VIEWS OF DR. A. BAER 
ON 
DRUNKENNESS 
BY 
ARTHUR MACDONALD 
SPECIALIST IN THE EDUCATION OF THE ABNORMAL CLASSES, U. S. BUREAU OF 
EDUCATION 
[Reprinted front The Andover Review] VIEWS OF DR. A. BAER ON DRUNKENNESS. 
The simplest things are not the most simple when studied. 
The good and sincere total-abstinence advocate has a high moral 
aim in view, and shows his loyalty by his sacrificial spirit, and 
thinks his case so clear and simple that he never doubts it. 
To insist on total abstinence from wine in France and beer in 
Germany is like objecting to the use of coffee and tea in Eng- 
land or America. The question of total abstinence is manifestly 
a local one ; it is relative to the country, or even state, city, or 
town. To insist that drinking is either right or wrong in the 
absolute sense is an attempt to make the relative absolute, which 
is a contradiction. There are two distinct questions, the purely 
ethical and the purely scientific ; and while they are separated for 
convenience, they are in reality together, for in the end the facts 
decide the " ought." The practical ethical question seems to turn 
on this point: to what extent the use of a thing should be pro- 
hibited when it is abused. Many ethical difficulties are not be- 
tween good and evil, but between two evils, as to which is the 
lesser. 
It will be interesting to follow one of the recent European in- 
vestigators, Dr. A. Baer,1 of the Imperial Board of Health, and 
Chief Prison Physician at Berlin. 
In the past, wine was used almost wholly by the well-to-do 
classes, and beer was of such a nature that harm was out of the 
question. Excessive use of alcohol first began with the art of 
distillation, and with the obtaining of strong concentrated whiskey 
from corn, potatoes, and the like. With the universalizing of 
the use of whiskey, a series of phenomena have appeared, which 
are designated by the word " alcoholism." 
The climate is an important factor. Drunkenness is more fre- 
quent in cold than in warm countries, and is more brutal and 
1 Die Trunksucht und ihre Abwehr, von Dr. A. Baer. Wien und Leipzig, 
1890. 4 
Views of Dr. A. Baer on Drunkenness. 
injurious in its effects as we go north. Yet this is not always 
true, for within the last ten years alcoholism has greatly decreased 
in Sweden, and increased in southern France and northern Italy. 
In tropical regions it is at present spreading fast, and with great 
injury, especially in newly-discovered lands. The accustoming 
one's self to the use of alcohol causes, sooner or later, a feeling of 
need for it; alcoholism is not, therefore, an inborn instinctive need, 
but an acquired one. Experience teaches that the longer this 
vice exists in a nation the greater the vice becomes. Persons who 
misuse alcoholic drinks, especially whiskey, often become sick and 
die sooner than the moderate drinkers and non-drinkers. When 
alcohol is taken habitually, and when misused, it injures the whole 
constitution : all tissues and organs, and especially the blood, suffer 
sooner or later a pathological change, with which susceptibility to 
disease is increased. Alcohol intoxication not only calls out dis- 
eases and disturbances that the non-drinker does not have, but it 
gives rise to a greater morbidity. It is an old experience that in 
epidemics of cholera, dysentery, and small-pox, drinkers are at- 
tacked in larger numbers, and with greater intensity, than non- 
drinkers. The bad constitution of the blood, the weakness of the 
changed heart-muscles, the sunken energy of the nervous func- 
tions, and the frequent accompanying disease of the brain, give a 
bad course to every disease, and a high mortality. The greater 
mortality of drinkers, as compared with non-drinkers, is shown 
by the figures of the " United Kingdom Temperance and General 
Provident Association," an insurance company founded since 
1847: - 
Year. 
TOTAL ABSTAINERS. 
GENERAL DIVISION. 
Deaths Expected. 
Actual Deaths. 
Deaths Expected. 
Actual Deaths. 
1866-70. 
549 
411 
1008 
944 
1871-75 
723 
511 
1268 
1330 
1876-80 
933 
651 
1485 
1480 
1881-85 
1179 
835 
1670 
1530 
1886-87 
553 
390 
713 
700 
3937 
2798 
6144 
5984 
In the " Total Abstainers' Division," 71 per cent, of the ex- 
pected deaths occurred; in the " General Division," 97 per cent, 
Other companies give similar figures. Views of Dr. A. Baer on Drunkeniiess. 
