p. 445 | Temperance in Europe

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 22, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 28.

Temperance in Europe.

A GOVERNMENT report by the British Consul-General in Germany, points out certain serious facts. The adult male German drinks annually, on the average, about seventeen gallons of spirituous liquors. In the kingdom of Prussia, the whole expenditure in 1882 on wine, beer, and spirits, amounted to nearly $227,000,000. In Sweden and Norway the consumption of spirits has been declining for some years past; but in Denmark the evil of spirit-drinking has reached a terrible pitch. In Holland, in 1878, there was a drink shop for every ninety inhabitants, including women and children; but a restrictive law, passed in 1881, has reduced the number about a quarter.

The worst statistics in regard to the consumption of alcoholic liquors are those of Belgium, where, in less than half a century, the drinking of such liquors has far more than doubled for each person. In 1881 there was a public house for every dozen adult males. In France the amount of drunkenness has been reduced by the passing of a salutary law. In Switzerland, between 1870 and 1880, while the increase of population was but 6.5 per cent., the increase in the number of public houses was 22 per cent. In Austria the condition of affairs is similar. And all this drinking has its effect. There is a horrible array of figures giving the statistics of delirium tremens, suicides, lunacy, and accidental deaths, as the result of drunkenness.