NORTHWESTERN
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
EVANSTON
ILLINOIS
REAL AND IMAGINARY
EFFECTS OF INTEMPERANCE.
A STATISTICAL SKETCH,
Containing Letters and Statements from the Superintendents of Eightt
American Insane Asylums, the History of Five Hundred Inebriates,
the History of Six Hundred and Seventy-one Paupers, and Statistics
of Drunkenness ; together with a Review of the Operations of
Prohibitory and Restrictive Laws, and the
Gothenburg System.
by
0-.
new york :
THE UNITED STATES BREWERS' ASSOCIATION.
1 884.
N. Y. Economical Printinq Co., 24VesEY St„ New York.
TO THE PUBLIC:
We submit these facts, figures and arguments on real and
imaginary effects of intemperance with a just estimate of the
prejudice they are sure to encounter from the foregone con¬
clusion that they are published, not for the advancement of
truth, but in the interest of the brewing trade. It would be
worse than useless to claim that our motives are free from self-
interest; we ask credit, however, for an honest endeavor to offer
in this treatise authentic information on a subject, concerning
which much has been published which rests on conjecture
merely. Our plain statements may offend many whose good¬
will we value in our business relations, and this one fact will,
perhaps, serve better to gauge our sincerity, than any protesta¬
tions we could make.
The United States Brewers' Association.
New York, May, 1884.
CONTENTS.
Paob.
Insanity.—Exaggerations on the part of temperance advocates ; opinions in reference to
intemperance as a cause of insanity. Reported increase of insanity ; reasons for the
assumption that such increase is not real; opinions of Dr. Willdns and others.
Alleged increase explained ; comparative tahle in support of such explanation ; more
cases of insanity constantly brought to light in proportion as the means for their
treatment increase, and popular prejudices vanish. Improvement in the methods of
search for, and enumeration of, insane. Comparative tahle showing proportion of
insane in various countries
Etidencks op Dbcbeasing Inebbibtt. — Conditions favoring increase or decrease of
drunkenness. Opinions of Montesquieu and Dr. Bowditch. Decrease in consump¬
tion of distilled, and increase in consumption of fermented drinks in the United
States. Relative effects of fermented and distilled beverages in the Netherlands
(Table of Alcoholism), in Bavaria, in France, in England (Gin Epidemic), in Ger¬
many. Efforts of temperance societies to substitute fermented for distilled liquors.
Intemperance in Alsace-Lorraine. Mortality from alcoholism in various countries.
Improved condition of the people of the United States. Comparative table of in¬
sanity, alcoholic insanity, and consumption of liquors in various countries 10-23
INTEMPERANCE AS A CAUSE OP INSANITY, Statisticaxly Considebed.—The modc of Col¬
lecting data ; difficulties that had to be overcome ; inevitable imperfections of table ;
eighty institutions accounted for ; fifty-four asylums furnished statistics. Showing
of collected material: seven peb cent, op all cases op insanity caused by in¬
temperance. Differences between opinions and figures—how explained; Dr. A. L
Thomas on popular fallacies in reference to insanity caused by intemperance.
Average ratio of insanity caused by drink in United States, compared with like ratio
in Denmark and other countries ; comparison with former years. Alcoholism and its
results in the Southern States ; colored population very temperate, as shown by
reports of Surgeon-General of the Army ; quality of ardent spirits, an Important
factor in the causation of insanity ; examples cited. Causes of comparatively large
proportion of insanity in populous cities ; Dr. Marvaud's opinion as to causes of
inebriety. Insanity transmitted by drunken parents to their offsprings ; Danish sta¬
tistics on the subject compared with Dr. Howe's figures 23-33
Alcohoxic Inebbiety, Insanity and Beeb. — Claim of temperance advocates that the
use of beer creates a taste for ardent spirits, and affects the brain ; contrary opinions
cited. Report of five hundred cases of alcoholic inebriety ; age, sex and nationality
of inebriates ; kind and quantity of drinks consumed by them ; proportion of ha¬
bitual beer drinkers—their nationality; effect of complicating diseases; number of
inebriates having had attacks of delirium tremens. Proof that beer has no tendency
to supplant itself by creating taste for ardent spirits 34-39
Paufebism.—^Differences of opinion as to causes of involuntary pauperism. Voluntary
poverty invariably ascribed by temperance advocates to inebriety. Liebig's opinion
that poverty is a cause of intemperance; like opinion of other scientific writers;
temperance societies in Europe acting on the assumption that poverty produces in¬
temperance; their efforts to ameliorate condition of the laboring people; over¬
crowded dwellings, want of pure air and water also a cause of intemperance ; an
English example cited. Intellectual sloth of the poor—how it affects their drinking
habits ; compulsory idleness and want of divertisement on Sunday, another cause of
excesses. Involuntary poverty often mistaken for its opposite ; examples cited ;
indolence, sobriety and beggardom in Italy. The history of 671 paupers ; proportion
of indigence caused by intemperance directly, ten per cent. ; nationality of intemper¬
ate paupers ; no habitual beer-drinkers among them. Indigence caused by intem¬
perance indirectly. Drinking habits of intemperate paupers; the story of an
intemperate pauper's life. Cqst of pauperism, insanity and crime, compared with
revenues derived from liquor traffic ; absolute groundlessness of the claims of prohi¬
bitionists from an economic standpoint 4Qitg
CONTENT S—Continued.
CBncE.—^Intemperance not a crime-canser ; opinions of prison officials ; habitual drunkards
very rare among long-term convicts. Statistics of the Penitentiary for the Eastern
District of Pennsylvania. Dr. Parrish's opinion. Result of statistical inquiry,
showing less than three per centum of crimes traceable to drink. Opinions of
General Mott and Mr. J. C. Salter, both prison officials. Minor law-violations attri¬
butable to inebriety. Relation of fermented and distilled liquors to snch minor law-
violations. Statistics of intoxication, and arrests for intoxication in Brooklyn. Pro¬
portion of arrests to population in "beer district," 6-10 per cent.; in "whiskey
district," 11 3-10 per cent. Swedish statistics on subject. Opinions of Dr. Bowditch
and others 5^-61
üsb and Abuse.—Advantages of use to society and to the individual, weighed against
evil effects of abuse, from an economic and from a moral point of view. Wine and
beer as civilizers of nations in ancient times. Origin of Tragedy and Comedy. Ethical
significance and effect of drinking habits in Greece, Germany, England, &c. Ger-
vinus' opinion that human progress and vine culture are closely related. Similar
views held by many thinkers and writers. A recent work ad rem. Stimulants
absolutely necessary to the well-being of three-fourths of the male population.
Intellectual and moral deterioration would be inevitable if all intoxicants could be
destroyed. The material losses which such destruction would involve 61-65
Liquor Laws.—Prohibition as old as mankind, intemperance likewise. Laws against
inebriety in Egypt ; Chinese prohibitory decree against rice-wine (2200 B. C.), against
grape-wine ; opium habit the result. Drunkenness in ancient Greece ; Draco's and
Solon's law against it; Plato's precepts in regard to use of wine. Drunkenness in
ancient Rome and laws against it. Same in Gaul; Domitian's decree. Mahomet's
prohibition bf the use of wine leads to use of opium, and to pernicious secret de¬
bauches. Inebriety in Germany; importation of wine prohibited by the Suevi;
liquor laws of Charlemagne. Introduction and effect of distilled liquors in Europe.
First temperance society (1581). Various prohibitory decrees. Drunkenness in
Britain ; unique laws against it. Futility and pemiciousness of prohibition. Table
showing increase of liquor licenses in State of Kansas. What popular sentiment
fails to do ; how the majority in favor of prohibition was obtained. The working of
prohibition, and its failure and abolition in Michigan and Massachusetts. Statistical
refutation of some of Mr. Dow's arguments. A politico-historical reminiscence ;
"Slavery and Rum." How the German vote affected the prohibitory movement
twenty-five years ago. Local option, its working and result 66-84
Hish License System.—Brief review of the history of excise laws in England ; effect of
exorbitant taxes on malt and hops ; the ruinous fiscal policy from the Cromwellian
era to the high license system. The " gin epidemic " and the famous Gm Act. Re¬
sult of high licenses, to wit: Increase in consumption of distilled liquors—malt
liquors driven out. Canning's temperance measures and their effects. Why the
English are no longer a beer-drinking people. It is easy to legislate a nation into
intemperance, but difficult to counteract results of such unwise legislation. High
licenses in Michigan ; claim of their advocates ; statistical proof of the groundlessness
of such claims. Illicit selling of spirituous liquors increasing rapidly ; malt liquors
proscribed. Tables furnished by Commissioner of Internal Revenue 84-94
The Gothenburg System.—How the system originated and what it is. Its results, and
the causes of its success. Why it would be totally impracticable in America 94-98
Conclusions.—What law-makers should bear in mind in dealing with the liquor traffic,
and what laws properly should, and can, effect in the interest of temperance 99
Appendix A.—Correspondence relative to intemperance as a cause of insanity. Letters and
statements arranged in alphabetical order of States 103-187
Appendix B.—Statistical report of 500 cases of alcoholic inebriety. Tables m, IV and V.. 149-154
Appendix C.—History of 671 paupers. Tables VI, VH and VIH 167-167
KEAL AND IMAGINARY
EFFECTS OF INTEMPERANCE.
IJV s A.3VIT Y.
The advocates of prohibition liave always manifested a strong
aversion to statistics ; not only have they neglected to exercise their
talents in the study of this important science, but they have treated
even such incontestable facts as appear from the reports of the In¬
ternal Revenue Office with uncommon fastidiousness and incre¬
dulity. As a rule, they have given preference to sentimental argu¬
ments which, while they admit of a very high order of rhetoric and
an almost limitless scope for imaginative embellishments, appeal to
the heart rather than to the reason. The very nature of their
position has necessitated such a course. Honest facts are often
most concisely expressed by figures, but sentiments of a certain
character require the gaudy garb of striking phrases; and such
phrases, whether they be pregnant with wisdom or utterly devoid
of it, exercise great infinence upon people who are either predis¬
posed to uphold the sentiments expressed, or indifferent to their
truthfulness.
A French writer recently asserted, and proved, to his satisfaction
at least, that the French nation was governed by witticism. To
any one acquainted with French history, the grounds upon which
this somewhat hyperbolic conclusion is based, must be obvious
enough. By analagous reasoning it might, in the light of our po¬
litical history, be made to appear that, when no vital questions are
at stake, American voters are easily led into most singular actions
by phrases pure and siaaple, provided that these convey a pleasant
4
and " catching " sentiment.* Prohibitionists never had facts on their
side, but they have had, and have, an abundance of theories and a
world of sentiment at their command. They have conceived the
grand idea that an ideal social state is not an impossibility in this
world of imperfections—and they have found a host of believers.
Following such guidance, the victims of their eloquence labored un¬
der constant illusions and delusions, eagerly pui*suing the improbable,
and leaving truth far behind them ; so that they might not inappro¬
priately be likened to the visionaries and theorists, whom Goethe
has satirically characterized :
" I say to thee, a speculative wight
Is like a beast on moorlands lean.
That round and round some fiend misleads to evil plight.
While all around be pastures fresh and green."
In their arguments the leaders of this agitation have cared
neither for primary causes nor general results, but have looked only
to effects in individual cases, building upon such isolated experiences
curative theories for all the evils of the universe.
Of late, however, these deserving persons who, solely guided by
motives of philanthropy, persist in devoting much of their time
and energy to the thankless task of ameliorating the condition of
their fellow-creatures, are beginning to pay considerable attention to
figures. They have, to some degree, deserted the ''moorlands
lean " and betaken themselves to the " pastures fresh and green " of
statistics. A number of amusing attempts at statistical argumen¬
tation would seem to indicate that they regard the census of 1880
as a veritable magazine of formidable weapons, with which to
annihilate the arguments of their adversaries of bibulous pro¬
pensity.
Indeed this census, perfect as it is in most respects, imperfect
as, in the very nature of things, it cannot but be in others, bids
fair to become the future basis of prohibitory arguments—not so
much on account of what it actually presents, as because of the in¬
ferences and deductions to which, under certain aspects, it may be
made to lend a coloring of plausibility.
♦ " Betty and the Baby " is one of the more recent epigrammatic productions of this sort.
Dr. Von Hoist, in his Constitutional History of the United States, tersely characterizes some of
the senseless battle cries of political campaigns, by which, without any reasonable grounds either
for enthusiasm or indignation, popular sentiment is often stimulated to an exalted pitch in either
direction. The same author quotes from a letter of A. Hamilton to J. A. Bayard : "Nothing is
more fallacious than to expect to prhduce any valuable or permanent results in political projects
by merely relying on the reason of men. Men are rather reasonable than reasoning animals, for
the most part governed by passions."
5
It is well known that, viewed from a prohibitory standpoint,
insanity, pauperism and crime are jprvriGvpall/y attributable to ine¬
briety, either directly or indirectly. According to some writers,
the proportion of insanity caused by intemperauce directly is from
fifty to seventy per cent., while according to others, it is only
from thirty-five to fifty. Insanity transmitted from drunken
parents to their ofisprings is said to vary from fifty to seventy-
five per cent.,* and this ratio is alleged to be incessantly
increasing. While dwelling with epic circumstantiality upon
the horrors of inebriety, temperance advocates and prohibitionists
formerly made no attempt to prove such assertions, which, in
truth, they only used to point the moral of their tearful tales, rely¬
ing for the rest upon the credulity of the timorous, and snapping
their fingers at statistical criticism.
Kow, however, they pretend to be able to adduce, if not con¬
clusive proof of, at least corroborative data for, the correctness of
their averments ; and it is for this purpose that the census is pressed
into their service.
INCKEASE OF INSAOTTY.
The mode of reasoning by which temperance advocates arrive
at their gloomy conclusions, is singularly arbitrary.
From the census of 1880 it appears that there were in the United
States at that time 91,997 insane persons, against 37,432 in 1870.
The increase of insane within the decade amounts to one hundred
and forty-five per cent.; while that of the population only amounts
to about thirty-three per cent. This glaring disproportion must in
some manner be explicable; and what explanation could be less
brain-taxing, more convenient and at the same time more sugges¬
tive in the eyes of prohibitionists, than that which charges the
excess to increasing inebriety ? None, of course ; hence this expla¬
nation is adopted. But never was a ^posteriori reasoning more
ludicrously illogical than in this case. It practically amounts to the
following declaration : " Insanity, pauperism and crime develop in
exact proportion as inebriety increases ; hence whenever an aug¬
mentation of either of these three evils is manifest, there must also
• Dr. Baecom, President of Wisconsin State University, in his Philosophy of Prohibition says :
" Of three hondred idiots in Massachusetts, Dr. Howe referred one hundred and forty-five to in¬
temperance directly, (sic I ) A like proportion of insanity finds a similar reference." What may
he a perfectly correct statement of facts on the part of Dr. Howe is here tacitly made the pre¬
mise of a very venturesome conclusion by Dr. Bascom, for in no part of his book is there an intima¬
tion that this proportion, founded u^on an isolated inquiry, should not be taken as a general
and thus the reader is led to believe, that what is true of three hundred idiots in Massachusetts,
applies also to the entire insane population of the United States.
e
be clearly discernible in corresponding ratio an increase of inebriety.
Insanity has increased one hundred per cent, between 1870 and
1880, hence inebriety must have increased in like proportion."
An illustration may serve to bring the inconsequence between
premise and conclusion into bolder relief. It is perfectly logical,
for instance, to maintain that because the streets were sprinkled
they must be wet ; but what would be thought of a person who
should contend that because the streets are wet, they must neces¬
sarily have been sprinkled ?
With certain reservations as to the kind of drink used, the
climate, the temperament and habits of the drinkers, as well as
their social condition, it may readily be conceded that an increase of
inebriety implies a proportionate increase of insanity ; but it is not,
therefore, by any means fair to infer an increase of inebriety from
an alleged increase of insanity. The former proposition is almost
axiomatic; the latter, putting it very mildly, is absurd, since its
adoption as a true statement of fact would necessitate the exclusion
of all the other multiform causes of insanity, as well as involve
an abandonment of all the objections which have been and will
again be urged by specialists, who take issue with the census offi¬
cials in more than one respect.
Before approaching the subject of intemperance as a cause of in¬
sanity, let us consider whether the reported increase of lunacy is
real or, to some extent at least, only apparent. If it be real, then, of
course, it must be assumed that the census of 1870 contains a com¬
plete and wholly correct enumeration of the insane population in the
country. But this assumption has been, and is still being, very vigor¬
ously assailed by eminent authorities. The fact that the Superinten¬
dent of the Census deemed it necessary, in 1870, to vindicate the cor¬
rectness of his statistics of insanity must be taken as sufficient evi¬
dence of the reasonableness of doubt—a doubt, however, which does
not reflect on the efficiency and conscientious diligence of the census
officials.* The objections urged against accepting, as wholly reliable,
the insanity statistics of 1870 are worthy of brief review.
Dr. E. T. Wilkins, in his report on "Insanity and Insane Asy¬
lums," a work frequently referred to in laudatory terms, and co¬
piously quoted by medical writers, says ; " It is exceedingly inter¬
esting to trace this apparent increase of insanity in various coun¬
tries of the world, and easy to show how much more rapidly the
increase has been brought to light in those countries where the
* Censaa of the United States, vol. n, p. 435.
7
most humane and liberal provisions have been made for their accom¬
modation. We will show, however, that it is not confined to the
present epoch, nor to any particular country ; but that it has always
and everywhere come forth from its recesses and hiding places
whenever suitable hospitals for the reception of its victims were
provided. Thus Bucknill and Tuke state that in the short space of
nineteen years the estimated proportion of the insane in England
rose from one in seven thousand two hundred to one in seven hun¬
dred and sixty-nine, while on the 1st of January, 1871, there was
one to four hundred." *
An imposing array of data from other European countries as
well as from the United States is then presented by Dr. Wilkins,
all strongly corroborating the above assertion.
It need scarcely be affirmed that this increase appeared in Spain,
a country noted for the sobriety of its people, quite as strikingly as
in Denmark, where the people are addicted to the excessive use of
ardent spirits. Dr. Jarvis, in a paper referred to in Dr. Wil¬
kins' report, expresses his opinion in the following words :
" It will readily be supposed that the opening of new estab¬
lishments for the cure and protection of lunatics, the spread of their
reports, the extension of the knowledge of their character, power
and usefulness by the means of the patients that they protect and
cure, have created and continue to create more and more interest in
the subject of insanity and more confidence in its curability. Con¬
sequently, more and more persons and families who kept their in
sane relations at home, now believe that they can be restored or
improved, and therefore, send them to these asylums and thus swell
the lists of their inmates."
As an argument in favor of the assumption that the increase of
insanity, as shown by census reports, is to a great extent apparent,
not real, the opinion of Dr. Jarvis seems well founded, even if
more than due weight be given to the fact, that the enumeration,
conducted by the Census Bureau, was not confined to the insane in
institutions, but comprised all demented persons wherever found.
The difficulty lies in finding those insane who are treated at home,
if treated at all. The want of adequate accommodation for the
insane in any locality is in itself an evidence of a lack of interest
in the matter on the part of the public, and it is reasonable to pre¬
sume that in such loca^ties all prejudices, not to say superstitions,
* Wilkine "Insanity, etc.," p. 67, (Sacramento, Gal., 1871.)
8
with which this terrible malady is sometimes regarded, prompting
sensitive people to a concealment or denial of the presence of in¬
sanity in their family, still prevail to a greater or less extent.
The following table compiled from material contained in the
census of 1880, shows a much greater proportion of insane in States
where accommodations for the insane are ample :
INSANE POPULATION.
Numb'r
STATE.
POPULATION
or
Insane
Number of
Number of
Hospi¬
Total Number
Insane
Insane
tals.
of Insane.
in
at
Hospitals.
Home.
Alabama
1,262,505
1
1,521
873
1,050
Florida
269,493
1
258
76
175
Georgia
1,542,180
1
1,697
626
1,086
Kentucky
1,648,690
8
2,784
1,404
1,809
Louisiana
939,946
8
1,002
450
584
Mississippi
1,181,597
1
1,147
387
718
North Carolina
1,399,750
1
2,028
269
1,518
South Carolina
995,577
2
1,112
425
662
Tennessee
1,542,859
1
2,404
885
1,757
Texas
1,591,749
1
1,564
850
1,119
Virginia
1,512,565
4
2,411
1,098
1,128
18,836,411
19
17,928
5,843
11,026
New York
5,082,871
27
14,111
8,079
4,421*
* The number of insane in jails, almshouses, etc., is not included in the above table.
From this table it will be seen that according to the census of
1880, eleven Southern States with a population of nearly fourteen
millions, and nineteen insane hospitals, have an insane population of
seventeen thousand nine hundred and twenty-three, while the State
of New York, with only five millions of inhabitants and ttventy-
seven insane asylums, has over fourteen thousand persons thus
afflicted. Of these, eight thousand and seventy-nine are in asylums
and only four thousand four hundred and twenty-one at large, while
in the eleven Southern States, the proportion is almost exactly
reversed.
It is clear, of course, that innumerable circumstances, unknown
in the Southern States, combine to augment the list of insane in
New York. But making allowance for all these—for the large influx
of foreigners ^ for the floating population which the State has to
care for ; for the immense proletariate of the metropolis ; for the
terrible effects of want and privation j the conseq^uences of factory
life ; the extraordinary mental and bodily strain, to which all are
9
subjected who take part in the feverish activity of the commercial
and industrial centre of the land ; for all the vices, whose rank growth
is inseparable from the development of large cities—yet, there still
remains a very large difference between the ratio of insanity in
New York and in the eleven Southern States, which can only be
accounted for in the manner already described. Upon comparing
Massachusetts with Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee, it will be
found that the former State, with one million seven hundred and
eighty-three thousand and eighty-five inhabitants and fifteen asy¬
lums, has five thousand one hundred and twenty-seven insane, of
whom three thousand and eighty-five are in asylums, four hundred and
eighty-two in almshouses and other institutions and fifteen hundred
and sixty at home ; while the three Southern States with four millions
four hundred and fifty-three thousand seven hundred and ninety-
two inhabitants, and five asylums, have in the aggregate six thou¬
sand seven hundred and nine insane persons, or fifteen hundred
more than Massachusetts.
If it be kept in view that the movement in favor of asylum and
prison reforms, inaugurated by a few humanitarians, and helped
forward by eminent English, German and French writers, did not
assume a very promising aspect, until about the fourth decade of
this century, and that since then popular feeling, aided and sustained
by scientific efforts and governmental measures, has brought about
an entire revolution in this respect, it will not be wondered at that
the censuses of the past thirty years show larger and larger increases
of insanity, which can in no other way be reconciled with rational
views on the subject than by assuming each census, compared with,
its successor, to have been wanting in comprehensiveness.
There is another important point to be considered in this connec¬
tion. Even from a superficial comparison of the different censuses,
it must become patent to the average intelligence, that with them, as
in all human pursuits, practice makes perfect. From decade to
decade the censuses have grown more valuable, as well in the number
of subjects investigated, as in the minuteness of detail and the exact¬
ness of classification.
In no respect are these improvements more obvious than in the
subject under consideration. Thus, in the census of 1870, the insane
population is classified only by race, place of birth, age and sex ;
while in that of 1880, itfis also arranged according to places where
found, separating insane in asylums and other institutions from
those treated at home. This improvement over the method of the
10
former year helps in some measure to explain the origin of the
apparent increase, since it must be inferred that the work was done
more thoroughly in 1880 than in 1870. If the census of the latter
year had contained a classification of insane according to "places
where found," it would probably be easy to demonstrate that the
increase of insanity in excess of the ratio of growth in population,
must be placed under the head of " insane at home " ; as it is self-
evident that the full enumeration of this class must present greater
difficulties than that of the insane in institutions.
The inevitable lack of accuracy in the census of 1870, in this
respect, becomes still more obvious from the following comparative
table, showing the proportion of insane to the entire population in
a number of European countries and the United States :
EngTíAKD ; Proportion of insane to population 2.47 in one thousand.
Scotland : " " " 2.96 " "
Ireland; " " " 3.30 " "
France: " " " 1.33 " "
Belgium: : " " " 1.49 "
Sweden: " " " 1.94 " "
Denmark : " " " 1.97 " "
United States : " " " 0.97 " "
Although the difference between the condition, mode of life,
temperament and habits of the laboring population of some of these
European countries, and those of residents in the United States
would, without further comment, explain to a certain degree
the above contrasts, it would nevertheless be almost quixotic to
ascribe the whole difference, fiattering as it may be to our national
pride, to these conditions exclusively, rather than, partly at least,
to defective enumeration by the census takers here.
There is no doubt an increase of insanity, exceeding the ratio of
increase in population ; but, unless extraordinary agencies can be
shown to have essentially changed the condition of the people
within the decade, there seems to be no reasonable ground for the
assumption that this increase amounts to one hundred per cent., as
shown by the census. Eminent physicians, with whom the compiler
of this sketch had the honor of conversing on this subject recently,
are of the opinion, for the reasons stated, that the reported increase
is to a certain extent apparent only.
EVIDENCES OF DECREASING INEBRIETY.
Let us grant, however, for the purpose of argument, that the
increase is real, that is to say, that there were in the United States,
11
in 1870, no more insane than the census of that year accounts for,
and that the proportion of insane to population actually rose from
about one tenth of one per cent., or one in one thousand, in 1870,
to one-fifth of one per cent., or two in one thousand, in 1880 ; from
which it would appear that, compared with the growth of the popu¬
lation, there is an abnormal increase of insanity amounting to nearly
one hundred per cent.
If we furthermore assume that this enormous increase is due,
as advocates of prohibition claim, to increasing inebriety,—^which,
by the way, could not take place in any civilized community without
being attended by many other palpable phenomena of a general de¬
moralization—what could be more natural and reasonable than to
conclude that direct statistical evidence sustaining such assumptions
would be sought to be obtained by those who most need it ?
No attempt was ever made, nor is any likely to be made, by the
opponents of moderate laws to conclusively demonstrate by
statistics of causes of insanity the correctness of their views ; and
this appears all the more remarkable, when we remember the fact
that large sums of money are annually expended by the Temperance
Publication House for books, which, as propagators of temperance
ideas, cannot begin to be compared with what such a statistical
exhibit would prove to be, if the assumptions of ultra-pessimists
were correct. Nor will the impartial reader be apt to think that
this indifference to so potent an auxiliary springs from any desire to
deal leniently with those misguided creatures, who believe that it is
the law's province to discriminate between drinker and drunkard,
instead of tyrannizing over the former in order to reform the latter.
Whether they have a sovereign contempt for the details of statistics,
charity for their opponents, an apprehension of forging weapons for
their adversaries—or whatever else the reason, the fact remains
that prohibitionists have not only failed to collect such new data as
seem necessary to sustain their assertion, but they have even ignored
those already collected facts, which may well serve as a trusty guide
to honest truth-seekers.
The necessity for the present inquiry will, in view of these cir¬
cumstances, Jbe readily understood. Some one had to undertake the
task of establishing, so far as practicable, a statistical basis for all
future discussions on this subject, and thereby to restrain the
exercise of highly fertile imaginations within the bounds of at least
a semblance of reality.
12
Even without such a basis it would, however, be no difficult
task to reduce the position of prohibitionists ad ahsurdum. For,
while no sane man will venture to gainsay that intemperance is a
source of insanity, yet so numerous and obvious are the indications
of a decrease of inebriety, that it seems preposterous to assume
that the ravages of this vice have increased in the ratio represented,
or anything remotely like it. To show that none are more blind
than those who do not wish to see, it may not be amiss, before
proceeding to a consideration of our statistics, to briefly review the
indications that warrant an assumption diametrically opposite to
that of the prohibitionists.
Increase of inebriety not only means augmented consumption
of intoxicating drinks generally, but an increased consumption
of a certain kind and quality of drinks, and that is not all;
it also implies impairment of the moral sense and a general
deterioration of either the social, political or material condition
of the people. Wars, protracted depressions of business, industrial
crises, famine, epidemics, political oppression and like ills are
not generally preceded, but alnmst invariably succeeded by a
laxity of morals, one single feature of which may be, and usually
is, intemperance. All these things must be considered, if, in
the absence of statistics, a correct judgment is desired. For
purposes of a rough estimate it may suffice to take quantity and
kind of drinks consumed as a basis in determining the extent of
inebriety ; but a more exact conclusion will be reached by carefully
weighing all correlative conditions, not forgetting that the physical
and mental effects of the diverse kinds of drinks vary essentially in
different climates. Indeed, on this climatic influence Montesquieu
bases his distinction between national and individual inebriety. In
his " Spirit of the Laws," he says : " Pass from the equator to our
pole and you will find inebriety augmented with the degrees of
latitude." Dr. Bowditch, one of the most learned and ardent
advocates of vine-culture in this country, formulates a similar
conclusion, when he says : " Intemperance prevails the world over,
but it is very rare at the equator. The tendency increases according
to latitude, becoming more brutal and more disastrous in its effects
on man and society as we approach the northern regions."* Mon¬
tesquieu maintains that in countries " where the vine is indigenous,
♦ " Report on the Use and Abuse of Intoxicating Drinks ttaroughont the Globe," Mass. Stato
Board of Health, 1872.
13
inebriety has few evil effects on society," * and it is a well-known
fact that in such countries the use of beer and ale may be liberally
indulged without great detriment to the physical and mental well-
being of the drinker.
Now, in our case it can be shown :
1. That the consumption of distilled spirits has decreased during the
decade in question, and that a decline in the use of ardent
spirits has steadily been going on since 1820.
2. That the consumption of fermented beverages, best suited to the
people of our country (the Yineland of the Yikings) has become
greater and more general, essentially changing the drinking
habits of the people.
3. That the condition of the people has been ameliorated to an
uncommon degree.
Consumption of Distilled and Fermented Drink's,.—In 1870 the
aggregate quantities of all kinds of distilled spirits upon which the
United States revenue tax was paid, amounted to 78,490,198 gallons,
of which, according to the unreliable mode of calculation generally
adopted, one-third was used for manufacturing purposes, leaving
about fifty-two million gallons for consumption as drink by a
population of 38,115,641 souls. In 1880 the aggregate quantities
of all kinds of distilled spirits, upon which the tax was paid,
amounted to 62,132,415 gallons, of which, if again only one-third be
deducted as the quantity used for manufacturing purposes, about
40,000,000 gallons remained for consumption as drink by a popu-.^
lation of over 50,000,000. According to this computation, the per,
capita consumption of domestic distilled spirits was about 5 quarts.,
in 1870, and 3|- quarts in 1880. In the former year, the excess of"
imports over exports amounted to 615,560 ; in the latter year wej
imported 1,606,084 gallons, and exported 11,504,741 gallons. It,
is assumed, upon what authority we know not, that the per capita
consumption of distilled spirits in 1880, was 4.|- quarts, taking this
to bo the correct figure, we would in view of the difference in the
quantities for which tax was paid in those years, have to infer that
the per capita consumption in 1870, was 6 quarts.
• " n est naturel que, là oû le vin est contraire au climat, et par conséquent à la santé, l'excès
en soit plus séverement puni que dans les pays ou Vivrogntrie a pm de mauvais ^eUpourio
ptrtonne, oûelle en a peu pour la société," etc.
14
With a few intermissions of an upward tendency, caused
by changes in the tax rate, the decrease in the consumption of
distilled spirits has steadily gone on for a great number of years,
keeping pace with the growth and development of the brewing
industry.
In 1817, the consumption of distilled liquors in the United States
amounted, according to Bristed, to 25,000,000 gallons. The popu¬
lation at the end of that decade (1820) was a little over nine and a
half millions, hence the per capita consumption, roughly estimated,
amounted to over 11 quarts. At that time there were about 15,000
distilleries in operation, but only 113 breweries. By a large import
duty imposed on beer, ale and porter, the growth of the brewing
industry was retarded rather than accelerated, as was obviously
intended ; for, although a like duty was imposed on imported dis¬
tilled spirits, while the home-manufacture was subjected to but
trifling restrictions, yet such were the habits, mode of life and tastes
of a greater part of the people, that they naturally gave preference
to ardent spirits. Here then, comparing 1820 with 1880, we flnd a
decrease from 11 quarts in the former year to 4-|^ quarts in the latter.
As to the quality of distilled drinks which, as has been said, is an
important factor in causing insanity, the past generation appears
to have been no better off than we of to-day, if any credence can
be placed in the words of Morewood and other writers of that
period.*
The drinking habits have necessarily undergone an essential
change. Solitary drinking, which at one time must have prevailed
to a considerable extent, has almost entirely gone out of fashion.f
In its stead we have, it is true, the evil of treating at the bar ; but
this perpendicular system, as Dickens styled it, is growing less at
the same rate as the taste for fermented drinks, with their accom-
* In his "History of Inebriating Drinks," that author says : " The distilleries (of the United
States) for the most part are conducted on small scales ; and, as might he expected when the trade
Is committed to a vast number of people of opposite interests, a great deal of competition as weU
as ignorance prevails. Breweries not being generally established, the want of barm has not failed
to produce great Inconvenience, and the distillers are obliged to have recourse to ddeterknu
evbstitutes for the fermentation of their wash. Hence arises that ardent quality which renders their
whiskey in many instances disagreeable to foreigners."
t In the United States, the grand source of temperance reform, it was, previous to the intro¬
duction of temperance societies, considered as nothing shamefhl for men to drink liquor by them-
selves. Indeed, at that period, solitary drinking was there an admitted practice. Here (in Eng¬
land) so strong is the general feeling on the subject, that many open drunkards would abhor the
idea of being convicted of solitary drinking.—Durdap's "DHMng Ueages qf the United
dorn."
15
paniment of sociability, music and innocent merriment, becomes
more general.
The production of fermented beverages increased from 6,574,617
barrels in 1870, to 13,347,111 barrels in 1880. The influx of
Germans accounts, of course, for a great part of the extraor-
dinarilyrapid growth of the brewing industry; but at least one-
third of it must be placed to the account of a radical change in
the taste and drinking habits of a large proportion of the native
population.
In order to fully appreciate the effects of this salutary change,
particularly in connection with the question mooted, it should be
borne in mind that in all countries where fermented beverages, such
as light wine, beer and ale are the every-day drink of the people,
alcoholism and its results are comparatively rare—an accepted fact
that has prompted wise governments of countries, whose people are
addicted to the excessive use of distilled spirits, to enact laws the
tendency of which is to encourage the use of fermented drinks.
Unwise legislation has frequently been resorted to for the forcible
suppression of the manufacture and use of ardent drinks, but has
signally failed in every instance. Not to prohibit the use of the
latter beverages, but to create a taste for lighter drinks, seems to be,
judging from numerous experiences, the essence of efficacious laws
on the subject.
Thus we find that the temperance agitation in the Netherlands,
where the people suffered more from the abominable quality of the
poorest and cheapest kind of gin than from the excessive quantities
consumed, culminated in a law which places the utmost rational re¬
strictions upon the sale of gin, while it encourages the use of beer.
And the operation of this law, enforced since 1881 throughout the
land with great severity, is officially announced to have already re¬
sulted in an appreciable decrease of mental derangements resulting
from intemperance. Intemperance is really not a proper term in
this connection, since even the moderate use of such execrable stuff
as is being sold to the laboring people of the Netherlands would
necessarilly affect the brain. It will be shown presently, that the
change from bad to good whiskey and brandy has also effected the
objects of temperance advocates in Sweden.
The working of the new liquor law has been the subject of much
interest, mingled with grave apprehensions and anxious solicitude,
not only in the Netherlands, but througjaout Europe ; the phases of
16
its development have been closely watched 'and investigated by
government officials, and the showing, so far, is most favor¬
able.
Dr. van Cappelle, an officer of the Dutch Department of tue
Interior, recently published the following table.
Number of Per-
sons Admitted
to astiiums.
Abuse of Axcoholic
Drinks Assigned
as Cause.
Number of Cases of
Acute Mania.
Number of Cases
of Acute Mania
Caused bt Intbm-
peb4nce.
1878
564
96 (17^
182
84 (25^)
1879
592
119 (20^)
115
46 (40^)
1880
563
84 (15^)
125
82 (25^)
1881
580
92 (15^)
189
87 (26^)
1882
578
72 (12^)
125
81 (25^)
The per capita consumption of gin has decreased from 9.81 litres
in 1881, to 9.46 litres in 1882. Undoubtedly other measures, sim¬
ultaneously adopted, and directed against deep-rooted evils in the
condition of the laboring classes, have materially contributed to this
result, yet all the official reports, as well as the movements of the
temperance societies—upon whom the government relies to a great
extent for the realization of its reformatory plans—indicate that the
eradication of the evils complained of is thought to be dependent
upon the degree of success which will attend the effort to supplant
gin by beer. The temperance societies of the Netherlands proceed
in a very practical manner in this matter, as will be seen from the
following excerpt from the report of a German Committee of In¬
quiry, sent to Holland to ascertain the results of the new law :
The temperance associations were actively and successfully engaged in the
struggle against the abuse of distilled liquors. In the report recommending the
use of beer as the most wholesome beverage for the people, the Commission move
that they, on behalf of the Association, be intrusted with the supply of such kinds
of beer as answer the demands of the Commission in every respect. They recom¬
mended nine breweries, the beers of which were found to be excellent, containing
no more than 4l% of alcohol, and from 5^ to 8^ of malt ; five other breweries were
recommended, the beers of which, excellent as they are, contain only from Zt to
5% of malt, and eleven breweries, where beers are brewed which contain Z% of
alcohol and from Z% to 5% of malt. The report moves, further, that a commission
of three members be appointed to control the brewers, to examine the beer several
times a year in order to find out whether it always answers the demands, to dis¬
continue taking part of the supply trom those breweries where the beer is found
not to answer the purpose any longer, and to give orders to other breweries who
will comply with the wishes of the Association The delegate from Haarlem re¬
gretted that the otherwise excellent report did nq^ demand the abolition of the
17
beer tax, which he called inadmissible and immoral. A member of the Commis¬
sion did not deem it wise to demand the abolition of the beer tax, the income from
which, he said, aggregated to about 800,000fl., and which did not increase the
price of the beer ; the abolition, therefore, would not involve any practical improve¬
ment. The delegate of the Amsterdam District Association read a communication
in which particulars were given of the results of the three beer saloons estab¬
lished by the Association and in which one third of a litre of good, light beer was
sold for five cents. The financial result was a success, as on some days 5,000
glasses of beer had been sold. In one of the halls the German delegates tried the
beer and found it to be very good.
Here we have temperance societies—surely no less sincere and
ardent, even if they be a little more rational and genuinely humane
in their efforts than our good prohibitionists—striving to foster an
industry which General Dow would fain root out completely.
In the capital of Bavaria inebriety is very rare, and alcoholism,
of course, still more so. Only the very lowest persons—incorrigibly
dissolute characters—drink ardent spirits there. The following
letter needs no comment in this connection :
Munich, February 28, 1884.
O. ThomanUr, Esq^.
Deab Sie:
Alcoholismus chronicus is very rare in our hospital, because
our laboring people drink beer. Distilled liquors are used very
seldom.
"We have had in the last year (1883) in our hospital nearly ten
thousand patients, but only twenty-one cases of alcoholism.
I have the honor, dear sir, to be yours.
Dr. Yon Ziemssen,
Professor y and Director of the General Hospital of Munich.
In the south of France, where wine is the common beverage of
the people, alcoholism, according to a scientific report of recent date,
is of much less frequent occurrence than in the north, where dis¬
tilled spirits are ordinarily used. French reformers have always
deprecated the use of ardent spirits because of many adulterations,
recommending the use of light wines as best suited to the tempera¬
ment of the people. Professor A. Bouchardat, formerly of the
Medical Faculty of Paris," though " vigernon de naissance et de
cœur "(wine-grower by birth and choice), as he styles himself, went
18
still a step further. In discussing the dangers of the excessive use
of distilled spirits,* he writes enviously of the quantities of beer
consumed in Germany and England, and gives utterance to the hope
that the use of beer may yet become more general in France.
" Good beer," he says, " is the most wholesome of fermented bever¬
ages. Its continued use from the remotest ages to our day bears
sufiBcient testimony to its excellent qualities." What a world of
significance in these words, coming as they do, from a savant, whose
country's wealth is in no small measure represented by its vine-clad,
hills ! Since they were written the excellent qualities of beer have
conquered French prejudices against a beverage so thoroughly
German.
History presents many illustrations of the reformatory uses to
which beer has been applied with success ; and also many proofs of
the pernicious results of legal and natural restrictions placed upon
the manufacture and use of fermented drinks. Smollett, whom
some regard as the precun.or of the temperance advocates of our
day, and whose writings we find frequently cited in the Rev. Wil¬
liam Reid's " Temperance Cyclopsedia," was of the opinion that
" the best way of preventing the excess of spirituous liquors would
be to lower the excise on beer and ale, so as to enable the poorer
class of laborers to refresh themselves with a comfortable liquor."f
The exceedingly high malt tax had driven the English people to the
use of gin, and with what effect may be seen from Smollett's graphic
chapter on high licenses. He says : " When those severe duties
(amounting almost to prohibition) were imposed, the populace of
London were sunk into the most brutal degeneracy by drinking to
excess the pernicious spirit called gin, which was sold so cheap that
the lowest class could afford to indulge themselves in one continued
state of intoxication." And here, again, it was not so much the
quantity as the bad quality of the drink consumed that caused the
evil effects. High licenses, as will be shown in another part of this
sketch, made things rather worse than better ; one unwise measure
being succeeded by a still more foolish law.
Prohibitionists who appeared before a committee of the Massa¬
chusetts legislature, some weeks ago, asserted that the present Eng¬
lish Beer Bill did not diminish drunkenness. Well, that is surely
not the fault of beer, any more than it was at the time of the famous
Gin Act that Smollett wrote about.
* L'eau de vie, ses dangers.
t History of England ; chap. XXXII.
19
I f people will not drink beer, having been educated by unwise
legislation to the use of ardent spirits, they cannot be held up
as examples of what fermented beverages will do for body and
mind.
It is true that at the time when beer and wine were yet the
common beverages of the people of England and Germany, inebriety
was no rare thing in either country, and exhortations against intem¬
perance from pulpit and rostrum were frequent. But it must not
be lost sight of, that these exhortations were directed against intem¬
perance in much the same spirit in which rebuke was administered
for gluttony, passion for dress, or like excesses. Drinking to excess
has been regarded as a national evil in England as well as in Ger¬
many, from the very earliest ages. When the Romans invaded
Britain they found the vice in full growth, and it is well known
what horrible stories Tacitus tells of the drinking habits of the Ger¬
mans of his time. But one will search in vain for the slightest
shadow of evidence in history that the knowledge of this evil was
linked with a fear of a degeneracy of race. Indeed, if these excesses,
uninterruptedly continued in both countries from the time of the
Roman invasions, had a degenerating influence on the people, the
histories of the two nations fail to reveal any indication of it.
Even early restrictive laws directed against intemperance are by no
means evidences of threatening moral and physical degeneracy of race.
For when, on the advice of Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury,
Edgar, in 958, issued his edict against alehouses—an act frequently
cited as an early precedent for restrictive measures—it could still be
said of the English people, " that in the midst of all vicious and
sensual indulgence the clergy of that day trod the path of sanctitv,
and that many of the laity, of all ranks and conditions, were well
pleasing to God." And we can surmise what the physical condition
of that nation must have been, which in the nine succeeding cen¬
turies has erected a vast empire and swept the armadas of the east¬
ern world from the seas.
In Germany the intemperate use of beer and wine had reached
its height in the sixteenth century, sometimes styled " the century
of drinking bouts and, indeed, the chronicles of some of the
performances at the convivial boards of that time appear almost
incredible. Yet after the Thirty Years' War had devastated the
vineyards in the south of Germany, and distilled spirits of a
most abominable quality had been introduced by the martial hordes
from the North, the debauches of past periods seemed like harmless
20
pastimes. The " horrors of alcoholism " then began for the first time
to be known on the banks of the Elbe, as well as on those of the
Khine, although as yet no uniform technical term had been found
for the evil.
"Want, suffering, despair, and laxity of morals aggravated the sad
consequences ; but the most destructive factor was again the bad
quality of the drink distilled from potatoes.
A negative illustration of the beneficent influence which beer ex¬
ercises on the moral and mental condition of men, is afforded by the
present state of things in Baden, a report on which is published
in the organ of the German temperance societies, The Nmdwest^ of
February 18th, 1884. It reads:
The grand duchy of Baden is, generally speaking, not a soil on which the
weeds of alcoholism will thrive. A good, light wine is raised almost throughout
the whole country, and thus the peasantry are protected against the use of strong
liquors ; besides, the large manufacture of beer, facilitated by an abundance of
grain and hops, grown in that country, removes pretty well the danger of the use
of liquors on the part of the working classes.
An exception to these natural conditions is found in the Black Forest, where the
sharp air, much colder weather, outdoor work, felling of trees, blasting of rocks,
plowing, etc., have driven the population to the use of alcohol. The property of
the peasant of the Black Forest consists in cattle, meadows and fields ; what he
owns besides these things is not much. The meadows belong to the cattle, while
the fields provide for the wants of men ; and on these fields the peasant will grow
summer wheat and potatoes alternately ; three-fourths of his food are potatoes and
one-fourth consists of bread, milk and pork. This coarse food, which at the same
time is hard to digest, together with hard labor, induces the farmer to use distilled
liquors, the more so as country-wine, beer or cider is not easily to be obtained.
Now, it has been generally observed that during recent years the use of liquors
has become a habit with the inhabitants of the plains, but only because there has
not been a really good wine-year since 1874 and 1876 ; in some parts of the country
the wine crop has even been an utter failure. But nobody doubts that, as soon as
the wine crop improves, the evil will disappear ; and in order to put a stop to the
habitual use of brandy, which in the Black Forest amounts to one-quarter litre daily,
per capita (in 1881 it was one-ninth litre per capita in the " Amt " of Mühlheim),
the Minister of the Interior has especially directed the authorities of the different
circuits to combat this evil by all legal means. Thus, we see, that our govern¬
ment has a watchful eye on the use of ardent liquors and the sale of the same.
