310 THE PRESENT EVOLUTION OF MAN — MENTAL 



of 1 270 lives. Again, if all had been non-abstainers, 

 the deaths would have been 11,727 ; if all had been 

 abstainers, they would have been 8553, a difference of 

 3174 deaths. This represents the true measure of the 

 injury done to a number of picked lives by the use of 

 alcohol. 



" 61. It has been objected that these statistics do not 

 furnish any criterion of the effect of the strictly moderate 

 use of alcohol, because some of those insured in the 

 General Section die of alcoholism, cirrhosis, &c., and 

 are excessive drinkers. It is true that there are some 

 drunkards, and probably some who considerably exceed 

 the limit of one and a half ounces of pure alcohol laid 

 down by Dr. Parkes. As a physiological experiment it 

 is open to the objection to some extent, but yet it is 

 obvious that excessive drinking is not very common 

 among them, because the death claims in the General 

 Section are below the calculated number, notwithstand- 

 ing that the lives of abstainers are excluded, which 

 would have reduced the number of percentage of 

 claims. 



"62. It is extremely probable that if a number of 

 abstainers could be compared with a number of non- 

 abstainers, who never in their whole lives exceeded one 

 ounce of alcohol a day, the difference would not be as 

 great as in the present instance. But this is altogether 

 a hypothetical and, one may almost say, impossible 

 case. The experiment is a fair test of the effects of the 

 moderate use of alcohol, and its consequences under 

 present social conditions. One of the inevitable results 

 of the moderate use of alcohol, is that a percentage of 

 the drinkers will in the course of time increase the 

 amount, and become more or less excessive drinkers. 

 To leave these out of the comparison would be as 

 unfair as to leave out all persons with ' dropped wrist ' 

 when comparing those who drank water with lead in it 

 and those who did not. Excessive drinking, due partly 

 to an increased tolerance of alcohol, partly to a growing 

 craving for it, partly to habit and other causes, is one 

 of the morbid consequences of the so-called moderate use 

 of it, just as much as any other pathological change. 



