306 STIMULANTS AND NARCOTICS 



Ltd., of London, for the twenty years from 1884 to 1903 y 

 inclusive, gives the following figures : For abstainers, ex- 

 pected deaths, 1,440 ; actual deaths, 792 ; being 55% of 

 the expected. Non-abstainers, expected deaths, 2,730; 

 actual deaths, 1,880, or 79% of the expected. 



The experience of the Scottish Temperance Life Assur- 

 ance Company, Ltd., for the twenty years from 1883 to 

 1902, inclusive, gives the following figures: Abstainers, 

 expected deaths, 936; actual deaths, 420, or 45% of the 

 expected. Non-abstainers, expected deaths, 319 ; actual 

 deaths, 225, or 71% of the expected. 



There are many other testimonies 1 to the effect that the use 

 of alcoholic stimulants produces an increase in the rate of mor- 

 tality. So destructive has been their effect upon the lives of 

 the North American Indians, that under United States law it 

 is a penal offense to sell alcoholic beverages to an Indian. The 

 mortality among Africans and South Sea Islanders has also 

 been so increased by the use of alcohol, that simply as a matter 

 of humanity the civilized nations of the world have united in 

 their efforts to stop the sale of liquor in the Congo and in cer- 

 tain islands of the Pacific. While it is doubtless true that the 

 deleterious effects of alcoholic beverages are more apparent 

 among black men and red men than among white men, yet, as 

 we have the assurance that all nations are of the same 

 blood, what is injurious to one cannot be beneficial to another. 



As further proof of the injurious effect of alcoholic bever- 

 ages, as shown in the death rate, I would refer to the statistics 

 which have been published from time to time, showing the 

 percentages of mortality in the various occupations. These 

 statistics have invariably shown a higher death rate among- 

 those engaged in the liquor business, from brewers down to 

 bartenders, than among those engaged in other occupations, 

 except such as are clearly defined as specially hazardous. The 

 higher death rate among liquor dealers is so universally recog- 



1 Effects of Total Abstinence on the Death Rate, by Joel G. Van 

 Cise, Actuary of the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United 



States, 