But experience teaches us that such laws cannot be strictly enforced. In the rural
districts the use of liquors will certainly decrease. It may even disappear alto¬
gether, as soon as some good wine and fruit crops enable the poorer people to
obtain a cheap and wholesome homemade beverage. It will prove an impossibility
to abolish this evil entirely, so far as the Black Forest is concerned ; but it can be
lessened by the sale of some light beer and by the use of homemade beverages.
What the government has attômpted in this direction has not met with success."
Thus in Baden, as in most all civilized countries, the government
endeavors, by all means within its pow^, to accomplirii what the
21
good sense of the American people, aided, no doubt, by the noble
efforts of rational and honest temperance advocates, has achieved in
a great measure, and continues still to strive for.
Since Alsace-Lorraine has become part of Germany, the price of
wine, formerly the ordinary drink of the people, has risen to such
a figure, that the poorer classes can no longer afford to use it. They
now drink ardent spirits, distilled from prunes or cereals and the
result is, that alcoholism becomes more frequent. The director of
the insane asylum at Brumath, Dr. Stark, reported, in 1880, after
an investigation covering a period of six years, that 29 per cent, of
his male patients had been inebriates previous to their admission.
The climate as well as the habits of the people require a milder
drink there.
From a comparative table, based upon authentic statistics, it
appears that in 1873 the rate of mortality from alcoholism was
highest in Stockholm, Sweden ; lowest, except one other place, in the
three Bavarian cities : Munich, Würzburg and Nürnberg. In Stock¬
holm the rate among men was 1.95, among women 0.12; while in
Munich the rate among men was 0.15, and naught among women.
In the latter city, the capital of the land of beer-drinkers, the per
capita consumption of beer in that year was 250 maas, or about 62
gallons. In the duchy of Nassau the consumption of distilled spirits
had assumed uncommonly large proportions up to the year 1840, and in
consequence alcoholism had became so frequent, that the govern¬
ment felt constrained to adopt measures furthering the object of
temperance societies in introducing good beer for general consump¬
tion. Since then mental derangements from that cause have stead¬
ily grown less.
Such evidence could easily be made interminately cumulative.
Enough has been said, however, it is hoped, to show that a decrease
in the consumption of distilled spirits, attended by an increase in
the use of fermented beverages, in countries were the vine is indi¬
genous, must necessarily diminish that form of intemperance, from
which, when persisted in to excess, alcoholism and insanity are apt
to result.
Is there any reason for excepting our country from this univer¬
sally acknowledged and oft-tested rule ? And if there is none, how
can it be claimed, in the face of so many conditions favoring a
decrease of inebriety, that insanity has increased at such an enor¬
mous rate, because of the intemperate habits of the people ?
22
Anyone wishing to see cannot fail to perceive, that from 1870 to
1880 inebriety must have been less operative as a cause of insanity
than in former decades. If prohibitionists cannot see this, it must
be supposed they do not desire to see it, probably wishing for the con¬
trary. This is no idle supposition. Colonel Lucius B. Marsh, who
recently appeared before the Police Commissioners of Boston to
urge the high license system on behalf of the prohibitionists, said
that his party wants the evils of the liquor traffic to become more
and more grievous, so that their remedy shall be adopted perforce
in the end.* Can an impartial and unbiased judgment be expected
from such sources ?
Condition of the People.—Notwithstanding the business depres¬
sions which during part of the decade, from 1870 to 1880, weighed
heavily upon some industries, the general prosperity of the workers
has enormously increased, the material progress of the whole people
nigh bordering on the fabulous. Statisticians agree, that from the
beginning of time no such progress was ever recorded for so brief
a period, as that made by the United States from 1870 to 1880.
A more striking picture of our material development cannot be
conceived than that outlined in Mulhall's Balance-Sheet of the
United States, the essential features of which may thus be summed
up : Rise of aggregate American industries, 35 per cent. ; actual
increase of industry 525 millions, exceeding the maximum among
European nations (Great Britain) by 188 millions; excess of exports
over imports, 81 per cent. ; rise of manufacture, 30 per cent.; rise
of mining, 90 per cent. ; increase of farming stock, 33 per cent. ;
increase of carrying trade, 23 per cent ; increase in mileage of rail¬
ways and telegraphs, 100 per cent. ; increase of net income per in¬
habitant, per cent. ; decline of bankruptcies, 50 per cent. ;
reduction of national debt, 22 per cent. ; excess of grain supply
over consumption 18|^; excess of meat-supply over consumption,
36 per cent. ; 30 per cent, of the grain and 30 per cent, of the meat
of the world being produced by the United States.
Europe with a population of 327 millions produced 5,272 mil¬
lion bushels of grain, and consumed 5,652 million ; the United
States, with a population of 50 millions produced 2,390 million
bushels of grain and consumed 2,020 million, from which Mulhall
draws the conclusion that the " Americans are apparently the best
fed of all nations." Surely, in all this there is no ground on which
to base the assumption that drunkenness,-—quite as frequently caused
» N. T. Sun, Febraary, 1884.
23
by want as by anything else—has increased a hundred per cent., or
that it has increased at all.
Those who " guess " that intemperance is the cause of insanity
in fifty or in twenty-five, or in twenty, or even in fifteen cases out of
a hundred, might, if we had nothing better to oflfer them, form an
approximately correct opinion from the following authentic table :
Name of Country.
Per capita consumption of
Distilled Spirits.
Proportion of Intemperance to
other causes of insanity.
Denmark *
18 quarts.
19^
Sweden f
11 "
14^
North Germany
10 "
13^
Holland
9 "
12%
United States
41 "
?
The interrogation point in the second column opposite the name
of our country will presently be replaced by a figure.
INTEMPERANCE AS A CAUSE OF INSANITY STATISTICALLY CONSIDERED.
The question whether intemperance has been more active as a
cause of insanity during the ten years, ended in 1880, than in the
preceding decade, can definitely be solved by comparative statistics
only ; unless, indeed, both inductive and deductive reasoning be
resorted to, in which case, as we have seen, the question would
have to be negatived.
Underrating the difficulties to be overcome, the compiler origi¬
nally intended to prepare comparative statistics of insanity caused
by intemperance, and likewise of all forms of alcoholism. But at the
very beginning, this comprehensive plan had to be abandoned for one
whose execution seemed less likely to meet with insuperable obsta¬
cles, so that ultimately the inquiry was confined to institutions for
the treatment of the insane, instead of being extended to hospitals
also.
But even so, the investigation which in spite of many dis¬
couraging impediments, has been pursued with considerable persist¬
ence for six months, failed to yield one of the essential points of
the result sought for, viz.: the means for a comprehensive compari.
son with former years. Indeed, to be plain with the reader, no
amount of labor, however judiciously applied, will ever wholly sup-
♦t These Agares and all other iirformation contained In this sketch, and relating to Denmarkt
Sweden and Norway, are taken from official reports and statistics, for which the compiler is in.
debted to the kindness of Mr. Christian Boers, Swedish Consul, and Mr. T. Schmidt, Danish
Consul, both of New York. Information relating to other European countries has been obtained
from original sources directly.
24
ply this laok. The fact is, that in very many institutions the records
have been kept in such a manner as to preclude the possibility of
ascertaining the causes-of insanity in cases treated during past
years ; while in a great many other asylums the mode of inquiry
into the history of patients was such, that no one but the inquirer
himself could, with any degree of certainty, determine real or
assigned cause. But while the information contained in Appendix
A is not altogether satisfactory as a basis of general comparison, it
affords ample material for an entirely reliable judgment as to the
present extent of the relation which intemperance bears to insanity.
Appendix A comprises statistics from fifty-four institutions, in
addition to letters from the superintendents of twenty-six more.
In all, eighty institutions are accounted for in some way or other ;
in this number are included nearly all the larger institutions in the
country, and the geographical groups of States are pretty equally
represented.
According to the census of 1880 there were, in that year, one hun¬
dred and forty-nine hospitals for the treatment of the insane; forty
of these are very small institutions, having from two to ninety
patients; their aggregate number of patients being only 1261, out of
a grand total of 91,997. Inasmuch as very few of these smaller
asylums have been heard from, it may safely be asserted that three-
fourths of all the larger institutions in the country have contributed
to Appendix A.
In view of the fact that four successive circular letters have
been addressed to all those superintendents of insane asylums, who
failed to reply, it might not unreasonably be assumed that these
physicians, doubting the legitimacy or justifiableness of such an in¬
quiry, are unwilling to give the necessary information, or that they
are unable to do so from a want of explicit records. This, it is
deemed expedient to state distinctly, in order to avoid a possible
reproach of unfair discrimination or biased dealing. Throughout
his self-imposed task the compiler has been guided by no other
motive or desire but that of presenting to the public the whole
truth ; neither more nor less. It is for this reason that he has in
no instance changed, or essentially abridged the letters of transmit¬
tal accompanying statistics, or the letters containing only opinions.
The benefit of doubt has consistently been bestowed on the oppos¬
ing side ; as, for instance, in the case of the report from the Mil¬
waukee Asylum, in which, as appears from the heading, are in-
25
eluded cases " classified as inebriates." * This occurs in a tew more
instances, and tends, of course, to swell the average ratio. Uut no
deduction was attempted by the compiler in any instance.
Without going "behind the returns" in any case; without arbi¬
trarily changing or correcting any figures, but giving them and ac¬
counting for them strictly in accordance with the intentions of the
physicians from whom they emanate, and without availing himself
of the benefits of any dubious information—even where better
judgment seemed to dictate such a course—the compiler is bound
to conclude from the facts before him that, on an average, intemper¬
ance is the cause of insanity in seven cases out of one hv/ndred.
Following are the figures upon which this conclusion is based :
Number op Cases op In¬
H 63
sanity
Caused
by in-
Number or
temperance.
s ^ « s
^ u h
NAME OF ASYLUM.
Insane.**
ö ® s Ä
§!=&»
Male.
Female.
Total.
O S
1. Alabama Insane Hospital, Tusca¬
1
loosa
210
19
• * •
19
9.048
3. State Asylum, Napa, California...
563
31
5
36
6.358
3. " Stockton, "
106
8
» • « «
8
7.547
4. Lunatic Asylum, Pueblo, Cal
flOO
10
• * • •
10
10.000
5. Hospital for the Insane, Middle-
town, Conn
fioo
20
• • * •
^0
20.000
6. Retreat for Insane, Hartford, Conn.
78
4
1
5
6.416
7. Govt. Hosp. for the Insane, Wash¬
ington, D. C
265
54
1
55
20.774
8. Hlinois Central Hosp. for the In¬
sane, Jacksonville, Ills
215
8
• • • •
8
3.720
9. Southern Hospital for the Insane,
Anna, Ills
157
1
• • • •
1
.634
10. Eastern Hospital for the Insane,
Kankakee, Ills
188
17
3
19
10.106
11. Indiana Hospital for Insane, Indian¬
apolis, Ind
698
13
3
15
2.149
13. Iowa Hospital for the Insane,
Mount Pleasant, Iowa
f 100
25
• • • •
35
25.00
18. Iowa Hospital for the Insane, Inde¬
pendence, Iowa
871
18
1
19
3.181
14. Western Kentucky Lunatic Asy¬
lum, Hopkinsville, Ky
100
• • • •
71
7.50
15. Mt. Hope Retreat, Maryland
585
36
18
54
9.230
16. McLean Asylum, Somerville, Mass.
387
9
• • • •
9
8.797
17. Boston Lunatic Asylum, Mass
104
10
• • • •
10
9.615
18. Taunton " " ....
786
25
6
80
8.817
19. Danvers " "
731
64
34
88
12.205
20. Eastern Michigan Asylum, Pontiac
806
31
6
37
8.349
31. Michigan Asylum for the Insane,
Kalamazoo -
1" 3,534
159
• • • •
159
4.499
33. Minnesota Hospital for the Insane,
St. Peter, Minn
353
36
• • • •
26
10.376
38. Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum
429
1
• • « •
1
0.338
• See Dumber 80 of Appendix A.
26
Number of Cases of In¬
^ H
K g
9 m H ^
sanity
Caused
bt in-
NAME OF ASYLUM.
Number op
temperance.
g § g
Insane.♦♦
h « s jà
Male.
Female.
Total.
^ A s
® A
34. State Lunatic Asylum, Fulton, Mo.
1 2,000
77
77
3.550
25. St. Louis Insane Asylum, Missouri
T[ 2,204
169
"il
210
9.528
26. Missouri Lunatic Asylum, No. 2..
316
11
11
3.480
27. New Jersey State Lunatic Asylum,
Trenton, N. J
633
12
12
1.895
28. Erie County Asylum, Buffalo, N. Y.
339
2
'"i
3
.885
29. Hudson River State Hosp., Pough-
keepsie, N. Y
277
22
2
24
8.664
30. State Lunatic Asylum, Utica, N.Y.
404
36
2
38
9.406
31. St. Vincent Refuge for the Insane,
Harrison, N. Y
39
• • • •
1
1
2.564
32. State Homeopathic Asylum, Mid-
dletown, N. Y
509
5
• • • •
5
0.982
33. Marshall Infirmary, Troy, N. Y...
274
109
6
115
41.971
34. Buffalo State Asylum, Buffalo, N.Y.
265
28
7
35
13 207
35. Sanfoid Hall, Flushing, N. Y...
45
2
1
3
6.668
36. Dayton (Ohio) Asylum
TT 5,409
221
10
231
4,270
37. Columbus (OW) Asylum
290
16
• • •
16
5.517
38. Longview Asylum, Carthage, Ohio
1 4,647
398
85
483
10.396
39. Athens (0), Asylum for the Insane
216
13
3
16
7.407
40. Cleveland (Ohio) Asylum
244
18
• • • •
18
7.377
41. State Hospital for the Insane, Nor-
ristown. Pa
532
31
31
5.827
42. State Hospital for the Insane, War¬
ren, Pa
423
6
1
7
1.654
43. Lunatic Hospital, Harrisburg, Pa..
64
4
3
7
10.937
44. Asylum for the Relief of Persons
Deprived of the Use of their
Reason, Philadelphia, Pa
1 1,063
110
8
118
11.100
45. Pennsylvania Hospital for the In¬
sane (Kirkbride), Phila., Pa....
1 2,212
285
• • • •
285
12.884
46. Butler Hospital, Providence, R. I..
195
7
4
11
5.641
47. South Carolina Lunatic Asylum,
Columbia
603
19
2
21
3.482
48. Tennessee Hospital for the Insane,
Nashville
408
5
2
7
1.715
49. Vermont Hospital for the Insane,
Brattleboro, Vt
100
n
• • • •
6|
6.40
50. Western Lunatic Asylum, Staun¬
ton, Va
534
32
2
34
6 386
51. Eastern Lunatic Asylum, Williams¬
1.679
burg, Va
536
9
• • • *
9
52. Central Lunatic Asy.,Richmond,Va.
184
1
0
1
12.500
53. West Virginia Hospital for the In¬
59
59
8.613
sane, Weston, W. Va
685
• • • •
54. Milwaukee Asylum for the Insane,
17.946
Wauwatosa, Wis
117
21
....
21
86,973
2,334
254
2,588
Toial average percentage, 6.99.
** The numbers given in this column are those of patients admitted either during the year 1888,
or the most recent year for which statements could be obtained. Figures marked t are assume^
the ratio only being given by the superintendents. Figures marked 1 represent the aggregate
number of patients admitted during a number of years.
27
Statistics from the asylum on Ward's Island, the largest in the
country, could not be included in the table, having been received
too late for that purpose. The figures, to which attention is particu¬
larly invited,will be found at the end of Appendix A. They could
in no manner have changed the general result, inasmuch as Dr.
Macdonald, the superintendent of the asylum, writes that only a
relatively small number of those given under the heading " Intem¬
perance" is solely áviQ to that cause, but that in the majority several
causes cooperate." Such cases could not properly have been in¬
cluded in our table.
Undoubtedly, the table is not wholly correct ; but prohibitionists
should not ignore the fact that it is the very best statistical exhibit
that can be prepared with the attainable material ; that no other
material can be obtained from oflScial sources, and that all its de¬
fects tend to render the ratio larger than it actually is.
There is an error in the table that could not be corrected, as the
matter had already been electrotyped when it was discovered. The
percentage at the Marshall Infirmary, Troy (41.97) seemed rather
high, and an explanation was asked, under the impression that the
Infirmary might be an institution for the cure of inebriates. The
following letter was received in reply to our inquiry ;
Medical Superintendent's Office,
Marshall Infirmary and Bensselaer County Lwmtic Asylum,
Troy, N. T., March 21st, I884.
Dear Sir: Your letter of the 5th was mis'aid, and has just now come
before me.
The statistics I sent you relate to the sick department of this institution. If
it is not too late, I will furnish those of the Asylum, if you desire them.
Yours respectfully,
JOS. D. LOMAX.
It is easy to see how much smaller the average ratio would have
been without this error.
In examining the statistics and comparing it with the opinions
expressed by superintendents of asylums, one will scarcely be able
to suppress a degree of astonishment at the glaring disparity which
exists between them in many cases.
Dr. H. A. Oilman^ Superintendent of the Hospital for the
Insane, at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, for example, writes : " I am pre¬
pared to say that about twenty-five per cent, of the cases of insanity,
in something more than seven thousand patients that I have been
28
familiar with, has resulted from the use of alcoholic beverages. . , .
Twenty-five per cent, more may be traceable to same cause as a
result of drunkenness in the parent." Dr. Oilman gives only a
statistical estimate to bear this out ; but an estimate, the correctness
of which it would be unfair as well as impolite to doubt.
His colleague. Dr. G. H. Hill, Superintendent of the Insane
Hospital at Independence, Iowa, furnishes detailed and positive
statistics from 1874 to 1883; and from this it appears, that in the
latter year 19 patients out of 871 were treated for insanity, caused
by intemperance ; the proportion being 2.19 per cent. Here, then,
we have a difference of 22.81 per cent, between the statistical esti¬
mate of one physician and the statistics of another in one and the
same State.
The difference here, as in other instances, may be explained in
various ways ; but for such explanations the reader must be referred
to the letters contained in Appendix A. Much depends upon the
disposition of the physicians to accept one or the other of the many
theories bearing on this subject. This being a purely statistical
sketch, no attempt can or will, however, be made to discuss this side
of the subject. Yet it may not be out of place to quote the follow¬
ing from an article written by Dr. A. I. Thomas, of the Indiana
Hospital for the Insane, and published in The Indiana Medical
Journal :
Dr. Hammond, in Iiis new book on insanity, classes alcohol as a potent cause
of mental disturbance No one will dispute the fact that alcohol does properly
bear a portion of the blame for insanity, but I do not consider it so puisant a factor
as Dr. Hammond insists that it is. In a clinical experience of more than four
years in an establishment for the treatment of insane persons my views upon this
subject have been somewhat modified. At one time in my life I regarded alcohol
as the cause of half of the cases of insanity, because I had been taught that such
was the fact. Now I believe, of course, speaking from my experience alone, it
produces a very small amount of such disease. My error was and is a common
one, and is one into which both the profession and laity fall. It will always
astonish one to examine the records of admission in the Indiana Hospital for the
Insane, and note the small number of cases attributed to over-indulgence in alco¬
holic beverages. During the fiscal year ending October 31, 1882, there were 762
admissions—415 men and 347 women. In that number there were 26 cases—^22
men and 4 women—rated as the victims of alcoholism, or, rather, indulgence in
alcoholic liquors was given as the cause. A calculation will show that the per¬
centage was a very small one, being a fraction over three and one-half per cent, of
the total number.
Dr. Hammond and Drs. Bucknill and Tuke, of England, attribute to alcohol
the production of a large number of cases of general paralysis of the insane. Dr.
H. says twenty per cent, of his cases belong in that category. In one of the works-
29
of Bucknill.and Tuke we find tliis observation: "Drink causing poverty, and
poverty leading to drink (the former in by far the larger proportion of cases), are
the familiar antecedents of an attack of general paralysis."
Dr. Mickle, of London, in his "General Paralysis of the Insane," says:
" Alcoholic excesses are first in the list of causes. "
Dr. Thomas J.' Austin, of England, Medical Officer of the Bethnal House
Asylum, differs with the authorities I have just quoted. In his book, which is the
best treatise extant on this subject. Dr. A. gives the complete course of seventy-
seven cases, as to cause, history, duration and post mortem results. In this
number ten cases are attributed to intemperance in the use of alcoholic beverages.
Dr. Austin says : " The ten cases which are attributed to intemperance will strike
those who seem inclined to ascribe every ill that flesh is heir to to the abuse of
alcoholic drinks as too few. However willing to admit drunkenness as a frequent
source of physical disease, I very much doubt the truth of the reiterated assertion
that it is often the immediate cause of insanity, and still more of general paralysis.
It is more than propable that in the ten cases mentioned, the mind was already
giving "way when the incipient paralytic gave way to liquor, and that he flew to
alcohol as a consoler to escape from that overwhelming care, in which is to be
sought the true cause of his malady. That the disease is hastened by intemper¬
ance is likely ; but inasmuch as the very characteristic physical symptoms, the
result of intemperance are entirely wanting in general paralysis, drunkenness
cannot be conceded as a primary, though in some cases, it is doubtless a powerful
auxiliary cause."
For the purposes of this sketch it is not necessary to weigh the
information, giving a high ratio, against that which shows a small
proportion of insanity caused by intemperance. Neither the cor¬
rectness of the one, nor the reliability of the other will he ques¬
tioned ; indeed, they cannot he questioned, unless the hope of ever
establishing a statistical basis be at once relinquished.
The principal consideration is the average proportion, and this
seems to be very nearly what the decrease in the consumption of
distilled spirits would inevitably point out.
If a per capita consumption of distilled spirits of 18 quarta
produces 19 per cent, of insanity in Denmark—a country where,,
according to the authorities already quoted, inebriety assumes amore-
brutal and disastrous form than here, why should a per capita con--
sumption of 4^ quarts produce a greater proportion of insanity thanj
seven per cent., in a country whose people enjoy a much greater
degree of material prosperity than the Danes ?
If the comparative table on page 23 be consulted, it will be
found that even seven per cent, would appear to be proportionately
too high.
A comparison with former years may be instituted on a some¬
what general basis by adopting the statistics quoted by Dr. Baer, in
his work on Alcoholism. It is stated there, reference being made to
30
Lunier's work on the same subject—^that of 14,941 insane, treated
in sixteen institutions in the United States, 1788 were deprived of
the use of their reason by intemperance. The proportion is 11.97
per cent. Of 3,084 patients treated in the asylum at Worcester,
Massachusetts, from 1833 to 1848, there were 322 whose mental
derangement was caused by the excessive use of intoxicants. Dr.
Edward Jarvis ascertained by direct inquiry that of 22,113 cases of
insanity, 2,896 or 13 per cent, were traceable to excessive imbibi¬
tion of alcoholic beverages. The latter inquiry must have been
made about 17 years ago. Keeping in view the fact that the con¬
sumption of distilled spirits has decreased ; that the drinking habits
of the people have become more refined, and that the amelioration
of the condition of the workers has removed a large number of
incentives to inebriety, one can readily understand that the propor¬
tion of insanity should have decreased from 13 and 11 to 7 per
cent.
The small proportion of insanity caused by intemperance in the
Southern States finds its explanation in a number of well-known cir¬
cumstances. The large colored population is very temperate and
much less liable to alcoholism. The " Medical and Surgical History
of the War of the Rebellion," furnishes striking proof of this as¬
sertion. Of the available force of white troops, averaging 431,237
men in the field and in garrisons, ten thousand came under me¬
dical treatment either for delirium tremens, inebriety or chronic
alcoholism; of the available force of colored troops, averaging
60,854 men, only fifty required medical treatment for like causes.
The proportion in the former case is 2.378 per cent. ; in the latter
0.082.
In his annual report for 1883, the Surgeon General of the
Army confirms these observations. On page 9, this point is elucidated
in the following manner : " It is interesting to note that the colored
troops make a particularly favorable showing in the small number
of admissions for alcoholism and its results, exhibiting, as they do,
a rate of only four (4) per thousand (1,000) to a rate of seventy six
(76) per thousand (1,000) of mean strength among the whites. On
the other hand, in diseases of the nervous system they have an
unexplained preponderance."
The mild climate, imposing few hardships on the poor; the small
urban population ; the comparatively simple mode of life, and, pro¬
bably, also the quality of ardent spirits consumed in the South, in
31
a measure account for the small ratio of the results of alcoholism
there.
The question of quality should not be underrated, seeing that it
is almost as important a factor in the production of brain-diseases
as the quantity consumed. The celebrated Gothenburg system (*)
did not diminish the consumption of ardent spirits until very re¬
cently. The result of an investigation, conducted by a duly
appointed Committee of Revision, shows that while from 1862 to
1866, the per capita consumption was from 3.85 to 4.37 ka/ns^ it rose
to 4:.lh kans, in 1872, and 5.14 kans,\n 1876. Notwithstanding
these facts—which, by the way, clearly demonstrate the utter futi¬
lity of any attempt to regulate the appetites of the people, even by
such a good measure as the Swedish system is said to be—the rate
of insanity caused by alcohol has decreased appreciably, and so has
the rate of mortality from the same cause. This decrease is, among
other things, ascribed to the excellent quality of distilled spirits,
the government having prescribed and maintained strict surveillance
over the methods of distilling and rectifying.
Reversing the position, the question of quality must be al¬
lowed a prominent place in considering the very large proportion of
insanity from intemperance in populous cities and large manufactur¬
ing centers. Here the poor quality of ardent spirits, the shocking
sanitary condition of badly ventilated, overcrowded dwellings, the
insufficiency of food, want of fuel and other like causes combine
to render the drinker an exceedingly easy prey to the dreaded
disease.
It is one of the inestimable merits of the Swedish system, that
through the agencies of unselfish private associations, it has improved
the condition of the laboring classes and thereby done away with
many incentives to excesses.
Dr. Marvaud attributes inebriety to two principal causes ; one is
the " incredible activity and frantic struggle for gain," the other:
" the insufficiency of food among the poor classes." f He is of
opinion that the temperance question will be brought nearer to its solu¬
tion by any efforts which would supply the poor with those aliments,
whose want drives them to the use and abuse of stimulants. In
our land of plenty, poverty and misery of the extreme type are found
* In another part of this sketch the working of the Swedish law is briefly described.
t " Cette activité incroyable, cette concurrence vital« effirénée." L'alcool, son action son
utilité et ses applications, &c. Paris, 1872. '
32
only in very populous cities and large manufacturing centers ; and
in these localities the proportion of insanity from the cause in
question is very high.
Not the least singular and significant feature of the letters
contained in Appendix A, is the pronounced inclination on the part
of a number of writers to counterbalance the seemingly inconsider¬
able effects of alcohol on the drinker directly, by making positive
or suggestive statements as to the supposed effects of inebriety on
the offsprings of besotted parents. As the question of heredity is
entirely beyond the range of the present inquiry, only casual atten¬
tion can be bestowed on such allusions. What we have to deal with
here, are the direct effects of intemperance. We have seen, that in
this respect, opinions of professionals and laymen move in extremes ;
and from this divergence of views in a matter capable of statistical
verification, we may infer what must be the conflict of opinions
on a subject, which has baffled the efforts of accomplished statis¬
ticians.
The result of Dr. Howe's inquiry (see page 5) seems to have
been the only statistical guide to nearly all those who have written
on the subject ; for nowhere do we find more than learned general¬
izations, from which everything or nothing may be deduced, accord¬
ing to the inclination and predisposition of the reader. Excepting the
English investigation, the only thorough and comprehensive in¬
quiry into the effects of intemperance—so far as known to the compiler
—is that which was instituted by the Danish government.* But the
report of the Danish Statistical Bureau on inebriety contains but
very meagre information on the point in question ; and the dearth
of such data argues inability on the part of the enquirers to obtain
reliable statistics ; for the report treats very extensively and minutely
of the causes of pauperism and crime, and gives the proportion
of drunkards to offsprings of drunkards throughout the kingdom
from 1870 to 1880. Thus, for instance, the number of paupers
from 1870 to 1880 is given, also the number of those whose depen¬
dence was caused by their own or their parents' intemperance, and
furthermore the number of intemperate paupers, born of intemper¬
ate parents ; the proportion of the latter to the former being 14 per
cent. Had it been a task capable of accomplishment, the Statistical
Bureau of Denmark, would no doubt have gathered similarly com¬
prehensive statistics in Reference to mental taints transmitted from
♦ Drikfaeldigheds Forholdene i Danmark, September, 1882.
33
drunken parents to their offsprings. As it is, there is but one asy¬
lum for idiots from which such data could be obtained. It is the
private institution of G. Bakkehus and F. Mathisen. The propor¬
tion of idiots born of intemperate parents to the total number of
admissions is as follows :
TEAK. ADMISSIONS. BORN OF INTEMPERATE PARENTS.
1871 13
1872 19 2
1873 17 1
1874 18 1
1875 18 3
1876 40 2
1877 21 6
1878 15
1879 20 3
1880 15 1
196 19
The average proportion is about ten per cent. How does this
compare with Dr. Howe's figure ?
After this digression, we return to the showing of our table, to re¬
iterate that seven per cent, is a fair average, that it agrees with the
ratio in Other countries, and is in harmony with the many internal
evidences of decreasing inebriety in the United States.
If now, after having already made a number of unwarranted
concessions to the opposing side, we should assume said proportion
to fall short of the actual state of things by three per cent., we
would certainly be justified in claiming that we have overdone
fairness.
If, then, ten per cent, be accepted as a correct ratio, it would follow
that the proportion of this class of insane to the population is one in
over five thousand, since the proportion of insane to population is
one in five hundred. That is to say, of the fifty-one million souls
constituting the population of the United States in 1880, nine thou¬
sand two hundred have become insane by reason of intemperance ;
the total number of insane being 91,997.
What a difference between these figures and the estimates of
temperance advocates I
As a matter of fact, the proportion of insanity caused by intem¬
perance directly is seven per cent. ; hence, of the entire population
of our country, six thousand four hundred and forty have become
insane by reason of excessive drinking.
3é
ALCOHOLIC IHEBRIETY, INSANITY AND BEER.
It would be an affront to the intelligence of the reader to demon¬
strate here, by reproducing the results of chemical analyses,
the relative inebriating qualities of distilled liquors, wine and
beer.
The most implacable enemy of King Gambrinus will readily
admit that beer is the least intoxicating of these three kinds of
beverages ; but he will at the same time insist that beer-drinking
leads to whiskey-drinking ; and that beer, if used to excess, will
produce insanity quite as surely, if not as speedily, as ardent
spirits.
The slightest reflection must convince an impartial mind that if
the use of beer had a tendency to create a craving for ardent spirits,
the result would be the very reverse of what the revenue returns
show to be the fact. The per capita consumption of distilled liquors
would not then be on a decline, attended by an increase in the per
capita consumption of beer, as has been the case during the decade
ended in 1880. Indeed, a more powerful argument in favor of fer¬
mented beverages could not be conceived than is presented by the
bare figures of the revenue returns, since they prove that beer, far
from exciting an appetite for ardent spirits, has tended to largely
diminish the per capita consumption of these very liquors; and what¬
ever change has been effected in the drinking habits of the people,
is due exclusively tq the more general use of fermented drinks.
Anyone familiar with life in the metropolis, knows that thousands
upon thousands of former whiskey-drinkers now throng the pleasant
halls and gardens, where music helps to stimulate that genial sociabil¬
ity and " Gemüthlichkeit " which beer invariably produces. With a
taste for beer, the Americans have acquired also a knowledge of the
art of recreation, in which they had theretofore been very deficient,
and recreation is conceded to be a good preventive of insanity in
many instances. In his " History of the Pennsylvania Hospital,"
Dr. J. Forsyth Meigs, reflecting the opinions of one of the most
eminent physicians of our country, the late Dr. Kirkbride, says, in
reference to recreations for the insane : " I will pause for a moment
to ask whether these experiences of an intelligent medical observer
of the value of amusements for the solace and cure of the insane, ought
not to lead us to a higher appreciation of their value for the well.
35
Are not the Germans, as a nation, wiser than we, in the national
habit thej have formed of giving more of their time to entertain¬
ment and relaxation ? Thej do no less work than we, of all
kinds, mental and muscular, and yet appear to suffer less from
insanity."
In this connection the compiler cannot refrain from quoting so
acute and impartial an observer of events as the editor of The
Ifew ÎTorh Times, who closed an editorial article on the celebration
of the second centenary of the German immigration in the following
words : " It would be difficult to compute the good that German
immigration has done us in importing German music and German
beer, and in the labor of the German immigrants as social mission¬
aries, practically showing what was practically unknown in this
country before they came, that it is possible on occasion to be idle and
innocent."
Of similar utterances from equally good and trustworthy sources
there is no dearth ; they reflect the conviction, which is gaining
more and more ground, that the German immigrants, who are under
so many obligations to American genius and American institutions
for their political and material well-being, have been the means of
inculcating into the American mind an appreciation of Seneca's :
"Now and then we should ease and refresh the mind with
pleasures."
Prohibitionists will, however, attach but little weight to such
general statements of fact ; with the persistency that characterizes
all their actions, they will, in spite of all that can be said, cling to
their preconceived ideas, however seriously these may be in conflict
with the sum of experience. For this reason it is deemed neces¬
sary to adduce statistical evidence of their errors.
The majority of Germans, not all of them, by any means, are
habitual beer-drinkers. If the use of beer had a tendency to create
an appetite for whiskey, the result would necessarily be a trans¬
formation of the drinking habits of the Germans, and the revenue
returns would, we repeat, furnish the most reliable proof of such a
tranformation. But there is, if not a more powerful, at least a
more direct way of dispelling doubts on this question.
Appendix B contains a statistical report of five hundred cases of
alcoholic inebriety, treated at the Inebriates-Home for Kings County
New York.*
• I am nnder great obligationB to Dr. Blanchard, who has kindly caused such statistical
information, as is not contained in Dr. Lewis T. Mason's valuable report, to be sent to me.
36
The report sets forth, among other facts, the nationality of the
inebriates, the kind and quantity of drink ordinarily consumed, and
the kind of drink to which the necessity for medical treatment is
attributable. Tables III, lY, Y and YI, being summaries of table
II, show : That of the five hundred inebriates
338 were born in the United States,
92 " " Ireland,
27 " " England,
17 " " Canada,
13 " " Germany,
10 " " Scotland,
3 " " South America.
Kings county, according to the last census, had a population of
599,495 in the year 1880. The city of Brooklyn which is situated
in Kings county, had a native population of 388,969 and a foreign
population of 17Y,694 ; of the latter 104,291 came from Great
Britain and Ireland, and 55,339 from Germany.
The proportion of native to whole population is 68.64
The proportion of immigrants from Great Britain and Ireland to
whole population is 18.41
The proportion of immigrants from Germany to whole population is. 9.77
The proportion of native inebriates to the whole number of ine¬
briates (500) is 67.60
The proportion of inebriates born in Great Britain and Ireland to
whole number of inebriates is 25.80
The proportion of inebriates born in Germany to whole number of
inebriates is 2.60
The tables also show that the necessity for medical treatment is
attributable
To distilled liquors in 441 cases.
To distilled and fermented liquors 35 "
To fermented liquors 24 "
500
It is true, a large proportion of inebriates are reported as having
been addicted to the use of both fermented and distilled liquors,
but it is evident from the nativity of these persons that but for the
newly created taste for beer, they would have been habitual whiskey-
drinkers. With them bew plays the part of a mitigator of the
habit. A man who drinks a pint of whiskey and ten glasses of beer
daily, can scarcely be classed as an habitual beer-drinker.
37
Excepting two, the Germans who are included in table II. are,
like so many of those coming from North-Germany, votaries of the
old American drinking habit.
The tables further show that among the twenty-four habitual
consumers of fermented drinks :
Of these twenty-four inebriates, twelve are reported to have
suffered from complicating diseases or injuries ; the majority of these
had syphilitic diseases, of which it is well known that they frequently
produce insanity, without the contributive influence of intoxi¬
cants. In truth, in the lists of assigned causes of insanity syphilitic
diseases, sexual excesses and sensual vices occupy a prominent
place.*
In order to enable the reader to judge as to what share fermented
drinks have had in producing the affliction of these twelve inebriates,
the compiler quotes from the fourteenth report of Dr. Lewis D.
Mason, consulting physician to the Inebriates' Home in question :
" The physician in all cases of Dipsomania, should look behind the
mere symptoms of drink craving, and, as in Diabetes, in which
the excessive thirst is merely symptomatic of disease, his remedies
should be directed to the seat of the disorder. In some instances he
will find Dipsomania to depend on a diseased condition that he can
relieve. In other instances, as in some forms of head injuries, he
can scarcely hope to cure the dipsomaniac ; as in traumatic epilepsy,
so in traumatic Dipsomania the prognosis must be extremely un¬
favorable."
The doctor cites instances in -which the inordinate craving for
drink was subdued by a removal of its exciting cause, the dis¬
eased condition of the patient. A case in point is that of a patient
suffering from a combination of periodical dipsomania and stricture.
Dr. Mason effected a cure of the latter disease, whereupon the ex¬
cesses of periodical drinking ceased.
It must be kept in mind that persons are frequently confined in
the Inebriates' Home, either of their wish and accord, or at the
request of their relatives, simply to keep them out of the way of
* The annual report of the Asylum at Stockton, Cal. (1877-1878), under the heading of sup.
posed causes of Insanity shows : Masturbation, 17. Intemperance, 84. This is an example taken
at random.
15 were born in the
6 " " .
United States.
Ireland.
... .Germany.
England.
38
apprehended harm. If this were not the case, it would be difficult
to understand why No. 2, table lY., should be confined in such an
institution. Here we have an editor, 22 years of age, who habi¬
tually consumed one quart of beer daily—one fourth of the quan¬
tity that the average Bavarian " Bürgersfrau " (house-wife) ordi¬
narily consumes, without exhibiting the slightest symptoms of
intoxication. In this case, mental over-exertion was doubtless the
prime cause of the drinker's discomfiture.
The table of quantities consumed is very interesting.
In his work on Alcoholism, Dr. Baer dwells at length on the
difference in the quantities of distilled liquors it takes to produce
delirium tremens in different persons. Of ninety-six inebriates un¬
der his treatment, only thirteen had attacks of delirium tremens ;
the majority of the remainder had been accustomed to drink three
fourths of a quart of whiskey or more daily, during periods of time,
varying from six to twenty-five years ; one patient ordinarily con¬
sumed from 1 to 1|- quarts daily for ten years, and another 2
quarts for eight years, without ever having an attack of delirium
tremens.
In table lY. we find three inebriates who used either wine exclu¬
sively, or wine and beer. Two of the twenty-four inebriates had
attacks of delirium tremens ; one of these suffered from a concus¬
sion ; the other, a female bartender, was addicted to the use of both
wine and beer.
Becapitulating the showing of appendix B, we find that the
native population, being 68.64 per cent, of the whole population,
contributed 67.60 per cent, to the aggregate number of inebriates,
that the Irish, English and Scotch, being 18.41 per cent, of the
whole population, contributed 25 per cent. ; and that the Germans,
forming 9.77 per cent, of the entire population, contributed 2.60
per cent. The native population has one per cent, less than its pro¬
portion ; Irish, English and Scotch have 6.59 per cent, more, and
the Germans 7.17 less than their proportion. Of the thirteen Ger¬
man inebriates, only two were habitual drinkers of fermented
liquors. Of the five hundred inebriates four hundred and forty-one
owed their affliction to distilled liquors ; thirty-five to distilled and
fermented liquors, and twenty-four to fermented beverages exclu¬
sively. Of these twenty-four inebriates, twelve had grave compli¬
cating diseases or injuries ; and only two, one who drank beer and
39
wine, another who suffered from a concussion, had attacks of deli¬
rium tremens.
However unfavorably this showing may be construed, it surely
cannot, from any rational point of view, be made to appear that
beer has a tendency to supplant itself by creating an appetite for
ardent spirits. The reverse is true, as must be admitted from the
fact that no German habitual beer-drinkers, excepting the two
last mentioned (one being a female bar-tender and the other a sufferer
from injuries to the head), are among the inebriates ; while twenty-
two of the twenty-four inebriates addicted exclusively to the use of
fermented beverages, belong to nationalities whose ordinary drink
is not beer.
It is extremely difficult to determine what proportion of those
inebriates who have had attacks of delirium tremens, ultimately
become insane. Dr. Lewis D. Mason, * who, as has been said, is the
consulting physician of the Inebriates' Home at Fort Hamilton, had
the kindness to tell the compiler that it would be venturesome
under any circumstances to give a statistical estimate. He did- not
hesitate, however, to say, that in cases where intemperance results
in insanity, attacks of delirium tremens are generally—not always—
the precursors. How, of our 500 inebriates, 161 had attacks of
delirium tremens, and of this number only two were habitual drink¬
ers of fermented drinks. The proportion is per cent. Of these
two, we repeat, one was a female bar tender and the other suffered
from a concussion.
How utterly untenable do all the exaggerated statements of
prohibitionists appear in the light of such incontrovertible figures!
In concluding this chapter, attention may again be called to Dr. v.
Ziemsen's letter, showing that in Munich, where the per capita con¬
sumption of beer amounts to over 235 quarts, only 21 out of 10,000
patients suffered from.alcoholism.
♦ Dr. Mason's opinion of malt liquors is expressed in his paper on " Alcoholic Insanity,"
in which, detailing the method of treating Inebriates, he writes : " As a rule, I have found that
when stimulants are indicated, the malt liquors are preferable to spirituous liquors. Bass' ale
Gulness' stout or lager beer, when a milder form is required. The value of malt liquors, in addi¬
tion to their greater food properties, is due to their moderately stimulating qualities, combined
with marked sedative or even hypnotic properties.
40
PAUPERISM.
The causes of this worst type of destitution are so multiform
and complex that any attempt at generalization must lead to pal¬
pable fallacies.
Pauperism is found everywhere — in sterile countries of the
North, where life has scarcely any charms for the laborer, where
work is hard, and compensation small ; as well as in fertile southern
lands, where nature lavishes her richest gifts in greatest profusion
upon many-headed indolence ; where work is rarely more than, a
past-time and life an endless round of pleasure-seeking.
While pauperism presents the same pitiable aspect everywhere,
it does not everywhere and at all times arise from the same set of
causes; nor are the opinions regarding the latter more uniform.
Economists are particularly unsuccessful in their efforts to agree
upon some few general sources for what they term involuntary
poverty, the result of economic and social conditions of different
lands and times. If one would consult the works of economists of
different nations on this subject, he would, passing from one lan¬
guage to another, have to unlearn to-morrow what he learned to¬
day. He would find that the dismemberment of large landed
estates—remnants of the feudal system—has not accomplished for
Germany what insular economists think it would for England ; he
would see that England's flourishing commerce, her mastery over
the seas, and her industrial development, have no more prevented
the growth of pauperism in Great Britain, than the French billions
have in Germany ; while in France, a country whose resources
were drained almost to the bottom, he would find poverty
decreasing.
One hears it asserted now and again, that the application of
steam to manufactures and agricultural labor has created an army
of involuntary idlers, paupers by force of circumstances, for whom
the State ought to provide ; that over-production and over-specula¬
tion, with their accompaniments of lock-outs, strikes, and financial
crises, are at the root of this social evil. In short, there is no end
of theories in regard to causes of involuntary poverty.
The question as to the sources of voluntary indigence is much
more readily answered—if we allow prohibitionists to make the
41
answer ; which latter, in that case, would consist of the one single
word : Intemperance.
Instead of investigating the correctness of this assumption, let
us reverse the position, by enquiring whether or not poverty is a
cause of intemperance. In doing so, we will follow a no less illus¬
trious example than that set by the celebrated Liebig, who, in his
" Chemische Briefe," says :
" In many places destitution and misery have been ascribed to
the increasing use of spirits. This is an error. The use of spirits
is not the cause, but an effect of poverty. It is an exception from
the rule when a well-fed man becomes a spirit-drinker. On the
other hand, when the laborer earns, by his work, less than is re¬
quired to provide the amount of food which is indispensable in
order to restore fully his working power, an unyielding^ inexorable
law or necessity compels him to ha/ce recourse to spirits^
The same opinion is held by nearly all impartial medical writers,
and forms, indeed, one of the guiding principles of the temperance
agitation in Sweden and in the Netherlands, in England and in
Germany.* "Want of wholesome food, lack of pure air and water,
and the total absence of home comforts and pleasures, render the
life of the average laborer in many of the larger cities of these
European countries almost unbearable. The social condition of
these persons is recognized as the principal reason for their excesses
in drinking, to which they frequently resort only to forget their
misery, to subdue their craving for nourishing food, or to gain
strength for their ceaseless toil.
Swedish humanitarians have, therefore, begun to build properly
ventilated, comfortable dwellings for the laborers. They furnish
food at prices covering cost of production only ; they give with open
hand all the means for public enjoyments, and institute reading
rooms and popular theatres for the masses. The results of the
Swedish efforts in this direction have only confirmed what was
■" Roesch says ; " The position of poor laborers, who are compelled to forego not only all the
pleasures of life, but also the most needed nutriments, while working hard and incessantly, is a
fruitful source of intemperance." Marvaud writes: "I say, then, to hygienists and legislators,
that if they would successfully combat alcoholism, they must ameliorate the condition of the
poor by giving them a Bufllciency of wholesome food, and moderate doses of stimulants, mild and
above all things unadulterated." Dr. Everts, Superintendent of the Cincinnati Sanitarium, in his
"What shall we do for the Drunkard Î " says: "It is probable, also, from the clinical history of
drunkenness, that any cause of exhaustion of a special character, especially such as aflfect the brain
and cord primarily ; or a deprivation of nutritious and palatable food, on account of insufflciency,
or bad cooking ; or an inability to digest and assimilate food of a sufficleotly stimulating cbano-
ter, becomes a predisposing cause of drunkenness."
42
theoretically known and practically tested, in a limited degree,
many years ago in some of the populous cities of Europe. When
the gin excitement was at its height in England, the question of
combating intemperance among the working classes by measures
tending to ameliorate the sanitary condition of workingmen's dwel¬
lings, was thoroughly ventilated, and many instances of the efficacy
of such temperance efforts were brought to light. Dr. Southwood
Smith cited a case in point : " In Lambeth Square, near Waterloo
road, a population of 434 souls were huddled together. One person
in five was diseased, and fifty and sixty per thousand annually died.
