PUBLICANS AND LONGEVITY.

Press, Volume XXXI, Issue 4299, 10 May 1879, Page 3

PUBLICANS AND LONGEVITY.

Writing of some occupations whioh, from their excessive rate of mortality, geem to call for an increase of premium in the case of proposals for assurance on the lives of fchoio engaged in them, the " Australasian Insurance and Banking Record," for Maroh, has the following : —The occupation of publfoan demands flrofc notice, as holding the lowest place in the scale of longevity. How it holds this place cannot be better told than in the words of Dr. Biohanieon, of London, who hoe made a special study of the subject. He s&ya : — ' The most startling fact of all in reference to occupation end health is that which is told of the innkeepers and publicans. This elate of the community ig really at the lowest of the vital scale. The cause, unhappily, is not C colt to discover. There is nothing in the o< pation of an innkeeper, as an oooupat which can account for its anheftlthinese ordinary grounds of labor. It is not en o< pation which exposes those who fill U physical danger, as the work of the mine i engine-driver does. It is sot an oouap* which makes great demands on the pbyi organism, like that of the blaoismith or rt maker. It is not an occupation which Ii men into solemn ohargos and responsibili , like those of the pbytieian, oolicjtor, clergyman. It U not an occupation wl brings those who follow it to the miaeru want and starvation. Why, then, is it occupation moat nearly allied to death P '. . answer is (imply told. The occupation is one most nearly allied to alcohol. This »g of death, which diffuses danger, more or !.«>, amongst all classes of workers is our purt of the gardes of life, tempts most rapicUy into destruction these who are tho dispensers o£ it.' Dr. Bichardeon's statement is borne out by the figures of the Registrar-Geaerol o£ Kngland. In his fourteenth annual report, he gave a table.ehowing tho mortality per cent: in various distinctly defined oeoap&tions for the year 1851, at the bottom of which table the class of innkeepers appeared with a much larger mortality to ita credit; than any of fchs others. Similar observations wore made by him as to the deaths in 1861 and 1871, and, on both of these occasions, ac on the first, the highest rate of mortality was found amGflf publicans. Tho mean mortality for the whole of England and Wales was 15 par oont,, while it was 2 5 per cent, in the case of wino and spirit merchants, 256 for publicans, sod a» high as to 27 for hotelkeepwa. Little wonder that sesuraic* cSoera ahosld look with some degree of he&iSa&ioa sad do-abfe oa proposals for assurance en tibia olase of iinw. The experienoo of ftfao Soottiib.. Aaiicablo Society during fifty years, 1826-187S, showed & mortdity of publicans CO per c.mt.in''essMW cf the other olasses of eseured lives, aad »n extra premium of £1 percent, is necessary to cover the risk on this obis of pro* posers."