)
The calculation shows that in these twenty-one occupations the
comparative alcohol mortality is 24.5 per cent., as against only 12
per cent. in all other occupations.
Amongst the occupations in Dr. Tatham's table may be noted
coalheaver, coach, cab, etc., service, groom, butcher, messenger,
tobacconist, general labourer, general shopkeeper, brewer, chimney
sweep, dock labourer, hawker, publican, inn and hotel servants. A
glance at the table will show that in most cases the men who are
dying are "industrial drinkers," who frequent public-houses in the
districts where the reduction in the number of the licenses under
the present Bill will occur. Often nowadays the widows are heavy
drinkers, and the lives of their children centre round the
public-house.
If the only wealth of a nation is its life, and history teaches no
more certain truth--and if, since individuals are mortal, the
quantity and quality of parenthood--or of childhood, according to
the point of view--are the supreme factors in the destiny of
nations, do not the foregoing figures warrant the contention that
he who at this date is for alcohol is against England?"
It has been shown that the effect of alcohol upon the brain persists for
not less than thirty hours after the last dose. But more than two years
have now passed since the foregoing was printed, leaving ample time for
any member of the alcoholic party to "pull himself together" and
demolish it.
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