308 THE PRESENT EVOLUTION OF MAN — MENTAL 



doubt that it is very frequently deleterious, and there- 

 fore a cause of elimination. The following facts and 

 figures, which I extract, with the author's kind per- 

 mission, from Dr. Ridge's valuable and suggestive work, 

 Alcohol and Puhlic Health,'^ which should be read by 

 every one interested in the subject, j^laces this beyond 

 doubt. It should be stated, however, that Dr. Ridge, 

 a distinguished advocate of total abstinence, is in no 

 way identified with the opinions expressed by me ; for 

 them I alone am responsible. 



" CHAPTER v.— ALCOHOL, life and health. 59. 

 The effects of alcohol on the longevity and health of 

 the nation can be tested by the results of its use, 

 comparing together abstainers and non-abstainers under 

 as nearly as possible tlie same conditions. 



" Perhaps the most telling comparison is that furnished 

 by the United Kingdom Temperance and General 

 Provident Institution, a life office which was founded 

 in 1840 for abstainers only, but afterwards admitted 

 non-abstainers into a separate section. The expected 

 and actual claims in each section for the last twenty- 

 five years have been published, as shown in the Table 

 on the next page. 



"GO. This gives a mortality in the Temperance 

 Section of 71'49 per cent., and in the General Section 

 9G"66 per cent., a difference in favour of the former of 

 26"17 per cent. There were 1433 fewer deaths than 

 expected in the former section, and 243 fewer in the 

 latter, both being calculated by the same life tables. 

 If the members of the General (non-abstaining) Section 

 had lived on the average as long as the abstainers, 

 there would have been only 5130 deaths instead of 

 7034, a saving of 1904 lives. Similarly, if the 

 abstainers had used alcohol in the same way as the 

 others, and had died at the same rate as they, the 

 deaths would have been 4693 instead of 3423, a loss 



1 Alcohol and Public Health, by J. J. Ridge, M.D., London. 

 H. K. Lewis. 