The square was drained, water was made abundant, and used to
carry away what formerly remained in cesspools. The change soon
appeared. The mortality declined to thirteen per thousand. The
intemperate became sober, and the disorderly well-conducted, after
taking up their abode in these healthful dwellings."'
Can a more powerful proof of the causality of poverty in con¬
nection with intemperance be conceived ?
It has already been stated, according to the latest statistical re¬
ports from Sweden, that in spite of the stringent liquor laws, the
consumption of ardent spirits has not decreased there until very
recently ; yet all the evils of intemperance, formerly complained of,
had long ago been reduced to a minimum ; and this favorable re¬
sult is attributed, first, to the excellent quality of ardent spirits,
and, secondly, to the ameliorated condition, materially and intel¬
lectually, of the workingmen.
Not only wholesome food for the body, but nourishment for the
mind is sought to be procured for the workers, and in this latter
respect, indeed, too much cannot be done in the interest of temper¬
ance. J. Leffort, in his oft-quoted work, " Intempérance et
Misère," classifies idleness with the more prolific sources of intem¬
perance—idleness in the sense of intellectual sloth. The action of
idleness upon inebriety, he says, is so obvious that we do not ven¬
ture to dwell at length on this point, fearing to bore the reader.
Enough to say, that the man whose thoughts are fixed on nothing,
whose mental faculties are without employment, whose limbs are
idle, is by reason of his idleness more apt to yield to the caprices
of his desires than he who is actively engaged in a task. The
ennui which idleness engenders, readily leads to intemperance.
Those who have studied the temperance question as it presents
itself in England are agreed that the compulsory idleness to which
é3
the people of that country are condemned by the severity with which
the so-called sanctity of the Sabbath is observed, contributes no
little to excessive drinking. The relation which exists between the
absence of all divertisements on that day, on which all work is sus¬
pended, and the frequency of excesses, has forced itself upon the
attention of all tourists and publicists from the time of Bentham
and Buret to our day. Fauchet, in his English sketches, arrives at
the conclusion that the stricter the sanctity of the Sabbath is ob¬
served, the greater must inebriety necessarily become, because the
intellectual sloth which seizes on the uncultured laborer when he
has nothing to occupy or divert him, drives him to the bottle. As
an illustration he cites Scotland, as being the most Puritanical
country, but also the classic land of inebriety.
How forcibly do all these utterances remind one of the state
of things in the tenement districts of our metropolis, and what
enchanting visions of possible philanthropic achievements should
they not reveal to our temperance advocates ! The workers,
knowing that a dreary day of compulsory idleness is before them,
either supply themselves with a little store of intoxicants for that
day, or compensate themselves beforehand by getting "jolly
drunk." *
In Sweden, as well as in the Netherlands, this side of the ques¬
tion is well understood ; hence we find temperance societies striving
to emulate one another in their efibrts to lift the laborer out of
physical want and intellectual sloth. It is conceded there, as will
be seen from a report in another part of this sketch, that neither
laws nor exhortations will correct the evil, unless these measures be
combined with efforts to substantially improve the condition of the
laboring classes. Poverty, then, it seems, is recognized even bv
temperance advocates as a prolific source of intemperance. In
reality intemperance is quite often the efiect ; poverty the cause,
and pauperism the ultimate result.
The inquiry follows : Is such pauperism voluntary, or is it the
result of the social and economic conditions of the land ?
"■ The following item appeared In the New York Sun a few weeks ago: "Scotch Inebriates
continue to devote the hours between Saturday and Sunday, more than any other portion of the
week, to drinking deep. Statistics just published show that between 6 A. M. on Saturday and the
same hour on Sunday no fewer than 12,254 persons were arrested for drunkenness during 1882,
while only 1,492 were seized by ihe police on Sunday and 17,977 during the rest of the week."
It appears, then, the Scotch drinkers compensate themselves in advance for the weariness to which
piety dooms on Sunday. It is a matter capable of statistical proof that in large German cities
where the places of enjoyment are doubled on Sunday, drunkeness and disorderly conduct is not
more frequent than on week-days."
44
Professor Henry Fawcett explains his discrimination between
voluntary and involuntary poverty by saying, in substance : Yolun.
tary poverty is produced by the indolence, self-indulgence, or any
other cause for which the individual who suffers is responsible ; in¬
voluntary poverty includes all cases in which people become indi¬
gent through no fault of their own. Here he cites as examples
children of extravagant parents, laborers thrown out of employment
by a financial crisis produced by over-speculation of their em¬
ployers, etc.
Now, who is to determine, in any case of pauperism, classed by
officials as the result of intemperance, whether poverty, one of the
prime causes of intemperance, as we have seen, was not originally
brought on by just such a financial crisis ?
Under date of February the 7th, 1884, the following cable dis¬
patch was sent here from Leipsic, and published in the daily
newspapers :*
"Widespread distress prevails among the working people of
Saxony, owing to the dullness in manufactures and the paucity
of employment. Seven of the sufferers committed suicide yes¬
terday."
From the Saxon press, and from correspondences to papers out¬
side of Saxony, it was learned subsequently that hundreds of
unemployed laborers, driven to utter desperation by the gloomy
aspect of the future, abandoned themselves to excesses in drinking,
so as to forget their misery. Among these were said to be men
who were formerly noted for their sobriety and correctness of con¬
duct. Many of them will doubtless end in the poor-house ; but will
they then be voluntary paupers because of their intemperance ? Is
not poverty the cause of their excesses, just as it was the reason for
the seven suicides, committed on one and the same day ?
If indolence had brought on the intemperance of these laborers,
it would be a different thing ; but even then it would not be philo¬
sophical to argue that intemperance was the cause of pauperism—
for indolence, the prime cause, is apt to lead to pauperism quite as
surely without the aid of intemperance, as with it. Italy, the land
of il dolcefar niente, is the very paradise of lazzaroni ; of beggars
who are, in fact, neither more nor less than paupers, too fond of the
golden flood of sunshine that flows from cloudless skies upon their
♦ See New Tork Telegram of same date.
45
happy land, to live in poor-houses; yet the Italians of all conditiong,
and particularl}^ those of the lower classes, are exceedingly temper¬
ate and frugal in all their habits. In no European country is in¬
temperance less frequent, and beggardom more prevalent, than in
Italy. There the cause of pauperism is indolence.
If pauperism would ever, by honest and conscientious truth-
seekers, be made the subject of comprehensive and fair inquiry in
our country, it would doubtless be found that in voluntary as well as
in involuntary indigence, intemperance is either the effect—not the
cause—or merely one of the contributive causes. In contradiction
to all the pet theories of prohibitionists, it would be ascertained
that, aside from physical ailment, and the results of economic
evils and scant natural resources, indolence and improvidence
are the chief sources of pauperism, here as everywhere, now as
of old.
" A vast number in every community are so constituted," says
Fawcett, " that they would rather let others labor for them than
labor themselves—they will not work unless compelled to do so."
Now, if one of that vast number, who have nothing to lose, and care
nothing for gain, spends for drink what he obtained by begging,
and ends by becoming a drunkard—as some vagrants manage to do
by simply emptying into their stomachs the remnants of beer found
in kegs, piled up in front of saloons—he is not to be classed as a
pauper by reason of his intemperance, but by reason of his indol¬
ence. If not a drop of liquor could be obtained in the land in
which he lives, he would nevertheless be a pauper. In such a case,
lack of self-respect and manhood are the causes of intemperance, as
they are of indolence and vagrancy, and it matters little to which of
these vices priority may be conceded. This should not be lost sight:
of in considering the relation which intemperance is said to bear to¬
pan peris rn.
There is less indigence in the United States than in any other
civihzed country — less of both kinds of pauperism; and if the
same confidence be reposed in the official statistics on this point,
which prohibitionists place in the statistics of insanity, it must he
affirmed that this social evil is rapidly decreasing. The census of
1870 puts the pauper population at 116,102 ; while in the census of
1880 only 88,665 paupers (inmates of almshouses and out-door poor)
are accounted for. The argument of tfie advocates of prohibition,
46
that pauperism, insanity and crime increase in proportion as in¬
ebriety does, might now be reversed with telling effect, if it were
not unfair to ignore the explanatory article which precedes the
statistics of pauperism in the census of 1880. It is stated there
that, while the enumeration of the poor in institutions is very
nearly correct, that of the out-door poor cannot absolutely be relied
upon as including all those depending upon charity for the means
of sustenance. But the same objection applies to previous censuses,
and inasmuch as it may fairly be assumed that the method of enu¬
meration has been improved since 1870, there is no reason why an
actual decrease of pauperism might not be inferred from the differ¬
ence between the figures of 1870 and those of 1880. The difficulty
does not lie in accounting for more paupers than there actually are,
but in not finding all of them ; hence, when, with improved me¬
thods of search and enumeration, fewer paupers are found now than
in former years, it stands to reason that in reality there are not as
many now depending upon charity as there were in past years.
For the purposes of this sketch it is immaterial, however, whether
this view be regarded as correct or not. Certain it is, at all events,
that the prohibitionists' theory in regard to increasing insanity,
cannot be reconciled with the showing of the censuses with refer¬
ence to pauperism.
What the compiler wishes to demonstrate by the collected data,
is simply the relation which intemperance bears to pauperism.
With this end in view, he selected the poor-house of Kings County,
in which latter Brooklyn, the most populous city in the United
States, next to New York and Philadelphia, is situated. No insti¬
tution could afford a better test of the question mooted, so far as
the position of prohibitionists is concerned, because this county has
a large foreign population and an extensive manufacturing and
shipping trade.
Through the kindness of the Warden of this institution, Mr.
Murray—a gentleman thoroughly familiar with the system of public
charity and the character of paupers—the history of six hundred and
seventy-one indigent male persons, supported at the expense of the
county, was obtained, and particular precautionary measures were
followed to prevent erroneous classification. The Warden's obser¬
vations bear out in every essential point the statistical statement
contained in Appendix C, so that not the least hesitancy need be
felt in accepting the figures as entirely correct.
47
Classified according to nativity, the six hundred and seventy-one
paupers stand as follows :
United States 142
Ireland 332
Germany 124
England 35
Scotland, 13
Sweden 5
Norway 4
France 3
Italy 2
Holland 2
Canada 2
and Switzerland, Denmark, Austria, Australia, Hungary, Finland
and the West Indies, one each.
The cause of dependence was :
Physical disability in 457 cases.
Want of work in 99 "
Intemperance in 72 "
Vagrancy in 33 "
Senility in 10 "
An examination of Appendix C will convince any impartial
person that under the heading of physical disability no paupers are
included whose disease or injury would not incapacitate any man
to earn his own bread. Those classed as vagrants are incorrigible
drones, who either voluntarily or compulsorily take up quarters in
the poorhouse during the winter, and resume their aimless wander¬
ings as soon as fair springtime returns. Those classed under the
heading of senility (see Table YII.) are men of between eighty and
ninety years of age. Many of the paupers from foreign lands bring
their physical disabilities with them, thus forming an infinitesimal
counterweight—light as a feather—to the powerM aid we receive
from Europe in money, muscle, skilled labor and brain. This fact,
of which our government had to take cognizance quite frequently,
and which until very recently formed the subject of diplomatic
negotiations with a number of foreign governments, accounts for
the disproportionately large number of paupers bom outside of the
United States.
Of the seventy-two paupers whose dependence is reported to
have been caused by intemperance,
38 were born in Ireland.
28 " " United States.
3 " " Germany.
2 " " England.
1 " " Scotland.
48
The proportion of pauperism caused hj intemperance is 10 74 per
cent. Among the female paupers there are very few intemperates ;
but in the female department and nursery of every poorhouse there
are, of course, a number of inmates whose indigence was caused by
the intemperance of husband or father, and in estimating the num¬
ber of persons made dependent upon public charity by drink, this
fact must be taken into consideration. As it is extremely difficult,
not to say impossible, to obtain correct data on this point from the
institution here referred to, the compiler adopted the proportion
which appears from the Danish statistics of pauperism,* adding
5 per cent, for females and 8.03 for children, so that the total
proportion of pauperism caused by intemperance is raised
from 10.74 per cent, to 23.74 per cent. Hence we have four
intemperate paupers to every ten thousand of the entire popu¬
lation.
Here, again, the most unfavorable showing has been taken as a
basis of calculation ; for it would surely have been more appropriate
and advantageous to adopt the figures of the census of Massachu¬
setts for 1875, compiled by C. D. Wright. The table of causes
of pauperism in that census contains these figures :
Intemperance 473
" of husband 18
" " father 40
" " mother 1
" " parents 53
584
The total number of paupers was 4342 ; hence 13 per cent.,
instead of 23 would have been the proportion, if this basis had
*
ybas.
xumbbs of Faufbes«
Number of Paupers whose Dbpend>
emcb was Causer by Intempbra>ck,
Directly or 1m directly.
Pbopobtion of paupibiam Cadbbb
bt Intbmpsbancx,
Men.
Women.
Children,
Total,
Men.
Women,
Children.
ToUl,
Men,
Women,
Children,
TotaL
1871
1872
1873
1874
1875
1876
1877
1878
1879
1880
2508
2273
2105
2123
2210
2253
2737
3228
8385
3502
2004
1929
1822
1819
1851
1871
2027
2261
2227
2358
1700
1699
1668
1594
1636
1633
1792
1911
1950
2172
6212
5901
5595
5536
5697
5757
6556
7400
7.562
8032
921
806
760
848
907
933
1125
1261
1349
1367
373
346
341
345
346
361
400
409
426
447
508
446
488
461
464
491
569
598
684
663
1802
1598
1589
1654
1717
1785
2094
2258
2359
2477
36,72
35.46
36,10
39,94
41,04
41,41
41,10
38.75
39,85
39,03
18,61
17,94
18.72
18,97
18,69
19,29
19.73
18,09
19,13
18,96
29,88
26.25
29.26
28.92
28,36
30.07
31,75
31,29
29,95
30,52
29,01
27,08
28.40
29.88
30,14
31.01
31.94
30,61
31,20
30,84
Total
26324
20169
17755
642ft
10267
3794
5272
19333
39,00
18,81
29 69
8a09
From Drikfœldigheds Forholdene i Danmark (1882) p. 64.
49
been adopted. But it may be better to overdo fairnees than to
expose oneself to the opposite reproach.
Of the seventy-two persons rendered indigent by intemperance,
52.78 per cent, were born in Ireland.
38.89 " " *' United States.
4.16 " " Germany.
The drinking habits of intemperate paupers are generally of the
worst kind ; these weak-willed people will drink anything and
everything, with a decided preference for the strongest kinds of
beverages ; but not one of them can be classed with habitual beer-
drinkers. This averment will be better understood in the light of
a, conversation the compiler had with one of the German paupers, a
man past three score years of age, upon whose emaciated counte¬
nance misery had written her rugged signaturein countless wrinkles
and furrows. Being addressed in his native tongue, and in a man¬
ner betraying at least interest, if not sympathy, the old man be¬
came rather more communicative than such people usually are, and
in an unmistakably contrite mood and a spirit of self-accusation,
related the story of his life. His father's hovel, he said, stood on a
bleak and barren heath, far up in the north of Fatherland. There
he grew up to manhood, following the occupation of all his neigh¬
bors—^that of cutting turf from extensive peat-bogs. Coarse black
bread, bacon, and spirits, distilled from cereals or potatoes, formed
his regular diet. After his father's death he married—according
to some economists the greatest crime a poor man can possibly
commit—and then continued in company the same dreary drudgery
of life he had before led singly. Twenty years later his wife and
only son died in rapid succession. In his grief he abandoned him¬
self to excessive drinking, and soon became a shiftless idler. The
" emigration fever " raged in his neighborhood at that time, and
one fine day, after having disposed of the remnant of his household
goods, our man set out on a journey to Hamburg, where he em¬
barked for America. Here he obtained employment, and led an
orderly life, becoming accustomed to drinking lager beer, a bever¬
age he had not known in his old home. But " hard times " sec in;
he lost his employment, used up the money he had hoarded for just
such an emergency, and soon found himseii penniless. Easily
moved to despondency, he became moody, and relapsed into the
old habit of drinking to intoxication, selling one article of clothing
after the other to procure ardent spirits^ He would not touch beer
60
in such moods. To use his own words ; " Beer and wine are drinks
for happj men, who wish to chat and laugh and be merry. I
bought the worst kind of whiskey, because I knew it would make
me drunk quickest, for what I wanted was, to get away from my¬
self." If he could not have obtained whiskey, he would have com¬
mitted suicide, he thought. Thus he continued drinking until he
had become a confirmed drunkard and a pauper.
That he should have felt himself placed before the alternative
of intoxication or self-destruction is not unnatural. Do we not read
every day of men who end their lives, when starvation stares them
in the face ? Temperance advocates would doubtless say that it
were better to die, even of one's own hand, than to become a
drunkard ; but humanity readily suggests an excuse for the wretch
who becomes a drunkard in preference to becoming a self-murderer.
Our German pauper's case, so far as the kind of drink is con¬
cerned, may be taken to be typical of all those cases in which in¬
temperance is assigned as the cause of dependence. Habitual beer-
drinkers are not, consequently, represented in the body of intem¬
perate paupers. The simple figures, showing the percentage of
Americans, Irishmen and Germans among the intemperate paupers,
are intensely eloquent on this point.
We are told that if it were not for intoxicating drinks, the peo¬
ple would be freed from three-fourths of the taxes they now pay.
Let us examine this assertion statistically so far as insane and pau¬
pers are concerned.
The insane population Of the United States num¬
bered, in 1880 91,997
Seven per cent, of that number (made insane by
drink) is 6,440
The average weekly cost of maintenance of each in¬
sane is $1.50
The pauper population of the United States in 1880
numbered 88,665
Twenty-four per cent, of this number (being intem¬
perate paupers) is 21,279
The average weekly cost of maintenance of each
pauper (according to the last report of the Com¬
missioners of Charity of Kings Co.) is $1.20
The annual cost of maintaining the whole number of per¬
sons made insane by drink was 6,440 x 52 x $1.50 $502,820
The annual cost of mftintaining the whole number of per¬
sons rendered indigent by drink was 21,279 x 52 x $1.20 1,827,809
Total $1,880,129
51
In 1880 the United States Treasnry Department received
taxes from the manufacturers of distilled liquors to the
amount of
From manufacturers of fermented beverages
$55^19,119-18
12,346,077.20
Total,
$68,265,196.44
The excess of revenues from liquor tax (leaving aside retailers'
taxes, amounting to over $5,000,000) is $66,435,067.44. The fact
that this sum is paid into the United States Treasury, while the in¬
sane and poor expenses are covered by State, county or municipal
taxation, does not change the aspect of things, for the money re¬
quired to liquidate the national debt and defray the cost of main¬
taining the National Government would, if there were no liquor
taxes, have to come out of the taxpayers' purses, either directly or
indirectly.
Besides, this amount does not constitute all the revenues derived
from these sources. In every county, city and town, where
the laws do not prohibit the sale of liquors, the privilege to sell
such drinks is heavily taxed. Although it is impossible at present
to show how much money flows into county and municipal treas¬
uries through such taxation, an approximately correct idea may
be formed from the fact that the revenues of nearly all the large
cities, derived from excise duties, amount to sums, equal to all the
expenses incurred in providing for the entire insane and pauper
population in institutions there. The excise duties of the city of
Brooklyn alone, for instance, amounted for one year to $230,250.
The expenses for the maintenance of the entire insane and pauper
population of the whole county, in the last year, amounted to
$236,285.04.
The majority of penal institutions are either wholly or partly
self-supporting, and hence the taxpayers have to contribute com¬
paratively very little to their maintenance. But let us assume no
penal institution at all to be self-supporting, and then let us see
what crimes and ofiensesof all kinds would cost the taxpayers—not
crimes caused by intemperance alone, but crimes and minor law-
violations generally.
The census of 1880 fixes the number of prisoners in all the peni¬
tentiaries, county jails, city prisons, workhouses, military prisons,
and insane hospitals, and of those otherwise detained, at 59,255. The
weekly cost of maintaining one prisoner would, on account of the
52
greater number of paid employees needed in penal institutions, be
greater than that of maintaining a pauper. If we assume the
weekly cost of each prisoner to be $1.50, we get $4,621,890 as the
total annual cost of maintaining all the prisoners in the land. Let
us go still further :
The cost of supporting the entire insane population of the
United States, 91,997 persons, at an average cost of $1.50
per week, is $7,175,766
The cost of supporting the entire pauper population of the
United States, 88,665, at an average of $1.20 per week, is 5,532,696
The cost of supporting the entire criminal population of the
United States, 59,255 persons, at an average of $1.50 per
week, would be, if penitentiary were not self-supporting. 4,621,890
Total $17,830,352
Thus it is evident that, while alcohol is the cause of only seven
per cent, of insanity and twenty-four per cent, of pauperism, it
pays in one year to the national treasury alone, not to mention the
enormous sums of local taxes, nearly fifty-one million dollars more
than it costs to support the entire insane, pauper and criminal
population of the country. Far from freeing the taxpayers from
three-fourths of the taxes they now pay, prohibition would, even if
it were as practicable, as moral and as logical as it is the reverse,
impose upon the taxpayers heavy loads of new duties.
The moral side of the question will be considered in one of the
succeeding chapters.
CRIME.
" You have two hundred and sixty criminals, commonly styled
long term convicts, under your charge ; how many of them, do you
suppose, have committed the crime for which they are now being
punished, under the influence of intoxicating liquors."
This question was asked of Mr. Green, Warden of the Peniten¬
tiary of Kings Couuty, a gentlemen whose chief intellectual char¬
acteristic is soundness of judgment, wedded to great power of
observation. His answer to the compiler was : " It is not a matter
of mere supposition when I say, that not even five per cent, of the
criminals can be said to have committed their offense in consequence
and by reason of intoxicatîbn. I do not mean to say that criminals
are as a class more temperate then law-abiding people ; but I do
53
assert that intoxication is very rarely the cause of those crimes
which affect the security of property ; while capital crimes are much
more frequently the out-come of cold-blooded premeditation—
whether a murderous disposition, greed of gain or turbulent pas¬
sions, such as jealousy, be the primary motive—than of intoxication.
In my opinion women are the bottom of a great number of crimes.
Kearly every forger, burglar and highwayman in this institution is
regularly visited by a woman—usually a gaudily dressed creature
who displays an uncommonly warm affection for the object of her
visits. It is to provide such creatures with finery, that burglaries,
forgeries, robberies and like crimes are most frequently committed.
Drink has little to do with it ; in fact, sobriety, steadiness of nerve
and no little mechanical skill are indispensable to the perpetration
of a successful burglary, and there are numerous crimes that exact
extreme clear-headedness in the perpetrator. Any one who through
his ofiicial position becomes familiar with the lives of criminals, will
tell you that drunkenness is very rare among the most dangerous
classes of offenders. Of the four hundred and five short-term con¬
victs quite a number are addicted to the excessive use of intoxica¬
ting liquors ; but their intemperate habit is but one of a number of
vices, all of them the result of a lack of moral and intellectual
training. With whiskey or without it, such persons' perverted
sense of right and wrong would lead on to crime under any circum¬
stances."
At the request of the compiler, Mr. Green made an attempt
to sift the histories of all the cases under his charge, so as to
arrive, if possible, at an exact statistical estimate of the propor¬
tion of crimes committed through and by reason of intemperance.
Failure attended the trial. For inasmuch as the most fervent hopes
of all convicts are fixed on the possibility of securing the exercise
of executive clemency in their behalf, they at once suspected that
the inquiry into their antecedents was instituted with a view to
abbreviating their term of imprisonment, and knowing that a per¬
nicious sentimentality prevails in reference to victims of drink,
they were but too prone to plead inebriety, or even alcoholic
insanity in extenuation of their crime. Efforts made by other truth-
seekers in other parts of our country have yielded few satisfactory
results, viewed from a statistical standpoint. Two among a few
exceptions are the investigations instituted by the State authorities
in Massachusetts, and that conducted by Rev. John Ruth, Chaplain
of the Penitentiary for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the
54
result of which latter, as will he remembered, was a complete refu¬
tation of the theory that intemperance is accountable for three-
fourths or one-half of all crimes. The principal cause of crime
was by this investigation clearly demonstrated to be the lack of a
trade education, and this was accepted as correct by publicists, who
can not in any conceivable manner be suspected of a leaning towards
the liquor interests. As one of many instances, we quote the words
of Charles F. Thwing, first published in the Christian Union of the
30th of October, 1878, and reproduced in the Annual Report of the
New Jersey Statistical Bureau of Labor and Industry.
" The statement is constantly made that intemperance is the cause of nine-
tenths of the crime commiited in this country. But an examination of the reports
of the prisons of the United States proves that the influence of rum in exciting to
crime is greatly exaggerated. That its influence in promoting lawlessness is great
—very great—cannot he doubted, but that it is as great as usually represented,
cannot be proved. To the lack of a trade education must be contributed much of
the crime which is commonly attributed to liquor drinking."
There is no doubt much truth in this. A powerful incentive to
crime, much more potent than intemperance or any other cause, is
destitution, and the lack of a trade education frequently conduces
to poverty ; but the reverse does not insure immunity from that
evil which Diderot regarded as worse than crime. Individual pro¬
pensities and the social and economic conditions of communities
may completely counteract the advantages of a trade. One is but
too apt to fall into error if he places too much stress upon externals,
treating the moral constitution of the criminal, the qualities born
with him, as of minor importance. Cain became a murderer without
any of the external incentives which students of social science of
our day classify as causes of crime.
To arrive at a cor rect judgment, it is necessary to take into con¬
sideration, everything, external and internal—moral defects in the
individual, his surroundings, his education, his physical and intel¬
lectual capacity on the one hand, and the condition of the commu¬
nity in which he lives, the method of administering justice and the
penal system on the other. These requisites are such that a large
corps of investigators would be needed to give us more than gene¬
ralizations.
As far as intemperance is concerned in the causing of crime,
there seems to be a firm conviction on the part of many prison
officials, that drink is at the root of such offenses only as belong
almost exclusively to the jurisdiction of minor judicial courts.
55
This view is sustained by the observations of many competent
investigators. In his highly interesting and valuable work on
Alcoholic Inebriety,* Dr. Joseph Parrish, of Burlington, N. J.,
writes on this subject :
'* Dr. Arnold, of Baltimore, speaks of inebriates thus :
' Inebriates do not form that class of people who plan and carry out schemes
of villainy and corruption, in high and low places ; nor are they usually found on
the list of professional criminals who figure in our courts of law. Besides, it is
notorious how often criminals try to mitigate the heinousness of their offences by
attributing them to the effects of alcohol.'
It should be borne in mind, also, that the very habit of intoxication disquali¬
fies persons from committing some crimes. The habitual and excessive use of
intoxicants promotes timidity, incautiousness and ineflBciency, and failure is the
almost invariable result of attempts to commit certain kinds of crime by those
who indulge in intoxicants. An expert was some time since employed to search
the records of crime in a neighboring State, with a view of ascertaining from
official sources the number of persons convicted of murder during the past hun¬
dred years, with the causes, penalties, etc., etc. After a careful and painstaking
examination of court and prison records, it was reported that less than three per
centum of such crimes could he traced to the use of intoxicating liquors. Upon this
disclosure being made, it was repeated to a certain temperance advocate of the
same State, who confirmed its accuracy by saying that he had caused a similar
investigation to be made, with the same result, but added that he hesitated to
make it public, because it would deprive advocates of temperance of a cogent
argument in behalf of the cause. Pursuing the same line of inquiry from time to
time, it fell in my way to ask a very worthy chaplain of a penitentiary how many
of the several hundreds of convicts under his care could connect their crimes with
the use of intoxicating drinks. His reply was, that from direct personal knowl¬
edge of the history of each prisoner, he believed they were all guilty of vices—
such as gambling, profanity, falsifying, tobacco chewing, smoking to excess and
lewdness, etc.—but to which of these vices their particular crime was to be
attributed he could not tell, but that it would be about as easy and fair to trace
it to one as to another ; and he added : ' Those whose crimes are the direct result
of intemperance are very few. I do not know of one.' It would be more philo¬
sophical to go behind and beyond them, to the source from which they all spring
—namely, a depraved physical and moral nature. Being children, all of the same
stock, their conduct and behavior originated in one common source, and it takes
either line that is indicated, in accordance with the direction of certain physical
tendencies.
The Hon. Richard Vaux, of Philadelphia, distinguished as a penologist of
rare powers and opportunities for observation, writes me as follows-
' I do not consider intemperance, as it is called—inebriety, the use of intoxi¬
cants—as a crime-cause. If this were so, all inebriates would be criminals. Now,
the fact is, that criminals are made so by other causes ; and they, like the rest of
mankind, use intoxicants or do not use them. It is now forty years since I have
been an Inspector of the Eastern State Penitentiary in this city, and I have no
•" Alcohollclnebriety from a Medical Standpoint." By Dr. Joseph Parrish. Philadelphia.
P. Blakiston, Son & Co. 1883.
56
hesitation in saying that intemperance—the use of intoxicants habitually, or to
excess—is not a crime cause. I think it can be said, that about one-half of those
convicted of crime are total abstainers. Of the four hundred and thirty-three (433)
prisoners received into our Penitentiary in 1881, but twenty-six (26) were intem-
iperate, Mr. Cassiday, our Warden, who has been in the service of this prison for
twenty years, gives his experience in support of these views of crime-cause. I
know it is a sort of fashion to talk about our prisons filled with the victims of
intemperance, but the figures do not support this general and sweeping assertion.*
In confirmation of the same views, I am furnished with the following from
the accomplished General G. Mott, late keeper of the New Jersey State Prison, at
Trenton :
' I am decidedly of the opinion that our Penitentaries are not filled with those
who trace their crimes to intemperance ; that class fill our common jails, lockups,
and Houses of Correction. A person sent to a Penitentiary, no matter for how
short a time, for a violation of the law, perhaps committed in the heat of passion
and while under the influence of liquor, is branded a criminal ; thinks society has
injured him, and when he gets out may join the criminal class, as he says, "to
get square but he must keep sober if he expects to get in with the expert. The
majority of criminals who fill our Penitentiary are primarily of a criminal mind,
born so, and brought up to prey upon the general community ; but they are not
habitual drunkards, nor do they associate with that class. Not so themselves,
because, to be an expert, they must keep their heads cool and their wits about
them ; and their associates must do the same, as they know there is no depend¬
ence on a drunken man ; for, when in that condition, he may let something drop
that, perhaps, will lead to the failure of their plans and the probable detection of
the principals.'
The following is also contributed from the Maryland State Penitentiary:
' Out of five hundred and thirty-four (534) convicts in November, 1881, there
were strictly temperate one hundred and seventeen (117) ; moderate drinkers, two
hundred and forty-two (242) ; occasionally intemperate, one hundred and seventy-
one (171), and habitually intemperate, four (4).'
From Mr. John C. Salter, the successful Warden of the State Penitentiary at
Chester, Illinois, 1 leam the following :
' The popular sentiment seems to be that a criminal must necessarily have been
a drunkard. That this class are frequenters of saloons, and are more or less
slaves to appetite for strong drink, as they are to other vices, cannot be denied.
The large proportion of criminals, such as burglars, forgers, counterfeiters, need
clear brains, steady nerves and quick perceptions to successfully carry out their
plans, which would be impossible under the influence of intoxicating drink. I
am more and more convinced that the causes of crime go away back in the history
of the criminal, even outside of his own life, coming down from generation to
generation, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children. Lack of
home influence, throwing boys and girls of tender age out upon the charity of the
world ; lack of the discipline of education, the haste to get rich and the false
standard of greatness are causes that have done much toward filling our jails and
penitentiaries with those who, under more favoring winds, would have found
shelter in a friendly harbor.'
The apparent discrepancy between the commonly accepted belief that at least
two-thirds of all the crimes are due to intemperance and the actual facts, as de-
57
rived from inatitution atatistica, may perhaps be accounted for thus : The offences
for which persona are sent to houses of correction, county jails and lock-ups are
largely attributed to strong drink as an exciting cause, while the more grave
offences are punished by commitment to penitentiaries. Also, the commitments
to the common places of detention are counted over and over again, and the evil
is made to appear, as we shall presently see, much more formidable than the facts
really justify. Vagrancy is an offence that does not find its way to penitentiaries,
and yet it occupies a conspicuous place in the common jail records. Vagrancy is
often associated with drunkenness, but not always as cause and effect. Pauper¬
ism and vagrancy are usually associated with a low and depraved physical and
moral constitution. In many cases the tendency is to despondency, and despond¬
ency is frequently an exciting cause of intemperance. If, therefore, vagrancy is
counted as crime, and every vagrant who drinks is counted as intemperate, it can
be readily seen how so large a percentage is given to intemperance as a crime-
cause. So, if intoxication is counted a crime, and, to use the police nomencla¬
ture, if " drunk and disorderly " is a title attached to every commitment for in¬
temperance and vagrancy, the showing in that direction must necessarily be
exaggerated. And yet it is just about in this careless manner that the police
records are frequently kept. A scientific nomenclature is unknown to the law,
while the docket of a police justice cannot be more than a transcript of the jus¬
tice's own ideal of what is, and what is not crime, or disease. Crime usually has
its source in the mental or moral constitution. The desire for alcoholic bever¬
ages is generally a physical desire, an animal lust, and has but a distant, if any,
relation to what is recognized as the moral character."
The experiences of prison oflâcials in nearly all civilized countries
confirm these views ; at all events there is no statistical proof to the
contrary, and unless that can be adduced, on either side, all discussion
on the subject will necessarily have to he based on just such opinions
as have just been quoted, or their opposite. There is, however, one
feature of this question which is capable of statistical verification,
and which offers many inducements to thorough research, namely,
the relation which fermented and distilled liquors bear to those law-
violations that are held principally to be caused by intoxication.
Difficult as the task of establishing these relations appears to be at
first sight, it is in reality quite easily accomplished if the proper
authorities take it in hand.
Acting upon instructions from Mayor Low, the Excise Commis¬
sioners of Brooklyn caused to be prepared a statistical report of the
number of every class of saloons in each precinct, the number of
arrests and the population. And this report shows most conclusively
what has been demonstrated in this sketch by scores of authentic ex¬
amples, that the use of beer practically effects the objects of a
rational temperance movement. The statistical table, being so full
of interest and importance, surely deserves to be reproduced here
in full.
Precinct.
Estimated
Population
for 1883, by
Precincts.
Arrests for
Intoxica¬
tion.
No. of
First.
Saloons fo
by classes.
Second.
r1883,
Third.
Total
Number
of
Saloons.
Percentage of
Arrests for
Intoxication
to Population,
1883.
Pro rata of
Arrests for
Intoxication
to total num¬
ber of Saloons,
1883.
Population
to each
Liquor Sa¬
loon (first
and second
classes).
Population
to each
Beer Saloon
(third class).
Population
to each
Saloon of
all kinds.
First
43,900
1,471
151
18
14
183
STTT
8
260
3,130
240
Second
31,100
1,138
148
8
8
164
7
200
3,900
190
Third
49,000
1,602
119
19
20
158
3^
10
355
2,450
317
Fourth
63,500
1,001
125
31
12
168
1 s
6
407
5,300
380
Fifth
54,500
860
180
21
97
298
1 «
3
270
557
180
Sixth
72,500
393
155
10
216
381
6
TU
1
440
335
199
Seventh
33,000
430
105
5
45
155
o g
^TU
300
755
213
Eighth
25,200
368
105
3
22
130
lÄ
9 s
■^TU
233
1,150
194
Ninth
44,500
254
53
18
8
79
Tff
Q 8
^TU
627
2,470
563
Tenth
62,800
742
117
17
19
153
1 ä
4A
470
3,305
410
Eleventh
32,400
1,627
163
3
29
195
5
8A
195
1,117
166
Twelfth
25,200
293
63
10
15
88
1 s
■^rrr
q 8
»TU
345
1,680
287
Thirteenth
55,200
445
119
10
154
283
8
TÏÏ
1 8
^TU
429
358
192
Third Sub
15,100
1,705
55
1
5
61
HA
28
270
3,020
247
Fifth Sub. ...
16,500
182
28
5
6
39
^A
500
2,750
460
Eighth Sub...
5,800
198
22
1
13
36
5A
252
446
161
Ninth Sub
15,600
132
60
4
18
82
TU
1 8
■•^TU
244
866
190
Total
645,800
12,841
1,768
184
701
2,653
Av. 2.
Av. 4 8-10
Av. 331
Av. 921
Av. 244
59
In saloons of the first class ardent spirits and fermented liquori
are allowed to be sold; in saloons of the third class only beer is sold.
Incenses of the second class are granted to storekeepers who sell
ardent spirits by the measure, in quantities not exceeding five
gallons.
The greatest number of beer saloons are in the Sixth and Thir¬
teenth Precincts, embracing the greater part of that portion of
Brooklyn which is sometimes vulgarly styled " Dutchtown." In
these two precincts the number of arrests for intoxication was
smallest. From the Sixth Precinct, with a population of T2,500
souls, and 216 beer saloons, only 393 arrests for intoxication are
reported ; in the Thirteenth Precinct, with a population of 55,200
souls, and 154 beer saloons, 445 arrests were made for the same
cause ; the proportion of arrests to population being ^ per cent, in
the former, ^ per cent, in the latter precinct. In the Third Sub-
Precinct, with a population of 15,100, 55 first-class saloons, and only
5 beer saloons, 1,T05 arrests were made for intoxication ; the pro¬
portion of arrests being llj^^ per cent. The First Precinct, with
183 saloons, 14 of which are exclusively beer places, shows 1,471
arrests, or 3^ for every hundred of the population. Nearly the
same numerical relation between first-class and third-class saloons
exists in the Second and Third Precincts, and the proportion of ar¬
rests is also nearly the same in the three precincts. The Ninth Pre¬
cinct, with 79 saloons, of which 8 only are beer places, and a pro¬
portion of arrests of tV» the population being 44,500, presents a very
significant showing, compared with the Third Sub-Precinct and
First, Second and Third Precincts. Beer does not, however, enter
into the question there ; but the drinking habits and condition of
the people do, so does the quality of drink consumed ; three factors
which, as has repeatedly been demonstrated, are just as decisive in
the matter of inebriety as quantity is. The Ninth Precinct with
its seventy-nine saloons and 44,500 inhabitants shows 254 arrests,
while in the Third Sub. with only 61 saloons and 15,000 inhabitants
1,705 arrests were made. The former precinct is principally inha¬
bited by well-to-do people who can afford to purchase good stimu¬
lants, while the latter is crowded by poor persons whose surround¬
ings, mode of life and habits inevitably tend to develop the germ of
excesses. There, want of wholesome food, of proper shelter, of all
the comforts of life combine to drive men and women to excessive
drinking ; but worst of ail, the ardent spirits they can afford to buy
are, in consequence of their cheapness, of a most execrable quality.
60
A more striking illustration of the vast difference between the
effects of good and pure, and those of adulterated and impure ardent
spirits cannot be conceived.
The Swedish laws, regulating the manufacture of distilled
spirits, secure the drinker against the effects of adulterated
and insufficiently purified ardent spirits ; and the Gothenburg sys¬
tem encourages the use of beer. The result is, that, in spite of
only slightly diminished consumption and increased population, the
number of arrests for intoxication has decreased steadily in all the
larger cities. In the official report of the German committee before,
mentioned we find the following table relating to the city after
which the Gothenburg system is named.
Year.
Population.
Delirium tremens.
Arrests for Intoxication.
1877
.... 153,538 ....
436
4,548
1878
.... 161,732 ....
264
3,740
1879
168,040
237
3,648
1880
.... 167,868 ....
241
3,744
1881
.... 174,706 ....
234
3,537
These figures are worth all the temperance tracts ever published.
If the Excise Commissioners of the City of New Tork would
cause a report to be prepared on this subject, it would be found that
the proportion of arrests in what might be styled beer districts is
quite as small there as it is in Brooklyn. The proportion of arrests
to population in the 6th and 13th Precincts—and respectively
—would, it is claimed, be still lower, if these localities were inhabited
by habitual beer-drinkers exclusively ; for it is said to be a matter of
police record that among those who are arrested for intoxication in
said precincts, not ten out of a hundred are Germans. This calls to
mind the fact that on the days of great German festivals, when
thousands upon thousands of people congregate in gardens and halls
for pleasure's sake, and when beer is consumed in enormous quantities,
arrests for intoxication or disorderly conduct on the part of the par¬
ticipants of such festivals are scarcely ever heard of.
The festival of the Suabians, held in 1883 at a park on the
outskirts of Brooklyn was participated in by twenty-two thousand
persoDS ; 490 kegs of beer and about 250 gallons of wine were con¬
sumed—and not one arrest was made on the ground.
The festival of North-Germans held in 1883, at Union Hill,
attracted a concourse gf men, women and children, numbering
48,000 heads. In all, five arrests were made for disorderly
conduct.
61
Dr. Bowditch says in reference to this subject : The extraordinary
difference between the percentages of crime perpetrated by Germans
and Irish is a peculiar fact, to be interpreted partly by the differences
in the temperaments of the people, but still more 1 am inclined to
believe by the difference in the liquors used by the two. I cannot
but think that if the Germans were to drink rum and whiskey as
the Irish do, a much larger proportion of crime would be found
among them than now, for whiskey does not, so far as I know, affect
a German body differently from an Irishman's body. I would like¬
wise suggest the following proposition. Take away the whiskey
from the Irishman and persuade him to use lager beer or Bavarian
ale, and perhaps you will take from him a good deal of his pugna¬
city, and he will be less frequently drunk. * * * In truth I do not
remember to have ever seen a German reeling home intoxicated, or
sound asleep on some doorstep, evidently narcotized as the Yankee
or Irishman is likely to be by some violent liquor." One of Dr.
Bowditch's correspondents, Mr. Y. G. Hurd, Superintendent of the
House of Corrections at Ipswich, Mass., writes : " I visited the beer
gardens on Sunday, (in Chicago) to see how the Germans spend the
day. There was a band of music, a dance floor, with seats and
tables like our New England pic-nics in a beautiful grove, and
lager in such quantities as I had never conceived. Everybody, old
and young, drank and seemed to continue to drink during the after¬
noon, but lager was the only beverage—no liquors, no drunkenness,
no fight, no disorderly conduct. The young men and maidens were
merry and danced ; the elders drank and talked with the gravity
and dignity becoming to the respectable German."
The foregoing statistics and opinions fully establish the relation
which beer bears to that class of law-violations which are usually
attributed to intemperance.
62
USE AND ABUSE.
We have seen that the effects of the abuse of intoxicants are
unwarrantably exaggerated; that, considered from an economic
standpoint, and in their relation to the welfare of society, they are
counterbalanced more than a hundred-fold by the fiscal advantages
which the community derives from the use of intoxicants. If, there¬
fore, pecuniary considerations only were to decide, the conclusion
would be inevitable that doing away with the use of inebriating
liquors—if such a thing were possible—might perhaps save an infi¬
nitesimal fraction of the population from the insane asylum, the
poor-house or the jail, but that it would be a great material loss to
the community. True, the revenues derived from this source are,
at present, to a great extent exceptional, having grown out of the
necessities of war ; but even so, the duties which the liquor traffic is
made to pay under a rational license system exceed by far the
amount of loss sustained by the community in consequence of the
abuse of intoxicants. And this is but a narrow view of the matter.
The manufacture of distilled and fermented spirits is closely
connected by many important ties with agriculture, commerce and
industry. The capital invested in distilleries, breweries and malt-
houses alone amounted, in 1880, to $137,428,171. The production
of barley and hops, important branches of our agriculture, depends
almost entirely upon these industries, not to speak of the hundreds
of branches of mechanical industry (such as manufacturies of
refrigerators, of brewing and distilling vessels and implements,
etc.,) which are dependent directly or indirectly upon the liquor
traffic. The destruction of this traffic, it will readily be understood,
would entail losses which could not but affect the agricultural,
industrial and commercial equilibrium in a most lamentable manner.
It would cause infinitely more misery in every respect than the
abuse of intoxicants could produce within centuries. Hence, the
advocates of prohibition have absolutely no economic basis for
their claim.
Are their efforts justifiable from amoral point of view?—Let
us see.
According to an oft-quoted Koman saying, abuse is not an argu¬
ment against proper use. If the contrary were true, we would
63
be wrong, not only in indulging in all those enjoyments which distin¬
guish man from brutes, but we would also be wrong in exercising
any human virtue. Abuse means carrying to hurtful excess that
which is beneficent when moderately used, exercised o** indulged.
Carried to excess, generosity becomes prodigality, frugality becomes
parsimony, love becomes infatuation, self-respect degenerates into
egotism, and so every human virtue, when carried to excess, becomes a
vice, fraught with untold dangers to its victim. "When abused, every¬
thing we call good is perverted into evil ; and it is a rule as old as
mankind, that abuse is under certain circumstances as inseparable
from use, as efiect is from cause. If, therefore, the prohibitionists'
view, that abuse is an argument against proper use, could be put into
effective practice in everything that is liable to be, and is being,
abused, man would sink to the level of brutes. Even where the evils
of the abuse over-balance the advantages of proper use, there can be
no justification, from a moral point of view, for legislation against the
latter, instead of the former ; how much less then, in a case like
ours, where the proper use is, and always has been, a blessing to
millions, while only a few thousands suffer from abuse.
Intoxicants have been civilizers of nations. Wine civilized an¬
cient Greece, and no intelligent man need be told of the beneficial
effects of the cult of Dionysos, the rapture-bringer, on the intellec¬
tual development of the Greeks ; nor of the grand works of art and
poesy we owe to that epoch of Greek culture in which the Dithy¬
rambes was originated. Tragedy and Comedy, says Stoll, in " Gods
and Heroes," date their origin from the festivals of the god of wine.
The justly celebrated historian Gervinus saw an intimate connection
between human progress and the development of vine-culture.
