found that the "black" counties, without exception, lie to
the north-west of this line. The worst counties in England and Wales in
the matter of drunkenness are Northumberland, Durham and Glamorganshire,
while Pembrokeshire and Lancashire follow close behind. The most sober
counties, on the other hand, are Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Oxfordshire
and Wiltshire. Averages based upon the returns of entire counties do
not, however, afford a complete guide to the distribution of
drunkenness, inasmuch as offences are not equally distributed over the
whole area of a county. A heavy ratio of drunkenness in a small district
may often give a county an unfavourable position in the general
averages, notwithstanding favourable conditions in the rest of its area.

Analysis of the prosecutions for drunkenness shows that about 24% of the
total number of offences are committed by women. In the larger towns the
proportion, as a rule, is higher. In London, 38% of the drunkenness is
attributable to women; in Manchester, 36%; in Belfast and Glasgow, 32%.
In Liverpool, on the other hand, the proportion is only 24%. The
much-controverted question as to whether intemperance is increasing
among women can hardly, however, be decided by an appeal to the criminal
statistics. So far as these statistics throw any light at all upon the
question, they suggest important local differences. A more direct clue
is afforded by the registrar-general's annual returns of deaths directly
attributed to intemperance. The figures are given below. In order to
eliminate accidental variations, the comparison is based upon the
average mortality during consecutive periods:--

+---------------+----------------------+----------+----------+
| Years. | Average No. of deaths| Males | Females |
| | (England and Wales). | per cent.| per cent.|
+---------------+----------------------+----------+----------+
| 1877-1881 | 1071 | 69 | 31 |
| 1882-1886 | 1320 | 66 | 34 |
| 1887-1891 | 1710 | 64 | 36 |
| 1892-1896 | 2044 | 61 | 39 |
| 1897-1899 | 2577 | 61 | 39 |
| 1899 | 2871 | 60 | 40 |
+---------------+----------------------+----------+----------+

For the ten years ending 1904, out of 26,426 deaths from alcoholism,
59.34% were males and 40.