ALCOHOL AND LONG LIFE.

Waipa Post, Volume I, Issue 32, 4 August 1911, Page 4

ALCOHOL AND LONG LIFE.

All men are mortal, but many realise it prematurely. That the effect of moderate indulgence in alcohol'is to shorten life is shown by the experience of the great life insurance societies, jnany of whom have a separate section for total abstainers. For < instance, the United Kingdom Temperance and General Provident Institution has been established over 60 years, and has kept separate sections for 36 years with the experience of 130,000 lives upon which to base its figures. Its experience for 36 years shows:

Temperance General Section. Section, Expected Expected 1 Deaths. Actual. Deaths. Actual, 8831 6300 n,727 ; 71.2 per cent. 93*8 per cent. The mortality amongst the abstainers was 25 per cent lower than amongst those in the general section, and it must be . remembered that the Society does not issue policies to excessive drinkers. The test has been between the abstainers and the moderates. The Sceptre Life Association shows an advantage of 23 per cent to ab : stainers out of a total ot 4592 expected deaths in both sections. Several other societies show similar results. These figures cannot be controverted, and prove unmistakably that alcohol is a foe to long life. These insurance companies are not philanthropic institutions, and would not be likely to say a thing if it were not true, and their figures prove to a demonstration that alcohol takes away a great part of a man’s life.