Wine created social bonds and social forms, and in so much as the
intellectual development of man depended on these social forms, in
just so much wine must be accounted a civilizer. The use of intoxi¬
cants assumed the form of religious usages with many ancient na¬
tions. The Egyptians venerated their god Osiris as the inventor of
beer, and their libations had an ethical significance. The beer of
the old Germans played a prominent part in the religion and the
ethics of the people. The German drank to his God ; he profferred
the cup to the friend as a pledge of his loyalty, to the stranger as
a guarantee of the inviolability of hospitality. All his actions were
given a deeper significance, a moral meaning and a binding force
through the agency of drink. In more recent times the drinking
64
customs lost some of their raeaniug, but their influence remained the
same.—All the festivals which grew out of the use of intoxicants
had an elevating, a refining and ennobling effect on the community.
In the many ale-festivals of Old England, the social develop¬
ment of the islanders is reflected. The lamb-ales, leet-ales, mid¬
summer-ales, Whitsun-ales; Scotch-ales, &c.. all had great influence
on social life.*
The opinion that the use of intoxicants and our intellectual and
moral development are closely connected, is held by all thinkers.
Recently, an English writer, not an Anacreonite, but a sober
physician, wrote a pamphlet on this subject. In the April number
of the Popular Science Monthly, we find the following paragraph :
" Dr. William Sliarpe seeks to demonstrate that alcohol is a factor in human
progress. Looking into the history of the subject, he finds that the vine and the
product of the vine have been in olden times more intimately associated with,
man's intellectual growth and development than with his purely physical wants.
The stimulus of alcohol, when judiciously controlled, ' always leads to active and
higher mental efforts on the part of individuals,' thus producing a contrary effect
to that of other stimulants, which tend rather ' to bring about a contented state
of dreamy inaction ' and to repress effort. ' To understand fully,' he says, ' the
beneficial action of alcohol as regards mental development, we must first get a
clear view of the value of those states of cerebral excitement which most people,
though in varying degrees, experience something of, rising as they then do men¬
tally above the level of what may be called their ordinary every-day thoughts.
This is not difficult, if we bear in remembrance that it is during such periods of
high mental activity, in which the mind, transcending the more circumscribed
limits of reason, sweeps intuitively into the veiled and distant regions of univer¬
sal truth, that all great conceptions arise and have arisen in times past, crudely at
first it may be, but which, nevertheless, when reduced to order and embodied in
works, have been of inestimable value to mankind .... The stimulus produced
by alcoholic liquors, if not nearly of so high an order, is more easily called into
play, while in a practical sense, the latent ability being present, it is more vigorous
and effective as regards actual work. Hence the value of alcohol, as a stimulant,
lies in the fact that it produces artificially and sustains temporarily that state of
mental excitement or exaltation necessary to the conception and projection, though
not to the detailed elaboration, of those enduring works that, whether in the
domains of art, architecture, or engineering, are remarkable for boldness of exe¬
cution, originality, and grandeur of design ; and further, that it is the only man¬
ageable stimulant which, when used in moderation, and in the form of wine or
♦ We quote from Vogel's " On Beer" based on Grässe's Bierstadien, and Brand. Pop. Anti-
qnities. For the celebration of Whltsun ale It was necessary to elect a lord and lady of the ale,
who dressed as fantastically as possible for their office. The locality for celebrating the festivity
was generally a long barn, where seats were arranged for the company. Then arrived the lads and
lasses of the village for feasting and dancing, and the young men offered ribbons and other finery
to their sweethearts. A clowti and music enlivened the Company. • * On the day of Lamb-ale
celebration a fattened lamb was let loose and the girls of the village, with their hands tied toge¬
ther, had to run after It, and she who caught It with her teeth was called Lady of the Lamb. The
lamb was then served on the village green, and the day was given up to pleasure and merriment.
65
spirits, is not only not injurious, but conduces to the general health, while it favors
both mental and physical development.' Dr. Sharpe also assigns to alcohol a
beneficial agency in stimulating genial thoughts and feelings."
Dr. Everts, in his " What shall we do for the drunkard," pro¬
pounds this query :
" Is it not, indeed, probable that were all brain stimulants, other than ordi¬
nary foods common to man and other animals, at once and forever annihilated, or
the alcoholic varieties alone withheld forever from common use, that the result
would be, in the course of time, deleterious to mankind, by reason of brain dete¬
rioration resulting from a loss of such food, and a consequent gradual (no matter
how slow) return of the races to a more common level, at the expense of those
who have accomplished the greatest departure upward therefrom ? "
Henry Ward Beecher recently expressed the opinion that "the
more brains men may have, and the more brain-work, the more they
are apt to be addicted to some form of stimulants, milder or severer,
and only now and then can you find a man who is absolutely sim¬
ple in his habits, drinking water and eating bread and meat or
vegetables. Nor among them do we find the most robust, the most
absolutely industrious, the most persistently accomplishing speci¬
mens of men."
The moderate use of stimulants is, indeed, absolutely necessary
to the well-being of three-fourths of the male inhabitants of nearly
all civilized countries, and to do away with such stimulants would
involve great intellectual loss to the community, and a moral dete¬
rioration of society for which the salvation of a handful of drunk¬
ards would no more be an offset, than the saving of the cost of pau¬
perism, insanity and crime (caused by intemperance), would be an
offset to the loss of revenues derived from the use of intoxicants,
and the incalculable losses which would be entailed upon agricul¬
ture, industry and commerce by a destruction of the liquor-traffic.
The position of prohibitionists is not, then, founded on a sound
basis, either economically or morally.—Now, let us examine what
restrictive laws accomplish, and what the law properly should and
can efiect.
66
LIQUOE LAWS.
PROHIBITION.
"As long as he on earth shall live,
So long I make no prohibition ;
While man's desires and passions stir,
He cannot choose hut err."—(öwiAe'a Faust.)
Prohibition was first tested in the Garden of Eden«—and failed.
The fall of man and his free agency were the results. All the im¬
perfections of our moral nature are, according to the Scripture, con¬
sequences of this first failure of prohibition; for had not Eve
plucked and eaten the forbidden fruit, man would be perfect. As
it is, we are foredoomed to sin and suffer for sinning, but we are
free agents.
The term prohibition is not, of course, used here in connection
with drink, although many eminent writers would have us be¬
lieve that the forbidden fruit was of an inebriating quality.* In
principle there is no difference between "Thou shalt not eat this''
and " Thou shalt not drink that." It is sufficiently significant that,
taking a biblical view of the matter—and that is the view which such
good Christians as our prohibitionists are, should take—all human
misery began with the first failure of man to submit to prohibition.
And it is still more significant that the man whom the Creator
selected as the propagator of his species after the deluge, first
exhibited the defects of his moral nature by drinking to intoxi¬
cation.
Prohibition and its failure are, then, as old as mankind.
Intemperance, and the laws against it are of nearly equal an¬
tiquity.
That intemperance must have prevailed to a great extent
among the ancient Hebrews is sufficiently clear from the story
the Bible tells us of Lot and others, and from the fact that
Moses thought it necessary to promulgate restrictive laws against
inebriety.
The Egyptians were strongly addicted to the use of wine and
beer, and intemperance was common with both sexes. At the time
♦ "Milton seems to have entertained the opinion that the fruit of which our first parents
had eaten ^ .
' Whose mortal taste
Brought ^eath into the world, and all our woe,'
was of an intoxicating nature.
The Jewish doctors were of the same belief, and Dr. Lightfoot and many eminent theolo¬
gians were impressed with the like opinion."—Jforwood'sJKítory qf ImbHañng Drinks.
67
of the Pharaos, lavs were eoacted against drinking excesses,
and it was then the custom to place a skeleton and funeral draperies
upon the festive hoard, whenever the revelers threatened to trans¬
gress the ordinary limits of hilarity.*
In the year 2200 B. C., the Chinese Emperor Yute banished
the inventor of rice wine from his realm, and prohibited the use of
that intoxicant, but without success. Grape wine, which was known
in China as early as 1122 B. C., was also prohibited in subsequent
centuries, partly for economic, partly for political reasons — the
apprehension of a lack of cereals being at the bottom of the
former, the fear of revolutions at the root of the latter. This
prohibition, accompanied by the destruction of all vineyards,
drove the Chinese people back to the use of the stronger rice
wine and of opium.
Drunkenness was not unknown either in ancient Greece or in
ancient Bome. Lycurgus imagined that he could curb the desires
of his Spartans by exhibiting to them, on a fixed day of the year, a
number of intoxicated islanders, who had been made to drink to
excess by his order. His efforts seem to have been put forth in
vain, however. In Athens, according to the laws of Draco and of
Solon, death was the punishment for those who walked the public
streets in a state of intoxication. Unlike our hyper-sentimentalists
of temperance proclivities, who hold intoxication to be an excuse for
crime, Pittacus of Mytilene caused a double measure of punishment
to be infiicted for all crimes committed under the infiuence of in¬
toxicants. Plato forbade the use of wine by minors under eighteen
years of age, but granted all possible latitude to men of forty years
of age, to whom he recommended frequent indulgence, encouraging
them to abandon themselves to the joys of the banquet, to invite
Bacchus to partake, and bring with him that divine liquor which he
gave to man as a panacea with which to restore the vivacity of
youth ; sweeten the austerity of age, dispel its sorrows and mollify
its harshness.
The drinking bouts of the ancient Romans excelled by far those
of the Greeks. What must have been thought of drunkenness dur¬
ing the reign of Tiberius may be inferred from the fact that this
emperor, surnamed Biberius (the bibler), appointed Pison Prefect
of Rome for having passed two days and nights with him at the
• Geschichte des Weins u. der Trinkgelage, von Dr. R. Schnitze. Intempérance et Misère,
par J. Leffort. Historische Schriften, von Q. G. Gervinus (Geschichte der Zechknnst), and More-
wood's work.
68
drinking board, witnessing the feats of inglorious Novellius Tor¬
quatos, who was surnamed Tricongius from his ability to swallow
three congii (about three quarts) of wine at one draught. Long
before the reign of Tiberius sumptuary laws had been enacted, but
they failed to check the evil.
The Gauls were no more distinguished for sobriety than their
neighbors. A radical measure, not unlike that advocated by our
prohibitionists, was carried out under Domitian (in the year 92),
when that ruler ordered all the vineyards in Gaul to be destroyed*
Beer then again took the place of wine.
The most striking illustration of the pemiciousness of prohibi¬
tion is that which the history of the Mahometans offers. The
rigidly faithful observed the injunction of Mahomet with reference
to wine, but their craving for a stimulant led them to the excessive
use of opium—incomparably more destructive of moral and physical
well-being than the strongest and worst liquors. While the faithful
obey the prohibitory law from religious motives, the unbelievers
ignore it, and resort to innumerable devices by which to evade the
interdictory decree ; and those who drink intoxicants must neces¬
sarily drink them solitarily and in secrecy. Morewood, in reviewing
the secret drinking habits of the followers of Mahomet, says:
" Where the influence of Mohametans has rendered the use of in¬
toxicating liquors objectionable and penal, this prohibition has
tended to render men artful and hypocritical. Although abstinence
from inebriation is at all times commendable, yet, when carried to
a complete deprivation, it has a contrary effect."
The Germans were hard drinkers at all times. The first glimpse
history affords us of them reveals continuous drinking bouts. Nor
is there a lack of laws against intemperance with them. The first
restrictive liquor law is probably that of the Suevi, directed against
the importation of wine. After vine-culture had been introduced
by the Koman legions into the Rhinelands (281), intemperance grew
apace ; but no laws seem to have been enacted against it until the
reign of Charlemagne. The capitularies of this great warrior
and equally great law-maker abound in liquor laws, some of them
showing veiy pointedly to what extent drunkenness prevailed at
that time. Thus, one provision reads : " No Earl shall hold court
unless he be sober;" from which it must be inferred that it was the
custom of these judges to hold court "while under the infiuence of
69
intoxicants. The penal measures seem at first to have been ex¬
tremely lenient. " Whosoever," one provision reads, " is found
drunk in camp shall be compelled to drink water only until he shall
have acknowledged that he has done wrong." Afterwards excom¬
munication was added to the list of penalties, and when even this
penal measure failed, castigation was resorted to, with no better
success. It is of interest to know that Charlemagne, in his
Capitulare de Yillis, prescribed, that no people should be em¬
ployed who did not know how to brew beer. He seems to have
thought, then, that his laws against intemperance would have been
more efficacious, if his subjects would drink beer exclusively. The
Council of Aix-la-Chapelle (817) attempted to carry out a sort
of Gothenburg system, in trying to regulate the consumption of
wine and beer in each community. Fruitless endeavors, one
and all ! Hot one of the laws and regulations, whether lenient
or harsh in their penal provisions, accomplished the desired
result.
With the introduction of distilled liquors, which were at first
regarded and used as " death-preventing " medicine (hence the
French name, eau-de-vie), inebriety assumed greater propor¬
tions and a new character. The use of these intoxicants
first became gei^eral at the close of the fifteenth century
in Hungary; subsequently in Bohemia, Poland, Pommerania
and Russia. In the year 1581 the English soldiers, engaged
in war in the Netherlands, were furnished brandy, and soon
used it to excess. It was about that time that the first
temperance society, excepting one, was organized by Maurice of
Nassau, under the title of " Order of Temperance," to which noble¬
men only were admitted. The members pledged their word to
drink tio more than seven beakers of wine at each repast. They
were, however, allowed to drink beer as much as they liked. Ar¬
dent spirits were prohibited, the penalty for drinking one glass of
brandy being a deduction of two glasses from the regular allowance
of wine for each offence. In 1524, the Margrave of Hesse prohib¬
ited the use of distilled liquors, and laws of like purport were
enacted in Saxony, Würtenberg and Brandenburg.
Drunkenness existed in Britain when the Romans invaded that
island. Under Saxon rule the evil experienced no diminution.
With their political and personal freedom—the foundation of En¬
gland's present state of civic liberty-^the Saxons also transplanted
70
to the new soil their social and martial dnnking habits. Ale or
beer was their common drink. The kings of the West Saxons
must have been "enormously" fond of these drinks, since they
exacted an annual tax of twelve ambers of ale from every owner of
ten hides of land. Mention has already been made of the law (958)
for the suppression of all ale-houses, excepting one in every village.
Previous to the enactment of this law, Edgar had decreed that all
drinking vessels should be provided with pegs, and that no guest
at an ale-house should be allowed, under legal penalty, to drink
beyond the next peg as the beaker went the round of the
table.
In subsequent periods we find that whenever wars, revolutions,
misiule, the profligacy of the nobles, epidemics, or like calamities
disturbed the country, intemperance grew apace, and legal methods
were then devised to check excesses in drinking, just as if these had
not been merely one of many symptoms of the disease of the civic
body. Thus, to cite but one instance, after the struggle between
the houses of York and Lancaster had ended, lawlessness prevailed
in England to an alarming extent. This was, of course, the result
of the dissolution of all social bonds, the insecurity of life and
property, and the daily recurring deeds of atrocity which had
attended the revolution. Intemperance is not apt to grow less, when
all the brutal passions of man are inflamed by the clangor of arms;
but it is only one effect, not the cause. The laws enacted after that
revolutionary period seem, however, to have been dictated by the
conviction, that intemperance was the cause of lawlessness. In 1552
an act was passed prescribing the binding of keepers of ale-houses
and tippling-houses by recognizances, and in 1551 the number of
such houses, as well as of taverns, allowed to be licensed, was
prescribed by law, and the drinking of wine on such licensed
premises was peremptorily forbidden. This law had an effect,
diametrically opposite to its object, as lawlessness increased
enormously.
Prohibition in some form or other was often resorted to in Eng¬
land in order to curb the tendency to excesses, but all such measures
failed.
Enough has been said to prove that there is not an age,
however far removed from our time, when intemperance was not
complained of as an evil of more or less grave consequences, and to
prove, furthermore, that restrictive laws, although as old nearly as
mankind, have failed to attain their end.
71
There is not a sumptnaiy law proposed in modern times for
which a prototype cannot be found in the world's history ; not one
measure, advocated either by prohibitionists or temperance apostles,
that has not been put into execution before. And still intemperance
prevails to-day, as it did when Noah got drunk. Among all such
laws none have failed more signally than those of a prohibitory char¬
acter, whether they related to the use of fruit, of drink, or of to¬
bacco. They either proved totally abortive, or led to vices incom¬
parably more pernicious than those which they were intended to
eradicate. The severest punishments, even the death penalty, as
we have seen, failed to deter man from following that mysterious
instinct which rendered the Creator's prohibition a failure. The
decrees of the most absolute despots of modern or ancient times,
the rulers of Russia, did not stop the use of tobacco, although
mutilation of the body, life-long imprisonment and even death were
the punishments meted out to offenders. Prohibition only proved
successful when it assumed the form of a religious tenet, as, for
example, in the case of Mahomet's decree ; and then it gave rise
to evils compared with which drunkenness seems almost like a
virtue.
The fundamental condition of the success of prohibition would
be a complete metamorphosis of man's moral and physical constitu¬
tion—a nullification of that decree of the Creator, by virtue of which,
man, after the first failure of prohibition, and only on account of it,
was left in the position, which Goethe describes in the lines that
form the motto of this chapter.
Prohibition pre-supposes an unnatural condition of man, and is,
therefore, an impossibility. The history of the past demonstrates
this ; the events of the present bear it out. Notwithstanding all
that has been said and written to the contrary, it is a matter of posi¬
tive official record, that prohibition does not, in our time, prohibit
in any sense.
If it did prohibit, would not the returns of the Internal Rev¬
enue Office exhibit blank spaces under the head of liquor taxes
opposite the names of States in which prohibition is the law ? One
will look in vain for such evidences, either in Maine or Yermont, in
Iowa or Kansas.
The state of the liquor traffic may change, fluctuating for better
or worse, as the methods of the administrations of these States
become more or less rigid, more pr less lenient ; but under no
72
circumstances has it ever, in any instance, been abolished as the law
ordains. The only sure and invariable result has been, and is, that
the secret traffic becomes all the more obnoxious, all the more
dangerous to the security and morality of society, in proportion as
the mode of executing the law grows more tyrannical, more directly
subversive of those principles of personal liberty over which every
American citizen naturally watches with the greatest solicitude. In
considering the showing of the returns of the Internal Revenue Office
in this connection, it should be borne in mind, that aside from the
sale of ardent spirits, legitimately carried on under license from the
National Government, there is, as we shall presently prove, in every
State, where a prohibitory law is in force, a very large traffic which
pays neither local nor national duties. And there is nothing
strange in this; the injustice of the local law frequently pro¬
duces that spirit of defiance, which manifests itself at all
hazards. Hence, significant as the showing of the following
table is, it does not exhibit the full extent of the failure of
prohibition.
Kansas.—The following table, comprising nearly all the counties
of the State of Kansas, shows whether prohibition prohibits there.
As will be seen from the letter of tránsmittal at the foot of this
page, the information was originally furnished by villages and towns,
nineteen of which could not be located by counties, so that in some
instances not all the licenses in force are included. The nineteen
villages or towns are : Bethany, Baker Diggings, Beaver Creek,
Chatauqua Springs, Cantonment, Eagle Springs, Fainge, Fort Hays,
Fort Supply, Fort Reno, Fort Sill, Fort Gibson, Honey ville, Lazette,
Leonard, Mulberry Ranch, Newburg, Sand Creek Ranch and War¬
wick. In 1880 in these nineteen places there were issued, in the
aggregate, five retail liquor dealers' stamps; in 1881, six; in 1882,
sixteen ; and in 1883, twenty.
Ukited States Internal Eevenue \
Collector's Office, District of Kansas, V
Leavenworth, Nov. 23,1883. )
Dear Sir : I to-day send you by express, as you requested, the number of
retail liquor dealers' stamps issued in the District of Kansas during the tax years
1880, 1881, 1882 and 1883 up to the present time. The tax year commences on
the first day of May. I have them alphabetically arranged by towns, so that any
one can be referred to in a inoment.
Respectfully,
JNO. 0. CARPENTER.
73
LïS'i of Retail Liqüoe Dealers' Stamps Issued in the District
of Kansas in 1880,1881, 1882 and 1883, Arranged by Coun¬
ties ; also the Yote FoR and Against the PrOHEBITORY amend¬
ment :
Number op Retaiu Liquor
Vote on Pbohibi-
DeaiíERS'
Licenses.
tort Amendment
CotTNTIES.
1880
1881
1882
1888
For.
Against
Allen
13
14
17
17
1805
951
Anderson
14
18
21
18
909
870
Atchison
102
105
111
121
1848
3147
Barbour
12
4
9
10
220
213
Barton
12
24
30
15
490
1058
Bourbon
88
85
44
25
1410
1964
Brown
7
8
10
6
1845
1288
Butler
26
21
26
26
2211
1141
Chase
14
14
12
19
597
660
Chautauqua
14
9
21
21
1051
819
Cherokee
48
89
32
82
2421
1944
Cheyenne....
0
0
2
1
0
0
Clark
0
1
8
1
0
0
Clay
11
22
22
21
1296
907
Cloud
29
84
87
85
1454
1261
Coffee
15
22
28
21
1025
1209
Comanche
0
0
0
0
0
0
Cowley
32
14
17
26
3248
870
Crawford
85
20
25
36
1655
1469
Davis
22
14
20
17
628
607
Decatur
5
8
3
2
146
251
Dickinson
22
25
27
88
1477
1222
Douglass
38
85
89
85
2711
1602
Doniphan
41
45
42
44
821
2150
Edwards
5
4
4
5
121
194
Ellis
15
18
15
14
855
468
Elk
28
17
19
22
1232
564
Ellsworth
8
6
11
12
611
781
Ford...
24
81
34
37
125
488
Franklin
21
16
15
16
1967
1293
Gove
7
8
5
3
0
0
Graham
5
2
2
2
207
358
Gray
5
5
7
4
0
0
Greenwood
19
10
16
10
1059
941
Hamilton
5
7
7
7
0
0
Harper
8
7
12
26
424
316
Harvey
22
20
44
29
1148
858
Jackson
11
11
14
12
1056
1098
Jefferson
32
26
31
31
1306
1723
Jewell.
21
12
15
13
1557
1256
Johnson
20
10
12
19
1545
1787
Kearney
2
4
6
0
0
0
Kingman
6
2
3
9
265
346
Labette
52
33
89
50
2082
2123
Leavenworth
162
150
195
202
1486
3882
Lincoln
10
3
3
8
613
733
Linn
11
24
23
28
1494
1292
Lyon
30
20
85
41
2337
877
Marion
i4
13
22
13
1020
825
Marshall
42
49
58
50
1428
1853
74
coukttbs.
Nukbbb of Retail LiquoB
Dbalebb' Liobkseb.
Vote ok Pbohibi-
tobt axENDKEHT
1880
1881
1882
1883
For.
AgalBBt
McPherson
34
13
17
14
2134
912
Meade
1
0
2
0
0
0
Miami
22
19
29
23
1488
1751
Mitchell
20
19
20
20
1348
1178
Montgomery
44
31
34
42
1939
1250
Morris
14
3
9
12
895
885
Nemaha
25
20
14
19
1213
1185
Neosho
20
13
23
31
1528
1164
Ness
3
0
0
0
200
216
Norton
5
2
2
3
575
491
Osage
42
61
59
55
2287
1684
Osborne
11
11
12
8
1035
873
Ottawa
12
10
13
12
1163
835
Pawnee
9
2
3
4
604
218
Phillips
17
13
14
15
978
708
Pottawatomie
39
36
39
31
1549
1475
Pratt
8
3
3
3
151
142
Rawlins
3
4
1
2
0
0
Reno
14
25
33
28
1006
932
Republic
24
23
24
24
1330
919
Rice
21
20
16
20
1087
625
Riley
24
14
22
21
1178
828
Rooks
10
6
5
9
503
696
Rush
3
2
4
5
315
305
Russell
6
9
8
7
443
655
Saline
23
17
19
18
1410
1207
Sedgwick
57
57
62
66
1868
1716
Sequoyah
2
3
2
1
0
0
Shawnee
57
76
127
101
3159
2513
Sheridan
1
0
0
0
101
69
Smith
9
5
6
7
1274
851
Stafford
3
1
1
3
393
301
Sumner
82
51
59
59
2394
1201
Trego
6
5
3
5
220
120
Wabaunsee
10
9
10
9
622
990
Wallace
4
2
1
1
0
0
Washington
39
37
42
48
1112
1610
Wilson
25
19
20
19
1487
1069
Woodson
9
5
9
10
748
530
Wyandotte
71
115
141
142
1222
2481
Whatever may be said of the force of popular sentiment mani¬
fested in the matter of prohibition in the State of Kansas, it is pretty
evident from the foregoing table, that this power did not tend to
diminish the number of retail liquor dealers' stamps issued in the
State ; and not the least singular phenomenon is the increase of this
class of licenses in many of the counties where the majority in favor
of prohibition was mere than commonly large. In Allen County
1,305 votes were given for the amendment, and only 951 against it^
yet the number of licenses increased from 13, in 1880, to 17, in 1883 ;
75
in spite of 1,296 votes cast for prohibition, against 907 contrary
votes, in Clay County, the number of licenses rose from 11 to 21
within three years ; the abstinents of Butler polled twice as many
votes for the amendment as their bibulous opponents did against it,
yet the number of saloons remained stationary in 1880, 1882 and
1883.
It is true that popular sentiment, viewed in the light of election
results, experienced a very marked revulsion within two years after
the adoption of the prohibitory amendment ; but what does this
prove, if not that the sentiment for prohibition could not have been
very strong in 1880 ? The vote on the amendment stood 92,302 for,
and 81,304 against it ; the majority in favor of it being 7,998. In
the election of 1882 the champion of prohibition, Mr. St. John, re
ceived only 75,158 votes. The two other candidates, Hon. George
W. Glick and Mr. Bobinson, respectively received 83,237 and 20,933
votes.—In the strongholds of prohibition the mutation of feeling
was not so striking, as far as this election result is concerned, but
there is absolutely no possibility of contradicting the showing of our
comparative revenue table, to the effect that popular sentiment, even
where it seemed strongest according to number of votes cast, proved
utterly powerless to prevent the augmentation of the liquor traffic,
much less to terminate the sale of intoxicants, as the law ordains.
In this case prohibition not only fails to prohibit, but it is the
direct cause of immorality and a prolific source of social hypocrisy
and political degradation. The only thing it has accomplished in
the way of suppressing intoxicants, is the banishment of fermented
beverages, the very thing which, as the sum of experiences of all
ages teaches us, should by all means be averted.
In many minor communities the law may be strictly enforced,
because the majority of citizens are conscientious abstainers; but
the neighboring communities, living under the same prohibitory
law, allow saloons to multiply as fast as the demand for drink
makes it necessary, so that, in the aggregate, the number of drink¬
ing places has increased, instead of being wiped out entirely.
In its operation, the law practically amounts to local option, but
without the redeeming features of this system. It accomplishes its
objects in a few isolated cases, but is absolutely nugatory in the
majority of instances. It does not, happily, stop the use of stimu¬
lants, but it unfortunately encourages the abuse of them ; it corrupts
76
the drinker, whom no human or Divine law can deter from indulg¬
ing his appetite, and creates contempt for the law in all.
Popular sentiment must have been very much at fault then in
this case, or it was not rightly understood from the beginning. If
neither is the case, why is the law practically a dead letter ? De
Toqueville's confidence in the vitality of our institutions was founded
upon the knowledge of the power of popular sentiment to create laws
and maintain them, on the one hand, and to completely nullify them
without violence, on the other. In his " Democracy in America "
he says that American legislators depend almost entirely upon
the intelligence of the citizens, leaving it to the personal interest of
all to live according to law. Such fiagrant violations of the law as
we see perpetrated in Kansas would, it seems then, be impossible if
popular sentiment had sustained prohibition from the beginning.
It might be urged that the result of the vote on the amendment
showed popular feeling to have been in favor of prohibition ; but
that would be a misstatement. The result only refiects the antag¬
onism between two political parties—an antagonism that was utilized
by a handful of well-organized, energetic theorists in furtherance of
a measure to which the majority of voters on their own side were
perfectly indifferent. Ko one pretends to say, that more than one-
fourth of the 92,302 citizens, who voted for prohibition in Kansas,
are total abstainers. Then why did the remaining three-fourths vote
for it ? Simply because to them it was a party measure which, if
carried out, would not prevent them from indulging their appetites
in the privacy of their dwellings.
But a man who votes for prohibition without being himself an
abstainer makes himself guilty of a falsehood, just as he who votes
for it from conviction is guilty of a tyrannical purpose, as far as the
personal liberty of his neighbor is concerned. Thus, falsehood and
tyranny are the parents of prohibition ; and is it reasonable to
expect that such an ill-begotten thing should thrive ? At all events,
it does not do so in Kansas, where the state of affairs of to-day is
an exact counterpart of the situation in which Michigan had been
placed by prohibition up to 1875.
Michigom.—The effects of prohibitory laws have nowhere been
more graphically illustsated than in this State,in which prohibition was
the law for twenty years. A prohibitory clause was inserted in the
constitution of that State in 1850 ; and in 1853 the " Maine Liquor
77
Law" (slightly amended in 1855) was enacted and remained in
force np to the year 1875. The evils that grew up under this law
defy description. In 1874 there were over six thousand places in
the State where ardent spirits were sold, and all of them were con¬
ducted openly. "What the law had proscribed, ultimately became
more powerful than the law and its executors, and public feeling
abetted the law-breakers. There was, indeed, one powerful example
of " laws outlawed by necessity."
As soon as the law had fallen into public contempt, no limits
could be fixed for the audacity of the law-breakers, and the only
remedy at hand was the revocation of the prohibitory clause, and
the law based upon it. The best citizens, and among them nearly
every sincere advocate of temperance, united in a grand movement
against prohibition, and the result was a brilliant vindication of out¬
raged common-sense.
It cannot be said that the law was insufiBcient. " The prohibi¬
tion," said Hon, George W. Moore, before the Detroit Board of
Trade, some time ago, " was as absolute as it could be made. The
ingenuity of the ablest lawyers, preachers, business men, legislators
and women, was exhaused in devising penalties and means of en¬
forcing them. Liquors were declared no consideration for a debt,
and any sale of other goods where liquors were part of the trade, was
declared unlawful and the debt could not be collected ; that every
person injured by such sales should be able to sue the seller and
recover damages ; that owners of the buildings should be also liable ;
that any lease of premises where liquor was sold could be declared
forfeited ; that each act of selling should be a separate offense,,
punishable with fines not exceeding one hundred dollars and im¬
prisonment up to six months, until the liability of every liquor
dealer in the State would aggregate perhaps hundreds of thousands
of dollars, and imprisonment for many lifetimes. Common law rules
of evidence were changed to make convictions easier, and the simple
solicitation of any intemperate person to drink subjected the inviter
to the penalties provided for the seller."
All to no purpose ! The evil did not cease until its source was
destroyed ; and then, and not until then, did the people of Michi¬
gan realize what an awful burden they had borne for twenty long
years. Under the new law, placing the liquor traffic under rational
excise restrictions, two thousand of the lowest groggeries were swept
78
away during two 3'ears ; and it was thus clearly demonstrated that
prohibition, far from stifling the craving for strong drink and de¬
stroying the opportunities for gratifying that craving, calls forth far
more drinking places than the wants of reasonably regulated com¬
munities would justify under ordinary circumstances. Offenses
against public peace and order decreased in an uncommon degree ;
the liquor interest was made to bear its share of the burden of
taxes, which had erstwhile been borne wholly by other in¬
terests, and the brewing industry received a new impetus from
the rapidly developing refinement of the drinking habits of the
people.
It will presently be shown that nearly all advantages that had
grown out of an equitable and just management of the liquor
traffic are now being neutralized, if not entirely paralyzed, by the
system of high licenses.
Massachusetts.—Prohibition failed as ignominiously in this State
as everywhere else. To describe the course of its growth and failure
would be but a repetition of what is stated under the head of Kan¬
sas and Michigan, if it were not for one very significant feature of
the operation of this pernicious law in one of the most enlightened
commonwealths of our land. There it was proven that prohibitory
laws are not only tyrannical in principle, but that, to be any¬
thing more than mere farces, their execution requires measures
that must be repugnant in the last degree to every sincere lover
of liberty. The report of the Joint Special Committee of the
Legislature of Massachusetts on the subject of a License Law,
rendered on the fourteenth day of May, 1867, contains the
following passage, fuU of the utmost importance to every
patriot :
" In our republican form of government, we have always recognized the fact
that no criminal laws can be faithfully executed (and therefore should not be en¬
acted) which are not sustained by the moral convictions of the people. When we
make changes in them from time to time, we are content to leave the execution of
the new laws with the ordinary instrumentalities. For the administration of our
entire criminal code, old laws and new laws, we have relied upon the vigilance of
ordinary municipal officers to complain of violations ; the fidelity of prosecuting
officers, elected by the people, to take charge of the complaints or indictments
when made or found ; the honor and good sense of juries, selected under long-
established and well-known rules, to convict or acquit, according to the law and
the evidence, and the discretion of the judges, in case of conviction, to impose
reasonable sentences. All these regular and ordinary methods were open for the
execution of the statutes upon the sale of liquor. If the moral judgment of the
79
people approved the law, there was no suflBcient reason in the nature of things
why police officers, district attorneys, juries and judges should not be as prompt
and decided in doing their respective duties by this as well as other laws. Yet
the course of the supporters of the present statutes seems to indicate great dis¬
trust upon their part of all these parties, or rather that there is something in the
law so difíerent from the principles of our ordinary criminal legislation, and so
repugnant to the popular instincts, that new and arbitrary methods are necessary
to enforce it.
Every city and large town has its local police, which had been found effective
enough in preserving the peace, and prosecuting violations of State and municipal
laws. Yet the execution of this law could not, it was thought, be safely entrusted
to them because they were not sufficiently eager to prosecute ; and hence a »¡/stem
of State constabulary was adopted, until that time unknown in this country and in
other republics, and borrowed from monarchial countries."
But even so, with all this machinery of tyranny, the law re¬
mained a dead letter. This legislative committee did its work very
thoroughly and impartially, hearing both sides with equal patience
and intelligent attention, and conducting its inquiries into the effects
of prohibition in the broadest possible, yet most thorough manner.
The conclusions reached were, that the law was unjust, illogical in
theory, and nugatory in practice ; that it did not prohibit, but
that it did transform very many dwellings into secret rum-shops ;
that it corrupted private and public morals, increased crime
and pauperism, and consequently augmented the burdens of
taxation.*
Maine.—The prohibitory law is still nominally in force in this
State, but in fact it is inoperative. Even Mr. Dow has not the
temerity to assert that prohibition prohibits in his State. All he
dares to claim for his pet system is, that it has prevented the further
growth of the evils of intemperance, and has transformed " Maine
from the poorest State in the Union into one of the most pros-
perous."f
Prosperous? Let us see. While the population of the United
States has increased at the rate of thirty-three per cent., Maine's
population, after retrograding during one decade and remaining
stationary during another, finally crept upward at a snail's pace—three
» See Appendix of said report, pp. 238, 244. 314, 336, 339, &c. The law was repealed in 1868 and
license substituted. In 1869 it was re-enacted, with the exclusion of cider. In 1870 it was amended
80 as to permit the saie of malt liquors in places in which the citizens did not prohibit such sale.
In 1871 the sale of malt liquors was made dependent on a vote in favor of it. In 1878 prohibition
pure and simple was decreed by the legislature, and in 1875 the license system again went into
force and effect.
t Keal Dow's answer to the report of the English Consul at Portland, Maine.—Jiondon
T^mes qf the 6th of October, 1883.
80
per cent, being the climax of her progress. Progress, indeed ! Look
at these figures :
Population Number of Pau-
in 1880. pars in 1880.
Iowa 1,624,615 2,133
Indiana 1,978,301 3,965
Michigan 1,636,987 2,300
Minnesota 780,773 496
New Jersey 1,131,116 2,981
Maine 648,936 3,211
With a smaller population than Minnesota, Maine has over six
times as many paupers as that State. With a population larger
by almost a million than that of Maine, Iowa has only 2,133
paupers, or 1,078 less than Maine. Michigan is ahead of Maine in
point of population by nearly one million, but the latter State takes
the palm in point of pauperism by 911.
Strange indications of prosperity, these !
Mr. Dow derives comfort from the thought, that Maine is not
to-day what he thinks it would have been, if prohibition had not
diminished the consumption of distilled spirits. He says, in the re¬
joinder referred to : " Our share of the national drink-bill would be
now about $13,000,000, but $1,000,000 will cover the cost of all
liquors smuggled into the State and sold in violation of the law."
That is to say, that if Maine's population had up to this day remained
in the crude moral and intellectual condition which prevailed at
the time when the State's great industry, as Mr. Dow says, was
the lumber trade, and when prohibition was introduced, the con¬
sumption of distilled spirits would cost Maine $13,000,000 annually.
Mr. Dow seems to ignore the fact that the lumber trade was the cause
of the coarse drinking habits of the people in Maine, just as it was the
direct incentive to that effort of Dr. B. J. Clark, to which the organi¬
zation of the first American temperance society, in Saratoga County,
is to be ascribed. The coarse habits of the lumber-men ; their rough
out-door life, which denied them all the thousand comforts that the
poorest laborer enjoys in a civilized community, led to those exces¬
sive drinking habits which alarmed Dr. Clark, as early as 1808. In
Armstrong's History of the Temperance Reformation, we read :
" Alarmed at the prevailing custom of the region of country around him,
teeming with lumber in aU the towns and counties in the vicinity of the ever-
rolling Hudson, in all which intoxicating liquors of variety and plenty were con¬
sidered as commodities of necessity for the daily use and comfort of all, or almost
every family, and indispemahle for the treatraenl of friends in social life—alarmed,
81
we say, at the prevalence and results of such a custona, after having projected
the plan of a temperance organization, the doctor determined on a visit to his
minister," etc.
Prohibition could do nothing for " all the towns and counties in
the vicinity of the ever-rolling Hudson " (the prohibitory law of
1855 having been declared unconstitutional in 1856), yet Mr. Dow's
brilliant argument applies to this fertile region quite as well as to
Maine. In fact, if the people of the United States had not progressed
in any direction—and that is Mr. How's basis of argument as to
Maine—the per capita consumption of distilled spirits would to-day
be anywhere from 11 to 15 quarts, instead of 4^. It is not a question of
what would have been, but of what is ; and on this point Mr. How left
no doubt on the mind of the readers of his reply in the London Times.
He admits, in fact, that prohibition does not prohibit. It has, it is
true, wiped out distilleries and breweries, but in the place of these
legitimate industries, everywhere yielding large revenues to the
State, it has called forth a regular system of smuggling, by which
Maine is supplied with vastly more liquor than would be consumed
under an equitable license law.
According to the testimony of impartial observers, all the
pernicious results of prohibition are in full bloom in Maine. Fer¬
mented beverages, particularly malt drinks, are little used, but dis¬
tilled liquors of the worst quality find ready sale everywhere ; and
if we were inclined to turn the tables on our opponents, we might
say, that this accounts for the enormous increase of pauperism
and insanity in Maine. It is the curse of all such unreasonably re¬
strictive measures, that they injuriously affect the condition of the
laboring people, whom they deprive of wholesome malt beverages and
drive to the use of such ardent spirits as can be had for little money.
The rich and the well-to-do are not in any way inconvenienced by
such laws, and it is probably for this reason that they preserve a de¬
gree of indifference to prohibition, that would otherwise seem inex¬
plicable. In this connection Mr. How made a very strange confession
when he said, in his Times letter, that Consul Bird could know
nothing of the working of the law because " his associations here (in
Portland) are with most respectable people, none of whom have any
sympathy with the temperance movement, much less with the policy
of prohibition." Houbtless, these respectable people would manifest
not only a lack of sympathy for, but a very energetic antipathy to,
prohibition, if that obnoxious law infringed upon their personal
rights as it does upon those of the poor laborer, whom it compels to
82
become the unprotected customer of the proprietors of low dives.
The compiler is informed by a responsible officer of one of the
largest cities in Maine, that the stauchest supporters of prohibition
are contrabandists, whose lucrative trade would he destroyed if
the State adopted an excise system worthy of a civilized common¬
wealth. The same officer is of the opinion, frequently expressed by
independent journalists, that if popular sentiment could ever be
fairly and squarely tested, in reference to prohibition, the law would
be smothered under a mountain of ballots. The question in itself
and on its merits has never been voted on ; it was always a
side-issue in the struggle of political parties for power. If one
would take the pains to read the newspapers and magazines of
the time when the Maine law was in its infancy, he would
find ample proof of this. Here is an excerpt from an article
published in 1859, under the title "History of the Struggle in
Maine : "
" It must suffice for our present purpose to recall to remembrance the two
great parties into which American politicians are divided—viz., Republican and
Democrat. The Whigs, and after a meteoric course of success, the Knownoth-
ings, though still a numerous body, may be disregarded in the consideration of
the circumstances we are about to describe. The distinctions between the Repub.
licans and the Democrats are radical. At the last presidential election, our readers
will remember, Colonel Fremont represented one of these parties, while Mr.
Buchanan was the nominee of the other. Irrespective of general policy, on the
great American difficulty, the two parties hold opposite views. The Republican
party is anti-slavery; the Democratic sympathizes with the feelings of the
Southern States. As may be supposed, the majority of temperance men belong
to the Republican party—slavery and rum are too intimately associated to he dir
severed in politics* Rum figures largely in the slave traffic as a ' medium of
exchange,' and avenges outraged humanity by binding the * superior race ' in a
still more abject bondage than that of the chain and the lash. Hence, it being
rarely possible to present to the people for their vote a temperance issue uncomplicated
with other party considerations, the temperance party in Maine and in other States
has generally shared in the vicissitudes of the Republican party. Of course, all Re¬
publicans are not temperance men ; some are purely and selfishly politicians ; and
there have been instances in which, having used their votes, the Republican
politicians have looked indifferently on the claims of the friends of sobriety."
♦ This brings to mind the fact that the outbreak of the "irrepressible conflict" put a stop
to the prohibitory movement in spite of the "intimate connection " between " slavery and rum."
Why was it thus? Because the party which fought slavery and rum (rum, of course, means all
intoxicants) found a most powerful ally against slavery in the German element, which German
element was, and is, just as earnestly opposed to prohibition as it was to slavery. It was this aid
from so unexpected a quarter that obstructed the prohibitory movement for over twenty years.
By the year 1857 prohibition had been voted on, and either adopted and enforced, or adopted and
declared unconstitutional, in Maine, Delaware, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, Michigan,
Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa, New York, New Hampshire and Illinois. In all of the States named,
in which the German votes were worth having, the prohibitory movement came to a halt as soon
as the "late unpleasantness" began.
83
How forcibly these words remind one of the part prohibition
plays in the political campaigns of our day ! A few zealots, at the
head of a column of blind, but well-meaning followers, invade the
political arena and dictate terms to the party leaders, who are but
too willing to promise anything and everything, with or without an
intention of keeping their promises. If they keep them, it is not
always because they hold the thing promised to be good, wise and
necessary in itself ; if they break them, it is because by doing so
they hope to gain more votes, than by redeeming their pledges.
Popular sentiment had as little to do with the creation of the
prohibitory law in Maine as in Kansas ; and that is one, but only
one, of the reasons of its failure there as elsewhere.
What is true of Kansas and Maine, of Michigan and Massachu¬
setts, is also true of Yermont and New Hampshire, and of all those
other States in which prohibition exists in the form of local option.
This latter method appears to be in great favor with the Democrats
of the South. In some instances the sale of intoxicating liquors
wdthin the limits of counties is directly prohibited by legislative
acts ; in others the legislature empowers the voters of certain coun¬
ties to vote upon the question, and again in others a general law
imparts that authority. In the State of Alabama the sale of liquor
is prohibited either in parts, or the whole, of fifty-five counties.
The State has sixty-seven counties. In Georgia, where the ordinaries
of counties have power to grant or refuse licenses, local option pre¬
vails by the side of prohibitory laws, and high license acts. The
prohibitory laws relate either to entire counties or to parts of them,
and so do the laws fixing the license fees. Thus, for instance, by an
act passed on the 26th of September, 1879, the sale of liquors was
prohibited within the limits of Irwin County. On the 2d of October,
1879, an act was approved, by virtue of which the license fee for
selling liquors in the counties of Wayne, Liberty, Coffee and
Appling, was fixed at $1,000.—At the end of last year prohibition
was in force, either wholly or partially, in ninety-one counties of
Georgia. In Maryland, where a fair license law is in force, there
are about twelve or thirteen counties whose " qualified voters " have,
by legislative enactment, been "enabled to determine by baUot
whether intoxicating liquors or alcoholic bitters shall be sold." All
these laws are nearly of the same tenor, except in so far as fermented
liquors are sometimes included in, sometimes omitted from, the list
of forbidden drinks. In these counties, according to reliable news-
8é
paper reports, a host of itinerant whiskey-sellers do a profitable busi¬
ness. Local option is, in fact, just as much a failure as prohibition.
It does not accomplish its immediate object, and usually brings
about the very reverse of what should be the ultimate object of every
law, i. e., the improvement of the moral and material condition of
those who live under it. It will always be secretly evaded* or
openly and defiantly violated, and will in all cases retard that re¬
finement of the drinking habits of the people from which alone
genuine temperance can reasonably be expected; since excessive re¬
strictions, indiscriminately placed upon the sale of all intoxicating
liquors, have a tendency, as we have seen, to put malt liquors beyond
the reach of the majority of drinkers, and to increase the quantity
and deteriorate the quality of ardent spirits consumed.
THE HIGH LICENSE SYSTEM.
The great reputation of Americans for inventiveness rests largely
upon their mechanical and industrial achievements ; in legal
matters we have displayed less originality than in any other re¬
spect. We have copied copiously, but not always wisely, from
English statute books ; and, strange to say, we have done this in
one instance, even after the worthlessness of our model had been
fully established. England's experience with high licenses should
be a warning to our law-makers ; but, unfortunately, it is not. In¬
deed, the history of taxation in England affords many very in¬
structive illustrations of the dangers that attend unwise excise leg¬
islation.
