406 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters, 



solution TVe must deal mtli tlie two systems not as they might 

 be pictured in ideal theories but as they practically exist, — as 

 they are and have been operating in Norway now and during 

 recent vears. 



Since in prohibition towns a knowledge of the amount of 

 liquor disposed of, or consumed, is not attainable through any 

 statistical records, we must proceed in the rather indirect way 

 of judging the exten\; of inebriety by the number of arrests for 

 drunkenness, a record of which is obtainable through the sta- 

 tistical reports of the nation. Taking this as our basis then, 

 let us first ask whether there has been a greater or smaller num;- 

 ber of such arrests since the discontinuance of samla^^s in the 

 respective cities where balloting has taken place. In regard to 

 the cities where as a result of the election of 1895 samlags were 

 discontinued from January 1, 1896, the following table will an- 

 swer our inquiry by showing the number of persons reported 

 as arrested for drunkenness : 



Number of arrests for dimnkenness. 



Cities. 



Namsos 



Molde 



Aalesund 



Grimstad 



A.rendal 



Risor 



Brevlk 



Tonsberg 



Aasgaardstrand 



Gjovik 



Total 



Popula- 

 tion. 



1892. 



1893. 



1894. 



1895. 



1896. 



1897. 



33 



54 



214 



131 



260 



58 



33 



633 



23 



321 



1,760 



From this table alone we must infer that drunkenness has not 

 been decreasing but rather increasing in these cities since the 

 discontinuance of the samlags. That being our inference, we 

 ag-ain ask: What are the records in regard to the number of 

 similar arrests for the same time in cities where samlags con- 



