Beer as a Means to Health.

Evening Star, Issue 7189, 18 April 1887, Page 3

Beer as a Means to Health.

A remarkable pamphlet lias just been published by Mr J. Thomann, of New York, in which it is shown, on the strength of official statistics, that beer is the healthiest drink known. These statistics show, says the writer, that the risks incurred in insuring the lives of habitual beer-drinkers are less by 40 per cent, than the ordinary risks of such transactions. The death rate per 1.000 in tho regular army of the United States in 1885 was 10.9; so that, even as compared with soldiers in peace time, we find that men employed in breweries have a substantial advantage in point of low rate of mortality, Mr Thomann further gives a number of interesting facts connected with Americanbreweries and the workmen engaged there. In every brewery there is a room in which beer is constantly on tap, to be used by every workman at pleasure, and free of charge. The average daily consumption of malt liquor for each individual is 25.37 glasses, or about ten pints. According to the statistics given by the author, there are a considerable number of men who consume between forty and fifty glasses a-day, and two men are reported as drinking, on an average, seventy glasses daily. With a view of ascertaining in the most reliable manner possible the effects of the use of malt liquors, tho physicians of the benevolent fund in question examined 1.000 of the brewery workmen as to their general state of health, condition of liver, condition of kidneys, and condition of heart. In addition to this, the doctors weighed and measured each man, and tested his strength by the dynamometer. These examinations showed that there were in all twenty-five men whose physical condition was in some respect defective, the remaining 975 enjoying exceptionally good health, and being of splendid physique. There were 300 men who had been engaged in brewing from five to ten years, 189 from ten to fifteen years, 122 from fifteen to twenty years, and _4G for more than twenty years. One special case referred to is that of a man fifty-six years of age, who had been at work in breweries uninterruptedly for thirty-two years, who drank beer during that time at the rate of fifty glasses per day, but who has never been ill, and at the present time is perfectly healthy, vigorous, and active.