THE PRESENT EVOLUTION OF MAN — MENTAL 319 



" 81. It must not be forgotten that these statistics of 

 mortality from alcohol represent a great deal more than 

 so many deaths. The deaths from intemperance mean 

 a more or less prolonged course of vicious drinking and 

 all its attendant horrors affecting both the individual 

 and the friends and neighbours. Intemperance is not 

 simply a self-regarding vice ; it is a danger and a loss to 

 the State, and hence its causes and means demand 

 recognition and, if possible, removal. It is necessary to 

 realize, at least to some degree, the extent of the evil if 

 the nation, or rather the individuals who compose it, 

 are to be aroused to take steps to prevent it. No 

 effectual measures are ever likely to be adopted until 

 the intelligent portion of the public is thoroughly con- 

 vinced that something must be done, and that speedily. 



" 82. I shall briefly consider the effects of alcohol on 

 the nation under several heads — 



" (A) Sichiess. — The various forms of diseases, directly 

 and solely due to alcohol, only need enumeration, such 

 as delirium tremens, mania a potu, chronic alcoholism, 

 alcoholic paralysis, and cases of true dij^somania. The 

 extent and nature of other diseases caused or aggravated 

 by alcohol requires further elucidation. If there be 

 twenty cases of sickness for every death, then it would 

 be easy to reckon up the excess of alcohol-caused dis- 

 ease. But this would be an exceedingly rough and 

 fallacious method. The effect of alcohol can only be 

 strictly determined when all other circumstances are 

 either the same or are neutralized. The comparison of 

 one Friendly society with another is not entirely satis- 

 factory, as they differ to some extent. 



" 83. Some facts of this nature have already been 

 alluded to. The London Grand Division of the Sons 

 of Temperance was valued in 1881, on the preceding 

 five years, by professional actuaries, Messrs. Gomme and 

 Hatton. (See Table, page 820.) 



" 84. The experience of the Rechabites is rather dif- 

 ferent, and is evidently dependent on some cause or 

 causes peculiar to that Order. One of these causes is 

 that members have been admitted for years past at 

 fifteen years of age instead of eighteen, as in the 



