Real and imaginary effects of intemperance : A statistical sketch, containing letters and statements from the superintendents of eighty American insane asylums, the history of five hundred inebriates, the history of ... paupers, and statistics of drunkenness / ... By G. Thomann.

  • Thomann, G. (Gallus)
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Real and imaginary effects of intemperance : A statistical sketch, containing letters and statements from the superintendents of eighty American insane asylums, the history of five hundred inebriates, the history of ... paupers, and statistics of drunkenness / ... By G. Thomann. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    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 VII.) 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 powerful 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 born 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. 2y •' United States. 3 Germany. 2 England. 1 '• Scotland.