Modern medical opinions on alcohol : being a series of lectures delivered by well-known medical men.
- Date:
- [1911?]
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Modern medical opinions on alcohol : being a series of lectures delivered by well-known medical men. Source: Wellcome Collection.
45/160 page 35
![ALCOHOL AND PARENTHOOD. [By Dr. Saleeby.] The I’clatioiis of alcohol and parenthood are many and all- important, and they can only be outlined here. I wish tirst to show how alcohol affects the life of this country by its destruction of fatherhood. Drink’s Widows and Orphans. Some time ago we heard a good deal about the widow whose modest capital is invested in the licensed trade, and we were told that anything which injured that trade would thus work grave injury to many helpless widows and orphans. The following is an account of an investi- gation which I made at the end of 1908, in order to find out how many widows and orphans are made by alcohol. It has been stated that there are half a million persons who have invested money in the licensed trade. Let us allow that half of these are men. The death-rate of all males, above 15 j-ears of age, is slighf,ly over 16 per 1,000. At the census of 1901, 536 in each 1,000 males aged 15 years and upw'ards were found to be married. Ignoring the differential death-rate of the married as compared with bachelors and widows, it follows that about 4,100 male investors in the licensed trade die each year, of whom some 2,197 will be married men, leaving behind them the same number of widows entirely or partly dependent on these invesiments. The widows made by drink are nearly six times as many. Numerous enquiries at home and abroad agree somewhat](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28052808_0045.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
