478 
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM OF MAN 
mental inefficiency, but also because of our unreliable 
judgment. 
Alcohol Shortens Life. — In 1909 forty-three of the lead¬ 
ing insurance companies in the United States and Canada 
agreed to make an impartial study of all their records for 
the past twenty-five years. This involved an examination 
of 2,000,000 insured lives. The insured were divided into 
many classes, such as railroading, mining, manufacturing, 
and users of alcoholic liquors. The two following statements 
are made by Arthur Hunter, the chairman of the committee, 
in a study covering a period of three and one half years. 
“Liquor Business ; — There is a general impression that saloon 
keepers do not live as long as persons in non-hazardous occupations, 
but it is not generally known that most classes which are connected 
with either the manufacture or sale of liquor have a high mortality. 
Among saloon proprietors, whether they attended the bar or not, there 
was an extra mortality of 70 per cent; and the causes of death in¬ 
dicated that a free use of alcoholic beverages had caused many of the 
deaths. The hotel proprietors who attended the bar either occasionally 
or regularly had as high a mortality as the saloon keepers, i.e., the life¬ 
time was reduced about six years on the average on account of their 
occupation. The mortality among those connected with breweries 
was about one third above the normal. The large class of proprietors 
of wholesale liquor houses had an extra mortality of about one fifth. 
In the fourteen subdivisions of the trades connected with the manu¬ 
facture or sale of alcohol, there was only one class which had a normal 
mortality, and that was the distillery proprietors. The facts regarding 
the adverse effect on longevity of engaging in the liquor trade are such 
that, if they were generally known, young men who are easily tempted 
would be deterred from entering this business. 
Habits as to Alcoholic Beverages. — Nothing has been more con¬ 
clusively proved than that a steady, free use of alcoholic beverages, 
or occasional excesses, are detrimental to the individual. In my 
judgment, it has also been proved beyond peradventure of doubt that 
total abstinence from alcohol is of value to humanity; it is certain that 
abstainers live longer than persons who use alcoholic beverages. The 
low mortality among abstainers may not be due solely to abstinence 
from alcohol, but to abstinence from tobacco, and to a careful regard 
for one’s physical well-being. 