* The ingenuity with which such laws are evaded is well illustrated in the following tele¬
graphic dispatch sent to the New York Times from Atlanta, Ga., under date of Pehruaay 9,1884:
"The revival of the earthenware business in Georgia is one of the curious results of the local
option movement. The high licenses at first adopted limited the sale of liquor to country towns,
and the adoption of local option by several contiguous counties forced a good liquor trade upon
the nearest market town where it was sold. Just before Christmas it was noticed by Southern
Express ofiScials that a great number of jugs were put into the freight directed to parties in tem¬
perance counties. From Griffin to Carrollton, for instance, there was a large traffic carried on in
jugs, filled, of course, with whiskey. Stewart County is known as " wet," but aU counties around
are local option, so that Stewart has to bear the blame and expense of drunken fteaks of half a
dozen of her neighbors. Mr. Cullom, of Aiken County, S. C., filled an order within a month from
Savannah for 10,000 jugs. He also disposed of 2,500 in Waynesboro, Ga. As these jugs are used
for illicit purposes, they are never used more than once, thus keeping up the demand for new
stock. The new business has attracted the attention of manufacturers, and agents are now in
Swainsboro, Statesboro and other places establishing depots for the supply of jugs. Bates have
been received from railroads, and whenever a depot can be established within one day's wagon
drive of a temperance centre, it will fhmish liquor to all who need it. There are Jug Victories in
Washington and Clark Counties, Ga., and several in the northern part of South Carolina, all of
which feel the improvement in business due to the cause mentioned. Temperance men have en¬
deavored in several instances to find a remedy, but seem to have been unsnccessfhl. In one
instance an attempt was made to enjoin the delivery of jugs by the Southern Express Company,
but the effort fell through, as there was no authority upon which such action could be based.
85
There is not an English writer of standing, who would venture
to deny that if the drinking habits of the English péople are more
intemperate to-day than they were two centuries ago, it is owing to
the exorbitant taxes with which the brewing industry was burdened
from the beginning of last century.
Beer was at one time the favorite beverage of the English, we
are told. It would no doubt have retained its ascendency over all
other liquors—just as it has in Bavaria—if the government had not
placed it beyond the means of the people by exorbitant taxation.
From and after the Cromwellian era, the taxes on beer rose rapidly
to an almost incredible height. In 1659 the tax on beer amounted,
in the aggregate—for England and Scotland—to £374,456, exceed¬
ing by far, as Yocke says,* the income from all other excise duties.
The revolutionary origin of these taxes did not deter the parlia¬
ments of the restored monarchy to continue them at the Crom¬
wellian rate of 2s. 6d. per barrel of beer, costing more than 6s. ; and
Qd. per barrel, costing less than 6s. Under the two last Stuarts the
taxes remained unchanged. In the reign of William III. they were
raised first, in 1689, by ^d. and Zd. respectively ; in 1692 and 1693
again, each time by the same amounts ; and in Queen Anne's reign
3(f. and Id. respectively ; so that in 1710 the tax on every barrel of
beer, costing more than 6s., was 5s., and on every barrel costing
less. Is. The duties amounted to 83 per cent, of the value of the
product.
In addition to these excise duties, a tax of 6¿?. per bushel was
levied on malt, and one of Id. per pound on hops, so that the
product and its ingredients were trebly taxed. As in Germany, in
Sweden and other countries, so also in England, it was the custom
of nearly all well-to-do people to brew their own beer, and this was
made to contribute to the public exchequer through a tax of 5s. per
head of every household so brewing.
Distilled spirits were taxed at the same time, but in nothing
like the rate of duties on malt beverages. The tax, which originally
amounted to but 2d. per gallon, was raised, it is true, in the reigns
of William III. and Queen Anne—periods distinguished for the
insatiable necessities of the public exchequer—^but the increase did
not amount to more than 8¿ per gallon in 1710. Distilled spirits
were, consequently, exceedingly cheap, compared with the cost of
• Qeschichte der Steuern des Britischen Belches. Von W. Vocke ; p. 388. (Leipzig, 1863.)
86
beer, and the people were forcibly driven to the use of gin. The
'' gin epidemic " was the result of this rapacious system of taxation.
In London there was, in 1725, one spirit-shop to every seven houses.
In 1728 "high licenses" were resorted to as a measure supposed to
diminish intemperance; but the change was not productive of any
practical good ; and, besides, this law was soon (1732) revoked. It
was at this point that the state of things assumed that aspect which
Smollett so graphically describes in the work already referred to.
This was the time when, as that author says, "signboards pro¬
claimed : ' Here you may get drunk for a penny, dead drunk for
twopence, and have clean straw for nothing.' " In 1735 the oft-
quoted Gin Act was passed, fixing the price of a license for the sale
of distilled spirits, in quantities of less than two'gallons, at £50, and
imposing an excise duty of 20s. per gallon. The law-making power,
whose rapacity had artificially created an appetite for ardent spirits,
foresaw that so stringent a measure could not but invite evasion or
provoke open defiance ; and to guard against either, large rewards
were offered to informers. The penalty for violations of the law
was extremely severe, and everything was done to detect and con¬
vict law-breakers.
What was the result ? To use Smollett's words, " the people
broke through all restraint, and illicit spirit-selling assumed gigantic
proportions." The consumption of distilled spirits increased enor¬
mously, and, although 12,000 persons were convicted of violations
of the law and severely punished, the government was powerless to
restrain the evil even within that broad latitude which originally
led to the high license measure. The torrent of popular dissatis¬
faction carried away all barriers. Secret evasion and open and
defiant violation of this law—in many instances informers and
officers were chased like wild beasts by infuriated mobs—produced
contempt for all laws, and widespread immorality was the inevitable
consequence.
The utter worthlessness of high licenses as a temperance measure
became so obvious that the obnoxious law was revoked in 1742, to
make room for a moderate excise law, through the operations of
which it was hoped to do away, at least, with those evils that were
not results of intemperance, but consequences of the general lawless¬
ness. If this measure had been accompanied by the abolition of
the malt tax, it might have tended to wean the people from the taste
for ardent spirits. As it was, the government continued experi-
87
menting alternately with high licenses and low licenses ; cheapening
ardent spirits in the latter case to such a degree that their use could
he indulged in, without breaking the law, at a smaller cost than that
of beer ; and in the former case provoking utter disregard of the
law. But, in the meantime, the beer tax was also increased, instead
of being decreased. In 1760 the malt tax was raised to 9d., the hop
tax to l|^d. The excise duty on beer, in 1761, was 8s. per barrel,
costing over 6s., and 4s. 9d. per barrel, costing less than 68.; In
1803 the former tax was raised to 10s. With few intermissions,
these duties retained their upward tendency until Canning proposed
a temperance reform in the way of a reduction of taxes on malt
liquors (1822), which was followed by the abolition of the beer ex¬
cise in 1830.
The production of ardent spirits and malt liquors, during the
periods in which both kinds of beverages labored under heavy bur¬
dens, proves beyond the possibility of a doubt what the high license
system must inevitably bring about. The production of malt
liquors decreased with every new tax imposed upon it, while the
production of distilled spirits increased most rapidly at the very
time when it was most heavily taxed. The reasons of this are
obvious. The illicit sale of ardent spirits can be carried on without
very great danger of detection, while the illicit sale of malt liquors
is well-nigh impossible.
When Canning's measure went into effect the consumption of
malt began to increase at once. From 1821 to 1830 it rose from
twenty-one million bushels to twenty-seven million, and continued
rising after the abolition of the excise duty on beer. As soon as a
new duty was imposed on malt, as during the Crimean war, for in¬
stance, the consumption again decreased.
It is asserted, and with good reason too, that the laws favorable
to the manufacture of malt beverages have not increased the con¬
sumption in anything like the proportion of increase in population.
But how could anything else be expected ? After the nation had
for nearly 150 years been compelled—there is no other word for it—
to drink gin; after those edifying festivals which derived their
origin from the use of ale, and which tended in such a marked
degree to elevate the masses, had been relegated to oblivion ; after
the drinking habits of the people had become so thoroughly
revolutionized in every respect—how could it be expected that malt
beverages should at once, within a couple of decades, resume their
88
old place in the favor of the people ? Besides, the taxes on the pro¬
duct indirectly remained comparatively high, even after the reform¬
atory measures mentioned. The taxes on malt were always rather
high ; according to Yocke's calculation the duties on the ingredients
of beer amounted, in 1857, to 50 per cent of the market value of the
product. In short, with all the relaxation of duties on beer and its
ingredients, distilled spirits remained cheaper than malt beverages,
and it is that which partly accounts for the fact, that the increase in
the consumption of the latter drinks is so small. Another reason
is, that during the fiscal proscriptioii of beer, the English people
became habituated to the use of other stimulants, as tea and coffee.
The number of barrels of beer brewed in 1857 was 17,984,773, in
1869 it was 24,542,664; the increase being 36.40 per cent. In
1883 the production amounted to 27,140,891 as against 27,870,526
barrels in the preceding year.
This proves that it is easy to legislate a nation into intemperance,
but that it is an exceedingly difficult task to counteract the evils of
such unwise legislation. In considering the question of high
licenses, as the term is understood here, we have no need of inquir¬
ing into the present state of things in England. Certain it is, that
the general use of beer in England ceased, as soon as malt beverages
and their ingredients were heavily taxed, and that when, after a
long period of pernicious experimenting, the sale of distilled liquors
was placed under the restriction of exorbitantly high licenses—
beer still being taxed as heavily as before—the consumption of
ardent spirits increased enormously, while that of malt beverages
sank to almost nothing.
This is what has to be considered, nothing else ; and from what¬
ever point of view it may be done, the conclusion is inevitable that
no measure ever proposed or executed, prohibition always excepted,
has such a pronounced tendency, as the system of high licenses, to
aggravate the evils of intemperance by forcibly driving the people
to the use of ardent liquors, not to speak of the violations of the
law to which it entices, and the increase of drinking places which
it produces.
Michigcm.—Having tested prohibition, and abolished it after a
thorough trial of twenty years' duration, this State adopted the
license system, making a wise discrimination between fermented
and distilled liquors. The law of 1875 fixed the price of a license
for the sale of fermented drinks at $40, and the other at $150;
89
subsequently these sums were raised to $65 and $200, and still later
to $200 and $300 respectively. The section of the law, fixing the
latter rates reads :
Section 1. In all townships, cities, and villages of this State there shall be
paid annually the following tax upon the business of mauufacturing, selling, or
keeping for sale, by all personä whose business, in whole or in part, consists in
selling, or keeping for sale, or manufacturing distilled or malt liquors, or mixed
liquors, as follows : Upon the business of selling or offering for sale spirituous
or intoxicating liquors or mixed liquors by retail, or any mixture or compound,
excepting proprietary patent medicines, which in whole or in part consists of
spirituous or intoxicating liquors, the sum of three hundred dollars per annum ;
upon the business of selling or offering for sale by retail any malt, brewed or
fermented liquors, two hundred dollars per annum ; upon the business of selling
brewed or malt liquors at wholesale, or at wholesale and retail, two himdred
dollars per aún um ; upon the business of selling spirituous or intoxicating liquors
at wholesale, or at wholesale and retail, five hundred dollars per annum ; upon
the business of manufacturing brewed or malt liquors for sale, if the quantity
manufactured be less than fifteen hundred barrels, sixty-five dollars per annum,
and twenty-five dollars upon each additional thousand barrels or part thereof ;
upon the business of manufacturing for sale spirituous or intoxicating liquors,
five hundred dollars per annum. No person paying a tax on spirituous or intoxi¬
cating liquors under this act shall be liable to pay any tax on the sale of malt,
brewed, or fermented liquors. No person paying a manufacturer's tax on brewed
or malt liquors imder this act shall be liable to pay a wholesale dealer's tax on
the same.
The advocates of high licenses claim, contrary to what has been
the experience in England, that this method reduces the number
of saloons and consequently diminishes the opportunities for "getting
drunk"; that it does away with the low dives, and increases the
revenues. Let us see whether this claim is justified by the actual
state of things in Michigan.
From the records in the office of the Auditor General of the
State it appears that there were, in 1882, three thousand four
hundred and forty-four licensed saloons, against three thousand nine
hundred and seventy in the preceding year, there being a reduction
in the number of saloons of five hundred and twenty-six. The
revenues amounted to $550,180 in the former year, and to $913,684
in the latter. If the " high-license " law had for its object simply an
increase of the revenues, if would undoubtedly have to be regarded
as a complete success. But the fiscal consideration is said to be
secondary only; the main object being of a moral nature, i, e., the
checking of intemperance. A reduction in the number of saloons
does not in itself argue a decrease in drunkenness, unless it can be
demonstrated that the consumption hag correspondingly decreased.
90
Well, notwithstanding the report of the Auditor General, neither a
reduction in the number of saloons, nor a decrease in consumption
has taken place.
The number of saloons licensed hy local authorities has no
doubt been diminished ; but illicit selling is carried on in a great
number of saloons—illicit only so far as the evasion of the local, not
the United States, revenue laws are concerned. One example is as
good as a hundred. The following table shows the number and
kind of licenses issued in the City of Detroit during 1882 and 1883 :
1882.
Number of
Licenses.
Amount of
Tax.
Bate
per Annum.
Kind of Business.
15
$7,500 00
$500 00
Wholesale Spirituous Liquors.
331
99,300 00
300 00
Retail Spirituous Liquors.
308
17
41,600 00
1,125 00
200 00
65 00
( Retail Malt Brewed or Ferruented
( Liquors.
( Brewer's License (1,500 Bbls. or less), $25
( for every additional 1,000 Bbls.
104
15,483 43
Various kinds for fractional portion of year.
675
$165,008 43
1883.
11
$5,500 00
$500 00
Wholesale Spirituous Liquors.
209
62,700 00
300 00
Retail Spirituous Liquors.
305
32
61,000 00
1,430 00
300 00
65 00
j Retail Malt Brewed or Fermented
( Liquors.
j Brewer's License (1,500 Bbls. or less), $35
( for every additional 1,000 Bbls.
156
19,913 55
Various Licenses for fractional portion of
year.
703
$150,543 55
The following extract from a letter of the U. S. Internal Revenue
Collector at Detroit, Mr. J. H. Stone, sustains our assertion :
" I have caused an examination to be made of the special tax
record of this district for the years ending April 30,1883, and April
30, 1884, and find that there were issued for those years special tax
stamps for retail liquor dealers in the city of Detroit as follows :
1882-3, 3,919, and 18^3-4, 996."
Here we have a difference between United States and local
licenses, in 1882-3, of two hundred and sixteen in Detroit alone j
91
hence there are two hundred and sixteen places in which intoxicants
are sold unlawfully. That these violations of the law are the result
of high licenses, cannot be doubted. In 1880 the number of places
having local licenses was 905 ; in 1881 it was 812, and 675 in 1882.
The number of United States revenue licenses issued during 1882-3
was only slightly larger than that of local licenses issued in 1880, so
that it is clear that the local law did not affect the actual number oí
drinking-places, while it made two hundred and sixteen law breakers.
Neither the quantity consumed nor the number of saloons were
in any way affected. All the law accomplished was to entice
those who were formerly law-abiding citizens into violations of the
law.
The demoralizing effect of high licenses becomes still more
obvious from the fact that the unreasonably high price of beer
licenses must necessarily affect the consumption of malt liquors, and
increase intemperance. No better proof of this can be adduced
than the following table, showing the amounts received for
licenses issued by the United States Revenue Office in the first
district of Michigan, in which the city of Detroit is situated :
Year.
Retail
Liquor Dealers
@$25.
Wholesale
Liq'r Dealers
@ $100
Brewers less
$50.
Brewers more
$100
Retail Malt
Liq'r Dealers
$20.
Wholesale
Malt Liquor
Dealers, $50.
1880...
$35,428 11
$1,725 00
$683 34
$3,083 33
$2,503 36
$1,145 84
1881...
37,516 47
2,050 00
733 34
2,950 00
1,979 19
1,050 00
1882...
33,905 46
2,212 50
575 00
3,300 00
989 18
947 50
1883...
37,873 64
2,237 50
450 00
3,091 67
758 35
760 41
This tells the whole story very forcibly. While there is, from 1880
to 1883, an appreciable increase in the amounts collected from retail
and wholesale liquor dealers, there is a vast decrease in the amounts
collected from retail and wholesale dealers in malt liquors. In
1880 the United States received $35,428.11 from retail liquor
dealers; in 1883 the revenues from this source amounted to
$37,823.64. In 1880 the revenues from malt liquors amounted to
$2,503.36, in 1883 to $758.35.
To show that prohibition and high licenses have nearly the
same effect, inasmuch as both favor the increase of places for the
illicit sale of distilled spirits and the decrease of places where malt
92
liquors are sold, we give the following table, for which we are
indebted to Hon. Walter Evans, Commissioner of Internal Revenue :
_ •B'U/.oi Retail Liquor RetailDealersin
Kind of Liquor Law. eSSlo. MiUtLiquore.
uv,. Number. Number.
Prohibition 1863 2,248
1864 2,218
.1865 3,442
.1866 4,087
.1867 4,223
.1868 4,604
.1869 5,537
.1870 5,020
.1871 5,095
1872 5,846
1873 8,488 79
1874 6,392 122
Moderate License 1875 5,680 219
" 1876 4,828 572
" 1877 4,384 408
" 1878 4,505 569
" 1879 4,373 440
" 1880 4,361 447
High License 1881 4,857 337
" 1882 4,854 190
From the table of local licenses issued in Detroit it appears that
there was, from 1882 to 1883, an increase of malt liquor licenses
from 208 to 305. Compared with the above figures, what does this
prove ? Simply that malt liquor licenses, being cheaper by $100 than
distilled liquor licenses, are taken out and used as a cover for the
sale of distilled spirits. The fact that there is no retrogression in
jpi^oduction of malt liquors does not affect our assertion, since it
is known that a large quantity of the malt product of the State is
shipped across the border.
The decrease in the number of retail dealers of malt liquors is
equally great throughout the State, as will be seen from the follow-
ing :
WHOLE STATE OP MICHIGAN.
Tear.
Retail
Liquor Dealers
@ $25.
Wbolesale
Liq'r Dealers
@$100.
Brewers less
$50.
Brewers more
$100.
Retail Malt
Liq'r Dealers
$20.
Wholesale
Malt Liquor
Dealers, $50.
1880...
$109,036 53
$4,000 00
$2,416 68
$7,658 33
$8,951 65
$4,629 15
1881...
121,426 05
4,572 92
2,570 84
7,400 00
6,737 53
4,574 99
1882...
121,347 50
5,375 01
2,137 50
8,120 83
3,801 78
4,403 33
1883...
138,221 65
6,616 66
1,654 16
7,591 67
3,467 55
6,022 49
93
On a smaller scale the law works precisely as the famous English
Gin Act did. It provokes illicit selling of ardent spirits, with¬
out in any manner afiecting the number of drinking-places ; it
diminishes the consumption of malt liquors ; it aggravates the evils
of intemperance, and fosters immorality. In large cities, like New
York, Philadelphia and Brooklyn, the results would be still more
pernicious. High licenses would there practically amount to pro¬
hibition, so far as three-fourths of that large class of saloons are
concerned in which only malt liquors are sold. They would not
affect the two extremes of the business ; they would neither diminish
the number of gorgeous establishments frequented by the "gilded
youth," nor the number of low dens, where profligacy and crime
flnd refuge; but they would undoubtedly decrease the number of beer
saloons in those densely populated quarters where cheap and whole¬
some stimulants form almost the only solace and comfort of the
great mass of hard workers and" their families. It would almost
exclusively affect those citizens who, as has been shown by Mayor
Low's inebriety statistics, vie with the best citizens in sobriety and
strictest obedience to the law. The system, as a temperance
measure, is not needed in those quarters ; but where it might be
said to be needed, it would have absolutely no effect. Proprietors
of low dens will surely not shrink from adding one more wrong to
the list of nefarious doings which form the sum of their iniquity.
They will either sell illicitly, or pay the high license, and strive to
make up the extra expenditure by an extra effort in depravity.
They can illicitly sell ardent spirits, because these can readily
be concealed or transported from place to place in small quantities.
Beer cannot be sold illicitly, as every one knows, without exposing
the seller to easy discovery and punishment. In place of the small
respectable beer saloons, we would see groggeries in the disguise of
soda-water stands, and like seemingly harmless business. Whiskey
would be consumed in larger quantities, and under circumstances
almost excluding the possibility of preserving public order and
morality ; while beer would, to a large extent, be driven out in just
those quarters where light, wholesome stimulants have become an
absolute necessity to the happiness and comfort of a large well-
behaved and orderly portion of our population.
This is the lesson that the operation of the Michigan law teaches
us. It is needless to cite the examples of other States having high
licenses; these two illustrations, one of English, the other of
American origin, suffice to convince any fair-minded person, that
94
whenever the license system becomes partial prohibition in disgnise,
it works quite as disastrously to temperance and morality as prohibi¬
tion pure and simple.
But, even if a high license system ever could diminish the number
of saloons as automatically as it manifestly does the very opposite, it
would not necessarily follow that temperance would be the gainer by
it. Temperance advocates contend that it would, and in proof of
their assertion they cite the Gothenburg system. It is seriously to
be doubted whether these persons know the system they praise.
Let us see how the Gothenburg law arose, and what it is.
THE GOTHENBUBG SYSTEM.*
Intemperance in Sweden is also a product of defective laws.
There was a time, when every Swedish cultivator of the soil had to
plant forty poles of hops (1440), and there is sufficient evidence that
the brewing industry was subsequently encouraged by the Govern¬
ment. As a nation, the Swedes were not then an intemperate
people. Their trouble began, when, in 1Y87, every family was given
the right to distill liquors for their own consumption. In 1800 all
restrictions were abolished, and it is stated that the per capita con¬
sumption rose thereafter to 29 quarts. In 1829 the number of stills
was 173,124, of which 172,048 were in operation in rural districts.
Farm-hands were not infrequently paid their wages in spirits, and
drinking bouts were thought as much an economic necessity as a
matter of appetite and pleasure. Even the Government seemed to
take it for granted that a causalty existed between the prosperity
of agriculture and stockraising on the one hand, and this universal
distillation on the other. The surplus of cereals and fruit for which
in years of plenty no market could be found, had to be utilized in
some way, and in none, it was thought, more advantageously than by
that of transforming it into liquors. The effects of this state of
things soon assumed the form of a national calamity, and the
Government, now frightened out of its indifference by what Dr.
Iluss declared to be evidences of a rapid physical and mental
decadence, adopted one punitive rneasure after another in the hope
of checking the excesses. Finally the right of distilling was
curtailed ; the general Government, in 1855, limited the time for
distilling to two months in each year, (from the 15th of October
* We make use of the official report relative to " Tilverkning och Försäljnlng af Britnvln *'
1878-70' of a historical sketch on the subject, and the German report: " Die schwedischen und
norwegischen Schankgesellschaften." Bremen, 1883.
95
to the 15th of December;) imposed a uniform tax of 16 shillings on
every k<m of liquor, making no discrimination between liquors
distilled for home-consumption and those for the trade ; the right
to sell from one lean up, which had theretofore been vested in every
landed proprietor was curtailed by fixing the minimum quantity
allowed to be sold at 15 leans / only those holding licenses being
allowed to sell in less quantities. The granting of licenses was made
the prerogative of municipal authorities, under supervision of an
officer of the general Government ; licenses were to be sold at auction,
in such a manner that the person offering to pay tax on the largest
quantity of liquor was to obtain the privilege ; retailing companies
were to be allowed to buy the privilege at a fixed sum. In 1860
the right to distill for home-consumption was entirely abolished and
all distilleries were placed under surveillance, and the time for distil¬
ling was extended to seven months. In 1867 other laws were passed,
the essence of which is stated below. In 1869 a law was passed
prescribing the process of rectification, so as to exclude deleterious
substances. Under these laws the Gothenburg system grew up,
which is to-day in operation throughout Sweden and Norway. The
principal features of this system are : I. The number of licenses
allowed to be granted is prescribed by law. II. The right to sell
under all these licenses is sold either at auction, or for a fixed sum to
retailing companies, consisting of philanthropists. III. The saloons
of the companies are managed by salaried officers, who are forbidden
to encourage the guests to drink ardent spirits. lY. In the saloons,
beer, tea, coffee, and solid food are furnished at moderate prices ;
the rooms are airy, well-furnished and provided with reading
matter, pictures, fiowers, &c.. Y. Only perfectly pure and
thoroughly rectified spirits are offered for sale. YI. Malt liquors
are exempt from the restrictions imposed on the manufacture and sale
of distilled liquors. YII. According to a law of 1873, all profits
arising from the sale of distilled liquors are paid into the municipal
treasury. YIII. The municipal authorities endeavor to ameliorate
the condition of the laboring people.*
This is a rough outline of the Swedish system. The law works
admirably, but has not until recently reduced the consumption of
ardent liquors. Certain classes of the population even drink more
of these liquors now than formerly, while other classes are fast
becoming accustomed to beer-drinking, as ir evident from the fact
♦ A committee of the Board of Aldermen of Gothenburg recommended, in 1864, the erectioii
of comfortabie dwellings for the workmen.
96
that the production of malt liquors rose from 52,340,000 litres in
1870, to 97,638,160 litres in 1882. The favorable results of the
operation of the law are attributable almost entirely to the better
quality of the distilled liquors, to the amelioration of the condition
of the working people and a change in the drinking habits of the
better classes. We quote from the report of the German Travelling
Commission (1883) •
The appreciable decrease in the number of cases of public drunkenness and
the comparatively rare occurrence of those diseases which are caused by the
excessive abuse of alcohol are largely due to the fact, that brandy as it is used
now has become better, its quality has improved and it is less injurious to those
who drink it.
In former years, the poorer classes and especially the inhabitants of the rural
districts—in Sweden as well as in other northern countries used to prepare whis¬
key from raw spirits and drink it as it came from the still. This liquor, which
contained all the different kinds of alcohol, formed during the process of distilling,
and which was consumed in great quantities, had that pernicious effect with
which Magnus Iluss, the celebrated physician of the Seraphine-Hospital at Stock¬
holm, familiarizes us in his excellent work on " Chronic Alcoholism." Later the
rectification of brandy as a beverage by means of charcoal was introduced, and the
law of March 21, 1869, prohibited the sale and retailing of spirits which were
either adulterated by deleterious ingredients, or not well rectified, or contained
more than 46 per cent, of alcohol. Even this kind of whiskey, rectified by the
so-called cold process, still contains quite a considerable quantity of fusel-oil, and
it had long been supposed that these oils, have that destructive effect which assumes
the form of chronic alcoholism, and after long continued excesses of delirium
tremens. It is true, Huss believed that fusel-oil only served to hasten the
injurious effects of pure brandy, but he believed so, because Dahlstrom had not
succeeded in producing symptoms of poisoning in animals by introducing fusel-
oil into their system. The experiments made by Cros, Rabuteau, Richardson,
Dujardin-Beaumetz and Audige, by Eulenberg, Binz and his disciples, show beyond
any doubt, that the poisonous properties of alcoholic drinks depend to a great
extent on the quantity and quality of these injurious ingredients. Now, it has
been proved that spirits, obtained from grain, turnips or potatoes, contain, besides
sethyl-alcohol, considerable quantities of that highly injurious substance called
amylic alcohol ; and Isidore Pierre and others have shown that these poisonous
substances cannot be removed from the spirits by the charcoal filter, but that a pure
drink can only be obtained through repeated distillation by means of the so-called
rectifying-process. In potato-spirit, rectified after the " cold system," there were
found, according to Rabuteau, at least 5 per cent, of fusel oil ; in brandy, once
rectified rapidly, and then purified on charcoal, there were found from 2 to 3 per
cent., and of these impure substances, amylic alcohol, a very poisonous stuff,
which is at least fifteen times as strong as aethyl-alcohol, formed about two-thirds.
The injurious effect of spirits on the human system depends upon the quantity
of poisonous substances it contains ; it is for this reason, that alcohol is found to
be most deleterious where potato-brandylis being drank, that was either insufficiently
rectified, or not at all. In Sweden a rectifying establishment was erected on the im¬
proved plan, at Reymersholm, near Stockholm^ in 1875, and from that time the
97
Swedish people succeeded in getting pure spirits. The Conimission appointed in
1877, for the revision of the brandy-laws recommended that " liquor offered for
sale shall contain no more than 46 per cent, of alcohol ; that it must be free from
fusel oil, and in every way come up to the standard determined upon by the royal
authorities," (following the calorimetric method of Prof. Stenberg at Stockholm,
according to which 1 per cent, of amylic alcohol becomes discernible in
distilled liquors) " or that brandy must be obtained from raw material thus
purified."
In the saloons, managed by the retailing companies, no other but perfectly
pure, as they say, " tenfold rectified," liquor is sold, and in the retail-stores spirits
purified by means of charcoal, doubly rectified, is sold only when a customer
expressly calls for it. Thus, during the week from August 5th to 11th, there were
sold in the retail stores at Stockholm 6,005 kans of tenfold-rectified liquor and
only 14 kans of doubly-rectified spirits, while in the saloons of the retailing
company there were sold 9,710 kans of perfectly pure and no doubly-rectified
brandy at all. This extraordinary change in the quality of the beverages offered
for sale accounts for the favorable results.
The Swedish law undoubtedly deserves to be imitated wherever
intemperance prevails to such a degree as to give rise to fears of a
degeneracy of race. But, aside from the fact that drunkenness does
not now prevail, nor ever has prevailed, to such an extent in our
country, it is pretty clear that the Swedish system would prove a
total failure in America. With their habitual short-sightedness and
superficiality, temperance advocates harp on the one single feature
of reducing the number of saloons, ignoring entirely that this reduc¬
tion has not, until recently, decreased the consumption of spirituous
drinks in Sweden, and that all the benefits of the Gothenburg
system spring from those features which either could not stand the
ordeal of public criticism in our country, or could not be realized on
account of a lack of that practical philanthropy which is the main
spring of the Swedish success.
Think of a private company in New York having a monopoly
of licenses for the sale of liquors ! Think of that monopoly paying
its profits on distilled spirits into the public treasury ! Imagine, if
you can, that this corporation would build airy, comfortable saloons,
and furnish its guests with wholesome food and drink at a nominal
profit ! Then think of our Government maintaining such a system
of control and supervision over the manufacture of distilled spirits
that adulterations would be excluded ! These thoughts seem pre¬
posterous in themselves.
Without the change in the quality of the drink ; without the
efforts of the unselfish public-spirited retailing companies ; without
the amelioration of the condition of the workers, and without that
98
feature which encourages the use of fermented drinks, the mere
reduction of the number of saloons would have accomplished
nothing in the interest of temperance.
It would be carrying owls to Athens to recapitulate the showing
of our statistical tables, or to elucidate what, in the preceding
chapters, has been demonstrated to have been the result of prohibi¬
tory and excessively stringent liquor laws. From all that has been
said, it follows that, in dealing with this question, law-makers
should bear in mind that the use of intoxicants is not a vice, but a
perfectly proper enjoyment of great physical, intellectual and moral
benefit to the individual, and of inestimable ethical and material
advantage to society ; that the abuse of inebriating liquors is a vice,
and that, while society is warranted in protecting itself against the
effects of inebriety, the method of such protection should not in the
least affect the liberty of action of the drinker, but should hold the
drunkard responsible, not, indeed, for drinking to excess, but for
such harm as he may do to others. The wise law-maker should also
consider that all laws aimed at the proper use of intoxicants are
unjust, because detrimental to the happiness and well-being of the
majority ; that they are immoral, because they create a host of law¬
breakers, corrupt morals, aggravate the evils of intemperance
by driving the people to the use of ardent spirits, and by placing
the drinker in circumstances which inevitably lead to excesses;
that they are tyrannical, because they infringe upon the personal
liberty of all ; that they are economically pernicious, because they
aim to destroy many branches of industry and agriculture, in which
enormous sums of money are invested, and upon which thousands
of skilled and unskilled laborers depend for a livelihood ; and, finally,
that they are socially dangerous, inasmuch as they do away with
many opportunities for recreation and popular amusement, and thus
destroy the very means by which social advancement and refinement
can be effected.
The discrimination between use and abuse, drinker and drunkard,
should determine the character and scope of the laws for the regu¬
lation of the liquor traffic; for if it be perfectly honorable and
legitimate to drink intoxicants, it must of necessity be honorable and
legitimate to sell them ; hence, it is unjust to the last degree to place
the upright, law-abiding citizens, who sell distilled or fermented
99
liquors, on the same legal footing with the proprietors of disreput¬
able drinking places. The evil influence of disreputable resorts upon
the safety and morality of society cannot he paralyzed by declaring
the whole traffic to be dishonorable, nor will it meet the ends of
justice and the requirements of society to persecute the innocent on
the pretense of restraining the guilty. Experience teaches us that such
a course invariably injures the honorable dealer, while it positively
beneflts the guilty, and consequently aggravates the evils against
which it is alleged to be directed. The flscal policy in reference to
the sale of intoxicating drinks should be so regulated as to promote
temperate drinking habits and diminish drunkenness, and this, as
we have shown by scores of examples, can be accomplished by
favoring all the milder intoxicants, without, however, placing
unreasonable restrictions upon the sale of ardent liquors.
Under the operation of such laws temperance wiU flourish with¬
out other external aid than that, which may be expected from the
influence of good examples and the power of moral suasion.
APPENDIX A.
CORRESPONDENCE
RELATIVE TO INSANITY
CAUSED BY
IN" TEMPERS IST CE.
-A. F F E IST D I X A.
C0EKE8P0NDENCE
RELATIVE TO INSANITY
CAUSED BY
I]SrTE]MI»ERA.NOE:.
I
ALABAMA INSANE HOSPITAL,
TusKAiiOOSA, Ala., January 29,1884.
Deab Sib : Tours of the 22d inst. received. Upon examination of our books I
find there were admitted to this hospital during the last twelve months 210 patients
—150 men and 60 women. Of the men insanity was alleged to have been caused
by the excessive use of alcoholic liquors in nineteen (19) cases. Among the
women there was no case of alcoholic insanity. The nineteen cases among the
men was the direct result of the abuse of alcohol, or rather so reputed ; how
many of the others were indirectly due to the same cause it would be difficult
even to conjecture.
I am very respectfully yours,
T. BRYCE,
Superintendent.
II.
NAPA STATE ASYLUM,
Napa, Califoknia.
Number of Patients Number of Casei of Insanity
Ticex. Admitted. caused by Intemjwrance.
HALB. rBMALB.
1879 217 25 4
1880 672 31 ! 7
1881 668 81 ] 5
104
III
INSANE ASYLUM OP THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA.
Stockton, Cal., December 16, 1883.
Dear Sir : In consequence of the migratory habits of the people of this
State the records of this Asylum are necessarily very incomplete as to the causes
of insanity, and the percentage which may be attributed to alcoholic drinks can¬
not accurately be determined. The report of Dr. G. A. Shurtleff, which I send
by to-day's mail, contains all the information I can give you on the subject.
Respectfully yours,
W. T. BROWNE.
STOCKTON STATE ASYLUM,
Stockton, California.
Number of Patients Number of Cases of Insanity
Year. Admitted. caused by Intemperance.
xalb. fexalz.
1878 219 19 5
1879 106 8
IV.
COLORADO STATE LUNATIC ASYLUM,
Pueblo, Col., December 10, 1888.
Dear Sir : Having just moved into a new hospital building and being with¬
out clerk or assistant, I have been unable to reply to your favor in the manner
desired. I may state, however, from the register book of patients received where
the existing cause is entered, if known, that it appears the excessive use of aleo-
holic beverages is assigned as the cause vÂth ten per cent, of the admissions here
during the past two years. Hoping you will pardon my delay in replying, " as
well as brevity," for reasons stated above.
I remain very respectfully yours,
T. R. THOMBS.
CONNECTICUT HOSPITAL FOR INSANE,
Middletown, November 28,1888.
Dear Sir : Statistics respecting alcoholism are very unreliable. Friends of
patients rarely tell the truth. They rarely—almost never—assign alcoholism as
the cause of insanity in the cases which we find are caused eoldy and purely by
intemperance. Experience shows us, that at least twenty per cent, ef all cases
are caused by alcoholism.
Yours truly,
A. M. SHEW.
105
VI.
RETREAT FOR INSANE,
Hartfokd. Conn.
Year.
Number of Patients
Admitted.
1850
1851
1852
1853
1854
1855
1856
1857
1858
1859
1860
1861
1862
1863
1864
1865
1866
1867
1868
1869
1870
1871
1872
1873
1874
1875
1876
1877
1878
1879
1880
1881
1882
1883
135
128
158
140
177
169
157
161
144
141
168
164
171
170
143
155
165
182
173
129
123
143
115
114
83
78
103
92
89
78
108
114
64
78
Number of Cases of Insanity
caused by Intemperance.
hale. psmale.
1
7
5
3
4
4
8
2
4
6 1
15 3
5 2
4
10 2
13 1
10 1
6
4 3
7 6
3 1
10 2
8 1
8 8
7 1
5
6
7 1
7 2
2 2
3 2
7 1
4 2
5
4 1
To 1869 there was no other institution for the insane in the State,
that time it has received patients from every portion of the country.
Since
H. P. STEARNS, M. D.
106
VIL
Litchfield, Conn,, December 3, 1883.
Dear Sir : My establishment is so small (being a strictly private one) and
the number of cases of alcoholism but a fractional number of all that I receive,
that no general conclusions can be drawn therefrom. It seems to me that such
inquiries as you propound are applicable to large public institutions.
Respectfully yours,
H. W. BÜEL, M. D
VIII.
GOVERNMENT HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE,
Washington, D. C.
Number of Patients Number of Cases of Insanity
Year. Admitted. caused by Intemperance.
BtAnn. FEUAin.
1855 63 1
1856 47 3
1857 53 1
1858 43 2
1859 65 9
1860 93 6 1
1861 95 8
1863 186 5
a863 855
1864 509 11
1865 514 5 1
1866 333 10
1867 109 4
1868 153 3 3
1869 168 4
1870 183 3
1871 195 3
1873 186 4
1873 204 3 1
1874 330 11
1875 230 4
1876 313 30
1877 198 43 3
1878 183 33 3
1879 233 38 1
1880 225 54 3
1881 223 33 1
1883 347 86
1883 365 54 1
Total 5675 384
107
GOVERNMENT HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE,
Washington, Oct. 29, 1883.
Deab Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the
25th inst., and in response thereto enclose herewith the transmitted blank filled out
from the records of this Hospital. A few explanations may be necessary :—This
hospital was instituted for the care and treatment of the insane from the Army,
Navy, Marine Corps, Revenue Cutter Service and the indigent insane of the District
of Columbia. Pay-patients from the latter source are received only when our
accommodations permit ; for all practical purposes it may be assumed, that all the
insane from the District are provided for here. The first patient was received
January 15, 1855, and the institution being directly under government control,
reports are made to the end of each fiscal year, to wit : June 80th. All caui in
which the assigned cause was intemperance in the use of alcoholic stimulants have
been included, no matter what form the mental disease may have assumé. Of the
5,675 cases treated, 4,610 have been males, 1,065 females, of which number there
remained under treatment June 80th, 1888, 994 ; males, 755 ; females, 289.
Very respectfully,
W. W. GODDING,
Superintendent.
IX.
STATE LUNATIC ASYLUM OF GEORGIA,
Near Milledgeville, Ga., Nov. 80, 1888.
Dear Sir :—In reply to your letter making enquiry as to the per cent, of
mental disturbances in our Institution, produced by the use of " Alcoholic Bever¬
ages," I must say that it is impossible to give a correct statement, as the parties
accompanying patients to the Institution frequently know nothing of their history,
or of their antecedents. Hence, you can readily see, it is impossible to keep a cor¬
rect record of the causes. I also frequently find relatives are loth to speak of hered¬
itary tendencies. While I think, perhaps ten per cent, would cover all the cases
in our Institution, the exciting cause being alcoholic stimulants, I regard alcoholic
stimulants as one of the most potent predisposing causes of mental maladies. The
descendants of drunkards, or drinking parents are much more liable or susceptible
to insanity, whether they themselves are in the habit of drinking or not, than are
the children of sober parentage. Imbecility, epilepsy, insanity, etc., etc., may be
traced to the intoxicated brain of a parent, or even more remotely their grand¬
parents. If I am correct in my views, it would be diflBcult to obtain only the direct
or exciting cause, which is a small per cent, compared to the predisposing cause.
I send you one of our last reports.*
Respectfully,
T. O. POWELL,
Superintendent.
•The report referred to contains no information relative to the cause in question.
108
X.
ILLINOIS CENTRAL HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE;
Jacksonville, III.
Number of Patients Number of Cases of Insanity
Tear. Admitted. caused by Intemperance.
HALE. EEHAI/E.
1 1
4
6
4
2
3
6 1
1851
34
1852
110
1853
145
1854
122
1855
132
1856
156
1857
170
1858
142
1859
1860
157
1861
178
1862
207
1863
183
1864
224
1865
206
1866
248
1867
293
1868
328
1869
353
1870
350
1871
343
1872
278
1873
283
1874
197
1875
310
1876
248
1877
329
1878
281
1879
237
1880
251
1881
244
1882
265
1883
215
1
8
6
5 1
4 1
2
8
3
1
6
2 1
11
12
10
7 1
10
6
7
10
14
7 1
7 1
6
6
11
8
109
XL
ILLINOIS SOUTHEEN HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE,
Anna, III.
Year.
Number of Patients
Admitted.
Number of Cases of Insanity
caused by Intemperance.
1874
1875
1876
1877
1878
1879
1880
1881
1882
1883
Total,
HALE.
EEHALB.
158
2
108
4
147
2
92
1
308
10
190
3
1
188
4
1
130
1
174
2
1.57
1
1,597
80
2
XII.
ILLINOIS EASTERN HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE,
Kankakee, Illinois.
Number of Patients Number of Cases of Insanity
Tear. Admitted. caused by Intemperance.
HAIiE. FEMAI.B.
1879 22 7
1880 189 25
1881 278 24
1882 189 14 1
1888 188 17 2
Kankakee, Nov. 13, 1883.
Deak Sir :—The statistics includes information in about 50 % of all our cases ;
the remainder we have no history of. The apparent larger proportion during '79,
'80, '81, is due to our having gotten more information than we are able to obtain on
recent admission. The number in toto seems small, but you may be aware that we
do not admit inebriates. The figures do not include re-admissions of which there
are a number each year. The name of each is counted but once. The left hand
column gives the number admitted each year, not counting those who have been
intemperate and already residents of the Hospital.
Very truly,
R. S. DEWEY,
Superintendent.
110
XIII.
COOK COUNTY HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE,
Jepfebson, Ills., Dec. 31, 1883.
Dear Sir :—I handed your letter to our assistant and expected it had been
attended to, but find it has not. I do not think that alcoholic stimulants are the
direct cause of insanity, except in a small percentage of cases, and that when the
taste has become morbid and is indulged in to an imreasonable extent. They are
probably the exciting causes in every fourth case in this asylum. I mean that with a
tendency to insanity the injudicious use may prove an exciting cause an<î
frequently does. But it is not the stimulants, except in connection with the pre¬
disposition to the nervous trouble. We have about three fourths of a mühon popu¬
lation in this county and receive our patients from this county alone. The number
of inmates in this asylum in 1883 was 447, viz. : 233 males and 315 females.
Very respectfully,
J. G. SPRAY,
Superintendent.
XIV.
INDIANA HOSPITAL FOR INSANE,
Indianapolis, Ind.
Number of Patients Number of Cases of Insanity
Year. Admitted. caused by Intemperance.
FEMAIiB.
1871 338 14 3
1873 313 8 1
1873 330 13 1
1874 373 16 3
1875
1876
1877
1878
1879
1880 914 9 1
1881 728 10 3
1883 763 23 4
1883 698 13 .... 3
This Hospital was opened November 1, 1848. From that date to October 31,
1870, there were 4,431 persons admitted. In that number there were 147 cases
attributed to alcoholism,—143 men and 4 women. From that last date 1 give you
only the admissions for each year as that is the correct basis of calculation. A]b(\
number of cases of alcoholism each year of men and women.
WM. B. FLETCHER,
Superintendent.
MAIiE.
338
14
313
8
330
13
373
16
438
17
489
14
477
16
470
15
615
13
914
9
738
10
763
23
698
13
Ill
Indianopolis, Ind., Nov. 2, 1883.
My Deak Sir :—Bj direction of Dr. W. B. Fletcher, Superintendent of this
Hospital, I have filled the enclosed blank-form and return it to you. When any
one studies the subject of in8anit.y by practical observation in a Hospital for the
Insane, it will be astonishing how little of this disease is produced by the use of al¬
coholic drinks. But it is assumed by certain persons that fifty per cent, of nervous
diseases and insanity is the direct result of an indulgence in such beverages. This
is all wrong.*
Very truly,
A. J. THOMAS,
Mrst Assis't Physician.
* The compiler invites attention to an article by Dr. Thomas, reproduced in the text of this
sketch.
XV.
IOWA HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE,
Moxjnt Pleasant.
Dear Sir:—Your communication of the 15th inst., is before me.
1 will say that in the eighteen years that 1 have been connected with Hospitals
for the Insane, by observation and preparing statistics, 1 am prepared to say that
about twenty five per cent, of the causes of insanity, in something more than seven
thousand patients that 1 have been familiar with, has resulted from the use of
alcoholic beverages. This refers only to those where that is the direct cause. From
the history of other cases, 1 judge that indirectly twenty-five per cent, more may be
traceable to the same cause, as a result of drunkenness in the parents, affecting
the nervous organization of the children ; and in the case of many females, the
hardships and cruelties which they undergo is a result of this excess.
Very truly yours,
H. A. GILMAN,
Superintendent-.
XVI.
IOWA HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE
at Independence.
Number of Patients Number of cases of Insanity
Tear. Admitted. caused by Intemperance.
MALE. PKMAUt.
1874 239 6
1875 411 9
1876 472 10 1
1877 541 4 1
1878 577 5
1879 732 9 1
1880 705 10
. 1881 819 10 1
1882 820 14
1888 871 18 1
112
XVII.
KANSAS STATE INSANE ASYLUM,
Superintendent"8 Office,
Topkka, Kan., November 22, 1883.
Dear Sir: Your communication of the 15th inst. is before me. We did not
fill out or Bend you the statistics you called for, because we could not do so in a way
to make them of any use. We spent some time in working up the matter ; our
difficulty was in fixing upon the population represented in this Institution at the
time. There are two asylums in the State, and no special territory is designated
for either. Then, a part of the time but few new cases were admitted, and those
carried over from one year to another would, of course, be counted a second time.
