EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL. 189 



EXPECTATION OF LIFE. 



AGE. ABSTAINERS. ALCOHOL USERS. 



At 25, 32.08 years. 26.23 years. 



" 35, 25.92 " 20.01 " 



" 45, 19.92 " 15.19 " 



" 55, 14.45 " 11.16 " 



" 65, 9.62 " 8.04 " 



TABLE SHOWING THE INFLUENCE OF ALCOHOL UPON THE 

 MORTALITY FROM VARIOUS DISEASES. 



GENERAL MALE POPULATION. ALCOHOL VENDERS. 



Brain disease, 11.77 per cent. 14.43 per cent. 



Tuberculosis, 30.36 " 36.57 



Pneumonia and pleuritis, 9.63 " 11.44 " 



Heart disease, 1.46 " 3.29 " 



Kidney disease, 1.40 " 2.11 " 



Suicide, 2.99 4.02 " 



Cancer, - . 2.49 " 3.70 " 



Old age, 22.49 " 7.05 " 



ACCESSORIES TO FOOD. 



[HALLIBURTON, Text-Book of Chemical Physiology and Pathology.] 



" Alcohol. Small quantities of the alcohol taken leave 

 the body by the breath and urine as such, the greater amount 

 is decomposed into simpler products (acetic, oxalic, carbonic 

 acids, and water) ; the formation of these must give rise to a 

 certain amount of bodily heat. It has been calculated that a 

 man can burn off in his body two ounces of absolute alcohol 

 daily. Alcohol is thus, within narrow limits, a food. It, how- 

 ever, lessens proteid metabolism by about 6 per cent, and thus 

 ultimately leads to a diminution of the heat produced in the 

 body. It is, moreover, a very uneconomical food ; much more 

 nutriment would have been obtainable from the barley or the 

 grapes from which it was made. The value of alcohol used 



