Temperance Items

Feilding Star, Volume XIV, Issue 134, 2 May 1893, Page 4

Temperance Items

It was an unlucky illustration used by Dr Howard Crosby at the great Temperance Symposium in New York, in which all sorts of temperance people had their say. Dr Crosby, advocating his high license theory, wanted to know if a tiger were loose in the streets of New York, would it not be better to confine it to certain streets, rather tban leave it to roam all over the city? "Shoot him! " cried a prohibition voice frbm the gallery. Whereat Dr Crosby did not easily recover from his visible embarrassment. That voice from the gallery is one that ia gaining prevalency all over the world.— Sunday School Chronicle. Bishop Keane, of the Roman Catholic Church, in his statement recently quoted by " The Voice," that " the Catholic Church appeals to all Catholics to get out of the business, and seek a reputable way of making a living "—referring to the liquor business— doubtless bad in mind tbe decree of the Plenary Council held at Baltimore in 1885:— "263. Lastly, we warn our faithful people who sell intoxicating liquors, to consider seriously by how many and how serious dangers and occasions of sin their business — although not unlawful in itself — is surrounded. If they can, let them choose a more honorable way of making a living ; but if they cannot, let them study by all means to remove from themselves and others the occasion of sin." The Lancet, of September 14th, of last year, says :— "Habitual drunkenness may be decreasing, but it is still a painfully common disease, as every practitioner of any experience could tell. True, he does not tell. It would astonish the public if medical men were to reveal all they knew of this class of cases." Something of what medica.l men could tell if they chose to do so teas brought to light by the Collective Investigation Committee of the British Medical Association, on the "Influence of Alcohol on Mortality." The gentlemen composing the committee tell us that out of a total number of 4234 deaths of adult males, over 25 years of age, which occurred among their patients during the period of the investigation, it was found that 677 were deaths of men who had been " careless drinkers," 648 the deaths of "free drinkers," 603 those of men who had been " habitually intemperate," while 1529 only were deaths of men who were alcohol users and " habitually temperate," having 587 as the deaths of men who were teetotallers, and others whose habits of life has not been ascertained. Sir E. H. Sieveking and Dr Pollook, are both recognised authorities of tbis question. The former, in his manual ; upon the subject, laid down the geueral rule " that the habitual spiritdrinker, especially one who is found i to take alcoholic drinks early in the day, ought to be declined altogether." The latter advised the rejection of a proposer whose daily habit it was to take stimulants three or four times in the 12 hours, and refused to give any place in life assurance to the dramdrinker, the occasional drunkard, the man who had violent outbreaks of drunkenness at long intervals. The The soundness of these opinions was founded on a wide experience, and on such statistics as Mr Nelson's, who showed tbat from 16 upwards the relative mortality of intemperate persons was more than three times higher than the geueral community ; from 21 to 30, more than five times ; from 30 to 50, more than four times. The returns for deaths really due to alcohol were not satisfactory, as the custom was rather to refer such deaths (noi altogether incorrectly) to the local disease immediately preceding death.