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1909]
106
ALCOHOLISM.
18 deaths were registered under this heading, of which 12 occurred among
males and 6 among females. The return shows that the male deaths increased
by 4 and that the female deaths increased by 3. Since 1901,217 deaths, 96 being
males and 121 females, have been registered in Islington from this cause, thus
showing that alcoholism is playing a not unimportant part in the mortality
returns. Everyone who deals with mortality statistics very well understands
that the registered deaths by no means represent the actual number caused by
the excessive use of alcohol.
In the Report for 1908 this fact was pointed out, and, therefore, it will not
be discussed further here. It may, however, be mentioned that while acute
alcoholic poisoning, acute alcoholic mania, delirium tremens, chronic alcoholic
neuritis, and alcoholic paralysis are generally ascribed in the death returns to
alcoholism, yet there are many other diseases to which alcohol is the attributing
cause, which are not so included, and which comprise such diseases of the throat
as catarrhal sore throat; of the stomach, such as gastric catarrh, chronic dyspepsia
and dilatation of the stomach; of the liver, such as congestion, cirrhosis
and fatty liver; of the kidneys, such as Chronic Bright's Disease; of faulty
metabolism, such as gout; of altered tissue change, such as glycosuria and
obesity; of functional disorders of the generative system, such as sterility and
incapability of mothers to suckle their infants at the breast; of the heart, such
as dilatation and fatty heart; of the blood vessels, such as degeneration; of
fibroid changes in the vessels of the lungs, such as increased susceptibility to
inflammatory and infectious diseases, viz., inflammation of the lungs, consumption,
bronchial catarrh, etc.; of the eyes, such as susceptibility to inflammatory
diseases; and of the nervous system, such as the inflammation and degeneration
of the nerve structures, epilepsy, melancholia, dementia, imbecility, hysteria,
idiocy, and sunstroke; of infectious diseases, such as erysipelas, blood poisoning
of various types, tubercle, syphilis, diphtheria and cholera; and of industrial
diseases, such as lead poisoning.
It would be interesting to discuss the actual effect of alcohol on these
several diseases, but this is not the place for it. Suffice it to say that excess
of alcohol is a very potent factor in many diseases, although no return of the fact
is made to the registrar of deaths; but it may be taken for granted that such
excess is a secondary, if not a primary cause of death in innumerable cases.