5 
Sweden, which, up to recent times, was considered the most 
drunken land, owed this state of things principally to the excess 
of small saloons and to a very small tax on whiskey. The great 
decrease in the number of these saloons, in connection with an 
increase of the whiskey tax and with a temperance movement, has 
lessened drunkenness to a great extent. As the use of whiskey 
decreased, the number of sick and dead from alcoholism lessened 
also. In Norway, also, a bad legislation had a similar effect in 
spreading drunkenness. With the decrease of consumption of 
whiskey, that of beer increased; and no land has shown more im- 
provement through the decrease of drunkenness than Norway. 
In Russia, the alcohol consumption is great in certain parts, but 
in Russia as a whole, it is not so considerable as one would expect 
from the amount of alcoholism. The results of the abuse of 
alcohol are in a great measure due to the climate and the social 
condition of the masses. Besides the raw climate, there is an in- 
sufficient nourishment, almost wholly vegetable, which drives to 
whiskey ; which is not taken in small quantities, and regularly, 
as in other nations, but seldom, and in large quantities, on holidays 
(ninety-six yearly), in family celebrations, in market-days. Re- 
cently, alcoholism has decreased. In Holland, with its wet, foggy 
climate, and great number of seaports, there has always been a 
large consumption of alcohol, increased by the exceedingly large 
number of licensed places, and especially from the fact that whis- 
key is sold in many kinds of business (baker's, hairdresser's, etc.) ; 
as a consequence, there is a great increase of insanity through 
dipsomania and delirium tremens. In France, in former centuries, 
alcoholism was hardly known so long as wine was the alcoholic 
drink. But by the great exportation of wine, and by the recent 
appearance of oidium and phylloxera, and a like alcohol produc- 
tion from turnips, corn, meal, and potatoes, the alcohol consump- 
tion has gradually increased, and its consequent misuse has fol- 
lowed. The consumption of alcohol has more than trebled within 
fifty-five years. Where wine is least used, there is the greatest 
consumption of whiskey. The number of suicides is directly pro- 
portional to the increase in alcohol consumption. The number 
of fatal accidents due to alcohol has shown a constant increase. 
In Italy, the consumption of alcohol is, on the whole, very 
small. It is largei' in the northern provinces ; more recently, it 
has increased as the consumption of wine has decreased. In 
Austria, it is a sad fact that the consumption of beer is decreasing, 
while that of whiskey is increasing. In Germany the consump- 6 
Views of Dr. A. Baer on Drunkenness. 
tion of both beer and whiskey has been increasing. The use of 
beer, as compared with whiskey, varies very much in different 
provinces of Germany: in the east and northeast much whiskey 
and little beer; in the west and northwest, much of both ; in the 
south, very little whiskey, but a great deal of beer (Bavaria) ; 
the increase of the consumption of whiskey is mainly due to its 
large production and very great cheapness. The consumption of 
alcoholic drinks within the last ten years, especially strong drinks, 
has been aided by the rapid increase in the number of saloons. 
The relation between drunkenness and crime is not always a 
parallel one. Crime is not alone conditioned by the quantity or 
intensity of intemperance, for it owes its rise to many social con- 
ditions also; but all these unfavorable conditions are aided by 
drunkenness, and in this sense the abuse of alcohol increases 
crime very greatly. It can be said that with the increase of in- 
temperance and of drinkers (by no means identical with the in- 
crease of alcoholism), the number of criminals and crime increases. 
Misuse of alcohol means poverty and pauperism, which are the 
main sources of crime. The injury of drunkenness to family life 
cannot be reckoned, but daily experience teaches that nothing 
disturbs the family life as much ; the boys fall into idleness, sloth- 
fulness, and finally into crime; the girls become the booty of pros- 
titution. 
Some of the preventive means against intemperance are : (1.) 
Education of the children of the working-classes in an orderly, 
industrious, and economic life. (2.) Construction of healthy 
dwellings for the working-classes, so that an over-crowded room 
may no longer encourage the workingman to seek the saloon 
(3.) Better food, so that he may not be tempted to make up for 
this want by a temporary supply of whiskey, which deceives him 
in causing him to suppose that he is gaining strength. (4.) Public 
coffee-houses, with home-like surroundings, papers to read, etc., 
etc. (5.) Formation of temperance societies, which in many ways 
warn others against the evils of intemperance. While the total- 
abstinence societies have done much good, yet a very practical 
organization exists in Switzerland which has three categories of 
members: («) Those who are total abstainers ; (6) those who 
take the pledge for a certain length of time ; and (c) those who 
assist the society in a financial way. In this way a unified action 
can be gained, without losing the aid of those who are in favor of 
all efforts against the evil of drink, yet are not so rigid personally 
as to be total abstainers. (6.) The establishment of inebriate 
asylums, where the habitual drinker may be rescued. Views of Dr. A. Baer on Drunkenness. 
