STIMULANTS AND NARCOTICS 73 



on four typesetters in the following way. " Four days were 

 used for the tests, the first and third of which were ' normal ' 

 days ; the second and fourth were ' alcohol days.' On the 

 alcohol days each man received about seven ounces of a 

 Greek wine ... a quarter of an hour before the trials 

 took place." On the " alcohol days " it was found that the 

 amount of type set was on the average 15 per cent less than 

 that set on the " normal days." 



97. Moderate use of alcohol in relation to disease. — 



" A much larger number of the victims of alcoholic intemper- 

 ance die of some infectious disease than of the special alco- 

 holic infections. Attention has been repeatedly called in 

 this article to the lowering of the resistance of alcoholic 

 patients to many infectious diseases. . . . This lowered re- 

 sistance is manifested both by increased liability to contract 

 the disease and by the greater severity of the disease." — ^ 

 Dr. Welch, in ' ' Physiological Aspects of the Liquor Problem. ' ' 

 Physicians also recognize that those who use alcohol are more 

 susceptible to pneumonia, cholera, and other diseases, and 

 that the percentage of recovery of such patients is lower than 

 is that of total abstainers. 



98. Total abstinence and life insurance.' — " It is now 

 becoming generally recognized that the alcohol habit is one 

 of the main factors in determining length of life. No Ufe 

 ofiice will knowingly accept the proposal of any one known 

 as a hard drinker. Evidence of a very striking kind is rapidly 

 accumulating, which shows that even the moderate use of 

 alcohol is prejudicial to health and longevity. In England 

 about a dozen life ofiices recognize this fact in one of two 



^ These quotations were furnished the authors by the Equitable 

 Life Assurance Society of the United States. 