Again in many cases there is a combination of causes, so that when one thing
is assigned as a cause, something else could as well be assigned in the same case.
We receive cases every year where the excessive use of alcoholic drinks has
very decidedly been the primary cause, as well as many where it is only the
exciting cause. As to the figures, the percentage of cases of this character much
depends upon the point to be made and how carefully the cases are analyzed.
This is not very satisfactory to you, I know, and is not to me, but you say
" a reply, no matter of what kind."
Yours truly,
A. P. TENNEY.
XVIII.
KANSAS STATE INSANE ASYLUM,
OsAWATOMiE, December 11,1883.
Dear Sir : Yours of the 30th ult. received. Your previous letters of October
22nd and November 16th came in due time. I must ask your pardon for delay of
answer. Since the 15th ult, I have been deprived of the services of the Assistant
Superintendent until the 7th inst., and, as a consequence, so many extra duties have
devolved upon me, and my whole time was so constantly occupied, that I have been
unable to devote any attention whatever to the subject matter of your letter. In
regard to the data you desire, I am sorry to say I am unable to give you anything
reliable or satisfactory from our records, some of which were destroyed by fire three
years ago. Our history of cases is made up from the best information we can ob.
tain, just previous to or at the time of admission. In many cases little of their his¬
tory can be ascertained. To the question, "Was the patient ever addicted to in¬
temperance in any form ? " we often receive answers which are disproved or rendered
doubtful by subsequent information. In the absence of reliable data on the sub¬
ject, I can hardly believe a conjecture would be of any value. A careful study of
the direct and indirect influence of alcoholism in the causation of mental derange¬
ment is required to arrive at even an approximation of the true relation of cause
and effect. This opens up a wide range of enquiry upou a very important ques¬
tion, and I am free to confess that I am not prepared with the requisite data to
defend and sustain an opinion, were I to venture one, as the result of personal
observation.
Very truly yours,
A. H. KNAPP,
8upermt¿ndenL
113
XîX.
33 Market St., Lexington, Ky., Dec. 26,1883.
Dear Sir ;—I am no longer Superintendent of the Eastern Kentucky Lunatic
Asylum, and have not been for several months, consequently cannot give you the
statistical information you desire as the records are no longer under my control. I
have sent your letter or letters to the present incumbent. Dr. R. C. Chenault, and
■would ad'vise that you open a correspondence with him. Accept my apologies with
the above explanation for my apparent neglect, and believe me,*
Very respectfully yours,
W. O. BULLOCK.
♦ No reply received from Dr. Chenault.
XX.
WESTERN KENTUCKY LUNATIC ASYLUM,
Hopkinsville, Ky., January 14,1884.
Dear Sir :—An approximate estimate of intemperance as a cause, direct or
indirect, of insanity in this institution is seven and one half per cent. Asylums
have only been assigned districts in past few years, hence can not give you popula¬
tion from year to year. This Asylum was opened in 1854, has treated more than two
thousand four hundred patients, or in full numbers two thousand four hundred and
sixty-eight up to date.
Respectfully yours,
JAS. RODMAN,
Superintendent.
XXI.
MOUNT HOPE RETREAT,
Maryland.
Number of Patieuts Number of cases of lusauity
Year. Admitted. caused by lutemperauce.
]klalie. pbmai.b.
1883 585 36 18
In reference to the subject of intemperance we find on consulting the statistics
that fifty-four of the persons treated were acknowledged to use liquors and tobacco
in excess, and it was to the excessive use of these stimulants that the friends
ascribed the foundations of the nervous difficulties which resulted in insanity. Thus
abundant proof is at hand to show that intemperance does have a direct influence
upon the production of this disease. Indeed every year's experience tends to
demonstrate most conclusively, that intemperance itself does produce insanity,
even when no predisposition to the disorder exists ; but, when we add to this habit
the condition known as an insane temperament, or direct hereditary predisposition,
the individual is doubly liable to an outbreak of mental disorder, which experience
demonstrates is more persistent, and less liable to end in recovery than most of the
so-called curable forms of insanity. When we think of the dire calamities and
untold miseries likely to resuU from an attack of insanity produced by these causes,
what a powerful incentive should it be to do everything possible to escape an
attack.*
* This is an extract from the physician's annual report.
114
XXII.
BAT VIEW ASYLUM,
department city almshouse,
Baltimore Co , December 27, 1883.
In answer to both your favors I would san that the majority of our insane are
received with no history and consequently our records do not enable me to give the
information you desire.
Very respectfully, JOS. T. BARTLETT,
Bea. Phyaician.
XXIII.
ASYLUM FOR THE CHRONIC INSANE,
Worcester, Mass., November 19,1883.
I am unable to answer your questions for the reason that all the patients at
this Asylum are transfers from other hospitals in the State, and we therefore know
little or nothing of their previous history.
Yours respectfully,
H. M. JUMBY.
XXIV.
McLEAN ASYLUM,
SoMERViLiiE, Mass., November 17,1883.
Dear Sir :—An examination of our books shows that, a statement of numbers
as called for by your blank form would lead to such erroneous conclusions that the
information would be of no value.
During the first ten or fifteen years of the period since 1850, numbers of per¬
sons were admitted here of their own wish, with alcohoHsm ascribed as the
cause of their temporary mental disturbance, which was not strictly insanity.
Several persons came here for that cause a number of times in each for a number of
years. It is impossible to give correct dates eliminating these errors that would
thus be caused in a statement of numbers.
This practice was finally discontinued, and of late years, I cannot say how many,
only cases have been admitted with insanity as caused by alcoholism in which
insanity has really appeared aud continued for a length of time.
I think that also of late years alcoholism may not have so readily been
accepted as a possible cause of insanity in our cases.
For these reasons there would be a large apparent reduction in the number of
cases of " alcoholism " without their having been any real reduction; this would form
a source of error which cannot now be eliminated. For example : in 1850 the total
number of cases treated in the Asylum during the year was 357 ; of these, 30 are
recorded as cases of alcoholism. In 1882 the corresponding figures are 237 and 9.
While I have no doubt insanity is caused by excessive use of alcoholic beverages
I am not prepared to express a decided opinion as to the greater or less prevalence
of insanity due to that cause. In the class of cases received here we do not see much
Very truly yours, EDW ARD COWLEIS,
Superintendent.
115
XXV
BOSTON LUNATIC HOSPITAL.
Tear.
Number of Patients
Admitted.
Number of Cases of Insanity
caused by Intemperance.
hals.
female.
1881
54
2
1882
115
9
1
1888
104
10
1
Intemperance assigned as a cause on certificate, including cases of aleo-
holism.
THEO. FISHER,
Superintendent.
XXVI.
TAUNTON LUNATIC ASYLUM,
Taunton, Mass.
Number of Patients Number of Cases of Insanity
Tear. Admitted. caused by Intemperance.
xa1.e. eehaite.
24 4
10 4
15 7
37 12
81 86
40 9
48 11
52 9
87 12
85 16
81 12
14 10
80 9
29 12
85 7
85 5
29 9
20 3
80 8
26 6
29 20
85 14
50 16
28 18
21 8
14 .4
16 3
26 5
25 5
1854
880
1855
406
1856
447
1857
505
1858
550
1859
582
1860
586
1861
1862
619
1868
617
1864
605
1865
560
1866
551
1867
606
1868
649
1869
668
1870
758
1871
762
1872
828
1878
845
1874
889
1875
985
1876
1185
1877
.... 1244
1878
1208
1879
752
1880
749
1861
828
1882
786
116
Taunton, Mass., November 20,1883.
Deab Sir : I enclose you the table of statistics which you ask for, after some
unavoidable delay which 1 regret. It is only approximately correct, but perhaps
is as nearly so as such tables usually are. It shows the number of insane per¬
sons admitted to the hospital in whom intemperance was the exciting, or one of
the exciting causes of their insanity. It includes cases of alcoholism properly so
called, and also those whose mental disturbance of whatever type was supposed
to have resulted from the excessive use of alcoholic liquors.
Yours truly,
W. BROWN.
XXVII.
DANVERS LUNATIC HOSPITAL AT DANVERS, MASS.
Number of Patients Number of Cases of Insanity
Year. Admitted. caused by Intemperance.
kalb. femalx.
25 11
44 22
13 18
59 20
73 23
64 24
1878
222
1879
533
1880
607
1881
626
1882
656
1883
721
XXVIII.
EASTERN MICHIGAN ASYLUM,
Pontiac, Mich., November 1, 1883.
Hear Sir : Enclosed please find the blank which you sent duly filled out.
This Asylum was opened in 1878, and consequently no figures can be given back of
that period. During the first year a large number of patients were received imme¬
diately from the Michigan Asylum for the Insane at Kalamazoo and a relatively
large number of alcoholic cases. By the term " Alcoholism," I understand what I
have always denominated Alcoholic Insanity. Under this term are included three
distinct forms, which I will briefiy describe as foUows :
1. Mania a poiu, or maniacal excitement caused by excessive alcoholic
indulgence. It is of brief duration, and usually terminates in recovery. Where it
does not, a condition is developed which constitutes a second variety.
2. Chronic Alcoholism. This is characterized by hallucinations of sight and
hearing, apprehensions of persecution and homicidal impulses. There are marked
irritability, a malignant ingenuity in fault finding, and a complete lack of appre¬
ciation of condition.
3. The third variety is dipsomania proper. In this there is well marked
depression, followed by an intense craving for alcoholic indulgence, lasting,
usually, for a comparatively b rief period, followed by abstinence and correct life,
until the appetite for the vicious indulgence is re-awakened by a fresh attack of
depression.
117
If you desire to have these cases discriminated, and to include merely cases of
chronic alcoholism, such as are described under the second head, I can, of course,
make the distinction. It seems to me, however, that they can be more correctly
included under the general term alcoholic insanity, since the mental disease in
these cases is directly to be traced to alcoholic indulgence.
Very truly yours,
HENRY M. HARD,
Medical Superintendent.
Number of Patients Number of Cases of Insanity
Year. Admitted. caused by Intemperance.
MALE. rSMAIiE.
1878 313 20 4
1879 490 10 1
1880 567 8 2
1881 600 11 2
1882 658 12 1
1883 806 21 6
XXIX.
MICHIGAN STATE RETREAT,
Detroit, Mich.
Number of Patients Number of Cases of Insanity
Tear. Admitted. caused by Intemperance.
HALE. EEHÂLE.
1883 238 102 12
The institution is self-supporting and is owned and conducted by the Sisters
of Charity.*
* The flares are not included in Table I, because the Institution may, in a certain sense,
be classed with inebriates' homes.
XXX.
MICHIGAN ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE.
Kalamazoo, November 23, 1883.
Dear Sir : Yours of the 15th inst is received. In reply would say, that our
observations do not go to sustain the views entertained by many, that the excessive
use of alcoholic beverages is a frequent exciting cause of mental disturbance ; in
other words, mental disease. A glance at the table of causation, as printed in our
last report, shows that out of 3534 patients, the exciting cause of only 159 was attri¬
buted to the excessive use of narcotics and alcoholic drinks. While the table is
not absolutely correct, still we think it approximates the truth.
The evil, however, resulting from excessive use of alcoholic beverages, cannot
be estimated by the number who are made insan^ but in order to fully appreciate
118
the extent of miscliief done, we must study its remote effects upon the race. I
cannot, perhaps, better illustrate my meaning than by quoting from one of our
reports. Several years since a young man was admitted into this Institution who
had committed homicide while laboring under an attack of maniacal excitement ; he
had always been a quarrelsome boy and had led a very irregular life. The follow¬
ing facts were ascertained in reference to the family history : His grandfather had
been an influential citizen in the city where he lived, and had held positions of
honor and trust. He was a man of sound health both mental and physical, but a
high liver, and irregular and intemperate in his habits. His children possessed less
vigorous constitutions and were in every respect his inferiors. The father of the
patient was intemperate, quarrelsome, and shiftless. Several of the grandchildren
have been insane, and two inmates of this Institution.
In this case the impairment of the nervous energy by excesses of various kinds,
while producing marked effects upon the vigorous constitution of the grandfather,
was made apparent in the children by general mental and physical enfeeblement,
as well as moral degeneracy, and finally reached its full development in the grand¬
children, in whom it assumed the form of insanity.
Many of the epileptics, idiots, and insane in the land, are offsprings of drunken
parents, to say nothing of those defections beings found in our penitentiaries.
In conclusion permit me to say that in my opinion alcohol is the greatest enemy
of mankind.
Yours very truly,
GEO. C. PALMER,
Medical Superintendent.
XXXI.
MINNESOTA HOSPITAL FOR INSANE,
St. Petek, Minnesota.
Number of Patients Number of Cases of Insanity
Year. Admitted. caused by Intemperance.
MALE. female.
1867 97 2 1
1868 47 1
1869 130 5 1
1870 143 5
1871 139 16 1
1872 118 9
1873 140 13 2
1874 194 20
1875 188 19 1
1876 253 27 1
1877 237 17 2
1878 249 21
1879 248 21 2
1880 232 20
1881 172 16
1882 267 28
1883 253 26
C. W. BARTLETT, M. D.,
Superintendent.
119
XXXII.
MISSISSIPPI STATE LUNATIC ASYLUM,
Jackson, Miss., October 29,1883.
Dear Sir : In reply to your circular letter I will answer to the best of my
ability. It is quite difficult to ascertain the causes of insanity in this State. About
one-fourth are reported as being unknown.
Very respectfully yours,
T. J. MITCHELL, M. D.
Superintendent.
Year.
Number of Patients
Admitted.
1855 51
1856 64
1857 71
1858 90
1859 109
1860 115
1861 125
1862 131
1863 130
1864 106
1865 112
1866 119
1867 146
1868 135
1869 148
1870 155
1871 162
1872 227
1873 304
1874 305
1875 321
1876 325
1877 340
1878 392
1879 394
1880 402
1881 489
1882 420
1883 429
Number of Cases of Insanity
Caused by Intemperance.
malib. veilalx.
3
0
1 1
1 1
2
2
• • ••••••••
• • ••••••••
• • ••••••••
•• «•••••••
1
• • *•••••••
• • ••••••••
• • ••••••••
3
3
2
• • ••••••••
• • ••••••••
1
4
2
3
2 .....
5
2
1
xxxm.
MISSOURI STATE LUNATIC ASYLUM No. 2,
This report is given fcom our Biennial reports as reported to the General Assem¬
bly of the State.
If your object is to show what proportion of insanity alcoholic drinks, used to
excess, produces, Asylum reports cannot be relied upon, because often insanity is
120
the cause of excessive drinking, and Superintendents have no means of ascertain¬
ing the facts. Another unsettled and important point in relation to this vital
question should be considered : how many weary and exhausted brains are saved
from disease and ruin by the proper use of alcoholic stimulants ?
Very truly,
GEO. O. CORTLETT, M. D.,
Superintendent.
Number of Patients Number of Cases of Insanity
Year. Admitted. Caused by Intemperance.
MALE. FEMALE.
1876 293 7
1878 286 18 2
1880 188 6
1880 816 9 2
XXXIV.
STATE LUNATIC ASYLUM,
Fulton, Mo., December 5th, 1883.
Tours of the 30th ult., received. Tour previous letters were also received,
but I was quite unwell at the time and hence failed to respond. Although I have
been connected with this Institution nearly 26 years I regret to state that I have not
at present a complete file of the reports from the opening of the Asylum in 1851.
I was here from the opening of the Institution till 1865, when I resigned on account
of impaired health and returned again in January, 1878. During the period of my
absence the reports were in some way so scattered that I was able to obtain only
one nearly complete file, and this is now in the hands of a gentlemen who is pre¬
paring a history of this State. I do not know his present locality. The number
of cases of insanity in this Institution that have resulted from the excessive use of
alcoholic beverages has been small compared with a majority of other like institu¬
tions. The very large majority of our patients are from the rural districts where
intemperance does not to any great extent prevail. There are the hospitals for the
insane in St. Louis, one St. Louis County Asylum, designed to accommodate all the
insane poor in city and county, and one under the control of the Catholics for private
or pay patients. We have only two State Institutions, the one here and one at St.
Joseph, Mo. Most of our hospitals for the insane, largely filled from the cities, report
a large per cent, from alcoholism. Since my return, January 1873, we have admitted
(2,000) two thousand and ten patients, and from the best history we could obtain at
the date of their admission only seventy seven of the whole number resulted from
intemperance. The whole number admitted since the opening of the Asylum has
been 3,976. The Institution when first opened only accommodated 80 patients, and
we now have 521, but are overcrowded. The building had reached its present ca¬
pacity before I resigned in 1865. The per cent, from intemperance of the 1,966,
after substracting the 2,010, was perhaps a little larger than that, as we
admitted patients from St. Louis part of the time. If I had any file of reports, I
could give you an accurate stateiHpnt.
Very respectfully, J. R- R- SMITH,
Supt. Physician.
121
XXXV.
ALEXIAN BROTHERS' HOSPITAL AND INSANE ASYLUM,
St. Louis, December 8, 1883.
Dear Sir :—Your letter enclosing blank came to hand in due time. It is
only a couple of years since we opened our Miserecordia Asylum and have kept
no special record of it. Our main building being the general hospital for ailments
of all descriptions, it is not possible, except with a great amount of labor, to comply
with your request. During the present year we have erected an addition which
enables us to accommodate forty patients, whereas heretofore we had room for only
twenty in the Insane Department. At present we have 18 patients, only one of
whom can be said to owe his affliction to the excessive indulgence in intoxicating
drinks. During the entire year we had ten patients who became such through,
excessive drinking.
Respectfully yours,
BROTHER JOCUNDÜS SCHIFFER.
XXXVI.
ST. LOUIS INSANE ASYLUM,
St. Louis, Mo.
Total number of Number of cases of Insanity
Tear. Admissions. caused by Intemperance.
MAIiB. FBUALE.
1888 2,204 169 41
From the opening of the Asylum, April 28rd, 1869.
XXXVII.
NEBRASKA ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE,
Lincoln, Neb.
I cannot give the statistics asked for. I know it is bad enough, bad beyond
comprehension.
H. MATHEWSON.
XXXVIII.
NEW HAMPSHIRE ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE,
Concord, October 29,1888.
Dear Sir : — I regret very much that our records are not sufficiently explicit
on the point in question to be of any especial service to you, otherwise I should
have been mast glad to send them to you.
Very truly yours,
C. H. BANCROFT.
122
XXXIX.
NEW JERSEY STATE LUNATIC ASYLUM,
Treiíton, N. J., January 4,1884.
Dear Sir ;—In reply to your favor, I would state that we have at present
under care in our institution six hundred and thirty-three patients—three hundred
and thirteen men and three hundred and ninety women. Of the whole number we
have only eleven, possibly twelve, that are strictly cases of alcoholism. Of persons
whose parents (one or both of them) are intemperate, we have a large number
under care.
Very truly yours,
J. W. WARD.
XL.
PASSAIC COUNTY LUNATIC ASYLUM.
Year. Number of Patients Number of Cases of Insanity
Admitted. caused by Intemperance.
MAT.TC, FEMALE.
1883 48 10 29
WM. NELSON,
Clerk.
XLI.
Burlington, N. J., December 3, 1883..
Dear Sir :—I am much interested in your investigation, and await the result
with considerable concern.
What the people want is truth, and I am glad to find that in your letter you do
not indicate anything like a bias in any particular direction, but leave the matter
entirely open to the construction of your correspondents. It would be more in
accordance with science, and really more likely to eliminate the exact truth if your
inquiries were conducted upon a specific basis.
Many persons who have charge of the insane, especially in almshouses, are
likely to j udge hastily and incorrectly. If they find that an insane person has
ever used intoxicants, they may decide without further investigation that the
insanity has been caused by the drink, while the real truth may be, as I am confi¬
dent it is in many cases, that both insanity and inebriety belong to the same class
of disorders, and that they both spring from a family or constitutional tendency to
insanity or to drunkenness. Insanity is often the cause of inebriety, and so
inebriety is the cause of insanity, especially in cases in which there is a family
tendency to either or both, and I believe that so inflexible is this law of heredity
that in considering the causation of insanity, the limitation of inebriety as a cause
may be traced to those in whom exists this constitutional tendency. As there is
no hope of securing answers to your inquiry, based upon this fact, I fear you will
not get actual results that will be satisfactory to scientific men, although the
answers to your general question may be such as shall encourage further enquiries
based upon a more exact and soientific standard.
Yours, etc.,
JOSEPH PARRISH, M. D.
123
Pemberton, Dec, 3, 1883.
Dear Sir : The letter and blank of the Brewers' Association enclosed with
yours just received. In reply there is not a record in Burling^n Asylum to
throw any light upon the question at issue.
I do not recall a single case where insanity is caused by alcohol—I know
nothing of their family history. Much might be learned of the more intelligent
patients by oral questions.
If you will appoint a time I would be pleased to accompany you through the
institution, and see what might be gathered in reference to it, from the patients
themselves.*
Very truly yours,
To Dr. Joseph Parrish. E. HOLLINGSHEAD.
* No data could be obtained from this Institution.
XLII.
NEW JERSEY STATE ASYLUM FOE THE INSANE,
Morris Plains, N. J., December 26, 1883.
Dear Sir : I have received your several favors asking for the number of
cases of "alcoholism" that have been received and treated in this asylum of
late, as compared with those of an earlier period. In answering your enquiry, I
desire first to express my regret that so much delay has occurred in my response
to your very courteous letter.
This has arisen entirely from the impression, after examining records of cases^
that it would be impossible to arrange statistics on the subject sufficiently accur¬
ate to serve any useful purpose. The grounds of inaccuracy are as follows ;
First, the impossibility of obtaining information as to the cause or causes of
cases of mental derangement in many instances. Second, its unrdiable character
when received from very ignorant or untruthful friends. Third, the uncertainty
o:f the character of the disease, whether from alcoholic stimulants alone, or from
the effects of several causes combined to develop it, in which case it might properly
be called an ordinary case of insanity. With one set of observers it might be
regarded in this way, and by another in the opposite. Again the policy and prac¬
tice of institutions, corporate, state and city, vary so much in regard to the ad¬
mission of this class as insane, that it is impossible to compare the cases of one
with the other.
While city institutions are compelled to receive all who are lawfully com¬
mitted to them, state and corporate, may and do exercise a degree of discretion in
some cases. Again, while some of the latter institutions choose to receive all of
this class of persons for whom application is made, others desire to exclude them
to the greatest possible extent. In view, then, of these and other reasons that
might be stated, and believing that any statistics of the kind you ask would be
inaccurate, and therefore misleading or absolutely worthless, I respectfully de¬
cline to make other answers to your enquiries.
Respectfully yours,
H. N. BUTTOLPH, M. D.,
Super''''iendent of Asylum.
XLIII.
For Ward's Island Asylum see end of Appendix A.
124
XLIV.
MONROE CO. INSANE ASYLUM,
Rochester, N. Y., December 21,1883.
Deàr Sir : Yours of the 19th at hand. In, this small county asylum, no
properly tabulated records have been made or kept until a very recent date.
Our patients here are all of a chronic class, having been treated in the State
Asylum for two years or more before they are sent here for custodial care, and it is
not always an easy matter to determine the true causes of the mental malady.
In my opinion, however, alcohol is not now as operative as a cause of mental
disease as it was ten years ago, or rather there are fewer cases of insanity trace¬
able to alcoholism in this community than was formerly the case.
Very respectfully yours, W. L. LORD,
Superintendent.
XLV.
ERIE COUNTY ASYLUM,
Buffalo Plains, N. Y.
Number of Patients Number of Cases of Insanity
Admitted. caused by Intemperance.
male. FEHAU!.
384 1 1
358 11 1
839 2 1
Tear.
1880
1881
1882
XLVI.
HUDSON RIVER STATE HOSPITAL,
PouGHKEEPSiE, N. Y., December 1,1883.
Number of Patients Number of Cases of Insanity
Year. Admitted. caused by Intemperance.
hale. eemale.
1872 219 10 2
1873 199 10
1874 190 8 1
1875 132 8
1876 153 5 1
1877 172 5 2
1878 139 3 2
1879 128 5 1
1880 160 6 2
1881 179 12
1882 211 13
1883 277 22 2
Dear Sir : This hospital was opened in October, 1871, as an institution for the
treatment and cure of cases of insanity. We do not receive inebriates unless they
have been pronounced insane, and as such are committed here. We have,
therefore, had but few cases of what may be properly termed " alceholism. " The
above table shows the number of patients received since the opening of the
hospital in which intemperance was the supposed exciting cause of mental
derangement as compared with the whole number of admissions.
Very truly yours, S- M. CLEAVELAND.
125
XL VIL
STATE LUNATIC ASYLUM,
Utica, New York.
Nmnber of Patients Number of Cases of Insanity
■year. Admitted. caused by Intemperance.
male. eemalb.
1850 367 21 2
1851 366 41 1
1852 390 41 5
1853 424 61 3
1854 390 42 3
1855 275 35
1856 242 27 2
1857 235 31 2
1858 333 20
1859 312 24 1
1860 337 19
1861 295 15 1
1862 287 14 2
1863 287 12
1864 319 31
1865 356 30 2
1866 388 18
1867 401 21 4
1868 382 21 2
1869 463 19 2
1870 481 25 2
1871 516 36 3
1872 399 33 2
1873 410 39 6
1874 368 29 5
1875 432 43 6
1876 436 33 2
1877 460 30 5
1878 427 20 5
1879 418 27 1
1880 468 27 2
1881 ........ 411 25 4
1882 412 28 4
1883 .... 404 36 2
The drunkards are not included in the number of cases of alcoholism.
XLVIII.
ST. VINCENT'S REFUGE FOR THE INSANE,
AT Harrison, N. Y.
Number of Patients Number of Cases of Insanity
Year. Admitted. caused by Intemperance.
Hiha. female.
1883 39 1
126
XLIX.
STATE HOMŒOPATHIC ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE,
Middletown, Orange Co., N. Y.
Number of Patients Number of Cases of Insanitj'
Year. Admitted. caused by Intemperance.
XAIiB. fEKAIiX.
1874 69 2
1875 152
1876 195 1 1
1877 228
1878 284 2 1
1879 283 2 1
1880 311 1 1
1881 340 4
1882 391 9 2
1883 509 5
L.
MARSHALL INFIRMARY,
Tkoy, New York.
Number of Patients Number of Oases of Insanity
Year. Admitted. caused by Intemperance.
TUfAnX.
1854 39 2
1855 98 2 1
1856 119 5 1
1857 101 3 3
1858 164 11 2
1859 139 13 3
1860 193 24 5
1861 382 26
1862 222 26 5
1863 169 27
1864 220 27 2
1865 213 44 2
1866 132 37 1
1867 167 40 3
1868 223 68 3
1869 202 49 1
1870 260 58 4
1871 232 60 1
1872 369 65 3
1873 227 70 4
1874 234 76 4
1875 218 60 8
1876 251 77 6
1877 321 73 3
1878 165 49 6
1879 194 57
*1880 419 106 6
*1881 '*91 68 4
1882 ¿/4* 109 8
* Small-pox epidemic.
127
LI.
BUFFALO STATE ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE.
Number of Patients Number of Cases of Insanity
Tear. Admitted. caused by Intemperance.
HAL*. FSXAIjB.
1881 219 28 6
1883 273 25 7
1888 265 28 7
The asylum was opened for patients in November, 1880. Daring the year
1881 there were admitted 319 patients. Of this number, intemperance was recog¬
nized as a causative element in 84 cases ; out of 273 cases in 1882, admitted in 83
cases. In 1883 ; 85 cases out of 365.
Acute cases are received from the eight Judicial districts, and counties of
Monroe and Steuben.
LII.
SANFORD HALL, PRIVATE ASYLUM,
Flushing, N. Y.
Number of Patients Number of Cases of Insanity
Year. Admitted. caused by Intemperance.
MAI.E. VEILALB.
1854 59
1855 62 2
1856 65 4
1857 68 1 1
1858 48 2
1859 58 3
1860 58 1
1861 48 8
1863 58 5 1
1868 49 1
1864 61 6
1865 58 6
1866 53 8
1867 62 7 1
1868 49 4 2
1869 47 4
1870 41
1871 44
1872 43 3
1873 47 8 1
1874 46 1
1875 50 3
1876 49 3 1
1877 49 4 1
1878 89 3
1879 41 1
1880 44 1
1881 46
1882 45 &
128
Lin.
Asylum, Minneola, N. T., December 3,1883.
Dear Sir : Tours of the 30th received, in reply would say I have been
through the wards of the Queen's County Asylum for the past five years in my
official capacity, but have had charge only since the last month, and during that
time have had a more careful study of the patients ; I can say to your enquiries
we have but two cases, one male and one female, attributable to the use of
strong drink ; we number at this time one hundred and twenty, 58 males and 63
females. Hoping these few lines may meet the desired end and your full ap¬
proval, I am, etc..
Respectfully,
CHAS. H. CLEMENT,
Superintendent,
LIT.
INSANE ASYLUM,
Onondaga, N. Y., December 28th, 1883.
Dear Sir :—Your favor of November 30th, reached me in due time, but owing
to a total lack of statistics I have neglected to reply to it. No books relating to
this subject have been kept in the institution, and I have been here less than six
months, so I am hardly in a position to answer it.
However, I should judge that at least one half of the males admitted during
my service here have used alcohol to excess, but its share in producing the insanity
I am not prepared to state, but in at least four cases it has seemed to me that it was
the direct exciting cause, but the predisposition existed before. The habits of those
who have been here for a long time previous to their coming here are something
of which I know nothing.
This report is exceedingly imperfect, but I can do no better in the total absence
of records.
Yours respectfully,
A. A. ALDRICH,
Med. Superintendent.
IN.
INSANE ASYLUM OF NORTH CAROLINA,
Raleigh, N. C., November 19th, 1883.
Dear Sir ;—Your favor of the 15th, asking for certain information relative to
" alcoholism " received. Under the laws of committal of insane persons in this
State, so little of the previous history is required and the facts elicited are so meagre
that it is generally very unsatisfactory and unreliable, and among the least reliable
are the cauets many of which jire no doubt collateral, or incidental circumstances
and not causes. We have to rely upon opinions given upon little formality, elicited
by magistrates of but little experience, and frequently upon observation of no
physician at all. My observations, during sixteen years experience here in an
129
institution with a capacity for only 250 patients, does not indicate any very consi¬
derable amount of insanity produced by alcoholism. It falls short I think of that
produced by excessive use of tobacco and opium. This observation is to be taken
however in connection with the fact that cases of dipsomania are not admitted
here.
Tours truly,
EUGENE GRISSOM.
LVI.
LUNATIC ASYLUM,
East Portlaiíd, Oregon.
Dear Sir :—It is quite impossible frona the data I have at hand to furnish you
the desired information. I am quite satisfied from personal observations that much
insanity is caused by alcoholism, especially by that habit continued over a long
period, and resulting in chronic and irreparable injury to the brain.
Tours truly,
S. E. JOSEPHI.
LVII.
DATTON ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE,
Dayton, Ohio, December 13,1883.
Dear Sir : This asylum was opened September 1,1855, since which time
there have been admitted 2,744 males, 2,665 females. Of this number the cause
of insanity alleged to be intemperance for males is 221, females 10. Owing to
the great amount of work now on hand and want of time, it is impossible to sepa¬
rate the number into their several years.
Very respectfully,
H. A. COBET, Superintendent,
Per J. A. M., See.
LVIII.
COLUMBUS ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE.
Number of Patients Number of Cases of Insanity
Admitted. caused by Intemperance.
MALB. nXAU.
329 12 1
290 16
LIX.
LONGVIEW ASYLUM,
Carthage, Ohio.
Number of Patients Number of Cases of Inaanitr
Admitted. caused by Intemperance.
RKAUI.
.. 4647 398 85
Tear.
1881
1883
Tear.
1882
130
LX.
ATHENS ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE,
Athens, Ohio.
Tear.
1874
Number of Patients
Admitted.
701
Number of Cases of Insanity
caused by Intemperance.
HALE. FEMALE.
.32 a
1875
252
17
1876
241
13
1877
297
12
1
1878
212
7
1
1879
202
11
1880
240
7
1881
198
17
1
1882
216
16
1883
216
13
3
The above represents the total number in which intemperance was attributed
as a cause directly, indirectly it was a factor in many more cases, especially among
females.
A. B. RICHARDSON,
Superintendent.
LXI.
CLEVELAND ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE,
Cleveland, Ohio, December 4,1883.
Dear Sir : It has been my intention for some time past to answer your
previous communications touching the matter of alcoholism in this asylum.
Absence from here, and sickness in my family, have prevented me from so
doing, and I trust you will appreciate the force of my reasons for this delay in
writing you.
I have to inform you that this asylum was burned in September, 1872, and
at that time so many of the records and former reports were destroyed, I cannot
give you all the details you desire. The asylum has been in operation twenty-
nine years, and during that period 5,532 patients have been admitted, and in the
table of causes 280 cases are ascribed to intemperance as a cause of their insanity.
During the last year we admitted 244 patients, and in eighteen of these cases
the cause was attributed to intemperance. The population from which we draw
our cases numbers 700,000, is partly urban and partly rural, but the capacity of
our ayslum (640) is sufficient to accommodate more than one-half of the existing,
and three-fourths of the occurring cases. The causation of insanity is of a com¬
plex character, and I do not see how it will be possible to determine with any¬
thing like positiveness what percentage of cases is caused by alcohol alone.
Permit me to refer you to a little book, written by Dr. D. Hack Luke in 1878,
entitled " Insanity and its Production." See page 99. I may have, after a little
time an opportunity to write you further on the subject.
Yours truly,
J. STRONG.
131
LXII.
STATE HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE,
DaitvtlIíE, Pa,, November 17, 1883.
Dear Sir : In reply to yours of the 15th inst. making inquiry as to the pre¬
valence of mental disturbance from use of alcoholic beverages, I wish to say
briefly, that the causes assigned by friends of patients for their insanity are very
often very incorrectly given, and that the statistics thus made up are both defec¬
tive and erroneous, as incidental remarks made long subsequently to the admis¬
sion of patients, clearly show. I give for this reason no statistics ; my opinion is
that there is much mental defect and insanity from the effect of alcohol taken by
the sufferer himself, and also by the parents of the patient. Within a month,
two brothers have been admitted made insane with excessive drink *
Very truly yours, S. S. SCHULTZ,
Swperintendent.
* Subséquent inquiry revealed the fact, that nothing reliable bearing on this subiect can be
obtained.
LXIII.
PHILADELPHIA HOSPITAL,
11 Month, 21,1883.
Dear Sir ; Aside from heredity, I believe there is no cause so frequently pro¬
ductive of insanity, as the excessive use of alcoholic beverages.
Very respectfully, D. D. RICHARDSON,
Phymian-in-Chief,
LXIV.
WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE,
Dixmont, AlIíEghent Co., Pa., December 3, 1883.
Dear Sir : In answer to your letter, I may say that no record is kept in this
asylum that would enable us to answer your questions fully and satisfactorily to
ourselves, without an immense amount of work.
I think, however, that about one-third of the cases upon the male side of the
house are brought here through a disease of brain resulting from the use of
alcohol.
Very truly yours, J. A. REED, M. D.
LXV.
STATE HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE,
Norristown, Pa.
Number of Patients Number of Cases of Insanity caused by
Year. Admitted. Alcoholism in its widest sense.
UALK. nXALX.
1880 295 21
1881 424 30
1882 494 35
1883 532 81
The female department is entirely separate from the male and in charge of Dr.
Alice Bennett. Patients are drawn from Philadelphia and the six Southeastern
counties of Pennsylvania.
132
LXVI.
STATE HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE,
Wabren, Penk.
Number of Patienta Number of Caaes of Inaanity
Year. Admitted. caused by lutemperauce.
ualx. nuaut.
1881 199 3
1882 355 6
1883 423 6 1
LXVII.
STATE LUNATIC HOSPITAL,
Harbisbtjbg, Pa.
Number of Patients Number of Cases of Insanity
Year. Admitted. caused by Intemperance.
male. female.
1880 121 2
1882 64 4 3
From the beginning 4,563 patients of which 125 suffered from the effects of
intemperance.
LXVIII.
ASYLUM FOR THE RELIEF OF PERSONS DEPRIVEH OF THE USE OF
THEIR REASON,
Philadelphia, Pa.
Report of 1883 shows intemperance to have been the cause of insanitj in
118 cases out of a total of 1,063, admitted during a number of years.
LXIX.
PENNSYLVANIA HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE.
Number of insane persons admitted to this department of the hospital from
the time it was opened in October, 1859, to the first of January, 1884, was 2,212.
Of these 2,212 persons the insanity was caused by intemperance in 285 cases.
Of these 285 the Ibllowing number would sooner or later have become insane from
other causes: 56.
Of the insane persons admitted (2,212), 13 per cent.(285) became so from intem¬
perance.
S. PRESTON JONES,
Medical Superintendent.
LXX.
BURN BRAE,
Clifton Heights, Delaware Co., Pa., Dec. 4, 1883.
Dear Sir :—Regretting inability to fill out your blank, would at the same
time say that the result of my observations shows that in a large proportion of cases
of general paralysis of insane, the history received with them declares them to
have been intepiperate previous to the development of the disease.
Very l^spectfully, R. A. GIVEN,
Per Iff. P.
133
LXXI.
BUTLER HOSPITAL,
Providence, Dec. 15, 1883.
Number of Patienta Number of Cases of Insanity
Year. Admitted. caused by Intemperance.
ma.i.e. nkauc.
1S50
113
4
1851
137
3
1
1852
142
5
1
1853
136
3
2
1854
131
1
1855
137
1
1856
142
3
1857 ....
140
1
1858
135
3
1859 ....
135
3
1860 ....
137
3
1861
135
4
1862
132
3
1863
130
3
1864
132
6
1865
131
1
1866
119
9
1867
131
11
1
1868
150
5
1869
154
6
1870
95
5
1
1871
114
13
1872
134
16
1873
129
10
1874
137
7
1875
143
8
1876
145
7
1
1877
156
13
7
1878
170
8
3
1879
148
11
2
1880
171
14
2
1881
166
14
2
1882
188
11
2
1883
195
The patients are mainly from Rhode Island, which has a population of a little
less than 800,000, but many come from other states.
134
LXXII.
SOUTH CAROLINA LUNATIC ASYLUM,
Columbia,
Number of Patients Number of Cases of Insanitj
Tear. Admitted. caused by Intemperance.
HAlJi. nilCAUL
1870 322 8
1871 205 5
1873 309 5 1
1876 800 14
1878 306 22
1879 375 11 1
1880 420 9
1881 490 14 1
1882 550 16
1883 603 19 2
LXXIII.
TENNESSEE HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE.
Number of Patients Number of Cases of Insanity
Tear. Admitted. caused by Intemperance.
HAUE. FEXAI.K.
1870 352 10 1
1871 369 10 1
1872 372 5 5
1873 370 8 8
1874 371 9 9
1875 380 7 4
1876 386 8 3
1877 372 10 4
1878 376 11 5
1879 379 7 2
1880 388 6 4
1881 396 4 4
1882 408 5 2
LXXIV.
VERMONT ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE,
Brattlebobo, Vt., November 19,1883.
Dear Sir :—Your circular letters duly received. In reply would say that I am
able to give you the exact percentage of cases due to intemperance in the admis¬
sion to this Institution for ten years past, during which I have been in charga I
cannot without great labor eliminate them from preceding admissions.
The percentage for the time mentioned is about dx and four tenths per cent.
Yours truly,
J. DRAPER,
Superintendent.
135
LXXV.
WESTERN LUNATIC ASYLUM,
Stauntok, Vieginia.
Nnmber of Patients Number of Cases of Insanity
Tear. Admitted. caused by Intemperance.
1850 348
1851 40G
1853 488
1853 460
1854 464
1855 457
1856 463
1857 455
Hf AT.TI! TEMÁJjK.
1858 435 29
1859 431 29
1882 519 29 2
1883 534 32 3
Sorry we havn't the means at hand now to give you all the above slatistics.
Very truly, R. S. HAMILTON,
Per H.
LXXVI.
EASTERN LUNATIC ASYLUM,
Williamsburg, Virginia, November 20, 1883.
Number of Patients Nnmber of Cases of Insanity
Year, Admitted. caused by Intemperance.
1868 243
1869 224
1870 273
1871 265
haxe. pbmaiji.
1872 288 2
1873 311 3 1
1874 234 2 1
1875 366 1
1876 357 1
1877 378 3
1878 376 5
1879 367 1
1880 408 4
1881 426 5
1882 469 3
1883 536 9
Records prior to this time incomplete on this point.
From the beginning (1868), 1208 patients, of which 46 suffered from the effecti
of intemperance.
RICHARD A. WISE, M. D.,
Superintendent.
136
LXXVII.
CENTRAL LUNATIC ASYLUM,
Richmond, Va.
Number of Patients Namber of Cases of Insanity
Year. Admitted. caused by Intemperance.
maiie. rexanb.
1883-83 184 1
LXXVIII.
WEST VIRGINIA HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE,
Weston, West Va.
Number of Patients Number of Cases of Insanity
Year. Admitted. caused by Intemperance.
xat.e pexalx.
1883 685 59
LXXIX.
WISCONSIN STATE HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE,
Mendota, October 29, 1883.
Dear Sir : I am sorry to state that our statistical tables for the past twenty-
three years will not allow me to fill out your blank. It could not be done except
to go oyer all the cases individually in our books, which would take months to do,
and then it would be only guess-work, as the friends and relatives vriU not admit
4Ücohoiitm as a cause of insanity in these particular cases.
Very respectfully,
R. M. WIGGINGTON,
Superintendent,
LXXX.
MILWAUKEE ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE,
Waxtwatosa, Wis.
Numbar of Cases of Insanitr due to use of
Number of Patients Alcoholic Liqmors and also Cases
Year. Admitted. classifieia as Inebriates.
xaut. vbkaxjt.
1880 245 18
1881 126 11
1882 96 8
1888 117 21
137
NEW YORK CITY ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE,
Ward's Island, N. Y.
Dbar Sib : Enclosed please find the tables which, extend from 1876 to 1881. * *
In considering their probable bearing on the subject of your inquiry, it is necessary
to understand that a relatively small number of those given under the heading of
Intemperance is solely due to that cause, but that in the majority several causes
co-operate ; whilst it is not denied that intemperance may be at the root of other
influences, as loss of work and consequent destitution, etc.,
Very respectfully,
A. E. MacDONALD,
Medical Superintendent.
Showing the habits of persons admitted or discharged respectively at the New
York City Insane Asylum, Ward's Island :
Tear. Admitted. Intemperate. Temperate. Abstinent. Unknown.
1876 381 205 129 24 23
1877 494 225 210 51 ..... 8
In 1878 the statistical tables were changed so as to exhibit the habits of those
" discharged during the year," the information in this case being much more
reliable than in the case of those recently admitted :
Teak.
Admitted.
Dischabgbd.
Intemperate.
Temperate.
Abstinent.
Unknown.
Total.
1878
467
127
69
3
55
254
1879
393
139
95
3
49
286
1880
436
181
139
2
60
382
1881
512
197
131
24
107
436
APPENDIX B.
TABLES II, III, IV and V.
STATISTICS OF INEBRIETY.
TA.BLE II
Showing kind and quantity of drinks used by each of 500 Inebriates, treated in the Kings County Inebriates'
Home at Fort Hamilton, N. Y.
Place of
Birth.
Age at
■which
Kind of drink
(fermented or
distilled) used.
Maximum daily
Occupation
Mental or physi¬
Kind of beve¬
rages to which
necessity of
med'l treatm'nt
is attributed.
Number of
attacks of
delirium.
No.
Age.
Sex.
Education.
Inebriate
began us¬
ing intox¬
icants.
quantity that pa¬
tient consumed of
such drink.
when using in¬
toxicants was
commenced.
cal cause to which
excesses are
ascribed.
1
27
Male.
TJ. S.
Com'n School.
25
Distilled.
Largely.
Distiller.
Busineas.
Distilled.
2
2
50
U
44
Collegiate.
48
46
10 drinks.
Real Estate.
Sexual Excesses
44
3
46
((
Germany.
Ordinary.
46
44
1 gill.
Groceryman.
Piano Tuner.
Association.
46
4
37
(t
64
44
23
Both.
6 gl. beer & 2 w'ky.
Injury,
44
5
29
«6
U. S.
Com'n School.
16
Distilled.
6 drinks.
Mason.
64
66
6
47
66
Fair.
17
66
1 pint.
Carpenter.
Laborer.
Association.
tk
7
36
ii
Ireland.
None.
26
All kinds.
1 "
44
44
8
27
««
U. 8.
Com'n School.
23
Distilled.
i "
Carpenter.
64
44
9
10
36
25
64
44
44
44
CoUe^iate.
20
21
46
6«
1 "
2 drinks to 2 quarts
Clerk.
Cleik.
44
Disease.
44
46
11
32
44
Ireland.
64
22
Beer.
1 quart.
Editor.
Association.
Fermented.
2
12
47
44
U. S.
64
27
DistiUed.
1 pint.
Painter.
66
Distilled.
13
37
44
46
66
29
64
64
Lather.
66
66
14
27
44
46
64
17
44
44
None.
46
46
16
36
44
46
44
16
44
46
Newsdealer.
44
44
16
32
Female.
Ireland.
44
30
44
44
Housewife.
Injury to head.
44
17
48
<4
46
None.
33
Fermented.
3 quarts.
Domestic.
44
Fermented.
18
29
Male.
U. S.
Com'n School.
20
Distilled.
Moderate.
Dry Goods.
Association.
Distilled.
19
41
64
44
46
21
44
lè pint.
Stock Broker.
Business troubles
46
20
27
44
44
46
17
All kinds.
1 pint.
Clerk.
Association.
44
21
29
66
46
44
20
Distilled.
44
Shoe Cutter.
Sunstroke.
46
22
23
87
33
44
U
66
21
All kinds.
46
Soldier.
Association.
46
44
46
64
23
Distilled.
46
Baker.
44
46
24
62
44
Ireland.
46
22
64
44
Tailor.
Injury to bead.
46
25
60
46
Scotland.
64
30
46
Largely.
Designer.
Association.
66
1
26
80
44
Ireland.