7 
The state should limit the consumption of whiskey to the 
smallest quantity possible, by (1) the lessening of production, 
and the imposing of a tax. From experience in Sweden, Norway, 
Finland, Switzerland, and France, this has lessened the so-called 
small house-distilleries, which have been one of the greatest causes 
of house-drunkenness; here whiskey is made for local consump- 
tion, and, on account of primitive methods, is of very bad quality. 
(2.) As to the extreme measure of prohibition, it cannot be carried 
out in thickly populated States, where the intemperance of the 
people is really great, and it is not necessary where drunkenness 
is not extensive among the people. (3.) A high tax on whiskey. 
The consumption of alcohol increases in proportion to the cheap- 
ness of whiskey. (4.) A moderate tax on the lighter alcoholic 
drinks. Beer is the greatest enemy of whiskey ; it must, there- 
fore, be of good quality, and not dear, but strong alcoholic beers 
should be taxed very high ; coffee, tea, chocolate, and all neces- 
sary articles of food should be made cheap, and of good quality. 
(5.) A lessening of the number of licensed places. The need 
for whiskey is not a natural one, but artificial. To increase the 
saloons increases the number of drinkers. The whiskey trade 
does not follow the law of supply and demand, but rather that of 
demand and supply. The easier it is for every individual to find 
whiskey at all times, places, and prices, the more he will drink 
until it becomes his unconquerable vice. The lessening the num- 
ber of licensed places, in connection with a high tax on whiskey 
or other strong drinks, is the best means that the state can em- 
ploy for the control and repression of drunkenness, and it is in 
those lands in which political and industrial freedom is valued 
the most that the severest measures against the whiskey business 
are undertaken. (6.) Punishment of the saloon-keeper, when he 
sells to persons already drunk, or to minors not accompanied by 
relatives. (7.) Inspection of the liquor traffic, both as to place 
and time of sale. The sale of whiskey in groceries should be 
absolutely prohibited, because women with a tendency to drink 
are here very easy victims. 
The repression of public drunkenness by punishment of the 
drinker has been tried in many countries, but with little success. 
Many things are forbidden in the interest of public order and 
well-being, and though not necessarily in themselves immoral, 
produce conditions which easily lead to immorality, or are other- 
wise dangerous to society. Yet it is rather cruel to permit sa- 
loons at every corner, and cheap whiskey, and then to punish 
drunkenness. 8 
Views of Dr. A. Baer on Drunkenness. 
Measures against the habitual drinker are: (1.) Placing the 
drinker under guardianship. This course would not differ materi- 
ally from doing the same in case of the spendthrift and the insane. 
It would lessen the chances of wife and family becoming pau- 
pers, and would not only be for the good of the drinker, but a 
warning to others. (2.) Placing in inebriate asylums. In the 
later stages of habitual drunkenness, there is a considerable num- 
ber of cases of insanity, and the insanity takes the most different 
forms, as chronic mania, epileptic insanity, delusional insanity, 
general paralysis, and other phases of incurable insanity. In 
other cases, alcoholic excess is a symptom of a diseased nervous 
system, where there was insanity before drinking commenced. In 
the first stages of mania, melancholia, and general paralysis many 
are driven to the use of alcohol. Dipsomania is a form of in- 
sanity, and is periodic. Besides all these, there are a number 
of drinkers on the border line between health and disease, who, 
on account of their inherited mental weakness, and consequent 
irritableness, through overwork, are given to alcoholic excesses. 
There are a still greater number of habitual drinkers who are 
not insane, but, through long abuse of alcohol, cannot resist 
drinking; they reach such a degree of volitional and intellectual 
weakness, of irritability and stupidity, indifference to customs and 
position, and mistrust and carelessness towards their family, that 
it is a question whether they are not a common danger to society. 
The number of these persons among those suffering from chronic 
alcoholism is by far the greatest, and Gauster1 says that they are 
the most dangerous, because their condition is latent, and attacks 
can appear suddenly. Should such drinkers be left to go free in 
life? 
1 Jahrb. fur Psych. 1889, VIII., Heft III.