THE PRE.SENT EVOLUTION OF MAN — MENTAL 317 



There is no other possible cause for such an increase, 

 and the chronic poisonous action of alcohol is established 

 beyond a doubt. 



" CHAPTER VI.— MORTALITY AND SICKNESS FROM 

 ALCOHOL 77. Several attempts have been made to 

 estimate the mortality due to alcohol. It is, of course, 

 impossible to make an exact computation. There are so 

 many vvays in which alcohol affects the health and life of 

 those that take it, and, indirectly, the life and health of 

 others, both abstainers and non-abstainers. It is useless 

 to look to the returns of the Registrar-General for this 

 purpose. Comparatively seldom does the certificate 

 attribute the death to its primary cause, even when 

 there is no complication. But in a large number of 

 instances the death which is certified as due to pneu- 

 monia or nephritis is as truly the result of alcohol as 

 any inflammation arisiag from arsenic. Nevertheless, 

 the deaths attributed to intemperance show a serious 

 increase, being, in 1889, 54 per million persons living ; 

 in 1886, 49; in 1881, 47; in 1876, 46 ; in 1871, 82 ; 

 and in 1866, 44. The deaths from cirrhosis of the liver 

 increased from 2570 in 1876 to 8300 in 1889, the pro- 

 portion of females slightly increasing as compared with 

 males, being as 101 in 1889 to 98 in 1876. 



" 78. Dr. Norman Kerr, from the result of his own 

 practice and that of twelve other medical men, estimated 

 the direct and indirect mortality from intemperance at 

 128,000 per annum. He has since estimated the direct 

 mortality at 40,000, and the indirect at 80,000. Dr. 

 Morton, in conjunction with nineteen medical friends, 

 arrived at the conclusion that the deaths in England 

 and Wales, wholly or partly due to alcohol, were 89,287, 

 equal to 52,640 for the United Kingdom. As a result 

 of his inquiry, the Harveian Society of London insti- 

 tuted an investigation, and found that in London, of 

 10,000 persons dying over twenty-four years of age, the 

 result was as follows : — 



A. — Deaths in nowise due to alcohol . . 8598 

 B. — Deaths accelerated or partly caused by 



its abuse ...... 1005 



C. — Deaths wholly due to it . . . 897 