46
18
46
Plenty.
Laborer.
44
64
27
28
89
44
44
44
21
46
J pint.
Clerk.
44
66
50
88
44
U.S.
44
32
Both.
Merchant.
Loss of Wife.
66
29
44
44
44
30
66
Largely.
Bookkeeper.
Association.
66
1
80
34
44
44
Collegiate.
20
Distilled.
Editor.
44
«6
81
41
44
46
44
29
44
1 quart.
Lecturer.
Melancholia.
66
82
38
85
44
Canada.
Com'n School.
23
Both.
1 gill 1! q., ale & beer.
1 pint.
Bank Clerk.
Mental Depres'n.
66
41
44
U. 8.
44
16
Distilled.
Manufacturer.
Association.
66
1
34
58
88
44
England.
44
21
44
u
Merchant.
44
66
1
85
44
U. 8.
44
21
All kinds.
1 pint distiUed.
Mechanic.
Domestic trouble.
66
1
36
45
Male.
u. s.
Com'n School.
20
87
49
ti
England.
TJ. S.
Collesiate.
19
88
42
((
Com^n School.
40
89
49
«i
44
44
24
40
38
41
4«
44
20
41
45
(4
44
44
20
42
49
44
England.
44
19
43
44
28
44
XL 8.
Rudimentary.
15
34
44
Ireland.
None.
22
45
25
44
44
44
18
46
46
44
U. 8.
44
28
47
27
44
44
Com'n School.
12
48
49
51
48
46
4«
44
Scotland.
Collegiate.
21
26
50
83
44
U. 8.
Com'n School.
IS
61
35
44
44
44
20
52
42
44
44
44
22
53
29
44
44
44
18
54
26
44
England.
IL 8.
44
20
55
22
44
CoJlegiate.
18
56
44
Ireland.
Kndimentary.
14
57
%
44
U. 8.
44
24
58
41
4«
44
Com'n SchooL
21
59
45
41
44
44
21
60
61
48
24
44
41
44
44
Collegiate.
14
14
22
62
32
44
44
44
68
34
44
44
Com'n School.
19
64
37
41
Ireland.
44
22
65
48
Female.
*4
None.
28
66
44
Male.
Canada.
Collegiate.
26
67
28
44
Deland.
Com'n School.
20
68
26
44
U. 8.
44
20
69
33
44
44
44
18
70
39
Female.
Canada.
44
29
71
45
Male.
Ü. 8.
Collegiate.
25
72
73
46
88
44
44
England.
Ireland.
Com'n SchooL
44
36
20
74
41
44
U. 8.
44
25
75
33
44
ii
44
24
76
22
44
<1
44
16
77
40
«4
II
44
20
78
33
M
1«
44
18
79
38
U
M
41
18
80
42
H
M
14
22
81
24
H
M
41
W
82
22
«4
M
14
M
83
82
44
U
44
20
84
27
14
M
44
13
86
48
44
II
44
18
Distilled.
(i
Ail klBds.
((
Pennented Beer.
Distilled.
Dist. and Opium.
Dist. (Brandy).
Distilled.
All kinds.
«4
Ale and Lager.
Beer only.
Distilled.
Whiskey and Ale.
Distilled.
Ferm'd(beer only)
Distilled.
W'key, Wine,Beer
Distilled.
«i
M
H
M
M
I«
It
I«
1 pint.
44
Largely.
25 dnnks.
1 quart.
1 pint.
1 quart.
1 pint.
1 quart.
1 pint,
i pint.
1 quart,
i pint distilled.
1 qt. lager, 1 pt.w'ky
From 1 qt. to 2 gals.
15 glasses.
4 pint.
1 pint.
20 drinks
i pint.
1 pint, besides ale.
1 pint.
Largely,
i pint.
Largely.
1 pint.
u
f pint.
1 pint.
44
1 quart,
i pint.
1 pint.
1 quart.
1 quart.
Largely.
H pint.
1 pint.
quart.
1 quart
1 pint.
Broker.
Merchant.
Beal Estate.
Hatter.
Clerk.
Broker.
Engraver.
Hatter.
Farmer.
Laborer.
44
Bookkeeper.
Actor.
Lawyer.
Hatter.
Machinist.
Caroenter.
None.
Artist.
Lawyer.
Livery stable.
Merchant.
Clerk.
44
Lawyer.
44
Clerk.
Broker.
Carman.
Housekeeper.
Physician.
Wine Dealer.
Conductor.
Painter.
Domestic.
Lawyer.
None.
Painter.
Clerk.
Machinist.
Painter.
Paper Ruler.
Merchant.
Expressman.
None.
44
Butcher.
Farmer.
Clerk.
Advert'g Agt.
Association.
Injury.
Association.
Association.
Injury to leg.
Association.
44
Disease.
*4
Association.
Insomnia.
Business.
Association.
Injury to head.
Association.
Injury to head.
Association.
Business troubles
Distilled.
Formen ted.
Distilled.
Fermented.
44
Distilled.
Fermented.
Distilled.
1
4
2
«
No.
S6
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
106
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
T-A.B Ij E 11—Oontiniaed.
Showing kind and quantity of drinks used by each of 500 Inebriates, treated in the Kings County Inebriates'
Home at Fort Hamilton, N. Y.
Place of
Birth.
Education.
Age at
which
Inebriate
began us¬
ing in tox¬
icants.
Kind of drink
(fermented or
distilled) used.
Ireland.
Rudimentary.
28
Wine and Beer.
U. S.
Com'n School.
22
Distilled.
if
ft
16
ft
Canada.
ft
18
Wky. & Absinth.
U. S.
ti
24
Whiskey and Ale.
if
it
30
Dist., also Opium.
Ireland.
it
25
Distilled.
U. S.
ft
All kinds.
Ireland.
it
£
Distilled.
U. S;
ft
27
Gin and Ale.
if
if
21
Distilled.
Ireland.
ft
18
ft
U. S.
ff
21
it
it
fi
17
Beer & Whiskey.
Ireland.
if
18
Distilled.
U. S.
ft
22
ti
Cuba.
f f
22
f f
Ireland.
ft
54
ff
U. 8.
it
20
ff
Ireland.
ii
35
Whiskey & Beer.
• U.S.
if
16
Distilled.
it
f f
34
Dist. Liq. & Ale.
Ireland.
ff
19
Whiskey and Ale.
U. 8.
ii
18
All kinds.
if
ft
16
Whiskey and Ale.
Ireland.
ft
30
Whiskey & Beer.
ft
ft
19
Dist. and Opium.
U. 8.
ff
21
Both.
it
if
22
Distilled.
it
ft
ff
f i
17
Whiskey & Beer.
if
England.
ff
Otr
49
Distilled.
Ireland.
ff
30
ft
U. 8.
ff
28
ft
ft
Collegiate.
35
ff
Maximum dally
quantity that pa¬
tient consumed of
such drinks.
1 quart.
1 pint.
1 quart.
it
1 pt.wky.jbeer & ale
1 pt. 4 grains opium.
5 to 15 glasses.
15 drinks.
10 drinks.
it
1 pint.
20 drinks.
it
20 to 30 drinks.
10 to 40 drinks.
10 drinks.
6 drinks.
10 drinks.
20 to 30 drinks.
1 pint.
10-30 drinks.
10-50 drinks.
10 drinks.
30 drinks.
12 drinks.
8 dr'ks wh'ky & b'r.
1 pint,
f pint whiskey.
5 glasses.
8 glasses whiskey.
10 drinks.
10-20 glasses.
4 pint.
1 pint.
1 pint.
Occupation
when using in¬
toxicants was
commenced.
Mental or physi¬
cal cause to which
excesses are
ascribed.
Merchant.
None.
Horseshoer.
Salesman.
Farrier.
Switchman.
Rigger.
Printer.
Bartender.
Manufacturer.
None.
Bookkeeper.
it
Clerk.
Tinsmith.
Mechanic.
Clerk.
Tailor.
Salesman.
None.
Broker.
it
Saddler.
Clerk.
Bookkeeper.
Clerk.
Nurse.
Mechanic.
Engin'r in dist
Restaurant.
Coal Dealer.
Shoemaker.
None.
ft
Lawyer.
Kind of beve¬
rages to which
necessity of
medT treaim'nt
is attributed.
Association.
InjMy.
Association.
Business.
Association.
it
Business.
Family troubles.
Association.
Mental depres'n.
Asseciation.
if
Disease g'l organs
Bullet Wound.
Domestic trouble.
Wound.
Injury to Head.
Association.
f i
Disease.
Association.
Business.
Business trouble.
Trouble.
Injury to Head.
Association.
Famiiy Trouble.
Association.
m
30
Maie.
U. 8.
Com'n School.
13
Whiskey & Beer.
20 drinks.
Plumber.
Association.
Both.
m
55
Female.
44
44
51
Distilled.
1 pint.
None,
4*
Distilled.
123
37
Male.
Ireland.
44
22
Whiskey and Ale.
1 quart.
Liquor Busln's.
Busln's necessity.
44
1
124
29
4«
U. 8.
44
17
Whiskey & Beer.
10 drinks Whiskey.
Marble Cutter.
Association.
44
125
27
t(
44
Collegiate.
12
All kinds.
25 drinks.
Banker.
Trouble.
44
7
126
33
((
Ireland.
Com'n School.
23
Whiskey &JBeer.
6 dr'ks dist. & 20 b'r.
Cigar Dealer.
Association.
Both.
127
45
4(
U. 8.
44
33
Distilled.
7 drinks.
Laborer.
Nervous Temp't.
Distilled.
128
29
4«
Ireland.
44
27
Brandy and Beer.
1 pt.br,sev'l gl.brdy.
None.
Association.
44
129
31
Female.
Canada.
44
25
Distilled.
1 qnan.
6 drinks.
Domestic.
44
1
130
S3
Male.
Ireland.
44
47
44
None.
Trouble.
it
131
25
4*
U. 8.
Collegiate.
19
44
20 drinks.
Lawyer.
Association.
44
132
37
44
4^
Com'n School.
26
Br'dy,Wh'ky, B'r.
1 pint distilled.
Insurance.
Business trouble.
44
1
133
33
4t
England.
44
22
Distilled.
1 pint.
Photographer.
Association.
44
6
134
34
«(
Ireland.
Rndimentaiy.
24
44
One quart.
8tone Cutter.
44
44
135
40
44
44
Com'n School.
20
Whiskey & Beer
10 drinks w'ky & ale
Bartender.
Business.
44
136
33
44
U. 8.
44
30
Distilled.
1 quart.
Cotton Broker
Association.
44
137
58
44
44
44
28
«4
11
Carpenter.
44
4f
138
139
33
44
England.
44
15
44
44
Butcher.
DiBease.
44
35
44
U. 8.
44
25
Ale and Whiskey.
44
Laborer.
44
44
1
140
46
44
44
44
21
Distilled.
20 drinks.
Painter.
44
44
1
141
45
44
44
4«
20
W'key, Ale, Beer.
1 qt. sev'l gl. dist'd.
Telegraph Op'r.
Com. of Diseases.
Both.
1
142
23
44
44
44
23
Distilled.
1 quart.
Engineer.
Association.
Distilled.
143
50
44
44
44
18
Whiskey & Beer
Largely ofboth.
Printer.
44
Both.
144
24
44
Germany.
Collegiate.
24
44
1 pt. wky, b'r, wine
J pt. wky. 1 qt. beer
Superintend'nt.
44
Distilled.
1
145
58
44
England.
Com'n School.
28
44
Druggist.
44
44
146
53
44
44
44
23
Distilled.
1 pint.
Painter.
44
44
147
23
Female.
U. 8.
44
20
Beer.
2 quarts.
None.
44
Fermented.
148
58
Male.
44
44
21
Both.
1 pint brandy.
Stationer.
44
Distilled.
1
m
41
44
4*
Collegiate.
30
(4
ipt. dis. 2qts. fer'd
Teacher.
Nervous Temp't.
Both.
150
43
44
44
Com'n School.
18
Distilled.
2 quarts.
Clerk.
Association.
Distilled.
151
50
44
44
44
25
Both.
1 pt. dist. b'sides ale
Merchant.
44
44
152
60
44
England.
U. 8.
44
30
44
44 4 4
Painter.
44
44
153
36
(4
44
18
Distilled.
1 quart.
Hatter.
44
44
3
154
36
Female.
Ireland.
44
34
44
1 pint.
Domestic.
44
4 4
155
35
Male.
U. 8.
44
15
Whiskey & Beer
2 qts. whiskey.
Machinist.
44
44
1
156
51
Female.
England.
U. S.
44
89
Distilled.
1 pint.
None.
Domestic trouble.
44
157
38
Male.
44
26
Whiskey & Beer
2 qts. br, s'l gl. wky
Bookkeeper.
Association.
44
158
36
44
44
4(
21
Distilled.
1 quart.
1 "
Printer.
8hot Wound.
44
159
60
44
4»
Collegiate.
45
44
Lawyer.
Aspociation.
44
160
30
Female.
Cermany.
Com'n School.
30
Fermented.
3 quarts beer.
Bartender.
Business.
Fermented.
1
161
57
Male.
U. 8.
44
27
Distilled.
1 quart.
Clerk.
Association.
Distilled.
1
162
63
44
44
44
43
44
1 quart.
Salesman.
Association.
44
163
64
44
England.
44
44
Both.
1 pt. wky. beside b'r
Packer.
Trouble.
44
164
65
23
44
8cotland.
44
20
Distilled.
1 quaat.
8 qts. b'r, 2 glas, w'y
Tailor.
Association.
44
1
165
44
U. 8.
44
20
Both.
Plumber.
Injury to head.
Both.
166
30
44
44
(4
30
Distilled.
1 quart.
Salesman.
Association.
Distilled.
167
35
Female.
Ireland.
44
27
Both.
è pt. b'ndy, 1 pt. b'r
Housewife.
Domestic trouble
44
166
35
Male.
44
44
15
Distilled.
2 quarts.
Clerk.
Association.
44
169
25
44
U. 8.
44
15
Milk Punch.
1 quart.
Painter.
44
44
i
170
34
44
Ireland.
Collegiate.
19
Distilled.
44
Journalist.
44
44
T-A_ BLE 11—Oontiniaed.
Showing kind and quantity of drinks used by each of 500 Inebriates, treated in the Kings County Inebriates«
Home at Fort Hamilton, N. Y
Age.
48
86
67
43
56
30
30
44
41
40
35
43
20
88
29
40
35
34
38
25
32
32
23
53
47
26
48
35
55
30
40
32
44
Sex.
Female.
Male.
Female.
Male.
Female.
Male.
Female.
Male.
Place of
Birth.
Ü. S.
Canada.
U. S.
England.
Ü. S.
(i
Ireland,
U. 8.
44
England.
Ireland.
U. 8.
England.
Ireland.
(4
U. 8.
Ireland.
U. 8.
Ireland.
44
U. 8.
Ireland.
Education.
Age at
which
Inebriate
began us¬
ing in tox¬
icants.
Com'n School.
None.
Com'n School.
Collegiate.
Com'n School.
None.
Com'n School.
20
6
22
23
36
19
17
34
29
15
29
15
26
26
17
15
16
30
33
22
33
24
25
18
18
23
22
20
33
25
49
30
30
17
20
Kind of drink
(fermented or
distilled) used.
Both.
Distilled.
Both.
Distilled.
Both.
Distilled.
44
Both.
All kinds ¿b Op'm
Distilled.
Fermented.
Distilled.
Both.
44
Distilled.
44
Both.
44
Distilled.
44
Fermented.
Distilled.
44
Both.
44
44
Distilled.
Maximum daily
quantity tbat pa¬
tient consumed of
such drinks.
1 pt. whiskey & ale
1 quart.
1 qt. wky.,aleorb'r
2 quarts.
1 qt. gin or whiskey
1 pint.
1 quart.
1 pt. whiskey & b'r
Largely.
1 quart.
1 pint.
1 quart.
1 pint.
1 quart.
4 quarts.
I i pint,
i pt. wky., 1 qt. ale
1 pt. whiskey a b'r
.1 quart.
1 pmt.
Largely.
Unknown.
Í quart.
1 pint.
1 quart to 1 gallon.
1 pint.
3 pints.
1 qt. wky., 1 qt beer
2 gills whiskey.
Periodical debauch.
1 quart.
1 pint.
1 quart.
Occupation
when using in¬
toxicants was
commenced.
Liquor busin's
Clerk.
Printer.
Cigar Dealer.
Salesman.
(4
Agent.
Housewife.
Printer.
Bookkeeper.
Actor.
Merchant.
Housewife.
Blacksmith.
Clerk.
Printer.
Druggist.
Laborer.
Civil Engineer
Bookkeeper.
Milkman.
Clerk.
44
Bookkeeper.
Clerk.
Merchant.
Distiller.
Carpenter.
Housewife.
Farmer.
Painter.
Shoemaker.
None.
Clerk.
Barkeeper.
Mental or physi¬
cal cause to which
excesses are
ascribed.
Business.
Association.
Trouble.
Association.
Trouble.
Association.
Hereditary.
Association.
44
Taste acquired.
Association.
44
Injury to head.
Association.
Habit.
Association.
Domestic trouble.
Injury to head.
Trouble.
Association.
44
Domestic trouble.
Business.
Injury.
Trouble.
Association.
44
Domestic trouble.
Diseased condit'n
Hereditary.
Business.
Kind of beve¬
rages to which
necessity of
med'l treat m'nt
is attributed
Distilled.
Both.
Distilled.
Fermented.
Distilled.
Both.
Distilled.
Both.
Distilled.
Fermented.
Distilled.
sev'rl
206
38
Female.
Ü. S.
Rudimentary.
26
Both.
207
29
Male.
44
Com'n School.
22
Fermented.
208
45
Female.
Ireland.
Rudimentary.
36
Both.
209
26
Male.
U. S.
Collegiate.
18
Distilled.
210
38
44
.
Com'n School.
13
k k
211
60
Female.
Ireland.
4k
44
it
212
24
Male.
u. s.
44
15
Both.
213
35
44
44
44
15
Distilled.
214
32
44
44
14
16
44
215
33
44
44
44
16
216
30
44
44
44
15
Both.
217
28
Female.
England.
44
25
kk
218
31
Male.
Canada.
Com'n School.
24
Both.
219
47
44
Ireland.
None.
85
Distilled.
290
45
Female.
44
44
37
Fermented.
221
38
44
44
Rudimentary.
30
Both.
222
30
Male.
U. S.
Com'n School.
20
Distilled.
223
50
44
44
41
30
Both.
224
47
Female.
Ireland.
None.
36
Distilled.
225
30
Male.
U. 8.
Com'n School.
15
44
226
»
44
Scotland.
Collegiate.
45
Both.
227
%
44
U. 8.
Com'n School.
20
Distilled.
228
33
44
44
44
29
44
229
42
Female.
Ireland.
Rudimentary.
33
44
280
25
Male.
U. 8.
Com'n School.
20
44
281
88
44
44
44
20
44
232
42
Female.
Canada.
44
39
Distilled.
238
48
Male.
44
44
33
Both.
234
89
44
U. 8.
44
24
44
235
32
Female.
Ireland.
44
26
Both.
236
89
Male.
Canada.
Collegiate.
31
Distilled.
237
46
44
England.
U. 8.
Com'n School.
22
Both.
288
41
44
44
38
Distilled.
289
28
4(
44
44
21
44
240
85
44
44
Collegiate.
17
Dist. and Oplui
241
84
44
44
44
18
Distilled.
242
46
44
Ireland.
None.
44
44
243
82
44
Canada.
Com'n School.
22
44
244
41
44
Ü. 8.
44
84
44
246
40
Female.
Ireland.
None.
33
Both.
246
26
Male.
U. 8.
Com'n School.
19
Distilled.
247
47
44
Canada.
44
27
44
248
56
Female.
Ireland.
None.
46
44
248
82
Male.
44
Com'n School.
14
44
250
82
Female.
44
None.
16
Fermented.
251
28
Male.
U. 8.
Com'n School.
20
Distilled.
252
85
Female.
44
• 4
25
44
958
48
Male.
Ireland.
None.
24
44
254
80
44
Ü. 8.
Com'n School.
16
44
266
21
U
44
Collegiate.
17
Both.
3 gills wky.. beer.
1 quart to 1 gallon.
1 qt. distil, at times.
1 quart.
»(
t pint.
1 pint distilled.
1 quart.
1 to 3 quarts.
I-argely of both.
1 qt. ale, some wky.
1 quart distilled.
1 quart.
2 quarts.
1 pt. dis., beer, ale.
2 quarts sometimes.
Largely.
1 pint,
pint.
1 pt. gin, some b'r.
1 pint.
1 quart.
1 pint to 2 quarts.
1 pint.
1 pt. wbiskèy & b'r.
1 quart distilled.
1 pint whiskey.
1 pint,
ed'ksdist., 1 gal. ale
1 quart.
I pint.
1 pint.
1 quart.
1 pint of each.
1 pint.
1 quart.
2 quarts.
1 quart.
1 pint.
H plitt.
Probably 2 quarts.
Largely.
Servant.
Carpenter.
Servant.
Lawyer.
Hotelkeeper,
Servant.
Junkman.
Salesman.
Glazier.
Merchant.
Bookkeeper.
Servant.
Bookkeeper.
Carman.
Servant.
Housewife.
Clerk.
Housewife.
Clerk.
Clergyman.
Fanner.
Bookkeeper.
Servant.
Clerk.
Salesman.
Housewife.
Painter.
Clerk.
Housewife.
Agent.
Carpenter.
Plasterer
Bookkeeper.
Physician
Teleg'ph pper'r
Servant.
R. R. Agent.
Hotel Clerk.
Housewife.
Clerk.
Machinist.
Housewife.
Liquor busln's.
Housewife.
Merchant.
Housewife.
Bricklayer.
Liquor Dealer.
Student.
General debility.
Association.
Injury to head.
Association.
Business.
Association.
Gen'l bad health.
Association.
Trouble.
Association.
ki
Domestic trouble.
Association.
Disease.
Association.
«i
Trouble.
Association.
Trouble at home.
Association.
Injury to Head.
Effects of Misc'ge
Gien'l poor health.
Association.
Dyspepsia.
Association.
Bus. Trouble.
Association.
Trouble.
Business.
Disease g'l organs
Association.
Trouble.
Association.
Buslnesa.
Association.
Distilled.
Fermented.
Distilled.
Both.
(t
Distilled.
k(
Fermented.
Distilled.
ti
Both.
Distilled.
Both.
Distilled.
Both.
Distilled.
Fermented.
Disülled.
Or
Both.
T A. B L E I I-Contimaed.
Showing kind and quantity of drinks used by each of 500 Inebriates, treated in the Kings County Inebriates'
Home at Fort Hamilton, N. Y.
Age at
wnich
Kind of drink
(fermented or
distilled) used.
Maximum daily
Occupation
Mental or physi¬
Kind of beve¬
rages to which
necessity of
med'i treatm'nt
is attributed.
No.
Age.
Sex.
Place of
Birth.
Education.
Inebriate
began us¬
ing intox¬
icants.
quantity that pa¬
tient consumed of
such drink.
when using in¬
toxicants was
commenced.
cal cause to which
excesses are
ascribed.
.S-55
5?; cs'ö
256
34
Female.
Ireland.
None.
18
Distilled.
1 pint.
Housewife.
Domestic trouble.
Distilled.
257
44
(i
tt
Com'n School.
26
Both.
i pt. brandy & beer.
Servant.
Trouble.
ft
4
258
46
it
England,
u. s.
Poor.
26
tt
1 pt. brandy & beer.
Housewile.
Domestic trouble.
ft
259
•45
it
Com'n School.
42
Distilled.
i pint.
Servant.
Association.
tt
260
58
Male.
ti
11
52
tt
u
None.
Domestic trouble.
If
261
39
Female.
tt
Rudimentary.
35
tt
Largely.
tt
Association.
tt
262
41
Male.
tt
tom'n School.
25
t*
1 quart.
Merchant.
tt
tt
1
263
40
Female.
Ireland.
None.
32
tt
J pint.
Housewife.
Domestic trouble.
tt
264
34
ii
tt
Com'n School.
20
tt
1 quart.
tt
Dom'ctr'ble&inj.
ft
265
50
it
tt
Rudimentary.
43
tt
i pint.
None.
Trouble.
tt
266
25
Male.
U. S.
Com'n School.
19
Both.
Largely.
Clerk.
Association.
Both.
267
30
tt
tt
Collegiate.
27
Distilled.
Unknown.
tt
tt
Distilled.
268
47
ft
tt
Com'n School.
29
1 quart.
Purser.
tt
tt
1
269
40
tt
tt
Collegiate.
30
11
2 quarts.
Merchant.
tt
tt
2
270
34
it
Germany.
Com'n School.
14
Both.
1 qt. diet., and beer.
Banker.
ft
Both.
1
271
29
it
U. S.
Collegiate.
19
tt
2 quarts in all.
Editor.
44
ft
2¡2
52
ft
tt
Com'n School.
22
tt
1 quart whiskey.
Hatter.
Hereditary.
Distilled.
273
37
tt
tt
•t
25
tt
3qts. b'r, somewky
Salesman.
Busin's necessity.
Both.
274
64
30
Male.
tt
Com'n School.
24
Distilled.
1 quart.
Carpenter.
Domestic trouble.
Distilled.
275
tt
tt
tt
22
Botn.
1 qt. dist'ld & beer
Clerk.
Association.
tt
276
44
tt
tt
Collegiate.
24
tt
Largely.
Physician.
Domestic trouble.
ft
277
24
tt
ft
Com'n School.
18
Distilled.
1 quart.
Lard buyer.
Association.
ft
27'8
43
tt
tt
tt
23
Both.
Largely.
Farmer.
»t
tf
279
42
Female.
tt
it
30
Distilled.
1 quart.
Dressinaker.
Domestic trouble.
ft
280
23
Male.
tt
if
20
tt
tt
Electrotyper.
Association.
tl
281
60
tt
tt
tt
20
tt
30 drinks.
None.
Business matters.
tt
282
21
tt
Canada.
ft
14
tt
20 drinks.
Marble Cutter.
Association.
4t
1
283
22
tt
Ireland.
tt
22
tt
1 quart.
Merchant.
i»
tt
1
284
27
tt
U. S.
Collegiate.
Com'n School.
17
Both.
4pt. brandy & beer
Reporter.
tt
ft
1
285
38
tt
tt
18
Distilled.
1 quart.
Stock Broker.
t(
tt
286
40
tt
it
tt
20
tt
It
Bookkeeper.
tt
ft
287
288
42
ft
tt
tt
23
it
U quart.
tt
Merchant.
Trouble.
tt
1
30
tt
Ireland.
tt
15
ft
Bartender.
Business.
tt
1
289
27
38
<•
U. S.
tt
17
tt
tt
Tailor.
Association.
tl
290
Female.
Ireland-
tt
28
tt
1 quart.
Servant.
tt
tt
1
891
50
Male.
U. S.
Com'n School.
■ 30
Distilled.
292
54
Female.
44
44
44
44
893
27
Male.
44
Rudimentary.
27
44
894
38
44
44
Com'n School.
19
Both.
295
33
Female.
Cuba.
44
30
Distilled.
296
23
Male.
Ü. 8.
Collegiate
20
44
897
46
44
«4
Com'n School.
30
44
46
Female.
Ireland.
None.
23
44
299
50
Male.
U. 8.
Com'n School.
20
44
300
30
44
Ireland.
None.
15
44
301
40
Female.
44
44
19
Both.
302
37
Male.
U. 8.
Com'n School.
18
Distilled.
303
32
44
44
44
20
44
304
38
44
44
44
18
44
306
62
44
44
44
24
44
306
40
44
44
4 4
24
44
307
33
44
Ireland.
44
26
Both.
308
35
44
44
44
15
44
309
42
'27
44
44
44
32
Distilled.
310
44
U. 8.
44
22
44
311
47
44
44
Collegiate.
Com'n School.
23
Fermented.
312
23
Female.
44
16
Both.
313
40
Male.
Scotland.
44
23
44
314
54
44
4.
44
24
44
315
38
44
Ireland.
Collegiate.
34
Distilled.
316
35
44
U. 8.
44
33
Dist. also Mor]
317
32
(4
Ireland.
Com'n School.
22
Distilled.
318
40
44
U. S.
44
20
44
319
32
Female.
Ireland.
44
28
44
320
40
44
U. 8.
None.
33
Fermented.
321
322
66
Male.
Ireland.
44
25
Distilled.
61
44
U. 8.
Com'n School.
21
44
323
20
11
44
15
44
324
48
<4
44
Collegiate
28
Both.
325
37
39
44
Ireland.
Com'n School.
15
Distilled.
326
44
U. 8.
44
21
Both.
327
40
69
44
44
44
23
Distilled.
323
44
44
44
25
Fermented.
329
53
44
Germany.
44
21
4.
Both.
330
34
Male.
U. S.
Collegiate.
34
m
26
33
44
44
44
18
44
332
44
44
44
27
Distilled.
333
Female.
Ireland.
None.
39
44
331
43
Male.
U. 8.
Collegiate.
20
44
335
33
44
44
44
20
44
336
58
44
44
44
28
Both.
337
29
44
44
Com'n School.
17
Distilled.
338
339
34
29
44
44
44
18
44
44
44
44
19
44
340
31
Female.
Ireland.
None.
44
1 quart.
H pint.
1 quart, or more.
Largely.
1 quart.
1 pint.
1 quart.
1 pint.
Largely.
1 quart.
1 pint whiskey.
1 quart.
2 quarts,
lè quarts,
1 quart.
Ale & 1 qt. dist. liq.
1 qt. of brandy & ale.
1 quart.
1
1 gallon.
1 qt. beer & some w.
4qt8. " " w'ky.
Iqt. w'kybes. beer.
1 quart.
Small,
li- quart.
1 to 3 quarts.
1 pint.
3 quarts,
li pint.
1 quart.
1 pint.
Largely.
1 quart.
Largely.
1 to 3 quarts.
3 quarts.
Largely.
2 quarts.
Largely.
1} quart.
1 pint.
1 to 3 quarts.
Largely.
1 quart.
2 quarts.
Larjjely.
Printer.
Milliner.
Glass Blower.
Jeweller.
Music Teacher
Lawyer.
Merchant.
Cook.
None.
Longshoreman
^rvant.
Druggist.
Peddler.
Bottler.
Parmer.
Accountant.
Bartender.
Servant.
Clerk.
Merchant.
Housewife.
Printer.
Gardener.
Dry Goods.
Physician.
Lmuor Dealer,
Barkeeper.
Housewife.
Servant.
Laborer.
Trainer.
Salesman.
Merchant.
Baker.
Plumber.
None.
Manufacturer.
Broker.
Editor.
Agent.
Conductor.
Housewife.
Physician.
Sea Captain.
Lawyer.
Clerk.
Bookkeeper.
Servant.
Association.
Bad Health.
Association.
Habit.
Domestic trouble.
Association.
Business.
Association.
Hereditary.
Association.
Wound.
Trouble.
Injury to head.
Disease.
Domestic trouble,
Busin. necessity.
it
Trouble.
Association.
Injury.
Insomnia.
Association.
Very nervous.
Stmstroke.
Business.
Trouble.
Association.
Sunstroke.
Injury to head.
Association.
Hereditary.
Association.
Sunstroke.
Father an ineb'te.
Association.
Business troubles
Associatiou.
DlstUled.
10
1
Fermented.
Both.
Distilled.
Fermented.
DistiUed.
Fermented.
<4
Distilled.
T^BLE I I-Oontinued
Showing kind and quantity of drinks used by each of 500 Inebriates, treated in the Kings County Inbbkiates'
Home at Fort Hamilton, N. Y
Age.
61
38
38
27
36
50
40
22
41
31
35
49
46
39
24
56
40
29
23
20
44
50
30
58
59
39
43
37
33
37
36
27
39
27
Sex.
Male.
Female.
Male.
Female.
Male.
Place of
Birth.
U. S.
Canada.
U. 8.
England.
U. 8.
Canada.
U. 8.
((
Germany.
U. 8.
4t
England.
U. 8.
Ireland.
U. 8.
England.
<<
U. 8.
Education.
Age at
which
Inebriate
began us¬
ing intox¬
icants.
Collegiate.
Com'n School.
None.
Collegiate.
Com'n 8chool.
<(
None.
Com'n 8chool.
Collegiate.
Com'n School.
Collegiate.
Com'n School.
Collegiate.
Com'n School.
(t
41
Collegiate.
Com'n School.
«i
((
Collegiate.
20
20
22
20
83
49
33
12
36
25
31
30
18
49
25
26
21
16
29
40
20
48
49
34
33
20
23
34
35
18
37
17
34
Kind of drink
(fermented or
distilled) used.
Distilled.
Fermented.
Distilled.
Both.
DistiUed.
Fermented.
Distilled.
Both.
It
Distilled.
Both.
Distilled.
Both.
Distilled.
Maximum daily
quantity that pa¬
tient consumed of
such drinks.
Occupation
when using in¬
toxicants was
commenced.
1 bottle.
1 quart.
Periodical debauch.
2 quarts.
1 quart.
1 pint.
1 bottle.
1 pint.
((
12 drinks gin a beer
It quart.
1 quart.
Largely.
2 quarts.
1 to 3 quarts.
1 qt. w'ky, also b'r.
10 drinks.
1 pint.
It pints.
Largely.
15 drinks.
1 pint.
30 drinks.
15 drinks.
Largely.
1 quart.
1 qt. w'ky, 3 qts. br.
1 quart.
Largely.
1 quart.
it
30 drinks.
Mental or physi¬
cal cause to which
excesses are
ascribed.
Merchant.
None.
Bookkeeper.
Seamstress.
Housewife.
Servant.
Salesman.
None.
Clerk.
Bookkeeper.
Broker.
Merchant.
Mechanic.
Junkman.
Housewife.
Salesman.
Salesman.
Bookkeeper.
None.
Waiter.
Merchant.
Bookkeeper.
Engraver.
Builder.
Reporter.
Merchant.
Carpenter.
Ironworker.
Restaurant.
Lawyer.
Bookkeeper.
Agent.
M'chant Tailor
Teacher.
Kind of beve¬
rages to which
necessity of
med'l treatm'nt
is attributed.
Association.
Domestic trouble.
Association.
Busin's and asso.
Association.
Hereditary.
Business.
Association.
Business.
Mental overext'n.
Association.
Family troubles.
Association.
Trouble.
Distilled.
Fermented.
Distilled.
Both.
Distilled.
Fermented.
Distilled.
Both.
Distilled.
376
32
Male.
U. S.
Com'n School.
92
Distilled.
STT
44
4«
44
44
24
44
879
87
14
44
Collegiate.
35
44
879
19
(t
44
Com'n School.
16
44
380
33
a
Germany.
Collegiate.
30
44
381
29
U. S.
Com'n School.
19
44
382
42
il
44
44
22
Both.
383
23
ti
44
Collegiate.
22
Fermented.
384
28
(i
Ireland.
Com'n School.
20
Both.
385
28
i(
U. 8.
44
18
44
386
40
Female.
Ireland.
44
37
4 4
387
28
Male.
U. 8.
44
22
44
388
49
((
44
Collegiate.
29
DistUled.
389
39
i(
Germany.
Com'n School.
15
44
390
28
(i
U. 8.
44
15
44
391
83
H
44
44
31
44
392
31
t(
44
44
19
44
398
35
tt
Germany.
Collegiate.
30
Both.
394
34
it
U. 8.
Com'n School.
24
DistiUed.
395
43
ti
Germany.
44
18
44
396
(4
Scotland.
CoUegiate.
18
All kinds Distil
397
44
U. 8.
Com'n School.
19
44
398
54
44
44
44
14
44
399
31
44
Germany.
44
27
44
400
60
44
Ireland.
44
54
44
401
22
44
U. 8.
44
15
44
402
40
Female.
Ireland.
44
39
Distilled.
400
28
Male.
U. 8.
None.
25
44
404
30
Female.
44
Poor.
27
44
405
56
Male.
44
Com'n School.
60
«4
406
57
44
44
44
27
44
407
32
44
44
44
27
44
406
43
44
44
High School.
18
44
409
83
41
44
Com'n School.
21
44
410
61
44
44
44
21
'Both.
411
62
44
44
Collegiate.
42
DistiUed.
412
41
44
Ireland.
None.
21
44
413
26
44
U. 8.
Collegiate.
14
Fermented.
414
47
Male.
U. 8.
Com'n School.
27
Distilled.
415
54
44
44
Collegiate.
21
Both.
416
58
44
44
Com'n School.
28
44
417
45
44
44
None.
22
44
418
30
44
44
Com'n School.
21
DiBtilled.
419
26
44
44
44
18
44
420
41
44
44
44
35
<4
421
60
44
44
44
50
44
422
423
22
29
44
44
44
20
Fermented.
44
44
44
22
DistUled.
424
40
44
44
44
20
44
425
34
44
44
44
23
Both.
1 quart.
Largely.
1 pint.
25 drinks.
2 quarts.
1 quart.
12 drinks.
2 quarts.
16 d'ks w., 1 gal. br.
4 d'ks w'y, also b'r.
1 pt. wbiskey—ale
Unknown.
20 drinks.
15 drinks.
Largely.
1 pint.
H pint.
1 pint whiskey.
} pint.
H qt. distilled liq.
1 pint,
i pint,
li pint.
1 pint.
1^ pint.
15 drinks.
1 pint.
8 drinks,
1 pint,
i pint.
1} pint.
1 quart,
li quart.
1 pint.
Largely.
1 pint.
»4
12 qts. champagne.
H pints.
Largely.
1 pint whiskey.
1 pint.
20 drinks.
1} pints.
Largely.
3 quarts.
1 pint.
1 quart.
Largely.
Peddler.
Salesman.
Journalist.
Bartender.
Druggist.
Clerk.
Merchant.
Hatter.
Salesman.
Canienter.
None.
Plasterer.
None.
Butcher.
Clerk.
Jockey.
Hoofer.
Druggist.
Grocer.
Saloon Keeper.
Journalist.
Carpenter.
Pencil-case m'r.
Bookkeeper.
Compositor.
Cferk.
None.
Butcher.
Servant.
Carpenter.
Horse Dealer.
Conductor.
Broker.
Clerk.
Ferry Master.
Lawyer.
Liquor Dealer.
Lawyer.
Merchant.
None.
Merchant.
Lahorer.
Painter.
Clerk.
Bookkeeper.
Carpenter.
Farmer.
Plasterer.
Insurance Ag't.
Domestic trouble.
Business.
Association.
Father an ineb'te.
Family trouhle.
Association.
Hereditary.
Nervous temp't.
Nervous shock.
Gastritis.
Genital disorder.
Association.
Hereditary.
Association.
44
Misfortune.
Hereditary.
Overwork.
Injury to head.
Business.
Association.
Inherited.
Domestic trouble.
Association.
Death of mother.
Association.
44
Domestic trouhle
Association.
Hereditary.
Association.
Hereditary.
Business.
Hereditary.
Association.
44
Loss of wife.
Association
Hereditary.
Association.
Domestic trouble,
Association.
Business.
Distilled.
Fermented.
Both.
44
Distilled.
Both.
Distilled.
44
Fermented.
Distilled.
Both.
DistUled.
Fermented.
DistUled.
it»-
CO
T A. B Hi E 11—Continued.
Showing kind and quantity of drinks used by each of 500 Inebriates, treated in the Kings County Inebhiatks'
Home at Fort Hamilton, N. Y.
Age.
46
40
45
61
38
42
28
35
44
35
60
45
32
31
59
29
29
31
26
43
47
38
61
45
44
68
25
40
30
51
26
Sex.
Male,
Female.
•6
Male.
Female.
Male.
Place of
Birth.
U. S.
(6
England.
Scotland.
U. S.
Ireland.
U. S.
it
Ireland.
U. S.
Ireland.
U. S.
Ireland.
44
u. s.
44
Scotland.
Canada.
U. 8.
44
Ireland.
U. S.
44
Porto Bico.
U. S.
44
<4
44
Ireland.
Education.
Com'n School.
Collegiate.
Com'n School.
4k
Collegiate.
Com'n School.
44
None.
Com'n School.
None.
Com'n School.
Collegiate.
Com'n School.
44
Collegiate.
Com'n School.
44
Collegiate.
44
Com'n School.
Age at
which
Inebriate
began us¬
ing intox¬
icants.
21
20
35
30
27
32
18
27
37
25
35
40
6
5Ó
19
34
28
21
27
23
34
19
28
42
28
20
15
24
28
23
33
15
41
18
Kind of drink
(fermented or
distilled) used.
Distilled.
Both.
44
Distilled.
44
Both.
Maximum daily
quantity that pa¬
tient consumed of
such drink.
1 quart.
i pint.
1 quart.
4 pint to 3 quarts.
Largely.
1 pint.
14 quarts.
Period'l debauches.
2 to 20 drinks.
1 quart.
IJ pints.
2i quarts,
li pints.
44
Largely.
1 pint,
li pint.
Largely.
1 pint.
i pint.
1 quart,
li quart.
1 pint,
li pint.
16 drinks,
Largely,
ipt. dist., also beer
Largely,
li quart.
Largely.
Occupation
when using in¬
toxicants was
commenced.
Mental or physi¬
cal cause to which
excesses are
ascribed.
Clerk.
Engineer.
Pamter.
Laborer.
Clerk.
Painter.
44
Journalist.
Shoemaker.
Clerk.
Teamster.
Furrier.
Stock raiser.
Clerk.
Laborer.
Brakeman.
Servant.
Gaiter Fitter.
House Framer.
Clerk.
44
None.
44
Clerk.
Upholsterer.
Clerk.
Merchant.
None.
Clerk.
Compositor.
Canvasser.
Clerk.
Farmer.
Carpenter.
Bartender.
Association.
Hereditary.
Association.
Hereditary.
Association.
Injury.
Association.
44
Business trouble,
Hereditary.
Family trouble.
Association.
44
Family trouble.
Association.
Family trouble.
Association.
Family trouble.
Business.
Kind of beve¬
rages to which
necessity of
med'l treatm'nt
is attributed.
Distilled.
Both.
44
Distilled.
461
36
Male.
u. s.
Com'n School,
21
Distilled.
462
35
((
II
Collegiate.
20
it
463
50
it
ii
Com'n School.
20
ti
464
31
(1
ii
it
23
it
465
35
tt
il
it
13
it
466
54
ii
ii
ti
49
it
467
38
t<
ii
ti
35
t(
468
27
ti
ii
ii
17
ii
469
470
52
i(
ii
Collegiate.
27
Both.
27
i(
ti
Com'n School.
16
Distilled.
it
471
35
ii
ii
ti
20
472
23
ii
it
it
12
it
473
29
ii
ii
it
24
it
474
29
ii
ti
ii
28
it
475
27
ii
ti
it
21
ii
476
32
ii
England.
Collegiate.
22
ti
477
30
ii
Scotland.
Com'n School
26
it
478
44
it
U. S.
ft
38
479
40
ti
ti
ii
20
it
480
*22
it
Canada.
Collegiate.
20
ki
481
31
i.
u. s.
Com'n School.
17
it
482
55
ii
ti
Collegiate.
35
it
483
41
ii
England.
U. S.
Com'n School.
31
tt
484
26
ii
tt
23
it
485
36
it
England.
it
24
ii
486
21
it
U. S.
(i
16
Fermented.
487
26
ti
i»
ii
24
Distilled.
488
25
ii
ii
ii
20
it
489
24
ti
ii
ti
22
it
490
30
ii
ti
Collegiate.
20
ti
491
66
Ii
Germany.
Com'n School.
26
*»
492
47
ti
U. S.
it
25
it
493
38
Female.
ii
ti
22
ii
494
43
Male.
it
Collegiate.
16
ii
495
52
ii
it
Com'n School.
16
it
496
36
ii
ti
Collegiate.
Com'n School.
26
it
497
19
it
ti
18
it
498
45
ii
<i
ii
26
it
499
44
ii
ii
ii
34
Both.
500
33
ii
ii
ii
21
Distilled.
U pint.
Largely.
1 quart.
1 pint.
Largely.
1 pint.
10 drinks.
Copiously.
Largely.
1 quart.
Largely.
(t
H pints.
1 pint.
((
Largely
1 pint.
1 quart.
H pints.
1 quart.
1 pint.
Copiously at times.
10 drinks.
8 to 4 quarts beer.
Largely.
1 qt. 5 consec. wks,
10 drinks.
Largely.
i i
1 pint.
H
25 to 30 drinks.
Largely.
H pints.
1 quart.
Largely.
1 quart.
Waiter.
Contractor.
Hatter.
Salesman.
Hatter.
Moulder.
Harness Maker.
Tinsmith.
Civil Engineer.
Hardware.
Hatter.
None.
Engineer.
None.
Teamster.
Grocer.
Agent.
Clerk.
Druggist.
Biwer.
Merchant.
Conductor.
Adv'tlsing agt.
None.
Clerk.
it
Laborer.
Salesman.
Shoemaker.
Cooper.
None.
Manufacturer.
Clerk,
Physician.
Compositor.
Salesman.
( i
Merchant.
Association.
Nervous temp't.
Association.
Sickness.
Family trouble.
Association.
Grief.
Business trouble.
Association.
Hereditary.
Association.
Grief.
Association.
Family trouble.
Association.
ii
Hereditary.
Association.
Family trouble.
Hereditary.
DistiUed.
Both.
Distilled.
Fermented.
Distilled.
United States.
NATIVITY.
England.
Ireland.
h*
o
Scotland.
»-4
Canada.
OS
Germany.
iO
Cuba.
Porto Rico.
u3
o
H
H-k
Distilled
Liquors.
Number op Inebbiatbs
ADDICTED TO
s
Distilled and
Fermented
Liquors.
s
Fermented
Beverages.
o
H
P
P
bd
®
S-
tl«5
P
m
P
B
B
p
H
O
l-H
H
p
CT'
O
O
i-b
P
P
P
P-
Î>
w
H
H
H
H
Ot
L£»
P
eu
p>
N
p
œ
P
a>
®
&>
T^BLE IV.
Showing age, sex, nativity, &c., of the twenty-four habitual consumers of fermented drinks, enumerated in Table II.
Kind of
No.
Age.
Sex.
Birthplace.
