388 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters, 



in 1892. For many of Sweden's cities, which had shown for 

 several decades an enormous amount of drunkenness, the de- 

 crease was still more marked. In Gothenburg the per capita 

 consumption decreased from 24.81 litres in the year 1877-1878 

 to 13.55 litres in 1891-1892; in Stockholm the per capita con- 

 sumption decreased from 26.56 litres in 1877-1878 to 13.63 li- 

 tres in 1891-1892. In 1871 when the system was introduced 

 into iSTorway the average inhabitant there consumed 5.3 litres 

 of spirituous drinks a year; by 1892 the average inhabitant con- 

 sumed only 3.2 litres, and Xorway could claim, Italy excepted, 

 that she had reached a degree of sobriety higher than any nation 

 of the world. 



Misery was greatly lessened. In 1865 there were in Gothen- 

 burg 2.36 cases of delirium tremens for every thousand inhabi- 

 tants; in 1892 there w^ere only 1.21 per thousand. In 1876 

 there were in Stockholm 5.27 cases of the same terrible disease 

 for every thousand inhabitants, but in 1892 the number had de- 

 creased to 1.64 per thousand. For Korway the records of 1871 

 designate drunkenness as the direct cause of 2.9 deaths out of 

 every thousand; in 1892 the number similarly designated was 

 only .8 per thousand. 



But the new liquor system came not only to curtail drunken- 

 ness and the miseries accompanying drunkenness but also, un- 

 like all other liquor systems, to serve as a promoter of philan- 

 thropy. The profits accruing from the sales of liquor were no 

 longer to fill the pockets of saloon keepers, but were to be used 

 for ends furthering the general welfare. During the years 

 1877-1890 the company in Bergen alone contributed not less 

 than $348,655.94 for such purposes. From 1886 to 1891 the 

 company in Christiania contributed $312,006.24. Orphan asy- 

 lums, schools, deaconess homes, reading rooms, temperance so- 

 cieties, and charitable institutions of various kinds were in this 

 way materially assisted. The manner of the distribution has 

 been more indirect in Sweden than in Xorway (the former mak- 

 ing larger amounts go directly into the public treasury), but 

 the surplus has ultimately reached approximately the sam^ des- 

 tination in the two countries. 



With this brief outline of the results attained prior to 1892, 

 "we pass to a consideration of the development of the system dur- 



