The medical adviser in life assurance / by Edward Henry Sieveking.

  • Sieveking, Edward Henry, Sir, 1816-1904.
Date:
1874
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The medical adviser in life assurance / by Edward Henry Sieveking. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    the striking effects which intemperance exerts upon longevity, goes on to remarlc— It would be curious to contrast with the above results the rate of mor- tality among persons who have been for a consider- able period of years, or for the whole of life, ab- stainers from intoxicating drinks ; but, unfortunately, there are no available data connected with this class of lives, and it seems there will long be considerable dif&cidty in procuring such information. A few years ago Mr. Munro of Enfield, at much trouble and expense, procured returns from Eechabite so- cieties, showing the rate of mortahty and sickness experienced by the members; and it is ]movfD. that the results, although not published, exhibit as high a rate of mortality and sickness as is found to prevail among the members of other friendly societies. The facts collected by Mr. Munro are of great value, and it is to be regretted that the societies furnishing them should, on account of the unfavourable natui-e of the results arrived at, object to their publication. Mr. Scratchley seeks to offer the Eechabites a little comfort under these unfavourable circumstances, for he goes on to say that although they show a high rate of mortality, it shoidd be kept in view that all the members cannot be considered as the type of total abstainers, many of them being reformed drunkards, and, as such, have become teetotaUers with broken - down constitutions. ^ The author, therefore, infers that until Eechabite societies have enrolled a class of members who have been abstainers from infancy, they cannot expect an entire unmunity from those diseases and deteriorating mliuences to