Education.
Occupation.
Fermented
Drinks.
1
48
Female.
Ireland.
None.
Domestic.
Ale and Lager.
2
32
Male.
ti
Collegiate.
Editor.
Beer.
3
38
ii
United States.
Com'n School.
Clerk.
it
4
26
ti
England.
it
Artist.
Ale and Lager.
5
22
U
United States.
Collegiate.
Lawyer.
Beer.
6
48
Female.
Ireland.
None.
Housekeeper.
it
7
36
Male.
it
Rudimentary.
Merchant.
■Wine and Beer.
8
23
Female.
United States.
Com'n School.
None.
Beer,
9
30
ii
Germany.
it
Bartender.
Beer and Wine.
10
20
Male.
United States.
ti
Clerk.
Beer.
11
23
it
it
it
ii
ii
12
29
(i
it
it
Carpenter.
ti
13
45
Female.
Ireland.
None.
Servant.
ii
14
32
it
it
it
Housewife.
ft
15
47
Male.
United States.
Collegiate.
Merchant.
ft
16
40
Female.
it
None.
Servant.
tt
17
59
Male.
if
Com'n School.
Manufacturer.
tt
18
53
it
Germany.
it
Broker.
tt
19
50
Female.
United States.
None.
Housewife.
tt
20
56
ii
it
Com'n School.
it
ii
21
22
23
26
Male.
it
ii
ii
Colicúate.
Hatter.
Lawyer.
if
Wine.
23
22
i(
it
Com'n School.
Farmer.
Beer.
24
21
it
ii
it
None.
(i
Quantiw
Consumed Daily.
2 quarts.
1 quart.
t(
1 quart to 2 galls.
15 glassies.
Largely.
1 quart.
2 quarts.
8 quarts beer.
4 quarts beer.
1 quart to 1 gallon.
2 quarts.
1 gallon.
3 quarts.
Largely.
2 quarts.
12 qts. champagne.
3 quarts.
3 to 4 quarts.
Complicating
Disease.
Concussion.
Hernia.
Leucorrhoea.
Concussion.
Syphilis.
Concussion.
Disease geu'l organ.
Concussion.
Syphilis
Syph. & Pneumonia
Epilepsy & Syphilis
Syphilis.
Family History.
"®a "
« ■> 0 ^
««.Il
â:§£
Ü5
Grandfäther ineb.
Father inebriate.
Father inebriate.
Father inebriate.
F'r & Grandf r ineb,
Father inebriate.
15é
TA.BLE: V.
Being a summary of Table IV in point of nativity and sex, quantity of
fermented drinks consumed, and attacks of delirium.
Nativitï.
Sex.
Numbbr of Inebriates who
Dailt Consumed;
Number of
Beer Drinkebs
having had
Delirium.
United States.
1
j
England.
Ireland.
Germany.
Totai.
Male.
Female.
Total.
1 quart.
2 quarts.
3 quarts.
j 4 quarts.
Over 4 quarl
Total.
Male.
Female.
Total.
15
1
6
2
24
15
9
24
3
8
4
5 4
24
1
1
2
APPENDIX C.
TABLES VI, VII and VIII.
CAUSES OF DEPENDENCE OF SIX HUNDRED AND
SEVENTY-ONE PAUPERS.
157
T^BLE VI.
Showing Age, Nativity, Education, Occupation and Cause of
Paupers, who are now, or were formerly, inmates of
Poorhouse.
Dependence of 671
the Kings County
Former
No.
Age.
Nmtlvity.
Edacation.
Occupation.
1 .
. 38 .
. Ireland ...
Read & Write..
Laborer
2 .
. 57
. Germany..
ti
it
Cook
3 .
30
it
Laborer
4
55 .
. Ireland
if
Engineer...
5 .
. 54
. Scotland..
if
None
6 .
. 36 .
. Ireland ...
None
Laborer
7 .
. 39 .
. Jersey ....
it
Pedler .
8 .
. 46
. Ireland ...
Read only
Laborer
9 .
. 40 .
ti
it
t i
10 .
. 13
Penn
ft
None
11 .
. 65 .
. Ireland ...
ft
Laborer ...
12 .
63 .
it
None
ti
13 .
14 .
23
N. Y
(t
Moulder...
. 34
. Ireland ...
Read only.
Laborer
15 .
. 37 .
it
if
ft
16 .
. 52 .
. Germany..
ft
tf
17 .
. 46 .
. Ireland ...
None
if
18 .
. 65 .
. Germany..
it
f i
19 .
eu\
. 75
45
. 26
Ireland ...
it
Read only
ti
tf
ft
^ .
21 .
. Scotland..
ti
Sailor
22 .
48 .
. Ireland ...
None
Laborer
23 .
45 .
ti
ti
tt
24 .
33 .
it
Readonly
ft
25 .
35 .
! N. T..;;!!
ti
ti
26 .
40 .
. England..
it
Butcher
27 .
53 .
. Ireland....
Read & Write..
(<
28 .
47 .
. N. Y.. ..
None
Peddler
29 .
34 .
Ireland ...
Read & Write..
Laborer
30 .
43
it
ft
11
31 .
68 .
Glermany..
ft
Farmer
32 .
71 .
ti
ti
Painter
33 .
46 .
Finland...
Read only
Sailor
34 .
13 .
. N. Y
None
None
35 .
50 .
Ireland
Read & Write..
Carpenter..
36 .
56 .
it
ft
it
37 .
31 .
it
None
Laborer
38 .
57 .
Germany..
ii
Cabinetm'r.
39 .
38 .
it
it
Currier....
40 .
62 .
ti
ii
Turner
41 .
73 .
ti
if
Tailor
42 .
54 .
' Ñ. 'Y
ti
Car cond'r..
43 ..
76 .
Germany..
If
Watch mkr.
44 .
20 .
88 .
N. Y
if
Laborer
f i
45 .
Ireland—
ft
46 ..
42 .
it
Read ¿ Write..
if
47 ..
35 .
Germany..
ii
Baker
48 ..
50 .
Ireland...
it
Laborer... ^
49 ..
52 .
it
None
ii
50 ..
66 .
Germany..
Read & Write..
ii
51 ..
53 .
it
if
Painter
52 .
21 .
Ñ.'Y..!!!.
ii
Waiter
53 ..
60 .
Delaware..
None
Cardriver..
64 ..
68 .
Ireland
None
Lahorer
55 ..
20 .
N. Y
Read & Write..
«t
66 ..
71 .
it
fi
ti
57 ..
41 .
England...
N.^
it
ii
58 ..
64 .
fi
Painter
59 ..
51 .
Germany..
if
Laborer
60 ..
40 .
Ireland
jReadonly....!.
ti
61 ..
48 .
it
None
* * ii
62 ..
56 .
Ñ. Y. ,'!!!
f i
if
63 ..
45 ..
Ireland
Read oniy !
Read & Write..
ff
64 ..
40 ..
it
Tailor
65 ..
60 ..
it
Read only
Read & Write..
Laborer ...
66 ..
72 ..
Germany..
Painter
67 ..
45 ..
Ireland...
None
Laborer....
68 ..
38 ..
If
Read ¿Write..
if
69 ..
35 ..
Germany..
ii
ff
70 ..
64 ..
Ireland—
it
Eiu^eer...
71 ..
67 ..
Germany.
if
LiSorer ...
72 ..
67 ..
Ireland ...
Read only,.!!!!
Read & Write..
ti
78 ..
60 ..
Germany..
Gardener..
Family Hiitory.
Self Supporting.
ParHs own hoase.
Self Supporting..
Cause of
Dependence.
Broken Leg.
Bheumati«m.
Lunacy.
Sickuees.
Paralysis.
Left Foot Mashed.
Loss of Left Ann.
Rheumatism.
Chills and Fever.
W^ant of Work.
Felon on Hand.
Want of Work.
Burnt Foot.
Broken Shoulder.
Broken Arm & Thigh
Chills and Fever.
Gleneral Debility.
Want of Work.
Hurt to Left Eye.
Cripple.
Fever and Ague.
Want of Work.
Fever and Ague.
Vagrancv.
Malarial Fever.
Boils on Left Leg.
Chills and Fever.
Amputated Leg.
Ulcer on Leg.
Bad Leg.
RbeuTnatism.
U
" Chronic.
Want of Work.
Paralysis.
Piles & Qen'l debility.
Want of Work.
Dlarrhœa.
Neuralgia.
Asthma.
Rupttu«d.
Syphilis.
Sickness.
Want of Work.
ChUls and Fever.
Inflammatory Khe'm,
Kidney Disease.
Dislocated Shoulder.
Injury to Knee.
Sickness.
Rheumatism.
Sore Feet.
Want of Work.
Want of Work.
«i ti
Rheumatism.
Want of Work.
Ruptured.
General Debility.
Paralysis.
Sore Leg.
Vagrancy.
Epileptic Fits.
Sickness.
Want of Work.
Paralysis.
Ulcers, stoppage of U.
Want of W^rk.
Ruptured.
Paralysis of Bladder.
Want of Work.
Burnt Foot.
Consumptlou.
158
TA.BLE V^I —Continued.
Showing Age, Nativity, Education, Occupation and Cause of Dependence of 67Í
Paupers, who are now, or were formerly, inmates of the Kings County
Poorhouse.
No. Age.
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129 ,
130 ,
131 .
132 .
133 ,
134 ,
135 .
136 .
187 .
188 .
139 .
140 .
141 .
142 .
143 .
144
145 .
146 .
. 41
. 14
. 36
. 40
. 43
. 71
. 28
. 54
. 40
. 52
. 56
. 54
. 57
. 32
. 40
. 53
. 72
. 40
. 69
, 50
. 68
, 40
, 70
43 ,
, 85 ,
39 .
23 ,
, 70 ,
, 70
63
, 67 ,
, 62 ,
, 76 ,
73 ,
, 46 .
, 63
. 47
. 37 ,
, 48 .
34
44
54 .
55 ,
81 ,
30 .
47 .
75 .
41 .
65 .
55 .
66 .
55 .
33 .
52 .
38 .
42 .
40 .
59 .
57 .
60 .
38 .
38 .
75 .
58 .
87 .
54 .
47 .
55 .
50 .
35
85 .
48 .
47 .
Nativity •
Germany..
N. Y
Ireland....
Germany..
it
Ireland ...
Germany..
(4
Ireland...
Germany..
Ireland
44
N. Y..!!;;
Ireland
Education.
Bead only..
Former
Occupation.
Family History«
Read & Write.
Readonly
Read & Write.
Germany..
W. Indies.
Ireland
N. Y
4t
Ireland
England ..
Germany..
Ireland...
N. Y
Ireland...
Germany..
Germany..
Ireland....
a
Gíermany..
N. Y
Germany..
Ireland ...
None
Readonly
Read & Write
44
None
Read & Write.
Readonly.. ..
Read & Write.
Read only
Read & Write.
U
Read & Write.
N. Y
Ireland...
England..
Germany..
44
Penna
Germany..
N. Y
Ireland....
Germany..
Ireland...
44
Scotland...
Germany..
Ireland
England..
Germany..
N. Jersey.
Germany..
Ireland ...
Germany..
Ireland...
None
Read & Write.
None
Read & Write.
Laborer... Self Supporting.
None "
Laborer
Basket mk.
Laborer
Segars
Shoemaker.
Tinsmith..
Laborer
None
Read & Write.
None
Read & Write.
None
Read & Write.
^ad only
Read & Write.
44
Read only
None
Read & Write.
None.
iiV
Read & Write.
None
Read & Write.
None
Gardener...
Civil Eng..
Laborer
Car driver..
Peddler
Carpet wvr.
None
Blacksm'h..
Bricklayer.
Farmer
Laborer
Carpet wvr.
Laborer
Cook
Laborer
Peddler
Machinist..
Blacksmith
Peddler ...
Gardener..
Cook
Laborer
44
Shoemaker.
Gardener..
Sailor
Shoemaker.
44
Penmaker..
Laborer
Cook
Laborer
Bookk'per..
Chair cani'g
Laborer
None
Laborer
None
Laborer
44
Paddler
Laborer
Porter
Laborer
Caos« of
Dependence.
Want of Work.
Rhenmatism.
Want of Work-
Defective Sight.
Rhenmatism.
Paralysis.
Internally Injnred.
Want of Work.
Disjointed Foot.
Want of Work.
Asthma.
Want of Work.
Loss of Leg.
Bad Cold.
Rhenmatism.
Left Leg Injnred.
Want of Work.
Frostbitten & Cough.
Partial Loss of Sight.
Chills and Fever.
Age.
Rheumatism.
Age.
Sore Leg.
Rheumatism.
Want of Work.
44 44
Bad Cold.
Want of Work.
Sickness.
Bad Health.
Want of Work.
Disease of EUdneys.
44 44
Lunacy.
Loss of Leg.
Leg & Arm disabled.
Sore Foot.
Asthma, nearly Blind.
Want of Work.
Hurt to Back & Head.
Loss of Leg.
Sore Leg.
Paralysis.
Rheumatism.
Vagrancy.
Rheumatism.
44
Ruptured.
Broken Leg.
Want of Work.
Loin of Back Broken.
Fever and Ague.
Bad Cold.
Ulcers on both Legs.
Rheumatism, Rupt'd.
44
Bad Cold.
Rheumatism.
Chills and Fever.
Vagrancy.
Rheumatism.
Broken Leg.
Rheumatism.
4»
Chills and Fever.
Want of Work.
Rheumatism.
Sore Foot.
159
T^BLE VI —Continued.
Showing Age, Nativity, Education, Occupation and Cause of
Paupers, who are now, or were formerly, inmates of
Poorhouse.
Ko.
Age.
Nativity.
147 .
. 40 ..
Ireland ..
148
. 67 ..
4«
149
. 64 ..
((
150
. 84 ..
((
151
. 45 ..
152
. 50 ..
i(
153
. 39 ..
154
. 65 ..
Maryland.
155
. 32 ..
it
156
. 35 ..
Ireland ..
157
. 68 ..
Germany.
158
. 40 ..
Ireland ..
159
. 56 ..
(i
160
. 32 ..
Mass
161
. 25 ..
Germany.
162
. 63 ..
Ireland...
163
. 28 ..
164
. 43 ..
((
165
. 35 ..
((
166
. 63 ..
((
167
. 39 ..
168
. 34 ..
Germany.
169
. 63 ..
(4
170
. 23 ..
N.T....!
171
. 42 ..
Ireland. .
172
. 52 ..
44
173
. 43 ..
(<
174
34 ..
Scotland..
175
. 55 ..
Ireland..
176
. 35 ..
N. Y
177
. 45 ..
Germany.
178
. 46 ..
Ireland..
179
. 50 ..
France...
180
. 30 ..
N. Y
181
. 67 ..
Germany.
182
. 73 ..
(4
183
. 14 ..
N. Y
184
. 37 ..
Ireland ,.
185
34 ..
Germany.
186
. 45 ..
Ireland ..
187
. 65 ..
44
188
. 33 ..
44
189
. 36 ..
44
190
. 30 .
Germany.
191
. 58 .
44
192
. 66 .
Ireland..
193
. 26 .
44
194
. 38 .
ii. Y..!!!
195
. 59 .
Italy
196
. 36 .
Ireland..
197
. 48 .
Scotland.
198
. 58 .
Ireland ..
199
. 75 .
Germany.
200
. 54 .
44
201
. 65 .
44
202
. 50 .
Ireland...
203
. 69 .
44
204
. 61 .
44
205
. 30 .
Virginia.
206
, 59 .
Germany.
207
OAQ
. 56 .
Ofi
Ireland..
44
ÄUO
209
. 5ÍO .
. 89 .
41
210
. 80 .
44
211
. 81 .
«4
212
. 62
Germany.
218
. 65 .
Ireland ..
214
. 18 .
N. Y
215
. 17 .
Scotland.
216
. 62 .
Ireland...
217
64 .
Germany.
218
. 22 .
N. T ....
Former
Education. Occupation.
Bead only.. .. Fireman. ..
None Laborer
Bead & Write "
None. Shoemaker.
Bead & Write.. Clockmkr..
Bead on^ Laborer
Bead & Write "
None "
Bead & Write.. Waiter
None Teamster ..
Bead & Write.. Tailor
None Laborer...
Bead & Write.. Stonecnt'r..
" — Painter —
" — Plasterer...
" .... Apple sta'd.
" .. Laborer
Family History.
Self Supporting.
None
Bead & Write.
Laborer—
None
Parmer
it
Driver
Blacksmith
None Peddler ...
(( it
Bead ¿ Write., iron Workr
" Laborer
" .... Peddler ...
" — Bopemaker
None Laborer
Bead & Write.. Painter
" — Fireman
" Basketmkr.
None. Gardener ..
" None
" Laborer—
Bead ¿fc Write.. Wheelright
None Laborer
Bead & Write..
None
Bead & Write.
None
Bead & Write.
None
Bead & Write.
None
Bead&^rite.
S19 .. 60 .. Ireland ..
Bead only.
File cutter.
Shoemaker.
Laborer
Ship carp'r.
Plumber...
Driver
Painter
Peddler
Blacksm'h..
Soapmaker.
Laborer
Carpenter..
Tailor
Laborer
Vamisher..
Tailor
Laborer
Tanner.. ..
Peddler
Lono'Bho'n..
Locksmith..
Laborer
Waiter
None
•Laborer....
Cutler
Cooper ....
Laborer....
Dependence of 671
the Kings Cotmty
Causa of
Dependenca.
Chills and Fever.
Bheumatism.
Dropsy.
Want of Work.
Consumption.
Want of Work.
Broken Arm & Deaf.
General Debility.
Skin Disease.
Broken Kneecap.
Bheumatism.
Want of Work.
Wounds in War.
Heart Disease.
Sickness.
Want of Work.
(t ((
Fractured Bibs.
Heart Disease.
Want of Work.
Disability,
Bheumatism.
Broken Collar Bone.
Disability.
Blind.
Disability.
Bheumatism.
General Debility.
SyphUis.
Bheumatism.
Dyspepsia.
Partial Loss of Sight.
Vagrancy.
Bheumatism.
Age.
Fits.
Bronchitis.
Disability.
Frostbitten.
Bheumatism.
Sickness.
Bheumatism.
Paralysis.
Sickness.
Partial Blindness.
Vagrancy.
Disabili^.
Broken Leg.
Want of Work.
it (t
Bheumatism.
Vagrancy.
Want of Work.
Disability.
General Debility.
Blind.
Vagrancy.
Want of Work.
Disability.
Want of Work.
Bheumatism.
Broken Leg.
Broken Shoulder.
Want of Work.
Fits.
Inflam, of Lungs.
Want of Work?
Disability.
Vagrancy.
Cripple.
160
T^BLE VI —Continued.
Showing Age, Nativity, Education, Occupation and Cause of Dependence of 671
Paupers, who are now, or were formerly, inmates of the Kings County
Poorhouse.
No. Age.
220 .. 61 ,
221 .. 67 .
222 .. 55 .
223 .. 46 .
224 .. 63 .
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
68
80
42
61
53
48
60
65
70
234 .. 63
235 .. 20
236
237
238
239
240
241
264
265
266
267
80
65
45
15
58
53
242 .. 23
243 .. 70
244 .. 13
245 .. 60
246 .. 50
247 .. 78
248 .. 56
249 .. 46
250 .. 60
251 .. 70
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260 .. 50
261 .. 20
262 .. 45
263 .. 62
41
67
68
76
55
60
37
16
76
60
70
64
269 .. 66
270 .. 65
271 .. 58
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
70
75
26
39
78
48
49
279 .. 60
280 .. 72
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
32
53
35
53
18
66
68
26
71
38
62
63
Nativity.
N. T
Irelaod ...
Germany..
N. Y
Germany..
. Ireland ..
N. Y ....
Ireland..
En^rland..
NY
Ireland..
N. Y...
Ohio
Ireland ,
N. Y....
Norway...
Ireland ...
Germany..
N.Y....!!
Hungary..
Ireland ...
Scotland..
N. H
Ireland. ..
' t
Germany..
N. Y
Ireland...
Sweden...
Germany..
N. Y
44
Austiia. ..
Ireland...
N. Y
Ireland ...
N. J
England...
N. Y
Germany..
Ireland...
Germany..
4.
Ireland...
Georgia...
Ireland...
N. Y
Ireland—
Mass
England..
Germany..
N. Y
Ireland ...
Germany..
N. Y
Germany,.
Ireland...
N. Y
Ireland....
Education.
Bead & Write
None
Bead & Write..
None ,
Bead & Write.
44
None
Bead only
44
Bead & Write.
44
Write only
None...
Bead & Write
None
Bead & Write.
None
Bead & Write.
Bead only.
None
44
Bead ¿Write.
44
Bead oi^
Bead"& Write.
None
Bead & Write.
None
Bead & Write.
44
None
44
Bead & Write.
None
Bead only
Bead & Write.
Bead only
Bead & Write.
None
Bead & Write.
None
Former
Occupation.
Soap maker
Laborer
Tailor
Laborer ...
Shoemaker.
Carpenter..
Bope maker
Cartman...
Laborer
4-
Blacksmith
Laborer
Shoe mfr.
Printer...
Laborer .
None
Shoemaker.
Farmer
Printer
Plowmaker
None
Hod carrier
Tailor
Mason
Laborer ...
44
Tailor
Blacksmith
Laborer
Gro. & Liq.
Gardener..
None
Mariner
Mason
Laborer
Pipe maker
Laborer
None
Fireman...
Laborer
None
Laborer
Agent
Shoemaker.
Laborer
None
Laborer
Blacksmith
Farmer ...
Laborer
Druggist...
Gardener...
Longsborin
Horsesboer.
Bookkeep'r
Laborer
Junkman..
None
Laborer
Machinist..
Tailor
None
Laborer.. .
Builder....
None
Laborer
Family Hiitory.
Self Supporting.
Tailor...
Baker..
<(
U
(t
Cause of
Dependence,
Broken Arm.
General Debility.
44 44
Chills and Fever.
Bronchitis.
Broken Leg & Eb'm.
Hemorrhage of Lungs
Fractured Shoulder.
General Debility,
Chills and Fever.
Disability, sore legs.
" sore leg.
General Debility.
>1 41
Vagrancy.
Deaf.
Age.
General Debility.
Disability, cut head.
Deaf, Dumb & Defer.
Disability.
Bheumatism.
Consumption.
Malaria.
Want of Work.
General Debility.
Consumption.
Blind of left Eye.
Fits.
Disability.
General Debility.
Disability, bad leg.
Malaria.
Bheumatism.
General Debility.
Billions Fever.
Sunstroke.
Loss of right Leg.
Lung Disease.
Bheumatism.
General Debility.
Paralysis.
Bheumatism.
Disability.
Paralysis.
Want of Work.
Bronchitis.
Impaired Mind.
Syphilis.
Partial Blindness.
Lunacy.
Broken Hip.
Buptured.
General Debility.
44 44
Disability.
Bheumatism.
Fractured Hip.
Disability.
Partial Blindness.
Broken Bibs.
Epileptic Fits.
Disability
Sickness.
Bheumatism, Chronic
Want of Work.
Disjointed Hip.
Bheumatism, Chronic
Paralysis.
Eupture andDebUity.
Disability.
Vagrancy.
Paralysis.
161
T^BLE VI —Continued.
Showing Age, Nativity, Education, Occupation and Cause of
Paupers, who are now, or were formerly, inmates of
Poorhouse.
No. Age,
293 .. 37 .
294 .. 43 .
295 .. 80 ,
296 .. 48 ,
297 .. 41 ,
298 .. 45 ,
299 .. 52 ,
300 .. 57 ,
301 .. 71
302 .. 67
54
70
48 ,
806 .. 67 .
307 .. 65 ,
808 .. 40
309 .. 54
303
304
305
Nativity,
England..
Ireland ...
Germany..
Ireland ...
N. Y
Germany..
N. Y
England..
Ireland ...
England..
N. V
France ...
Germany..
Ireland...
Former
Edacation. Occupation.
None Laborer.. ..
" Soldier
" Painter
" Gardner
" Carpenter..
" Laborer
" H'eePaint'r
" Laborer
" Ship Carp'r
" Hatter
" Laborer....
Read & Write. " —
" Carpenter..
" ... Tailor
•' Cabinet M'r
None Laborer
" Junkman ..
Family History.
Self Supporting.
310
.. 38 ..
it
it
None
311
,. 42 ..
ti
ii
Laborer
312 .
.. 23 ..
ti
ii
Barber
313 ,
.. 50 ..
Germany..
ii
Carpenter..
314
.. 35 ..
Ireland...
ii
Laborer
315 ,
.. 40 ..
Ci
ii
it
316
.. 42 ..
• 4
Read only
ii
317
.. 59 ..
N. Y.".;.
ii
Tin Smith..
318
.. 74 ..
West Va..
ii
ii
319
. 77 ..
Ireland ...
None
Laborer
320
.. 80 ..
it
Read only
ii
321
.. 18 ..
N. Y.
ti
Farmer.
322
.. 66 ..
Ireland ...
it
Cooper
323
.. 50 ..
ti
ii
Laborer ...
324
.. 60 ..
it
None
Blacksmith
325
.. 59 ..
it
ii
Stone Cut'r.
326
.. 36 ..
Germany..
ii
Laborer
327
.. 58 ..
Ireland ...
it
Mat Maker.
328
.. 41 ..
it
ii
Shoemaker
329
.. 60 ..
ti
ti
Laborer
330
.. 50 ..
Germany..
is
t i
331
.. 67 ..
N. Y
ii
Carpenter.
332
.. 60 ..
Ireland....
None
Laborer ...
333
334
.. 60 ..
.. 60 ..
England ..
Ireland
Read & Write..
None
Carpenter..
Laborer
335
.. 44 ..
Germany..
tt
ii
336
337
.. 39 ..
.. 67 ..
ii
England..
ii
ii
Carpenter..
Clomg Cut'r
338
.. 64 ..
Ireland—
ii
Painter
339
.. 67 ..
N. B'wick.
ii
Boatman...
340
.. 27 ..
England..
it
Porter
341
.. 50 ..
. N.Y
ii
Laborer
342
.. 48 ..
, Penn..
it
None. .
343
.. 64 ..
, Ireland
ii
Shoemaker.
344
.. 65 ..
ii
• i
Laborer..
345
.. 83 ..
, Sweden...
it
ii
346
.. 46 .,
. Ireland
Read only
ii
347
.. 79 ..
Germany..
ii
ti
348
.. 40 ..
, Ireland....
ii
Waiter
349
.. 60 ..
ii
ii
Laborer
350
.. 76 .,
Germany..
Ii
Tailor
351
., 53 ..
Ireland....
ii
Farmer
352
.. 64 ..
. Scotland..
Ii
Tailor
353
.. 47 .,
, Germany..
it
Laborer....
354
.. 34 ..
, N.Y
ii
ti
355
.. 52 .,
it
it
it
356
.. 48 ..
. Germany..
. S.Carolina
None
Farm Hand
357
.. 68 .,
ii
Hostler
358
.. 63 .,
, Ireland ...
ii
Laborer
359
.. 59 ..
Prussia....
Read & Write..
Laborer ...
860
.. 58 ..
, N. Y
ti
Tinsmith..
861
.. 64 ..
, Ireland ...
None
None
362
.. 87 ..
Germany..
Read & Write..
Farm Hand
868
.. 64
, N. Y
Read onty.
Read & Write..
Mason
864
.. 68 .,
. England..
Blacksm'h..
865
.. 68 .
. Ireland...
it
Laborer....
Dependence of 671
the Kings County
Cause of
Dependence.
Blindness & Rupture.
Disability, Sore Foot.
Want of Work.
Asthma.
Want of Work.
Blind and Crippled.
Heart Dis. & Rheum.
Ruptured.
Sickness.
Want of Work.
Syphilis and Rheum.
Loss of both feet.
Lunacy.
Disability.
Sickness.
Debility.
General Debility.
Partial Blindness.
Consumption.
Sickness.
Want of Work.
Vagrancy.
Pneumonia.
Bad Cold.
Loss of Foot.
Vagrancy.
Want of Work.
Heart and Lung Dia.
Want of Work.
Disability.
Broken Foot.
Disability.
Chills and Fever.
Hip Disease.
Nervous Debility.
Lameness.
Chills and Fever.
Broken Foot.
General Debility.
Disability.
Rheumatism.
Broken Leg.
Disability.
Ruptured.
Disability.
Chills & Rheumatism.
Broken Leg.
Ruptured.
Complicated Diseases
Want of Work.
Lung Disease.
Lung & Heart Disease
General Debility.
Broken Ribs.
Lung & Kidney Dis.
Vagrancy.
Disability.
Lameness.
Deaf and Ruptured.
Lameness.
Asthma.
Disability.
Disability.
Vagrancy.
Paralysis.
Vagrancy.
Lameness.
Malaria.
Want of Work.
162
VI —Continued.
Showing Age, Nativity, Education, Occupation and Cause of
Paupers, who are now, or were formerly, inmates of
Poorhouse.
Dependence of 671
the Kings County
No. Age,
366 .. 65
40
47
61
43
43
35
55
63
58
60
86
19
27
68
47
40
38
42
53
61
66
55
47
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
3P6
397
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
Nativity.
It
N.Y.
Iieland ...
Germany..
Ireland ...
N. \
Germany..
Ireland ...
39
25
66
65
45
38
30
54
31
69
64
67
70
55
42
22
50
54
60
40
29
81
42
62
56
35
23
43
32
47
26
44
40
68
35
30
45
30
54
50
30
48
57
65
58
30
60
66
Former
Education. Occupation.
None Laborer
Bead & Write.. Shoemaker.
" Carpenter..
... " Iron Bailer.
None Farm Hand
Laborer..
.. Germany..
.. Ireland ...
.. N.Y
.. Ireland ...
.. N. y
.. Main
.. Sweden...
.. Ireland ...
.. Canada, W
.. Ireland ...
. .N. Jersey ..
.. Ireland ...
Bead & Write.. Canvasser..
" Tailor
" Cook
'• Stonecutter
" Laborer
" Shoemaker
" Salesman ..
" Iron F'ndiy
" Hostler.....
" Laborer ...
'• Printer
" Laborer ...
None Unknown..
Bead & Write.. Laborer ...
Germany..
N.Y
N. Y None
Germany..
Ire'and ...
" Tailor..
" Painter.
Waiter
" Butcher
" Laborer
Sweden...
Ireland...
England...
Germany..
it
N.Y...!!!
Germany..
(i
Ireland ...
Germany..
Ireland .
Germany..
Ireland ...
Ireland
England..
Ireland....
N. Y
Ireland...
Maine...
Ireland...
N. Y
Ireland....
England...
Ireland....
Germany..
Ireland....
Family History.
Self Supporting.
" Clerk
" Cigarmaker
Bead only Laborer ...
Bead &, Write.. Laborer ...
" Engineer ..
" Blacksm'h..
" Iron M'lder
•' Bookbinder
" Tool Maker
" Peddler
" Laborer ...
" Farm Hand
" Gardener...
" Laborer
None Peddler
" Farm Hand
" Laborer
Bead & Write.. Nail Maker.
" CofeRoas'r
" Laborer
" ... Painter ...
" Laborer—
None Pedler
" Laborer
i( it
" Gardener...
Bead only Tailor
Bead «fe Write.. Painter
" Laborer
Bead only "
None Farm Hand
" Laborer ...
Bead & Write.. Painter
" Box Maker.
None Laborer ...
Bead & Write.. BasketMkr.
" Carpenter..
tS tt
Bead only Laborer—
None •'
Bead & Write.. Shoemaker.
Cause of
I>e{>eDdence.
Sickness.
Vagrancy.
Lameness.
Spinal Disease.
Lunacy.
Want of Work.
Partial Blindness.
Want of Work.
Dest. and Homeless.
Want of Work.
Heart Disease.
Want of Work.
ti («
Disability.
Want of Work.
Disability.
Lameness.
Disability.
Lameness.
Vagrancy.
Epileptic Fits.
Bueumatism.
Di^bility.
Want, of Work.
Disability.
(t
Lunacy.
Disability.
t4
V^rancy.
DisabUi^.
Partial Blindness.
Cripple.
Disability.
Vagrancy.
Loss of Leg.
Want of Work.
tt <(
Consumption.
Disability.
Dislocated Arm.
Vagrancy.
Disability.
Want of Work.
Disability.
i«
Syphilis.
Colic.
Sickness.
Loss of Leg.
Want of Work.
Disability.
Want of Work.
Disability.
General Debility.
Loss of Left Hand.
Want of Work.
Vagrancy.
Disability.
Want of Work.
Lung Disease.
Disability.
Want of Work.
Disability.
Want of Work.
Syphilis.
Disability.
Sore Byes.
163
Tj^BLE vi —Continued.
Showing Âge, Nativity, Education, Occupation and Cause of
Paupers, who are now, or were formerly, inmates of
Poorliouse.
No. Age.
451
452
453
454
455
456
464
455
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
Nativity.
EdacatioQ.
Fonner
Occupation.
Family HUtory.
439 .. 42 .. Ireland Bead & Write.
440 .. 49 .. England "
441 .. 25 .. Germany.. Bone None
442 .. 60 Ireland.... Bead & Write.. Laborer
443 .. 70 .. N.Y " " ....
444 . 45 .. Ireland Bead & Write.. Laborer
445 .. 60 .. Scotland " " ....
446 .. 35 .. N. J None None
447 .. 64 .. Ireland " Tin worker.
448 .. 56 .. .. " .... " None... .
449 .. 50 .. .. " Bead & Write.. Bricklayer.
450 .. 60 .. .. " Bead only Cobbler
Penn Bead & Write.. Salesman ..
Ireland None Laborer
Machinist,. Self Supporting..
Laborer
58
52
45
75
42
60
Germany..
Ireland
457 .. 46
458 .. 38 ..
459 .. 70 ..
460 .. 77 ..
461 .. 47 ..
462 .. 68 ..
463 .. 39 .. N. Y..
Bead & Write "
((
None Cook
Bead & Write.. Laborer
" Baker
Laborer
None
Bead only
44
50
52
50
57
58
17
18
62
Hamessm'r
Laborer ..
Norway...
Ireland
Bead & Write..
69 .. Ireland
28 .. N. Y
46 .. "
44 .. Australia.
477 .. 54 .. Ireland
478 .. 70 .. .. " ....
479 .. 28 .. N. Y
Baker.. .
Laborer
(4
Shoemaker.
Parmer
Laborer
N. Y Bead & Write.. Butcher ...
Cook
None
Fireman....
Book Ag'nt
Laborer
Germany..
• 4
Holland...
N.Y
None
Laborer...
480 .. 56 .. Ireland— None Tailor
481 .. 53 .. " Bead & Write.. None
482 .. 75 .. England .. Bead only Cook
483 .. 44 .. Ireland— None Laborer
484 .. 76 .. N. Y " None
485 .. 60 .. England.. Bead & Write.. Engineer ..
486 . 66 .. Ireland... None Laborer....
487 .. 73 .. Scotland... Bead & Write.. Furrier
488 .. 55
489 .. 59
Germany " Blacksmith
Ireland.., " Laborer
490 .. 76 ., England " None
491 . 35 .. Ireland " Engineer ..
492 .. 68 .. Germany " ... Laborer ...
498 .. 81 .. Ireland " Shoemaker.
494 .. 62 .. Scotland " .... Laborer
495 .. 42 .. Germany " Tailor. ...
496 .. 60 " " ... Machinist .
497 .. 70 .. N. Jersey •' .... Flagger,...
498 .. 63 .. Ireland " Laborer....
499 .. 60 .. .. " " " ....
500 .. 67 .. Ireland " .... Laborer....
601 .. 64 . Denmark " .... Shoemaker.
502 .. 63 .. Ireland.... None Laborer
508 .. 26 .. England.. Bead&Write.. .. "
604 .. 73 .. Germany " .... Glardener ..
605 .. 63 .. Ireland Bead only Laborer
606 .. 60 .. Germany.. None "
607 .. 70 " .. " ..V " ....
608 .. 66 " .. Bead&Write.. FiahPed'ler
609 .. 68 .. Ireland '• .... Laborer
610 .. 67 .. Germany " .... Barber
611 .. 60 .. Ireland " .... Tailor.
<i
4(
Dependence of 671
the Kings County
Cftiise of
Dependooce.
Want of Work.
41 44
Idiocy.
Disability.
General DebUity.
Internal Injury,
Want of Work.
Sick.
Scrofula.
Vagrancy.
Bheumatism.
General Debility.
Vagrancy.
ChSls and Fever.
Want of Work.
Bupt.j Bheu., & Age.
Malana and Bheu.
Sore Leg.
Chills,EevMal&Bbeu.
Bheumatism.
General Debility.
Bheumatism and Age
Want of Work.
Age.
Lunacy.
Paralysis.
Loss of Toe.
Sore Leg.
Arm & Legs Broken.
Want of Work.
Kidney Diaease.
Want of Work.
Want of Work.
Bheumatism & Cough
Paralysis.
Pan of Knee Broken.
Want of Work.
Sore Leg.
General Debility.
Swelled Foot.
Paralysis.
Sick.
Swelled ft., age. des'n
Hurt to Bight Knee.
Deaf.
Gunshot w'nd in Leg.
Buptured.
Want of Work.
Diarrhœa.
Simstroke, kid.alung
Paralysis.
Con tus'n on face a bk.
Bad Health.
Hurt to Head.
Bheumatism.
Softening of Brain.
Paralysis.
Want of Work.
General Debility.
Sore Leg^^
Kidney Dis. & Gravel
Sunstroke.
Want of Work.
Gen'l Debility & Age
Paralysis.
Sore Feet.
Bad Leg.
Bheumatism.
Inflammatory Kbeu'r
Bunuing Sore in Leg
Bheumatisui.
164
T^BLE VI —Continued.
Showing Age, Nativity, Education, Occupation and Cause of Dependence of 671
Paupers, who are now, or were formerly, inmates of the Kings County
Poorhouse.
No, Age.
Nativity.
Ireland
Norway...
Ireland
N. T.. ".!!
Switzer'd.
Ireland
N. Y....
Ireland
Germany.
Ireland...
Germany.
Ireland
Germany.
Ireland...
Italy
England.
Ireland...
England.
Ireland...
Germany.
Ireland...
Germany..
N. Y
Virginia..
N. Y
Ireland
N. Y
Penn
Ireland—
England ..
Sweden...
Ireland...
France
Germany..
Ireland ...
Micliigan..
Ireland ...
Germany..
N. Y
Ireland
England..
Ireland...
Germany..
Norway..
Germany..
Ireland ...
N. Y
Ireland. ..
PruBßia.. .
Germany..
England...
Ireland...
N. Y
Ireland ..
Canada...
N. Y
Ireland...
N. Y
Education.
Read & Write
None
Read & Write
None
Read <Ss Write
U
Read only...
None
Read & Write
None —
Read & Write
None
Read & Write
((
((
None
Read & Write
None
Read & Write
None
Read only
Read & Write
None
Read & Write
(t
Read & Write
None
Read & Write
None
Read only..
Read & Write
Readonly
Read & Write
a
iT
Readonly...
None
Former
Occupation.
Watchman.
Laborer
Carver
Tailor
Laborer
Family History.
Self Supporting.
Cartman....
Laborer
Parmer
CarpetWvr.
Laborer ...
None
StoneMas'n
Blacksmith
None
Laborer
Coachman..
Laborer
Cabinet m'r
Shoemaker.
Laborer
Shoemaker.
4«
Laborer
ti
Gardener...
Laborer...
Lather
Oysterman.
Peddler....
Laborer. ..
Servant
Laborer —
Organist...
Laborer
4.
GlasBlow'r
Tailor
Laborer...
Cigar P'ker
Laborer
Seaman
Carpenter..
Laborer
Gold Beater
Shoemaker.
Laborer
Tailor
Farmer
Laborer
Shoemaker.
Laborer....
Dyer
Laborer
Tailor
Laborer
Sailor
Laborer
Porter
Laborer —
None Unknown.
Cause of
Dependence.
General Debility.
Want of Work.
Sore Leg.
Want of Work.
Deaf and Dumb.
Rheumatism.
Neuralgia& Rheum'm
Imbecility of Mind.
Blind.
Want of Work.
Frost Bitten.
Hurt to Body.
Consumption.
Deformed of Body.
Leg and Arm Broken.
Rheumatism, Old Age
Bad Health.
Age.
Paralysis.
Skin Disease.
Vagrancy.
Bad Eyes.
Sickness.
Paralysis.
Rheumatism.
Ruptured.
Pain in Left Side.
Sore Foot and Cough.
Partially Blind.
Want of Work.
44 44
Rheumatism.
Vagrancy.
Lunacy.
44
Rheumatic Pains.
Lunacy.
Erysipelas.
Paralysis.
General Debility.
Want of Work.
Erysipelas.
Diarrhœa.
Fever.
Want of Work.
Severe Cold.
Severe Cold &Rheu'm
Left Hip grained.
Epileptic Fits.
Want of Work.
Hurt to Breast & Rup.
Rheum'sm <& Sore Leg
Want of Work.
Rheu'm and Debility.
Impaired Mind.
Rheumatism.
Dropsy <&LungDÍB'e.
Sore Leg.
Both Legs Broken.
Sore Leg.
Paralysis.
Sprained Arm.
Want of Work.
Loss of Right Leg.
Right Leg Sprained.
Vagrancy.
165
T^BLE VI —Continued.
Showing Age, Nativity, Education, Occupation and Cause of
Paupers, who are now, or were formerly, inmates of
Poorhouse.
No.
585
586
587
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
038
639
640
641
642
643
644
645
646
647
648
649
650
651
652
658
654
665
666
657
Age.
. 30
. 17
36
588 .. 50 ..
NfttiTity,
N. Y..
((
Ireland
33
40
66
38
34
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
696
597
598
599
66U
601
602
603
604
605
606
607
608
609
610 .. 43 .
611 .. 56 .
612 .. 34 .
613 .. 62 .
614 .. 27 .
615 .. 23 .
616 .. 49 .
617 .. 31 .,
618 .. 48 .
619 .. 40
620 .. 71 .,
621 .. 40 .
622 .. 32 .
623 .. 55 .
624 .. 34
625 .. 48
Former
Education. Occupation. Family History.
Bead & Write.. Laborer Self Supporting.,
40 .. N. Y.
29 .. England. .
Ireland
Holland...
Germany..
Ireland
None " ....
Bead & Write.. Tinsmith ..
Laborer
Clerk
Engineer...
Laborer
None
47 .. England.. Bead & Write..
35 .. N. Y None
77 .. Ireland
35 .. Scotland..
69
31
44
27
60
48
49
50
43
27
45
29
35
50
30
46
85
55
69
45
55
45
21
89
29
32
43
69
60
70
48
61
38
55
82
66
Bead & Write.. Moulder
66 .. Ireland.... Budimentary... Lastmaker.
Germany..
N. Y
England.
N. Y
N.J
N. Y
" None
" Budimentary...
" Laborer
" None
•' Laborer
" Penclcsemr
" Cl'k & Bk'r
" Farrier
" Laborer—
" Hatter
" Laborer
626 .. 50 .. Ireland.
627 .. 65 .. Conn.
628 .. 54 .. Ireland ..
629 .. 48
6:W .. 31
Ireland Bead only Waiter....
" Budimentary... Stonecutter
" " Laborer
N. Y " Barber
" " Peddler....
Ireland " Barber
" None Laborer
N. Y Budimentary... Sailor
Ireland " Shoemaker.
" Shoemaker.
N. Y.
Ship Joiner
Fireman....
" Laborer
None
" Baker..
Budimentary..
Car Cond'or
Ireland
N. Y...
Scotland..
Germany..
Ireland
N. Y ..
Ireland.
N. Y...
Ireland
Penn.
Ireland
N. Y...
Ireland
Ireland
Conn..
Ireland
" Junkman..
. ... Bricklayer.
Bead only Laborer
None "
Budimentary... Painter
" Tailor
" Shoemaker.
" Laborer
•• BoUerM'kr.
None Laborer
Budimentary "
" Machinist..
•' Tailor
" Sailmaker..
" Salesman ..
*' Carpenter..
" .... Engineer ..
" Musician ..
" TaUor
Dependence of 671
the Kings County
CaoM of
Dependence.
Severe Cold onLunge.
Want of Work.
Sprained Hand&Foot
Lameness.
Lunacy.
Epileptic Fits.
Boeum'sm & Asthma.
Loss of Bight Arm.
Failing Sight.
Sprained Wrist.
Abscess in Neck.
Vagrancy.
Want of Work.
U^r in Bight Leg.
Hitemperance.
166
—Continued.
Showing Age, Nativity, Education, Occupation and Cause of Dependence of 671
Paupers, who are now, or were formerly, inmates of the Kings County
Poorhouse.
Former Cause of
No. Age. Nativity. Education. Occupation. Family History. Dependence.
658 .. 38 .. Germany.. Rudimentary... Tailor Self Supporting.. Intemperance.
659 .. 43 .. Ireland " Laborer. " "
660 .. 49 .. .. " " .... Shoemaker " "
661 .. 59 .. .. " " Clerk " "
662 .. 55 .. .. " " Carpenter " "
668 .. 60 .. .. " " Laborer " "
664 .. 54 .. .. " " " " "
665 .. 33 .. N. T " " "
666 .. 37 .. Ireland ... Readonly " " "
667 .. 41 .. N. Y Rudimentary... Shipwright " "
668 .. 50 .. Ireland " Junkman " "
669 ..31 . .. " " Housep'nt'r " "
670 .. 21 .. N. T " .. .. Painter "
671 .. 28 .. " " ... Locksmith "
3
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AGE.
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From
30 to 40.
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From
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From
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From
60 to 70.
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From
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Scotland.
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Sweden.
Norway.
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France.
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Italy.
to
Holland.
to
Canada.
Hi
Switzerland.
Hi
Denmark.
Hi
Austria.
l-A
Australia.
Hi
Hungary.
Hi
Finland.
HA
West Indies.
g:
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Physical
Disability.
Causes of Dependence,
CO
CO
Want of Work.
CO
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Vagrancy.
l-A
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Age.
to
Intemperance.
From 10 to 30.
AGE.
lU.
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From 20 to 30.
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From 30 to 40.
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From 70 to 80.
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191