i88 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



This, as is seen, is an equally instructive table. 



To return for a moment to the part played by the so-called 

 moderate use of alcoholic stimulants in the production of fatal 

 forms of liver-disease. As it is, I think, impossible that we as 

 medical men can know too much regarding the probable dele- 

 terious effects of mere " nipping," I here subjoin an extract from 

 the registrar-general's tables of the comparative mortality from 

 liver-diseases in different industries, between the ages of twenty- 

 five and sixty-five, in the years 1880-'82, which exhibits the mat- 

 ter in a stronger light than any words of mine can possibly do : 



Bookbinders 3 



Booksellers 4 



Hatters 9 



Tobacconists 10 



Druggists and printers 18 



Gardeners and miners 19 



Butchers 21 



Fishermen 22 



Brewers 42 



Innkeepers, publicans, vintners, wait- 

 ers, and barmen 197 



The result here shown is so startling that the registrar-gen- 

 eral not inappropriately designates it as " appalling," seeing that 

 the proportion of deaths from liver diseases is in reality six times 

 greater among men exposed to the temptations of "nipping" 

 than in that of all the other industries combined— the actual 

 figures being : For brewers, 1,361 ; for vintners and other sales- 

 men of wines, spirits, and beers, 1,521 ; and for waiters and bar- 

 men (those most exposed to temptation), no less than 2,305 : 

 whereas, for maltsters, who are only concerned with the ma- 

 terials from which intoxicants are manufactured, and not with 

 the intoxicating liquids themselves, the death-rate is only 830. 

 Nothing could be more conclusive of the deleterious effects of 

 so-called moderate drinking on the human constitution than this ; 

 for, as all different effects in this world originating in identical 

 causes are but relative, it is readily seen how a lesser proportion 

 of " nipping," though giving rise to lesser results, must neverthe- 

 less cause a proportionate amount of cases of disease in the liver 

 and kidneys to those given in the above tables. 



Notwithstanding the familiarity of medical men with the 

 fact that many cases of hepatitis, chronically enlarged liver, and 

 cirrhosis are directly traceable to inebriety, few, I fancy, can have 



