Effect of Alcohol upon Duration of Life.—Still more serious is the relation of alcohol as a direct cause of disease (see table).
It is as yet quite impossible, in the United States at least, to tell just how many deaths are brought about, directly or indirectly, by alcohol. Especially is this true in trying to determine the number of cases of deaths from disease promoted by alcohol. In Switzerland provision is made for learning these facts, and the records of that country throw some light on the subject.
Dr. Rudolph Pfister made a study of the records of the city of Basle for the years 1892-1906, finding the percentage of deaths in which alcohol had been reported by the attending physician as one cause of death. He found that 18.1 per cent of all deaths of men between 40 and 50 years of age were caused, in part at least, by alcohol, and this at what should be the most active period in a man's life, the time when he is most needed by his family and community. Taking all ages between 20 and 80, he found that alcohol was one cause of death in one man in every ten who died.
Another study was made by a certain doctor in Sweden, from records of 1082 deaths occurring in his own practice and the local hospital. No case was counted as alcoholic of which there was the slightest doubt. Of deaths of adult men, 18 in every 100 were due, directly or indirectly, to alcoholism. In middle life, between the ages of 40 and 50, 29; and between 50 and 60 years of age, 25.6 out of every 100 deaths had alcohol as one cause, thus agreeing with other statistics we have been quoting.—From the Metropolitan, Vol. XXV, Number 11.
The proportion of crime due to alcohol is shown in black.
The Relation of Alcohol to Crime.—A recent study of more than 2500 habitual users of alcohol showed that over 66 per cent had committed crime. Usually the crimes had been done in saloons or as a result of quarrels after drinking. Of another lot of 23,581 criminals questioned, 20,070 said that alcohol had led them to commit crime.
The Relation of Alcohol to Pauperism.—We have already spoken of the Jukes family. These and many other families of a similar sort are more or less directly a burden upon the state. Alcohol is in part at least responsible for the condition of such families. Alcohol weakens the efficiency and moral courage, and thus leads to begging, pauperism, petty stealing or worse, and ultimately to life in some public institution. In Massachusetts, of 3230 inmates of such institutions, 66 per cent were alcoholics.
The Relation of Alcohol to Heredity.—Perhaps the gravest side of the alcohol question lies here. If each one of us had only himself to think of, the question of alcohol might not be so serious. But drinkers may hand down to their unfortunate children tendencies toward drink as well as nervous diseases of various sorts; an alcoholic parent may beget children who are epileptic, neurotic, or even insane.