except Suffolk County, 1841-50, 56.10 Barnstable, Berkshire, Dukes, Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin and Nantucket Counties, 1841-50, 41.80 Deaths annually in proportion to the total population living in each year, to one death from Intemperance. The populations were taken from the censuses of 1840, 1845, 1850, 1855, 1860 and 1865, and those of the intermediate years were interpolated by logarithmic calculations. In the last periods, 1850 and subsequently, the foreign population has very greatly increased. The number of deaths from intemperance among natives and foreigners is given in the Boston reports for six years, 1854 to 1859. They were, 62 natives and 162 foreigners, and in proportion as 1,000 to 2,600. Applying these proportions to the respective populations, † Decrease, 31 per cent. * Decrease, 11.94 per cent. Decrease, 21 per cent. || Decrease, 16 per cent. On the other hand, his son, Dr. Henry J. Bigelow, declares, that "the drinking usages of society are not to be deplored." I make no criticism on this testimony. My private opinion of it would be of little worth. I leave it to be judged by the common sense of the intelligent citizens of Massachusetts. These, gentlemen, are a few among the many evidences of the evils resulting from the use of native and foreign, in the State, Boston and Lowell, the proportion of deaths from intemperance among the natives is very greatly reduced in the latter period. Taking these data and calculating the native and foreign population from the censuses, the deaths during these years, 1854 to 1859, from intemperance in Boston, were one in 10,210 of the natives, and one in 2,307 of the foreigners. Admissions to Worcester Hospital, Intemperance causes, in 10,000 of all known causes. 4.-COMPARATIVE EFFECT OF GREATEST LIBERTY AND PROHIBITION. Kentucky,* alcoholic deaths in 10,000 of all, 8 years, (1852–59,) Vermont,* 66 66 66 389 (1857-64,) 140 5.-EFFECT OF WINE CULTURE ON INTEMPERANCE. Morel, the French learned and philosophical writer on Insanity, &c., in his great work on the degeneracies of the human race, says,-" There is always a hopeless number of paralytic and other insane persons in our [French] hospitals, whose disease is due to no other cause than the abuse of alcoholic liquors. In a thousand patients, upon whom I have made especial observations, not less than two hundred owed their mental disorder to no other cause."† Morel was a man of great learning and experience. In his early professional life, he was in the Salpetriere Hospital in Paris, which, my last government report says, had thirteen hundred and twenty-four lunatics. He *Annual Reports of Mortality. † Des Dégénérescences De L'Espéce Humaine, p. 109. |