The throttling of the commonwealth : drink and death / by James Whyte.

  • Whyte, James.
Date:
[1892?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The throttling of the commonwealth : drink and death / by James Whyte. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Throttling of the Commonwealth DRINK AND DEATH. By JAMES WHYTE. Probably the best general test of the physical condition of a people is their death-rate. All the influences that tend to life, and all that tend to death register them¬ selves there. Much of the record we cannot decipher, but a great deal of it we can. And one thing that is written in such large and clear characters that even those who run may read it, is that the greater portion of our diseases and of our premature deaths we owe to our own ignorance, and, above all, to our neglect of such knowledge as we possess but persistently disregard. The Effect of Sanitation. The history of sanitation in England for the last half century illustrates this. For the five years, 1850- 54, the total annual death-rate was 2326 per 1,000; while for the last five years of the century, 1896-1900, it was only 1892 per 1,000. In other words, the average life of the people was, during the half century,- lengthened by four years and one-third. Death Rate Reduced One Half. This was really a magnificent achievement; but something even more gratifying and more promising