Volume 1

Health lectures for the people.

Date:
1883-1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Health lectures for the people. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    49/896 (page 35)
    Companies are about taking persons addicted to excess of drink. They know that it would not pay, and so their medical men and directors are very strict about it. They reject persons who take alcohol in the forenoon, on the ground that if it is by medical advice, they must be too ill for their life to be assurable, and that if it is not by medical advice, they will very soon be too ill to suit the Insurance Company. In this Society to which I have referred it was found in 12 years, that among the teetotalers and the general section, which are kept separate, there was a very marked difference as to the mortality. In the general section it was ex- pected, according to the table, that 2846 persons would die, and you will see how accurate that table is when I state that 2807 did die. The secretary, in his calculations, was on the safe side by 1*4 per cent. Now as to the teetotalers it was expected that 1619 would die, but instead of that there did die 1156, so that in this case he was 463 wrong. In the one case 1*4 per cent did not die, and in the other case the teetotalers refused to die to the extent of 28*5 per cent. In comparing the two classes, however, we must remember that those in the general section are not drunkards, and that the general community who are accepted by the Insurance Offices are not those most likely to take to drink, and include some who are teetotalers in all but the name. I believe a good deal in the poisonous effects of alcohol, but I am not able to credit it with all of this astonishing difference. The explanation, which is satisfactory to my mind, is, that strong and healthy people, likely to live long, are more apt to become tee- totalers than those in weaker health. The former feel that they have no need of stimulants, and that it is no sacrifice to take the pledge; the latter feel the need of them, and decline; and so by a process of self-selection the strong man goes to the one side, and the weaker man to the other. Taking them all in all, soldiers are not teetotalers, but they seem to do better without stimulants. As confirmatory evidence of the good health of teetotalers, I may refer to the Ashantee war. The climate was exceedingly bad, and four out of every six of the soldiers went through the hospital, but of teetotalers only one