DANGERS FROM ALCOHOL 141 



substance, especially in the form in which it is illegally sold by 

 " bootleggers." " Home brews " of various kinds often have other 

 poisons formed in them, besides alcohol, and thus are doubly dan- 

 gerous. 



Dangers from Alcohol. — It is a matter of common knowledge 

 that alcohol taken in small quantities does not do any apparent 

 harm. But if we examine the vital records of life insurance com- 

 panies, we find a large number of deaths directly due to alcohol 

 and a still greater number due in part to its use. The poisonous 

 effect is not found in a small dose, but repeated small doses ulti- 

 mately show their harmful effect. Hardening of the arteries, a 

 dangerous disease of middle-age or old age, is often caused by the 

 cumulative effect of alcohol. The annual table of deaths from 

 alcoholism in large American cities compiled by the Scientific 

 Temperance Federation from data furnished by city health officials 

 continues to show a smaller number of deaths from this cause than 

 in the pre-prohibition period, although there has been an increase 

 since the first prohibition years. The following figures represent 

 the total deaths from alcoholism in nineteen cities of more than 

 300,000 population. These cities included in 1920 about 19,000,- 

 000 of the 105,000,000 people in the United States. 



Total Deaths from Alcoholism in Nineteen Large Cities 



1916 



1,954 



1920 



....... 321 



1917 



1,817 



1921 



503 



1918 



820 



1922 



828 



1919 



558 



1923 



1,261 



The increase in deaths after 1920 is undoubtedly due partly to 

 the dangerous quality of bootleg liquor. 



The Effect of Alcohol on the Mortality of Offspring. — Professor 

 Laitinen, Dr. Stockard, and other experimenters have worked 

 with guinea pigs and white rats to learn if alcohol has any effect 

 upon the birth rate and death rate of the offspring. They found 

 that the death rate is much higher in the animals born from 

 alcoholized parents than in those from non-alcoholized parents. 

 The rate of development of the young* is faster in the non-alco- 

 holized animals. In other words, the alcoholized animals were not 

 normal. 



